My own little corner of Mordheim...

I just finished looking through this whole thread this morning ( I spread it out over a couple of days; couldn't handle this much awesomeness all at once). What an outstanding job you've done here!! Please tell me there will be more...

Well, it has been a while...

Most of my hobby time has been absorbed by my Stirlanders (check them out on Warseer) but recently I've revived my dungeon project..

Some of you might know I have quite a sizable (well over 160 parts) modular dungeon, mostly for use with WFRP and Mordheim, made from Hirst blocks... I started building the dungeon years ago and have added to it ever since. Lately, most of my time has been absorbed by my Mordheim board and my Stirlanders and the dungeon project has been almost dormant...


However, this got me all motivated again... New molds from Hirst! Seeing multiple other logs featuring Hirst stuff always get's me all excited... I already ordered a set of these molds and even got a confirmation that my order is already on it's way... Yay!

Sooooooo, long story short: I've cleared my table and put out all the pieces on display... It shocked me that so little was painted (why that should be a surprise should be a shock on itself) at least to a good standard and I decided to set myself a challenge (and a big one too)!


All the pieces, ranging from very small to very, very big with mutliple levels... Painting plaster is a lot of work, it's quite hard to get an even coat of paint...


The only piece painted to an acceptable standard... This will most likely be repainted, too...

So here's the challenge: I am going to paint my whole dungeon (or at least 150 pieces) before the end of this year... Crazy? Probably... Stupid? Hell yes.. Possible? Maybe... Luckily I won't be doing it all alone, FBI has offered to help me (or has he:shifty:)... Why only 150 pieces and not the whole set? There are multiple pieces that aren't as well built as I would like and they might get scrapped if I can't get them painted right... I will also include plenty of doors and furniture (most of which still needs to be painted, too). Add to that I have plenty ideas for more pieces, I have a lot of work to do: stuff to paint, plaster blocks to cast, pieces to build...

Challenge accepted?


Here's a shot of only a part of the dungeon while in use for a game of Warhammer Skirmish... I almost have enough to fill my whole table...


Well, after spending a couple of hours of solo painting and two hours of painting with FBI I have roughly 1/3 of the pieces basecoated. Not a bad start, I say (and with some good music in the background it's not so bad either)... This afternoon we have another couple of hours of painting scheduled, with a bit of effort we'll be able to paint at least 50% of the pieces by the end of the day.

As I'm typing this the first batch of plaster casts is already drying... I want to add another 40/50 pieces to my dungeon to make it to 200 individual pieces and that means that I need fresh tiles, blocks and arches, and lots of them, too! These new pieces will mostly include some smaller basic hallways and doors and such (although not that impressive to look at these parts are essential to any dungeon design) but I also want to build some larger rooms and possibly even some multi-level pieces. Fortunately I have plenty of Hirst molds to speed up the casting of the parts needed.

So far about half the dungeon has been properly undercoated, a hideous amount of work... Friday evening, saturday afternoon and most of my sunday were spent painting plaster. With some much appreciated help from FBI the painting of the dungeon is progressing on a brisk pace.

The result of a couple of hours of relaxed painting can be seen below...


One of my fresly undercoated portals, including a door... In this picture there are presicely 1.387.965 hidden white spots, can you find them all? Undercoating plaster is all good fun, but you have to check every angle, at least twice, for those trice-damned white spots! I know, I could mix the plaster with some kind of pigment, but I wouldn't know what to use...

The door was painted this afternoon. The door is a product of one of my own molds and has been around for quite some time now. During the previous years these doors have been used in the dungeon (unpainted, ofcourse) but didn't work that well, they fell over, a lot, and just didn't fit that well... This afternoon I did something about that...


I painted 19 doors, they all (apart from the one up front) need a wash of Devlan Mud, after that they are done... These are exactly enough for my 19 portals. I do intend to make some more as I expand my dungeon. Some of the doors might even need to be replaced as there are too many bubbles...


This keeps the doors upright... A simple square made from transparent plastic. The plastic bases are pretty much undetectable from a distance and only become apparent when viewed from up close. I also filed down the edges of the doors a bit so there is just a fraction of clearance between the door and the portal. The doors are double-sided so they also look good when viewed from the other side... They work great!


Here is a pic from one of the latest additions that I made yesterday, a slightly more elaborate portal, designed to mark important rooms... Even though it's different from the regular portals it fits right in due to the similar style.

Over the next couple of days I'm going to undercoat yet more pieces of my dungeon, getting results like this is quite motivating!

Thanks for watching! More updates coming soon! As always, your feedback is greatly appreciated, so please let me know what you think!

Nice to have you back, Boreas! That's quite an impressive assortment of very cool pieces. I'm rather fond of the doors. GREAT WORK!

Welcome back and good luck with your challenge.

WOW! I'm in awe.

Good luck for your challenge.

Thanks guys! It's good to be back... My Stirlanders have taken up all my hobby time and I virtually didn't build/paint any scenery... The Stirland army has grown to such a size that it would be able to overthrow The Emperor and declare itself a sovereign state (that, and I even painted a lot). On page 100 there's a shot of the entire army (go on, you know you want to check it out)...

But enough of my army... Work on my dungeon is progressing nicely and I have high hopes that I will indeed be able to finish in time. The doors were actually extra's but I still finished them as I got a bit carried away. I still have about 40% of the individual pieces to undercoat and after that the whole dungeon needs to be drybrushed. If I can manage it I also want to paint up more scenery (cabinets, tables, beds, crates and barrels and such)...

More updates coming soon!

Great to see you back. I've seen some of your army on the W-E. Excellent stuff.

The doors are a great idea.

I like your little corner of Mordheim!

This board is nice mate.

Thanks for the feedback, guys!

Update time!

Well, there has been plenty of painting during the last couple of days... The dungeon is now about 70% undercoated and we're still going strong (I do a lot of painting by myself but without the support of FBI I wouldn't nearly be this far along)...


This is what's done at the moment... Almost all of the smaller pieces and several of the bigger pieces...


This is what's still to be undercoated... Most of the bigger pieces and only a few of the smaller pieces...

I also got my order of new Hirst Arts molds (delivered after only 6 days), these are just as awesome as the rest! I already have quite a lot of the molds, but mainly for casting bricks. The new molds are filled with all manner of small bits and some very nice pieces of furniture! I already managed to get a couple of casts done and I'm pretty impressed with the detail on the different bits




A few of my favorites... Both tables are very, very welcome! I already have a lot of cupboards/cabinets and these tables will go very well with those. All the smaller pieces are just great, plates, books, bottles and much, much more... There are a lot more pieces, not all are on this pic. There is also a bed and several smaller cabinets, nice stuff... Very useful for a project such as this dungeon.

EDIT: The smallest bits are all from the first cast, so many have a bit more bubbles than should be normal. However, after seeing the pics I have to admit that these might just be a bit too bubbly for my tastes. Doesn't matter, with a lick of paint these should look fine nonetheless...

Thanks for watching! More updates coming soon! As always, your feedback is greatly appreciated, so please let me know what you think...

You're making impressive progress on the Dungeon. Keep up the GOOD WORK!
The new mold are producing some VERY COOL pieces. Have FUN with them all!

Well...to be honest wooden things and the book could have an explanation for those holes...woodworms.

The only thing that doesn't fit with them is the lamp.
Nonetheless...good job!

Thanks for the feedback!

The other casts were a lot better, but, indeed, most of the small bubbles don't bother me that much as they can be easily explained...

Update!

We (FBI and myself) played a quick game of WFRP this afternoon. After a little puzzle, this is what we came up with...








A couple of shots, from different angles, from our dungeon set-up... We managed to use all the pieces (but one) and we ended up with a rather big, maze-like dungeon complex...

Most of the furniture/clutter is still unpainted. Getting these finished is high on my to-do list (right after finishing the rest of the dungeon, that is)...

Thanks for watching! More updates coming soon! As always, your feedback is greatly appreciated, so please let me know what you think...

There's a LOT of potential in that Beasty. When it's all painted up it will be (even more) IMPRESSIVE indeed.

Thanks!

While the painting goes rather well, I still can't help myself to add more to the dungeon...

Guess who just had a very productive sunday afternoon...

Over the last couple of days I've cast quite some bricks and pieces, enough to make a few new additions to the dungeon.

All of the new pieces are standard portals, hallways and/or junctions: the basics needed for every dungeon design. Yesterday, while we were setting up, I figured I could use a couple more of these basic pieces. It really helps to make all the different modules fit together if you have plenty of those. It not only enlarges the possible lay-out, but it also makes for much more interesting designs with less difficulties of making it all fit together...


Step 1: cutting out the bases needed for the modules... I use sheet MDF (5mm) as a base, relatively easy to cut but very strong and it doesn't warp.


Step 2: covering the bases with floor tiles... As you can see I opted to make the two square pieces with the smaller, more detailed inlaid tiles.

Step 3: building up the walls... Why didn't I remember to take a picture of this stage:rolleyes:


Step 4: finishing up... Here you can see the finished modules. A few LEGO bricks to help keep things straight are indispensible... The smallest, 1 Inch, pieces are really, really usefull when piecing a dungeon together.

While my floors and walls were drying I started work on another, bigger, door...


On the right is my standard 1 Inch portal for which I already made a custom door... On the left is my larger 1.5 Inch portal for which this new door is designed.


Very early stages... Ignore the crappy quality of the cast on the smaller door, this one was found on the bottom of my spare plaster bits box and has seen better days...


The finished door... I took care to make it as symmetrical as possible. I also filed away some excess plaster on one of my new benches, I think it looks a lot better this way!


The start of the mold... I have several of the larger portals, mainly to add some variety to my dungeon, and all of these will need a door! With this mold completed I'll be adding even more of the larger portals to my collection.

Thanks for watching! More updates coming soon! As always, your feedback is greatly appreciated, so please let me know what you think, and, if you're feeling adventurous, feel free to rate my thread (120 votes and counting)...

Update time!

Last update I showed you the big door I made for my larger portals. I found the time to cast a couple of them and even painted a single one...

I hope you enjoy the pics though I feel the need to apologize for the crappy lighting...


The two portals next to eachother... As you can see, both pieces are already finished (a simple dry-brush took care of that) and I'm pretty pleased with the way they turned out...




A few of the finished pieces together...


All the undercoated pieces, awaiting further completion... There are only a few pieces remaining to be painted, then the dry-brushing can begin in earnest!


There is, however, a down-side to all this frantic painting... The dungeon consumes brushes! The one on the left is still unused but the middle and right brush clearly show slight signs of wear...


And the last bit of update... As I started this project I ordered a couple of these cool candleholders and I recently re-discovered them (hidden inside a bitsbox). I went on a search to aquire more as I only had a few. I finally found the webshop that sells these little beauties and I ordered a whole lot of them!

Thanks for watching! More updates coming soon! As always, your feedback is greatly appreciated, so please let me know what you think...

Love it!

Ooh, care to share the source of those candles they look awesome!

Looking fantastic already! Really looking forward to playing in that dungeon any time soon

EXCELLENT PROGRESS! The Candle Sconces are a GREAT find...VERY COOL little accent pieces.

Thanks! Those little bits will surely spice up my dungeon a bit...

Small update...

The undercoating is almost finished, only a few pieces still remain to be done.




Here are two shots of the lay-out of the dungeon we used for today's game... As you can see, there's barely any white left on the dungeon pieces themselves. Most of the white is from the (still unpainted) furniture... With the new additions I made last weekend it was fairly simple to make yet another maze-like dungeon.

At least my vacation has started so there should be plenty of time to finish some more pieces and maybe even build some new ones... I also ordered a new bag of plaster as I've almost ran out... So more casting it is!

Thanks for watching! More updates coming soon! As always, your feedback is greatly appreciated, so please let me know what you think...

Thanks for posting...that is an inspiring layout. ENJOY your painting Holiday...I'm sure we'll all enjoy the results.

Some great scenery here! Greetings from Belgium

VERY envious of you for having such amazing terrain pieces. Would love to read up on some battle reports involving these dungeons.

Holy sh** !!! What a terrain modeler you are ! I'm definitively your fan and i'll sell my soul to play in such a dungeon ! (no in fact i'll spend money to make my own). Continue to send us pics, you are a dream seller !

(sorry for my english, i'm a froggy)