Dungeonalia – There’s Something Amiss at the Abbey

As a side quest for the adventurers I’m making a cave to distract them before the final showdown at the Abbey as all becomes clear.

It’s been a couple of weeks since the last update but I’ve been busy 3d printing miniatures, painting them and c=building out a second location the adventures will need to investigate.

We start with heroes and citizens.

The Cult.

Some beasts.

To speed up the process I dug out some old Warhammer boys for guards.

Entry from the Abbot’s.

Entry from the Abbey.

What lies beneath the Scriptorium?

Well, nothing odd there. Hey. What’s behind that door????

Someone once said art is never finished only abandoned. For the time I had with Dungeonalia this would be true but, this project has another month for me to work on it for the high school gaming clubs convention they’re putting on. So this project goes on. More finish work will be done and I’m going to start populating this adventure with everything from the people that live above to the denizens that dwell below. I’ve been following the On Table Top Crew for years now and I finally jumped into one of their community projects and had a blast. More than anything the Dungeonalia project pushed me to get this project ahead of schedule. The great thing about what I’ve made during this time is that in many ways its a blank canvas for continued gaming as it can be modified any number of ways or adventures. I’ve also really appreciated feed back and will be coming up with ways to make the board even more modular by making each building have a ground silhouette and essentially a foundation so the building can be lifted separate from the “ground” board to access the underlayer. I’ll be looking forward to the next On Table Top seasonal project as well as continuing to update this one, since Gerry sort of demanded a battle report from the convention. Threats were made about crossing the pond and we can make that happen. I suggest making your first visit to Alaska a summer one though.

Well, its the last official day of the Dungeonalia project for me as its back to work on March 1st for me since I work a non standard work schedule. last minute fixes and painting happened though out the day, which included having to take the SUV into the mechanic since its alternator decided to start to fail. Not only did that eat into project time but its going to be a nice unplanned large bill. Adulting is fun.

Once back to the project things were set up and photos started to be taken….

The grounds.

The Abbey.

The Scriptorium.

The Abbot’s.

Now we delve into the dungeon…

I’ve been printing various items to fill the dungeon and desperately been trying to get them all painted. As glue was drying and before I could finish by painting the table, I started placing various things around the dungeon to get a feel of how much more I needed to add. I also played with the layout of the dungeon a bit, like adding some space for an alter. Nothing nefarious here.

I remembered I had printed out a set of stairs for the scriptorium and made adjustments for them. I wanted each main building to have access to the dungeon so the players could discover it when the time came in any way them wanted as to not railroad them too much. Investigate the Abbot’s house, gets you there but the furthest away from the final show down. Find a slight breeze coming from under the alter, well now you have choices, left or right as they are in the middle of the dungeon. Creep about the scriptorium, boom, maybe you’ve not been slowed down too much to be able to stop whatever nefarious deeds are being done.

I also realized I had a good bit of floor tiles and walls of various types just laying about so I made an add. Every dungeon should have some cells right?

As the month is winding down, so is the build portion of the project. Details for the ground level are being touched up, doors are being printed and painted. Have to keep the chill out as well as evil…out. I started fleshing, um, leafing out the large tree and I worked on finish of the main portions of the garden. The clamps and adhesives were put to work as I moved on to finishing the table build and turning my attention to detailing out the dungeon level.

After branching out the tree I airbrushed them lightly and added fine flock to bulk the canopy out.

After the flock was secured, I added a layer of Noch fine foliage. Everything added to the branches was glued on with a spray adhesive.

I felt the tree hung a bit too low, which was easy enough to fix since it’s based on a wire frame. After a bit of gentle bending, I felt it had a better shape.

More paint and some different textures were used to make the garden appear a bit more finished. Water coming from the fountains spouts was added by use of clear fishing leader and air-dry water effects.

The top layer was removed and I got to glueing down the foam edge supports. Never pass up reasonably priced hobby clamps.

Well, I’ve made it back from sunny weather to get back after the project. My goals this week were to really get after the top side details, prep dungeon details and work on the fit and finish of the table itself. Grass mats were cut, paint and industrial adhesives were procured.

The Abbey’s garden started to get paint and details added.

Adding some miniatures around is always fun.

Speeding up painting was in order so the airbrush and contrast paints were put to use.

The resin printer has been slaving away printing out smaller detail pieces and the filament printer has been adding dungeon pieces into the mix. Painting has been progressing and all the buildings have a respectable start to them. Details are starting to be picked out and things are feeling closer to game ready. Unfortunately, for the project, I’ll be on a 2 week break as I take the family on vacation to a warmer location. The negative 20 degrees (ferinheight) have made undercoating difficult with a rattle can. I’ll still be hunting for materials, tools and other fun stuff on the trip so I may be still making updates on the project because after all, purchases count as progress. I’m pretty sure OTT Warren used to say that?

Interior detail to the second floor of the scriptorium.

Abbot’s house

Crypt wall adds.

Garden and furniture.

As time allows I have been working on getting all the base colors for the buildings down. More PLA filament arrived and the printers were put back to work pumping out tiles and furniture…well furniture never stopped as I had plenty of resin. I’ve started to weather and build up layers to break up any large spaces.

With paint drying and printers printing a trip to the hardware store was next to start building out the base board. I already had picked up a couple plywood sheets in 2×4 foot flavor. Nice and light, also inexpensive. I had initially been wanting to top edge the plywood with 2 inch blue board to support the top “ground” level, but at a price of $70 a board I decided on a different course of action. With a couple small 2×2 foot, one inch, foam boards, only $7 each, I started cutting 2 foot long, 2 inch tall, strips. I decided to strengthen the bottom of the plywood with some precut pine hobby boards, at $3 each. To add to its strength and portability I also attached the two plywood boards with hinges. After some rather “impressive” carpentry work, the board…actually worked.

I mocked up the layers and everything seemed to be working out. Next up I’ll need to decide how I want to flock the top foam boards. I’ll be continuing to paint the last of the exterior of the buildings, paint interior details, start painting furniture and get after the central Abbey garden.

The board coming together. Have to love the precut lumber…never quite the same measurements. 2 foot wide plywood sheet with a 2 foot long board. At least they were consistent.

Mockup of how things will line up. A little off but I’ll measure everything out for the final layout.

Well with basic paint on most of the exterior of the buildings and walls it was time to turn my attention to the interiors, add/painting details and basic dungeon planning. Furniture started being pumped out from the resin printer and the filament printers started making specific dungeon tiles. I had picked up my Printable Scenery rampage tiles from the high school gaming club and started playing with ideas for the three main dungeon locations.

The resin 3d printer was also being used to print out vegetable rows for the Abbot’s garden, which may feature a special little “cabbage” I had sitting around from a Reapers Bones Kickstarter. A side note on resin 3D printing: Personally, I recommend always wearing gloves when working with the resin. This includes handling the resin bottle and the prints even after curing. The resin reacts pretty much instantly on skin contact and can cause painful drying and irritation. I personal try not to handle any of my resin prints with bare hands until after undercoating. Also, I recommend using a water washable resin, so you don’t have to use rubbing alcohol which is also toxic and a skin irritant.

The initial plans for the dungeon sections was to have a small chamber under the Abbey, which connects to a slightly larger crypt under the Abbot’s house and the much larger main dungeon under the scriptorium.  As I was printing out new dungeon tiles, I discovered I had committed a cardinal sin…I ran out of filament. A quick amazon order later and we’ll be back in printing business next week. Until then resin printing and paint will be the main objective. Now it’s off to the hardware store to pick up materials for the base of the project and dungeon.

More paint on the Abbey and the gatehouse was being readdressed from a years old start to painting it. I had two old wire trees I had started years ago and this seemed to be the perfect project to leaf them out…I feel like there’s a pun in there. Perfect project and I can’t not leaf them out? Needs work. Some grass mats were put down to get an idea of layout and look even though the mats will likely not be used in the final build. Plus, photos are fun.

I had started printing out and had the Infinite Dimensions Wightwood Abbey just sitting around for years. It was time to make something of it. I have a friend who is a school resource officer at a local high school and a few years ago he had helped start a gaming club, which now has a waiting list for kids to join. Last year the kids put on their own gaming convention. This year I’m going to help out by running a one-shot event for them, or at least that’s the plan. I just happens  Dungeonalia is running at the same time, so after years of watching the Weekender I decided to use the project as motivation to push along with a shorter timeline since the student’s convention is a month after the Dungeonalia project ends.