TWISTING CATACOMBS - THE MINOTAUR HORDE

Just needed to share this super quick. because these beasts are the absolute bomb!

KICKSTARTER

TAKE MY MONEY!!!

DUNGEON DOORS ALL COMPLETED!!

yup! ive finally managed to finish another project. go me!

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

First Few Custom Doors

So as you may of seen in my last few posts, I've shifted attention towards getting my zealot double doors painted up. and to make it a little more interesting for myself and the overall dungeony feel I decided i was going to customize them ALL!

Be it very minor customisations to slightly more flamboyant themed doors. so with the help of a little greenstuff and a route through my bits box ive finally managed to get them all customised and have now finished my first 4.

DWARF TOMB

The idea here was that with a very little bit of change i could make something somewhat slightly resemble a dwarven doorway. adding some hammers to the base of the arch and a dwarven rune (master rune of kingship) would be a nice little touch too. as you see a simple change. but still something different. 

ORC THEME

The idea behind this one was to have something resemble that of some orcish lair or throne room to a warlord. again pretty simple to achieve. as you will see with this one. i attempted some light sourcing. as a few of these doors have torches on to light the way. this being the first attempt..a little bit of a fail as i dont feel i got it quite right, but brush down and better the next one with light sourcing and all will be good .

 VINES

Got to have something overgrown right?

making all of these i tried something new ive not done before, the mushrooms on the base was my attempt to show the dark dampness of the dungeon. im quite happy how they turned out. the vines...well they add more, but not brilliant. again I added a dwarf rune as the idea in my head is that most dungeons were once dwarven  strongholds or at least dwarven built. even sewers of the old world were built by dwarves.

 WARPSTONE

Another very simple one where i attempted a little less subtle light glow.

another dwarven rune and a few chunks of warpstone set this one off quite nicely

So thats my first 4 if you exclude my 4 earlier testers. another 14 to go and ill be all finished.
im just in the painting process with the remaining ones now so hope to have more to show soon.
so until then!! :)

Doors galore

so things for my dungeon are starting to close in. having recently completed my new 30mm AHQ board sections (will post about these soon i promise)
1 thing that was severely lacking and also a reason i wasnt posting anything on my new dungeon tiles was the fact i had no doors to throw down and show everything in its full glory.

well thanks to Zealot miniatures, i do now!!

totally at 8 closed, 12 open and 2 portcullis' hopefuly now ill have enough to run a full dungeon

i have some great ideas for these. doors dont have to be just doors. these great sculpts will lend themselves perfectly to the ideas i have. so hopefully in the upcoming weeks i can start to show some of the completed ones.

i cant wait to get started on these. so just thought i'd put a few pics up of the before pics. that will hopefully compliment the after shows that will follow :)