all 22 doors now finished and ready to be used in the dungeon
long slog here. most definately. but i hope it was a worthwhile venture all the same.
It doesnt really look like a great deal when i lay them all out like that. but this has been an ongoing project that ive been doing between other projects in a hope to prevent that monotonous feel when doing the same/similar things over and over, very much like unit painting.
now i could of just given these dip and been completed in a day. but i dont really do things in halves all that much. ok ive done some quick jobs on some of my projects. but generally its not a view point i favour. this is probably why i dont have many blogposts. but i think overall. this is a hobby. so we all need to enjoy it right? why should it feel like a chore. its a chance to be creative. and thats exactly what iver done here. so here they all are...
8 closed doors first up
you will notice i also experimented a little, wood is not something ive ever been comfortable painting. i guess its the organic look to it. but nonetheless i tried out a few different techniques with the wood. from simple washes to dry brushing as well as painting the wood grain individually.
this is a new from the final batch. as you can see ive gone for a little bit of light sourcing from the torch. which i might add is something i dont have much experience with. but was really happy how this one turned out. i wanted to keep it subtle and i think i succeeded, however i think the light should of been shining a little further across the doors
another new one here. simple insignia above the door and a rat running away with a turnip!
another new one. simple skaven themed door here with a skaven skull i think and some warpstone
ogre themed one here this time.
another new one. simple door with a few toadstool and a rather poisonous looking spider lurking above the door.
sort of crypt/undead themed one here usong a shield from a skeleton warriors sprue. some random skulls, and finally i pressed a small mould from a skull to create the skull carvings on the wall and sculpted a little scarab.
this was one from an earlier batch with sculpted ivy and spider
basic door as part of my early colour tests
12 Open Doors
ill hold my hands up in that i was starting to run low on ideas/ and bits through this project. so really started to scrape the barrel in trying to make them look unique.
this was definately one of those barrel scrapers. but still its a skaven themed door so not all is bad.a chaos/beastman themed one here.
standard open door from my earlier colour tests
this one is probably my favourite out of all of them, in fact it was also the very first door i started working on. so i guess udeas were fresh at that point
another simple one from my final batch.
dwarf tomb. you may notice on a lot of these doors that they have dwarven runes. of which all of them were taken direct from the WFB dwarf army book.
orcish doorway, this was my first real go at light sourcing. and whilst for the best part it doesnt look too bad. i do feel i went a little too yellow around the flames.
over grown doorway. i wanted to try and get something that looked really overgrown. sculpting some mushrooms and vines did a pretty decent job of that.
my second attempt at light sourcing. you will notice it is much more subtle that the orcish one above. experiment experiment! first was too yellow. and i feel this one was way too light on the glow from the flames. you will notice on the very first image for the closed doors where i finally managed to find that 'inbetween'
chaos door thingy. ok lets just imagine youve got 22 door and you have some madcap idea to make them all unique and you have a nice sized box of bits...you throw everything you can at them right? thats simply the case here. its got a skull...because you have to have skulls. some weird star on a chain and a standard top from something. i can only assume is chaos?
i kind of like this one purely for its subtlety. it has 4 features from the base doors. a hanging skull. dwarf rune, spider and some toadstools. but i think it really works nicely.
and the final open door. which was also from the last batch. was a simple 'glue this here' jobby using a dwarf standard top and a skull. simple and not too bad.
2 Portcullis'
i chose to do nothing with these as i didnt want them too removed from their function. for the best part a portcullis in a dungeon is more of a trap or onstacle than a door. so i painted these early on just to get them out of the way.
so there you have it. all 22 brand new double doors. fresh and converted from zealot miniatures.
i was really happy with these right from the get go. and needed very little attention to get them paint worthy. i had already planned before getting my hands on these that i would be converting them. so that is takes nothing from the base builds. these really are a great addition to any dungeon as they are. and hopefully with my own little addons they make for even better decor to the dungeon
Very nice work. I especially like the source lighting. I've never tried that. You pulled it off well.
ReplyDeletethanks a lot. ive tried it in various levels in the past. as you can see from all 3 of the doors with source lighting, each one varied as i tried to perfect it. dont think im there yet. but still im very happy with the results.
Deleteglad you liked them :)
Brilliant work. All that attention to detail with individual conversions for the doors has really paid-off.
ReplyDeletethanks very much. yeh i honestly thought id over done it when it came to painting them. i could of simply painted all of these up in 1 day if i wanted...but i didnt haha. they do look kinda cool on the table top though. so yeh i guess it paid off :)
DeleteA labor of love! I'd be very happy to be done with such a monotonous project, but you injected a little diversity into each one, and the end result looks great.
ReplyDeleteyeh a few months later i can look back at these and admit that it was worth it in the end :)
ReplyDeleteglad you like them. always nice to make use of those bit lying around to create a few added little details
I also have to compliment your conversion, greenstuff and painting skills. Those doors turned out really marvellous!
ReplyDeleteWould also love to know what colours you used for the wood and stone, really organic look. Was it from the Citadel or Vallejo range?
ReplyDeletethank you. these ended up being a little labour of love in the sense that i wanted to create something unique and interesting for the gaming table. i succeeded but boy was it a slog!
Deleteas for stone.i generally use citadel paints..paint any medium grey colour you want as your base maybe the odd brick could be a slight different shade to break it up a little. give it a light drybrush with a light colour to give that chalkier feel on the raised edges (i used ushabti bone, and then the final touch was washing over with heavily watered down athonian camoshade and splosh it over. then fill up your brush with water and apply some agrax earthshade. i do this in blothes so the havily watered ink runs together and creates a more natural varied colour over the brick work what varies from mossy to dirty.