Hirst arts 3D Heroquest board

[Figomurphy]

Hi folks,
I'm well on my way with my 3D Heroquest dungeon. The completed board will be in 5 pieces. 4 corners and the centre room.

The doors and arches are one piece and slide over the walls.

Just two things I'm struggling with.

1: How to paint the fire in the torches (more like coals) and the light they would emit.

2: What varnish to use on the finished board. I'm sure I'll need to protect it?

P.s. All feedback welcome on any aspect of this project. It's my first attempt at something like this. Really enjoying it.

Thanks.

[StratosVX]

I can't offer advice on painting but I do have questions as I've thought about doing something similar. I'm guessing you have made this so you can position the doors wherever you need them to? If so, how big are your wall sections? How much of this breaks down to individual pieces? I have thought about how to make these very modular without needing a ton of extra pieces.

[knightkrawler]

1. Painting Fire:
You start with white with a hint, a tiny tiny hint of lemon yellow and base all the flames. Coverage must be extremely good. If needed start with something darker (a mid-tone brown) and layer until it's that offwhite. Then you continue layering like you would be highlighting, just not from dark to light, but vice versa.
You can use these these color steps:
The lemon yellow you mxed into the white - a darker yellow - a light orange - a red orange - a scarlet red or mid-tone red like Citadel Mephiston Red - a brownish dark red without a hint of blue or green in it (safest would be to just mix in black with the midtone red you've used) - last you glaze the tips with almost pure black or a very dark warm brown. Of course, each layering step means you leave a rim of the previous layer visible. The darkest step should only be on the tips of the individual flames, the off-white should only be at the center of the fire/bottom of the flames.

Maybe at some point you're courageous enought to play around with blues at the base of fires - I know I'm not.

It will look most realistic if it goes all the way from almost pure white to almost pure black. The assumption here is similar to the tactics used when painting non-metallic metal.
For the reflections of flames (OSL - Object Source Lighting), watch some youtube videos and you'll slowly get the hang of it.
Basically, you highlight over the reflecting area with color steps darker than the actual flames. For rock or stone that means basically you use colors from a dark red to a medium orange, simply highlighting the area that is reflecting the flames over the highlights you gave it naturally. Shadows in the rock too deep to be reached by the light (which there will be few) are just given a glaze of a very dark red.

As said, for OSL there's a lot of useful videos (James Wappel, Ichiban Painting, et al.).
For fire, i have found not one that shows me a better result than what I achieved with my second attempt at fire, so I recommend you follow my steps roughly. You can always paint over spots that you don't like with a different color, but basically you need to be courageous in color contrast, like with NMM.

2: Varnish
Use a glossy varnish first - two coats. That is the actual protection. You can feel the difference with your fingernail.
then go over that with a matte varnish (for Americans I've read often that Testors dullcote is the way to go) to take off that shine given by the gloss varnish.
You can buy pots of gloss, satin, and matt varnishes from Vallejo, too, to brushpaint over spots that you do want glossy again, like a piece of armor lying on the floor or something, if you wanna get really detailed.
I use that method for my minis, too. First gloss varnish, then matt varnish, then gloss varnish with a brush over eyes, wet spots, mud bases, shiny armor and weapons - you catch the drift.

[Figomurphy]

I can't offer advice on painting but I do have questions as I've thought about doing something similar. I'm guessing you have made this so you can position the doors wherever you need them to? If so, how big are your wall sections? How much of this breaks down to individual pieces? I have thought about how to make these very modular without needing a ton of extra pieces.

Here's a photo of that might show you the door system better. It works great.

The walls are 10mm thick. These are from the small brick mold. They are two sections glued back to back. 5mm+5mm.

The whole board will be 5 pieces in total. The four corners and the centre room. I used a large plastic sheet, used for signage. It's extremely strong and won't warp. I tried smaller test pieces on wood, but they warped slightly when the glue dried. If I was to use thicker wood it would be far too heavy. The plastic sheets are ultra light and Don't bend.

[Figomurphy]

Thanks Nightcrawler. I Greatly appreciate your time. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. I'll try a few samples before hitting the main board.

On the varnish, I'm guessing a spray is the way to go for the first coats?

[Figomurphy]

Also I'll be using Vallejo water effect. Would that be ok to varnish?

[knightkrawler]

Thanks Nightcrawler. I Greatly appreciate your time. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. I'll try a few samples before hitting the main board.

On the varnish, I'm guessing a spray is the way to go for the first coats?

Yes, spray. The bigger the project the more valuable is a spray can.
As for the water effect, go to [url]wappellious.blogspot.de[/url] and ask James. He uses the stuff regularly and answers each and every post on his blog. I haven't tried it yet.

EDIT: Funny how, right now, his latest post is a mini with a torch. Go figure. Perfect example of what it looks like when painted as I described with a dash of more talent than I have.

[Figomurphy]

I won't be going onto his page again, it makes my painting look like a 2 year olds. That's incredible stuff that he does. Masterpieces.

[knightkrawler]

Well, I do follow him cause his style and technique are something I can work with if not directly aspire to.

[Figomurphy]

Here's an update on where I am overall.