Dungeonalia – Necrothrall does Drow (and other beasties)

So while I wait for my mate Rob to print me some drow I’ve decided to crack on with some other beasties, the first of which is the one in the project thumbnail (the spider, not my head). This will act as the boss of the encounter.

This is the Epic Encounters Spider Tyrant from Steamforge games. It’s sodding big. I game it a prime of Halfords grey, which I pre-highlighted using the slap-dick method. After that I started blocking in the colours using various contrast paints. I’ve gone for a not-at-all realistic paint scheme in order to lower the chances of one of the players freaking out and yeeting it across the room. Don’t get me wrong I want to freak them out, but not to the extent that a reasonably weighty, spider-shaped missile is hurled across the venue.

Next I gave the spider and egg sacs a light dry brush of pale sand to bring out the details.

The dry brushing continues.  I drybrushed up the rocks with various grey highlights to make them look more rock-like, while still retaining the purple underneath.

For the web I dry brushed it with a light grey, then with white. I wanted it to be quite bright compared to the rest.

To finish it off I painted the eyes and all the little spiders with gloss black from vallejo.  Finally I did the rim with a matt black to complete the piece.

Having to break this up into several posts as it crashes when I try and upload too many images at once.

A drow encounter needs a drider.  I acquired this one from etsy. Was a bit of a pain to glue it to its base.

I started by blocking in some colours, for this I copied what I did on the spider tyrant. I then drybrushed buggery out of the base with various greys, heading to white on the poor webbed people. I also gave the spider parts a light drybrush of pale sand from vallejo.

For the skin I went with a very light grey and put a light purple contrast over it.

The armour was painted with a gunmetal.  I later (see the finished thing) gave parts of the armour a going over with a dark purple contrast, followed by a drybrushed of gunmetal to bring out the edges. The parts I left silver were washed with nuln oil.

The cloth and leather was just done with a black contrast.

The hair was based with the same colour as the skin, just I went over it with apothecary white.

I finally got the drow dungers from Rob. I started with the skin, which was a magos purple contrast over a light grey. I also blocked in the fabric, which I alternated between black, dark blue and dark purple contrasts.

Next I did all the metallic in a gunmetal, which got a heavy wash of nuln oil. Then I gave all the boots, belts and gloves a coat of cygor brown contrast. Finally I tackled the hair. This was just a light grey covered in apothecary white, then lightly drybrushed with the same grey followed by white.

1. The rest of  the drow that I got from Rob. These were painted up in the same manner as the crossbow drow. The only difference was the shields, which were done with balthasar gold, washed with a green and drybrushed with more balthasar gold.

For the base of the drow priestess I clarted leviathan purple over the whole thing. Once that dried I gave it several drybrushes of gradually lighter greys.

To finish the warriors I glued some basing material from Geek Gaming Scenics to the bases and sealed them with a mix of pva, ipa and water. I went with the arid grasslands mix because its a nice neutral colour blend with some nice variety to it.

I gave the whole miniature a couple of thin coats of stonewall grey (vallejo). It’s a nice light grey that takes contrast well.

The skin got a coat of magos purple, the same as the other drow.

The dress was done with leviadon blue. The spider web design was picked out with mystic white (greenstuff world).

The bowl of blood and severed heads (that must be heavy) was done with balthasar gold and washed with reikland flesh shade. I painted the elf heads up to look like above grounders. The blood was done with flesh tearers red, which I then gave a coat of blood for the blood god to make it look wet.

The belts on the scourge were given a coat of Snakebite Leather.  The metallic parts were also done with balthasar gold, which was again washed with reikland flesh shade.  Then I dropped her and snapped a couple of the weights off the scourge, which disappeared into the ether.

Here’s some medieval villagers that I  got from Footsore.  My scenario starts with the party fending off drow ambushing a merchant caravan, so I need some victims. The child is the main hook in the scenario, basically he’s going to get kidnapped.

I started them with a white prime, and then painted any exposed skin. Now my idea of medieval peasants is that they should be wearing a lot of bright colours. So that’s exactly what I did. I slopped on various contrast paints, now I need sunglasses to look at them.  Mission accomplished, I guess.

I’ve acquired a few wagons for this scenario, after all a merchant caravan needs well a caravan.  The 4 wheel one is from Great Escape Games, the 2 wheel with the horse is from Mantic and the the last one is a 3d print my mate Rob gave me.

For the base for the wood I used stonewall grey (vallejo), which I washed with agrax earthshade.  Once that was dry I gave them a quick drybrush with stonewall grey again. For the metal parts I just used a dark brown. The cloth was done with canvas (vallejo) which was washed with agrax again.

I’ve painted up some scatter. Some of this came with the mantic wagon (and it fits quite nicely in the back), the rest I got in my advent calendar last year. My camera didn’t quite pick out the colour of the fish in the barrels, but trust me they’re slightly blue.

This guy caused a bit of discussion on the unofficial hobby hangout.  It’s a wee dragon guy hatching from an egg that I got as freebie from an etsy seller. I also got this baby owlbear doing a sploot.

I just gave them a hit of contrast and a light ivory drybrush. Then picked out the teeth, beak and eyes. Finally I gave the rocks a drybrush, put some geek gaming scenics pine forest ground cover on the owlbear’s base and painted the rims.

A couple of my players needed miniatures for their characters, so here’s the first a dragonborn barbarian. The brief was a green dragonborn that doesn’t have massive tits, because why would a reptilian creature have boobs? So that’s what’s she’s getting. The miniature was painted with contrasts and was given a light drybrush of ivory to pick out the details.

Another player character.  Again mostly done using contrast paints and a light ivory drybrush to pick out the details.

The flames were undercoated white and were given a coat of a yellow contrast. Once that dried I painted the top third to half of each flame with the only opaque orange that I own, which isn’t shite. Then I did the top half of each orange area with a deep red. Finally I did the very tips with a dark grey.

This was my first attempt at smouldering wood. So I started that by painting the wood. I used vallejo stonewall grey washed with agrax earthshade. Once dry I used flesh tearers red contrast around the base of the flames, pushing it outwards in where I thought would look natural.  Once dry I stippled on some dark brown over the red, overlapping it over onto the grey, then I stippled on some black around the flames, focusing in on where the heat would be the most intense.

I’ve done a few elite drow. These are the wizkids Nolzur’s Marvelous Miniatures, they’re not the best sculpts but they are different enough that I can use them as more specialised super racist elves.

I’ve painted them up similarly to the other drow.