Same drybrushing technique was used on the skull mountain base. Once finished, I gave it it's first go at fit and finish for the first ring and to see how everything lines up including some test models. Confirming everything was good, I then sprayed all the remaining levels with a black undercoat.
I mentioned in an earlier post I made a trip to Humpty Dumpty to pickup paint and my local hobby store to pickup a large Citadel drybrush - I made use of both on the first ring of the tower. After spraying the ring with a black undercoat, I then drybrushed Magic Blue and then Electric Blue. The floor was done using Cold Grey and Stonewall Grey.
Today was determining fit and finish and stackability. The 3d print comes with a quarter wall - print four quarter walls and you have a complete ring. Each quarter sits on a pyramidal peg which actually sets very well. However, I figured that you needed to use the dragon locks at the bottom (there's 3 slots) which cinches in the sides together tightly - else it it'll have a gap. While the tower was designed with only a couple of levels if you use the included stair - I needed more levels for the module I was going to run and the party was going to be magically teleported, so I asked my buddy to actually fill in the center hole.
So we did a thing, a really big gigantic thing, lol...
We purchased the Stoneskull Tower from Fat Dragon Games. One of my Dungeons and Dragons players has a very large 3d printer but this tower was even larger than his print table - however, he's a pretty talented guy and he figured out how to slice the base into a pie and delivered the skull mountain base to me in pieces.
They were supposed to be printed in quarters - and he essentially printed them in eighths - so a little bit off glue and then some compound to hide the gap and all was good! These four pieces then created the skull mountain base for the tower.
Once all the glue was dried and the gaps filled and the fit confirmed as being good I then took the pieces out on the workbench and used the airbrush to spray a black basecoat on the entire skull mountain base.
One of the difficulties of this colossal monstrosity is that the original white Bones mixture has a tendency to bend/warp over time for something this big and heavy. Another problem, in the tactical combat of a Dungeons and Dragons game everyone playing needs to know which squares the monster is in order to determine both player and monster attacks.
I solved both problems with a base and a paperclip. The bottom of the spider has a hollow and I bent one side of the paperclip into the hollow and superglued it into place. I then determined that the monster without the legs is basically "huge" in game terms which is a 3" diameter base. The paperclip was then superglued to the base and the base covered with compound. Problem solved - the spider has proper game dimensions and the weight of the miniature is on the metal post of the paperclip.
Painting instructions for Demonic Colossal Spider (used Vallejo paints)...
Step 1: Airbrushed the entire model with a dark blue
Step 2: Airbrushed the entire topside of the model with Magic Blue
Step 3: Airbrushed the very top (from the 12-o'clock position) with Electric Blue
Step 4: Airbrushed the bulb part of the spider with an Orange
Step 5: Brought the model into the hobby room and brush painted the remainder
Step 6: Use Scarlet Red on the talons
Step 7: Use Bloody Red on the tips of talons
Step 8: Use Black on the pincers and eyes
Step 9: Use Livery Green on the eyes
Step 10: Use Hot Orange on spikes
Step 11: Use Orange Fire on tips of spikes
Step 12: Use Black on base
Step 13: Drybrush Cold Grey on base
Step 14: Drybrush Stonewall Grey on base
Kickstarter paint total 179 + 1 Demonic Colossal Spider = 180
The pillars were completed as well as the demon spider that was going to be the big bad at the bottom of the bottom of the chasm. I set everything up on the dining room table.
Giving the miniatures a test go on the platform to make sure everything was stable. It was exceptionally so! There are pegs that link into the bottom of the dungeon tiles and the bottoms of the pillars are dragon locked into the other pieces - the board was solid and would take any abuse from the players.
The results were awesome! Both groups had a great time and the board held up as expected. Highly recommend the dungeon tiles by Fat Dragon Games and the pillars module which provides the ability to create multi-level dungeon terrain.
It was time to put that really cool dragon bone bridge to good use by building it into a terrain gaming piece for a module I was going to run from Kobold Press for two different groups. I had a friend print off a bunch of dungeon tiles from Fat Dragon Games which I sprayed black and then layed out into what was going to be the top layer within a dungeon chasm with the bone bridge going across.
I then went to Home Depot and picked up some sample pots in color matched grey. Then a trip to the local hobby store and I picked up this giant scenery brush by Games Workshop. Then I went drybrush crazy.
The pillars weren't quite ready so I used some paint bottles to elevate the top layer from the bottom and gave it a test with the miniatures that were going to be used for the dungeon adventure.
And there you have it - more or less ready to go! I have two groups that are both in need to run through the same module so I get to use this scenario twice!
There were only 4 colors of the Vallejo Xpress Color in stock and the local hobby store said they had a difficult time keeping stock because they'd sell out almost immediately. I was able to pick up a brown, grey, green, and blue. That's enough basic colors to do something with. Well that something came about with this model.
I remember reading that these types of paints work best on a white or grey primer. I still had an old can of white primer and therefore shot this model up with it. Then I went to town on the model with the Vallejo Xpress Color.
First up was the green and using this paint I did what I'd normally do - load up the brush and start inside out - meaning I'd start on the face first and work my way out. Normally this is good because you can be a bit "messy" and then "clean" by painting over any messes as you work towards the outer part of the model.
I made two mistakes immediately. I put too much paint on the brush and hence the face and the upper body received too much green paint and I slobbered on other areas of the model which become issues later on. The Xpress Color is a bit if an ink and paint had a baby but it really acts more like an ink. The paint works with very little on the brush on top of a white foundation. It's very transparent and pools into the recesses like an ink. This thick and thin of the paint give it its contrast - where it pools has a darker color than the flat of a model. I noticed also that as it dries, it stretches the paint pulling the paint towards the ends and thinning out the middle.
Mistake 1 - you'll notice that the face is too dark compared to the body - I slobbered too much on the face and so the paint didn't have the ability to pull into recess and pull towards the end. The solution is to use very little of the paint over a solid white primer.
Mistake 2 - I'm used to slobbering paint initially and then cleaning up that slobber with another color. This is displayed in the hair of the model and the sash across the back. I initially did some brush strokes slobbering on the green and quickly realized how fluid this paint actually was and how little I needed to use and that because of the translucent effect the paint needed over white primer that this was going to cause a problem. The solution and understanding is that this is a very technical paint and black lines generate where paint overlaps - which is a very cool effect because essentially it does the black lining for you! This effect is noticeable on the front of the model where the brown meets the green or the blue of the sash has a black line between it and the green of the body or the brown of the pan flute. You can also see on the back of the model where the green was slobbered all over the sash and the blue on top just turns into big splotches of black. Therefore the trick is to stay "within the lines" and have a slight overlap between two colors to generate a thin black line for higher contrast.
Once the green was done and I started to learn some lessons, I then pulled out the brown and did up all the wood on the creature - the legs, hands, shoulder pads, and antlers. I made sure to use only a little bit of the paint at a time and being very careful technically to only put paint on the right parts. I found myself dabbing and spreading more than actually painting.
Next came the blue which I used on the sash and the shoulder pad decorations. And finally I used the grey on the hooves,
Some thoughts...
* the paint over a solid and smooth white primer is going to generate a very dynamic model
* very little paint goes a long way
* keep washing the brush, dry it into a point with a twirl, then dab into the paint - do this often but do not leave water on the brush as normal
* the contrast is between crevice and flat - not as the sun shines which we've been taught as mini-painters to do for the past two decades
* the brightness and shading of the sun can be accomplished by moving the paint around or placing a second layer - so for example, I placed more brown at the bottom side of the antlers once I figured out how the paint worked
* the grey was too translucent - it needed two coats
* it's a fast way of painting - this entire model took an hour and I probably could have done it in less time as I was learning the paint
* it's a very technical paint - you can't be sloppy and you can't change your mind unless you repaint a section white
* there's no blending or layering - it's a very different thought process
* I would not teach a beginner using this paint - however an intermediate painter can use this paint to quickly paint highly dynamic models
Overall it's an interesting paint line - I'm going to keep dabbling with it and probably pick up some more colors within the paint line.
More spider love! I painted these the opposite of the first group of giant spiders for the Lost Mine. I ordered some additional miniatures from 3D Dungeon Labs and mentioned that when you play the end sequence of Lost Mines you really need four of these giant spiders - so Jonathan sent me another two spiders with my new miniatures. These look fantastic as a set - 2 blues and 2 reds.
