Super Dungeon Explore pets – now for something completely different
Super Dungeon Explore is a game that I have a lot of unpainted miniatures for. The chibi-style figures make a good break from my regular Games Workshop and Privateer Press minis, though.
As a game that originated on Kickstarter, it’s something I’ve accumulated a large hoard of unpainted plastic figures from – there’s a base game, some expansions, the sort-of-second-edition The Forgotten King, more expansions, and a bunch of convention-exclusive stuff that I’ve picked up at PAX…
It’s also a game that goes through phases of play in my house: sometimes played a lot: sometimes forgotten in the back of a cupboard. My daughter rediscovered it yesterday, so it’s back on my painting desk again.
These are two pets from the game. Mr Chompers is a small purple dragon, who spent our last game following the Riftling Rogue around. Admiral Fuzzybottom is a rather large cat, and accompanied the Fae Alchemist. We played with bare plastic figures, then vowed not to do that again. After discussing colour schemes, I painted these two after the kids went to bed.
They’re a bit strange to paint, after working on hyper-detailed Games Workshop figures from Shadespire and Warhammer 40,000. I’m still figuring out how to best handle all the large flat surfaces. In this case I opted to paint on some texture – adding fur for the cat, and scales for the dragon.
Some quick Imperial Assault figures
These are a couple of figures from FFG’s Imperial Assault boardgame, which I’ll be trying out a first game of tomorrow. I generally don’t paint soft-plastic boardgame figures (low detail, lots of mould lines, bendy plastic parts), but decided to try getting some colour onto a couple of potential characters.
Total painting time for these two was a couple of hours. I applied some base colours on a day that, in hindsight, was far too hot for painting – the paints almost dried right on the brush. The next night, I added some highlights and details.
Mould lines were worst on Murne Rin (the blue-clad Ithorian) – the medical droid (MHD-19) was a pretty clean cast. Now that I’ve started experimenting with that style of painting, I’m enjoying trying it out more often: there’s lots of benefit from muscle-memory practice, and it’s helping me decide how to map out light and shade across a model.
Alaitoc Wraithlord WIP
This is a quick look at what’s on my desk at the moment. I decided to try out some new techniques on the allied Alaitoc detachment I’m painting for this year’s Arc40k tournament next month, as I’ve always liked the mottled blue armour from the studio colour scheme.
I’ve used a few different P3 paints for these: basecoat is Exile Blue over a black undercoat. I’ve used a bit of sponge to stipple on Cygnar Blue Base, and some Underbelly Blue (mixed with a bit of Cygnar base) to get the mottled patterning.
I picked out the edges of the armour with the same Underbelly mix, and also used it as a glaze to highlight the upper surfaces of curved armour areas. Once that was done, I glazed the whole surface with some Cygnar base to bring some more of a rich blue hue back to it.
Dark Angels Primaris marine
My local store ran a painting contest after 8th Edition 40k launched, for the figure that came with that month’s White Dwarf magazine. It had been a while since I painted anything in power armour, so I gave it a shot – this is my version of a Primaris Intercessor, from the Dark Angels chapter.
Steelheart’s Champions – painted Shadespire warband
I finally finished painting my first warband for Shadespire – settling on Steelheart’s Champions, as much for the low model count (only three figures) as for the large flat surfaces and a chance to try out some different painting techniques.
As the previous posts have shown, this type of gold spends a lot of time looking like brown and yellow paint… I’m still figuring out the right balance between dark shadows and bright highlights, but I owe a lot to this excellent video tutorial from Painting Buddha. You can find individual photos of each of the figures below:
Painting WIP: Angharad part 2
I continued working on the Angharad Brightshield model from my last post, pushing the contrast up a bit with deeper shadows (black and brown), and much brighter highlights. Same plan as before, only with more consistency across the model: the light source is coming across the body, from somewhere above the left arm.
That meant the helmet highlights needed to be placed on the opposite side, and the specular highlights on the shield needed to become a lot brighter. I think it’s working much better now, and a large part of that comes from the contrast on the shoulder and the top of the shield. I’m happy with where this is going, now 🙂
Now to open up the Shadespire box for another look at the game boards, and then I’ll try to match colours with the model bases. I had originally planned to work on 1-2 models from each warband before starting work on something new, but I’d like to have a painted Shadespire warband ready for a game. So, I’ve just cleared all the other models off my desk in preparation: the next things I paint will be the other two Liberators from Steelheart’s group.
Even late at night, the weather is starting to get a bit too warm for painting – so I think this Summer may be when I finally try using a wet palette for the first time. Stay tuned for the next batch of WIP photos 🙂
Painting WIP: Angharad Brightshield
I’d planned to paint the Shadespire models in regular metallics, so I could quickly get them ready for some games. Then I realised that it’s pretty rare to have a painting project capped at only three models, and that seemed like a good opportunity to practice some non-metallic metals.
Bright lights and close-up photos make any painter cringe a bit, but this is the result of last night’s painting on Angharad Brightshield, from the Liberators warband. I realised much later that I’ve painted the light source on the wrong side of her helmet, so I’ll need to go back and change that next time I pick up a brush…
More detail behind the cut…
Garrek’s Bloodreavers – painting WIP
I’ve started trying to get back into the habit of doing a small amount of painting each evening, in order to re-train some of the muscle memory I’ve lost over the last few years. First up from Shadespire are a couple of Garrek’s Bloodreaver warband: Garrek himself, and his henchman Arnulf.
I’m very rusty, but I’ve enjoyed working on the skin tones for these two: shading with purples, reds and greens, and building up to a bright yellowish-white for the highlights. There are lots of interesting textures to work with, particularly on the torsos.
Unfortunately, I tried spray undercoating on a very windy day, and have ended up with a very thick coat of paint – particularly over the faces of this warband. I think I can salvage them, but it’s going to make things much harder when it comes to detailing the faces.
Flesh, leather and red armour panels are pretty much done on these two – I’d been considering some non-metallic metals, but it’s been ages since I did much work with regular metallics. My silver paints have mostly dried out, so I’ll start work on the blades and buckles once I pick up some new ones.