Michka's Runelords project (The Final Chapter 4/17)

[deafnala]

The Big Bad Girls look EVEN BETTER close up...also more sinister, twisted, & bizarre. AND the Mushrooms are as LOVELY as the distant shots promised. GREAT WORK all around!

[michka]

Thank you DeafNala. I need to make some more mushrooms. Maybe a few more varieties to spice up the caverns.

Update time. On Tuesday night we had our final game of the Hook Mountain Massacre. It was the last chamber in the Ogre Caves of the Hook Mountain. A Stone Giant named Barl and two bodyguards faced our heroes in the throne room. There are a number of familiar sculpts in this cave, along with a couple new pieces. I'll start with some in-game shots to establish what's going on.

 

So to start off, I'll show the throne with the Stone Giants for scale. (Great photography Michka. You covered the throne, which is the reason for taking this photo.)

 

This was a simple build using foam core and hot glue. I primed it black, sprayed texture paint on it, painted it grey with some darker shadows, then an additional texture spray. The second texture spray was because the first pass didn't really add much texture. I think that can is running out. Here's a shot of the throne before I started spraying.

Next we have the totems. These were a last minute replacement for some statues that are meant to line the upper walkway. I decided that statues were kinda boring, and not really primitive enough for décor that ogres would have in their throne room. (Barl the Stone Giant took the throne room from the leader of the Ogre tribe.) Here's a close up of the totems. 

 

The totems were made with metal skull beads my wife found at Micheals around Halloween. The post was made from Super Sculpey, which I formed into a column, twisted to get the cool shape, the pushed the top of the post through the hole in the skull bead. I added a dab of Sculpey to the top to cover the hole. Then I added small skull beads, also found by my wife, to the base along with little balls of clay. I wrapped thin strings of clay around the posts to add texture. It was only after priming the things that I decided they should be snakes. After cooking the original posts I realized the bases were too small, so I quickly made larger bases which I pushed the baked totems into and baked again. I'm really having fun with re-baking Super Sculpey. Here is a shot of the totems from before I primed them black. 

I painted these with Americana Dark Chocolate, followed by an Americana Burnt Sienna heavy wet brush. Then a quick dry brush of Americana Cocoa. I wasn't happy with how this was coming out, so I hit then with another shot of Burnt Sienna, focusing on the top skull area. The dry brush was too heavy and chalky, so I brushed on GW Nuln Oil wash. (which is quickly becoming one of my favorite tricks) To get a streaky look I dripped some Army Painter Red Tone straight out of the dropper bottle, just on one side of the skulls. Finally I painted the snakes: Black, then Reaper Meadow Green with Vallejo Model Color Stone Grey spots. Sorry if the painting details are too specific, but I actually remember what I used for once.

Here's another shot from the game. The flame markers were provided by the sorcerer player who chucks fire balls like they're going out of style. She used them to show the edges of area of effect of the fire ball. The small red ball on the one giant's base was the center point. By this point they had killed one giant and were well on their way to taking out the second. The Banner did not become a mimic this time. It seems my players had all seen this trick on the internet somewhere. It was just a clue to where the next chapter would be taking place. Good thing the elf had a Mend spell to repair all that fire damage.   

 

As I said, this was the last installment of this chapter. The other GMs will be running for a while, so I probably won't be adding to this thread for some time. Instead I'll be focusing on some Science Fiction projects I've been wanting to get back to. But I promise, this isn't the end. I still have three more chapter of the Rise of the Runelords to work through.

Coming soon, Fortress of the Stone Giants! 

[deafnala]

Now that is a GRAND finale to SPLENDID adventure. This is how I imagined Fantasy Adventures should look. INSPIRING WORK! 

[michka]

Thank you DeafNala. I'm happy to be finished running the campaign for now, but I'll be itching to get back to it in a couple weeks. The GM is never satisfied.

[curufin]

Your new builds are awesome! I love the totems! Fantastic work!

[michka]

Thank you Curufin. I'm pretty pleased with how the totems came out too. I'll be looking for more metal objects that I can add to oven bake clay sculptures from now on.

[deafnala]

Apr 18, 2015 14:00:55 GMT michka said:

Thank you DeafNala. I'm happy to be finished running the campaign for now, but I'll be itching to get back to it in a couple weeks. The GM is never satisfied.

I can identify in a way. I ran campaigns as fillers when our regular D.M. Bob wanted to play. More than once my games were abruptly shortened because Bob NEEDED to D.M. again.

[dragon722]

At least you have a game at the moment to delve into lol . So when is the next installment for our wondrous heroes???

[michka]

It's going to be a few months. There are three other GMs who have Pathfinder games planned right now, and they've been very patient with my game. In the meantime, I have a Star Trek game I've been wanting to run for another group. And then there's Star Wars. Something just hit me last Thursday, and now all I can think about is Star Wars.

[voodoo]

Amazed! I have been following this post for a while. Great pieces, photos and paint. Thanks for the tutorials as well. truly great!

[dragon722]

The Jedi Council is patiently awaiting your construction of our new gaming experience

[curufin]

I fully support any Star Wars endeavors you partake in. I just hope Manny Both-Hanz doesn't die to bring us any news.