How to make a 'dungeon' display base step-by-step

Hello there lovely people,

Sorry for my absence but I am still recovering from my broken radius so I haven't been building and painting much. Status on that is that the bone is healed but I still have to go to the physiotherapist every week because I still can't fully bend or extend my arm.

Okay enough of that. On to the subject you clicked on this link for.

For a project I'm working on I wanted a temple/dungeon kind of look. The model I'm working on is a Warhammer fantasy Khorne Skullreaper swinging a great sword of sorts. The original model is slightly tilting back while swinging his weapon, but when tilted forward it looks like he is leaping off something in full attack.

I quickly imagined the temple to be littered with skulls. Other then that it should look like cold, wet stone, the kind you would imagine in dungeons. I drew inspiration from a book I recently purchased for painting fantasy miniatures. It showed how to sculpt/build your own bases using milliput.

Lets begin!

The model comes on a 40x40mm base. It so happens that I had a 40x40x40mm plinth laying around from Sockelmacher. This pretty much is the perfect size!

I began by mixing some milliput together. Once this was mixed well (no more streaks of different color in the ball of milliput) I rolled it out in greaseproof paper soaked in water to prevent it from sticking.

I then ended up putting something heavy on it, like a stack of books, and let it dry overnight. Once dried I drew out the shapes I wanted the steps to have. I used an old knife to score the surface of the milliput a couple of times and broke off the pieces.

(in case you where wondering, the columns are PK-pro ceramic scenery bits)

I then tried out some possible base compositions to try out what would look best. I wanted a look similar to what you see in some catacombs where there are skulls everywhere. I tried to use the skulls for staircases but that just didn't look right in this scale.

Concept #1 

Concept #2

So back to the simple granite steps! I tested what it would look like when instead of the skulls being used as part of the structure, they literately littered the place with skulls. This was much more pleasing to my eye but it still missed something.

I looked at some reference pictures online of dungeons, temples and catacombs. I finally found out what I was missing. Candles! Applying candles really helps changing it to a dark place, because if it isn't dark, why would you need candles, right? I looked up an tutorial on how to best make candles. I ended up with a tutorial by Massive Voodoo. Here Roman used BeesPutty to sculpt candles. I never really sculpted anything in my life since kindergarten.

My mother was sooooo happy with this portrait of her
(not)

Luckily I had a sample of BeesPutty laying around. (thank you Painting Buddha!) 

BeesPutty is a polymer sculpting clay. You don't need to mix it and to cure it you have to bake it, so it stays soft for you to put your project away overnight. It feels like wax or something and its really comfortable to work with.

Back lets go on with the candles!

Following the tutorial I rolled out a thin sausage (or different sizes of thin sausages) and cut them in different sizes. Cutting them the right way usually clusters them together but you can also put them together in whatever order you want.

I added a little bit of putty on a wooden block because that makes it less of a hassle to make the candles stick to the surface without glue. After baking you can simply cut it from its base and glue it in position.

Finger for scale

After placing them on a base used a cocktail pricker to make small holes to simulate the hole the flame would have made in the wax. 

When I had several bundles of candles I baked them in my kitchen oven for 20 minutes at 120°C (or 250°F) and let them cool when they are done. Once cooled I cut them from their base and glued them to my display base. I tried to place them on logical places. 

Filled the emptiness to make the steps,
and thus the base, more whole

When this was done it was time for primer. I primed the base using a zenithal highlighting technique. For primer I used the Vallejo polyurethane surface primer. I first sprayed the whole base black, then sprayed a grey color from directly above to create some nice shading. I then sprayed some details with white primer to make them stick out more. 

So once the primer was dry it was time for some paints! I used a same technique as use in THIS tutorial and wetted the base with water. I then continued by applying some drops of paint directly to the base. The colors I chose are cold grey, sandy brown, sand yellow and olive green. I then took a wet brush and blended the colors all over the base.

Once dry I applied some light dust colored dry pigments from AMMO to make the base look aged and dusty. I painted up the details like the skulls and candles (you should paint these however you want) and applied some washes to certain crevices to accentuate recesses and shadows.

The finished result! 

And there you have it! A (in my opinion) perfect temple/dungeon/catacomb display base! Keep in mind that for larger bases you should also think about adding chains, hinges, wooden struts, ropes and whatever as extra details. Because the model I'm gonna place on this base is pretty large compared to the base I didn't.

I hope you all liked my little step-by-step / tutorial and if you did make sure to let me know in the comments!

Thank you all for reading and see you next time!  

Comparing miniature skulls

Hi guys and girls! (I'm still convinced there are girls reading this blog, at least I like to think that...)

Today I bring you sort of a review.

Reason for this is that I treated myself on some Secret Weapon Miniatures goodies. I'm more then sure that most of them will be mentioned in this blog in the future.

For now I would like to talk about skulls. One of the items I bought is the famed Sack O' Skulls. The product description says it contains 2.5 grams of loose cast resin skulls selected from five different sculpts. This means you will receive about 50 small resin skulls! Joy!

In this hobby we enjoy so much we often try to recreate a setting in a grimdark future, scary caves, old battlefields or planes littered with bones. This little bag filled with little skulls helps you to make just that!

I've used quite a few skulls in my 3-4 year career being a figure builder and painter. I usually add them to bases to create a darker setting, but you could also make a necklace out of them to make a monstrous creature even more monstrous.

On with the comparison. I selected a few of the skulls currently in my possession. I took some of the different skulls from the Secret Weapon Miniatures Sack 'O Skulls but I couldn't find the five different sculpts. I also found one of my plastic skulls from a Games Workshop Vampire Counts kit, and a skull from a Chinese caster.

Lets start by talking about how to acquire these skulls.

• The Sack 'O Skulls can be bought from the Secret Weapon Miniatures website or from retailers. The Sack 'O Skulls will set you back $15 or less if they are having a sale.
• The Games Workshop skulls are by far the most expensive. They are not sold separately (which is a shame because its a beautiful sculpt!) so you will need to buy several kits to get a bunch of skulls. There are some bits sites that sell individual bits but skulls are almost always sold out. 
•  The Chinese skulls in my possession are only sold online. I won't link to the site because I honestly don't know if he sculpted them himself or just recast them. They are the cheapest in this comparison because they cost like $1.50 for ten skulls.

Picture time! 

the skulls side by side

So the Secret Weapon Miniatures skulls gives you about 50 skulls from five different designs. They are slightly bigger then the GW and China cast skulls. The Games Workshop skulls come in different shapes as well. It all depends on the kit you bought. The China skulls are all the same. It is a nice sculpt though. The resin used is very hard and a bit brittle, this makes this a major downside to this product, since it makes it harder to use for conversions. 

So that's it I guess, I don't really know what else to tell you about these skulls. If you feel I left anything out, forgot about anything of if you have a question please just leave a comment down in the comment section. 

Thank you all for reading and see ya next time.