Dungeon Tours - just snooping....

[Digits]

Don’t panic, not really another project from me.......I have enough on the go.

But, my lad has just got into D&D with his mates in London, and I said I’d paint him a mini for his character, a half elf Paladin.  Difficult to find a suitable mini and in the end opted for this mini from a Reaper, as being hooded, you could say he has pointy ears! Lol. On,y thing he wants is a red cloak.



So I will get this done for him.







But whilst thinking on, I got to reminisce about my first experiences of gaming when I was a ten year old at boarding school.  D&D was really my first exposure.  We didn’t have many minis at all, relying on a lump of plasticine to quickly mould any required monsters and playing out on card cut out dungeon plates. 

A few years ago, a chap I know got me excited that we would play some D&D once again but it fell by the wayside, after I had painted a crap load of floor tiles and bought a few minis.  Shame because I love the idea of painting simple one off figures and monsters, and a few packs of hobgoblins perhaps...

I know the chances of me playing again are remote at best, but I think I will paint up the odd mini as I feel the desire.  You never know, I may one day have grandchildren I can pass it on to....


Here are the floor tiles I painted







And one of minis I’ve bought over the years trying to recapture some of that old spirit...but never putting paint to.  One of my favourites Reaper do....but I’m biased as I played a ranger when I was younger.  I also played a wizard....never had a lot of luck with him...but what I do remember was, there was this older kid called “Packer” (sp?) who could paint.   We all spent big chunks of our pocket money with this kid to have one of his painted minis.  I bought the wizard and was chuffed to bits.

Years later, I came across the mini in one of my lead piles, and though “what a piece of crap!” .  He hadn’t even used an undercoat! Lol

Ranger

[PhilB]

Looks cool! I like the tile with the polar bear rug.

[Digits]

Cheers fella.

Think I will pop my paint scheme here as a reminder in case I want to do more....

Prime Halfords grey.

Paint whole tile Mecanicanicus grey

Then picking  out individual flags with the following colours and # of flags per average large square

Dinge 6
Reaper 3
Dawnstone 4
Karak stone 2
Rakarth flesh 1

Then it will be a wash of Devlan mud.....with splotches of other washes (greens/reds/blacks)

Finally a light dry brush with ulthuan grey.



I have a box full of dungeon walls but I’m not so keen on painting those.  I also have a load of the sewers of Altmar  too somewhere.

I also have some doors to paint



What I actually need to buy, would be some wooden floor board tiles and cave tiles from Ainsty if I was going to expand....

[PhilB]

The flat dungeon style (with no walls) and self-standing doors is an excellent sollution, especially for transportation and storage. The main drawback with Dwarven Forge pieces is they take a lot of room and are quite heavy when packed in boxes. When I go to "away" games, my trunk is full to overflowing.

I think you could do some fine irregular cavern pieces using mdf sheets and a jigsaw, along with some low-relief plasterwork.

[gamer Mac]

Floor tiles look spot on
Looking forward to see what you do with the figure

[Citizen Sade]

Lovely approach and execution. If I were starting out, I’d do it your way.

The main drawback with Dwarven Forge pieces is they take a lot of room and are quite heavy when packed in boxes. When I go to "away" games, my trunk is full to overflowing.

Their newer Dwarvenite stuff still has some heft, but you can sling it all in tote bags or boxes for easy storage and transport. I’m glad I moved over to it from the old style resin.

[Digits]

I like the idea of irregular cut out caves Phil....

This stuff is from Ainsty....resin, been about a bit but pretty good stuff.  There is a limited amount of matching wooden floor tiles from their mine set.

Anyway.....couldn’t help myself and painted a Zealot Miniatures mini I’ve had for a while.

I’m useless at skin, but I think it looks ok.  Most I’ve seen are painted like the blue fella in Aladdin.....not my taste but a little blue smoke.

[LouieN]

it looks great

[Digits]

Thanks Louie!

Think I may try my hand at a few critters.  I have some rats needing painting...

[snitcythedog]

Your dungeon floors are lovely.  The Djinn is well worthwhile too. 

[has.been]

If you want to scratch that D&D itch we could play Frostgrave or similar.

[Digits]

Cheers Snitchy.

Pete, Frost grave hasn’t really appealed to me from what I’ve seen.

I’d love to get into D&D again but realistically, I will just paint a few minis, maybe have a go at a solo dungeon crawl (though I have never really tried solo gaming)  and imagine what it COULD have been like all those years ago had I had the pennies! 

[PhilB]

Digits, I get the impression that you're close to my age (60) and I have to say that it might not be as hard as you think to find a group of D&D or Pathfinder players close-ish to your age in a large city like Manchester. I live in central France and managed to get a group together, been playing for some 15 years now after taking a lengthy break from the hobby.
You can see some of our recent games on my blog, and although it's in French, the translations available in Google Translate aren't too awful.

Again, love the work you've done. That djinni looks just right!

[Digits]

Thanks...certainly over 50 anyway!  And I moved away from Manchester...down near Stratford on Avon now.

If it happens then great.  This is a small distraction though.....I’m actually in the process of building a napoleonic army.  If I end up with something people want to play on / in....then we will see.  I will be sure to check out your blog.....

[Digits]

Meanwhile....no dark dingy corner would be complete without rats.  Ok, admittedly, giant rats.....