In the following tutorial, I will give you a quick step-by-step to paint your Tablescapes Dungeons: Mines. Through these steps, you will be able to achieve an excellent result with a minimum of effort. These are by no means obligatory steps or colors. Feel free to experiment with your own set as you see fit. The important thing is to get it painted.
There are a few important things to remember though. Because you are dealing with modular terrain, these pieces will not be set in one static way forever. Therefore, you need to make sure that the pieces are reasonably similar. When choosing your colors, you need to remember to keep the same pattern for every pieces. This way, you will make sure that you can mix and match your set however you want.
A basecoat of Minitaire Earth is airbrushed on the stone part and Minitaire Bark on the dirt and wood. You do not have to worry too much about getting an even coverage. The grey plastic will give you a natural look while showing through your basecoat.
Minitaire Coal is then airbrushed as a shadow, leaving the edges alone. A light filter of this color is also used in order to unify the piece together.
The pieces look a little too dark at the moment but do not worry, the following steps will light them up.
I will highlight the edges as well as bring a bit more color saturation with Minitaire Jaundice. Try to keep it to the top edges and top of rocks by airbrushing it from the top. This will bring more volume to your pieces by increasing contrast as well as developing your colors by increasing saturation. Jaundice is also applied on the wood planks and dirt to make them pop up more.
It is now time to take your flat brush out for some drybrushing. You can use an old brush for that. The key element is that you need rigid bristles. Brushes made of pig hair are the best. You need to feel resistance in the bristle. Anything made of sable or other soft hair are simply worthless. You basically need to hear a light scratching sound while drybrushing, that is when you know you have a good brush for the job.
A drybrush of P3 Trollblood Highlight is applied all over the pieces.
It gives a dusty effect to the piece while developing texture and light up our dark initial colors. P3 Rucksack Tan is then drybrushed on the dirt and wood.
It brings more saturation to part of the pieces. Do not be too precise on your drybrushing. By being a bit sloppy, it will create a light dust around the dirt section bringing a bit more realism without too much effort.
P3 'Jack Bone is then drybrushed on the wood elements. It bring out the relief and texture of these pieces. Next, I am back to the airbrush by applying a filter of Minitaire Muddy Brown on the wood element, mostly concentrating at the center of each element. Muddy brown is also use to provide some shadows toward the bottom of the wall pieces.
Lastly, black is airbrushed along the base of the pieces in order to create some delimitation.
Various pieces of this set offer more details than the slab of stone, pillars and dirt. Paying attention to these will make your set stand out. The runes are lightly airbrushed with white before a filter of Minitaire Troll Hide is applied around them. The inside of the runes are then enhanced by painting pure white with a brush in the cracks. The lanterns panels are airbrushed white while the cages are painted in black before having their edges highlighted with P3 Trollblood Highlight. A filter of yellow, then orange is airbrushed to create that glow of light. Lastly, the bats are basecoated in P3 Coal Black before being wash in black and having the edges highlighted in P3 Trollblood Highlight.
I hope that this step-by-step has urged you to get your set painted. Remember, you are free to follow these instructions or simply inspire yourself from them and go your own way. Simply make sure to have your mine painted in order to provide an incredible surrounding for the tragic deaths of the countless heroes (fools) that will walk its path. --- Mathieu Fontaine
