Dungeon Delvers

Had great fun doing this project. It was great that it gave me chance to paint many different miniatures from various manufacturers from various points in history. It was my first time using the project blog which was fun. Will certainly be documenting other projects going forward.

For some reason I cannot find the before picture of these guys. Thought it would be a fun idea to make these guys a party with two warrior types and a wizard. I need to locate another one to complete the party. These are great minis so much character. I decided to mount them on stones to give some height. The stones are xps foam torn up and textured with tin foil. Went for browns and creams to paint followed by a green wash in some areas. Think these are my favourite so far ?

These are absolutely fantastic miniatures by Mierce. Real fun to paint with lots of details. Drawback is they take a little longer to paint. On the bigger side compared to other miniatures. Really happy with how they turned out and will fit into all sorts of skirmish games.

I picked up a few miniatures from Mierce around Christmas time. There were no real plans for them but thought the miniatures looked great. My next party is going to represent hero’s from a northern tribe. One of the miniatures came with a wolf so again this sparked possible narratives in my mind. Could just be a single wolf follower. But I had three further wolves (from iron gate scenery, they are very good) in my frostgrave backlog so I thought I’d paint one for each model. They could be wolves adopted by each character similar to those in game of thrones or the northmen could be shape shifters taking on the form of a wolf as and when they wish or even on a full moon. So many stories could be told with this set of minis.

The finished party looking suitably evil. It is very interesting the difference in the look of these compared to the earlier hero quest parties. The more muted evil tones add realism I think rather than the the more vibrant cartoon style of the hero quest parties. I think there is room for both styles though. This project genre is great for mixing miniatures from different manufacturers and scales as a narrative can easily be given to a character explaining their size and build. Great fun this one.

This is a wonderful model. Great rein piece from Northstar. The Necromancer is the brains of the party as the other three tanks have few. Really enjoyed painting this one and am very happy with the result

Another lovely miniature from mierce miniatures. Went for a black armour look with weathering on the metallics. Lovely model to paint this one.

Next up was the classic chaos dwarf miniature. It’s an old model which is a fairly simple sculpt but I do feel these old minis have great character. It was so easy to paint took very little time and I think I’m as happy with the outcome as with the newer sculpts. We seem to crave more and more detail on our miniatures but is that what we need? I’m not so sure. Enjoyed this one.

This is a great model from mierce miniatures. It immediately got me thinking about narratives which to me means it’s a great mini. My thoughts were a deranged killer Micheal Myers style ? who relentlessly marches towards his victims. He was conditioned to be this way through being tortured in a dungeon over 20 years which accounts for his pale flesh. I’ll not go through all colours but just parts that may be of interest.

Skin: base coat purple, highlighted up by adding olive flesh, final highlight was ivory.

The brass areas were weathered with citadel Nigilakh oxide.

Silvers were weathered with orange rust forgeworld weathering powder.

The blood on the axe was UHU glue mixed with burnt red applied with a cocktail stick.

I love how this mini turned out

I started painting my evil barbarian this week. His cloak is stitched together so I decided I would try to paint it as the flesh of his human victims Texas chainsaw style ?. I had no real idea how this would turn out as I had never really attempted something like this. I documented the process below.

step 1 base coat of pro acryl shadow flesh

step 2 A wash of citadel drukki violet followed by a light wash of army painter jump suit shader once dry.

step 3 Highlights were gradually applied by adding pro acryl tan flesh to the shadow flesh. I used a feathering motion in an attempt to add some texture

step 4 finally the stitching was picked out with citadel zandri dust.

I am really pleased with how it turned out and it was fun to try something new

For my next party I thought I’d do something different. Adventure parties tend to be the good guys but surely there would be some unscrupulous types found looking for loot and treasure. I rooted around for some evil characters so I have a warrior and a barbarian from mierce miniatures, a Necromancer from frostgrave and an old chaos dwarf from GW. Looking forward to painting these and putting a different slant on the dungeon adventure party

Again very happy with how these turned out. They were great fun to paint. It was interesting to see how much the quality of the plastic miniatures improved in a relatively short space of time. Pretty happy with my first week of the project two classic parties complete ?

Another great model such fun to paint.

skin – base shadow flesh, highlight tan flesh.

undershirt/trousers – Camo green

gloves/boots – dark golden brown

overshirt – sky blue

shirt trim – bold pyrrole red

hair zandri dust (citadel)

silver – dark silver

gold – rich gold

bow – ivory

I love this one. Part of me wants to put him in the front rank of a unit.

shirt – bold pyrrole red

skin – base shadow flesh, highlights tan flesh.

beard – ivory

gloves – dark golden brown

boots – dark umber

belt/shield/ hammer handle – mournfang brown (citadel)

silver – dark silver

gold – Rich gold

I really like this model, an older more grizzled wizard. Who can be surprised that he has aged. Must be stressful ?.

skin – base shadow flesh, highlights tan flesh.

Shirt – ivory

hair – dark warm grey

boots/gloves/ shirt trim – bold pyrrole red

cape -dark grey blue

staff – mournfang brown (citadel)

knife – camo green

gold – rich gold

Moved on next to the advanced heroquest models starting with the knight. See my heroquest wizard entry for more detail on my method and paints.

trousers – ivory

metal – dark silver

gold – rich gold

blue areas – blue (simple ?)

boots – dark umber

gloves – dark golden brown

skin – base shadow flesh, highlights tan flesh

I was quite happy with how these turned out without to much effort. Some of the details are a little soft but that’s to be expected from miniatures which are over 30 years old. I was indecisive on whether to texture the bases but think the painted flagstones have worked out ok. Painting these sparked joy and great memories. Receiving this on Christmas Day after watching the epic advert for months. Then getting round the table with my family (some of them no longer with us) and playing out quests Christmas Day evening.

The tank of the party. This was my favourite character as a child. Who doesn’t love wading into combat ?. See the wizard entry for more details on my paint/method. I put a six o’clock shadow on this one with watered down strong tone.

skin – base shadow flesh, highlights tan flesh.

pants – zandri dust (citadel)

leopard spots (pants) – dark umber

hair – coal black

boots- dark golden brown

silver – dark silver

gold rich gold

I do love a dwarf. Have a huge kings of war army using old citadel miniatures from the 80’s and 90’s so enjoyed this one. See wizard for my method.

skin – base shadow flesh, highlights tan flesh.

shirt – Bold pyrrole red

sliver – Dark silver

gold – rich gold

Gloves – Dark Golden brown

boots and belt- dark umber

bag – mournfang brown (citadel)

Next was the elf. The Swiss Army knife of the party not a bad fighter and magic. See wizard entry for my method.

Skin – base shadow flesh, highlights tan flesh.

shoulder jerkin/ trousers – Dark golden brown

shirt – cavalry brown (Vallejo)

boots – dark umber

hair – dark warm grey

gold – Rich gold

silver – dark silver

bag and belt – mournfang brown (citadel)