Weekly WIP: Dungeon Saga

Wow, what a week. On Monday my Kickstarter copy of Dungeon Saga from Mantic Games arrived and I have been busy with it ever since. I’ve never painted so many miniatures in such a short time period.

Dungeon Saga Skeleton Warriors

First I painted the skeleton warriors that came with the set. The basic pledge level for the Kickstarter includes an extra bag of undead so I have 3 of each model instead of two. These guys were painting quickly with the help of an airbrush. I used my zenithal priming technique and some washes to paint the bones and then used my normal quick technique for everything else.

Dungeon Sage Ghosts

Next I painted up these ghosts. Aside from the black of their hoods and some fine highlights on the torn fabric I painted them entirely with an airbrush. I went with a light greenish glow instead of the black of the studio models and I’m glad I did. The game board is dark so it’s important to keep things bright on the table.

Dungeon Saga Dwarf Hero

I realized that with the extra heroes coming with the Kickstarter I needed to start painting them sooner than later. My goal is to paint one hero for every group of monsters I paint. I airbrushed the metal of the armour and then painted the rest normally. I did use a wash over the surface which I regret. I find that since washing requires a long wait to dry it’s faster to hand-paint the shadows. It looks better, gives me more control and is faster than a wash.

Dungeon Saga Doors

I also wanted to make sure I kept on top of the doors and other dungeon furniture. I airbrushed the wood and then hand-painted the stone. I used drybrushing to highlight the stone which is a technique I rarely use but works well for this application. I didn’t take a picture after I painted the door hardware.

More Dungeon Saga Doors

When I was watching the last hours of the Kickstarter I was really happy that the plastic doors and dungeon furniture stretch goals were reached I think they really improve the look of the dungeon on the table. Now that I have the set I realized that I wouldn’t have had to paint them if they were tokens. You can see bad injector pin marks on the portcullis. They’re all over the doors and it’s disappointing to see so many.

Dungeon Saga Skeleton Archers

These are what I was painting on Sunday and the last things I finished before I started writing this WIP. Behind them you can see the barbarian waiting for his turn. I used the airbrush to paint the flesh but don’t like the look. I’ve been trying some different techniques to paint these miniatures quickly but I think I would be better off using my normal style. I don’t think I’m saving that much time and I’ll be happier with it when I’m done.

It’s funny, when I got the box my goal was to get everything painted as quickly as possible so I could play with it. I was looking at what order the monsters are encountered. If I painted only what is needed for the first few missions it would give me enough time to paint everything without ever having to play with unpainted stuff.

Then I realized that if it came down to a choice between playing or not due to unpainted miniatures I would rather just play the game. My friend wants me to host a little painting party to get everything painted up. I have some friends that would like to try their hands at painting miniatures. I’m a little resistant to this. At first I thought it was because I wanted to paint everything myself. Partially because I want everything to look good and partially because I have trouble giving up control. Then I realize it was because if we were all getting together I’d rather play the game than paint.

Although I would like to paint with them too.

Let me know if you either have hosted a painting party for non-painters and how that went, or if you are like me and prefer to have painted everything in your collection in the comments.

There’s still a long way to go so expect many more updates. You can find me on Google+, Twitter and don’t forget to subscribe.

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