Tips & Tricks 20



Painted Descent Miniatures

The Descent game includes a bunch of miniatures with the game. Since I don't have time to paint them myself, I've traded a few molds in exchange for the paint jobs from various artists. I think they have all done an excellent job and this is the section I'll show off their work.

Click on a photo for a larger view of the miniatures.


These heroes were painted by
Greg Cymbalist from Canada.

These heroes were painted by
Ryan Lancaster from California.

These heroes were painted by
Marie Post from Wisconsin.

These heroes were painted by
Jeff Moeller from Illinois.

These heroes from the "Well of Darkness" expansion were painted by
Derek Hough from Australia.

These skeletons were painted by Skullcraft.

These beastmen were painted by
Alessandro Manilii from Italy.

Sorcerers were painted by Runelord (Matt Morrissette) from Connecticut.

These razorwings were painted by
Robert Sparenberg (aka Imahilus) from The Netherlands.

These nagas were painted
by Malarky.

These hell hounds were painted by
Julie Nahm from The Missouri.

These spiders were painted
by Brent Collins from Texas.

These ogres were painted by
Scott Trego from Florida.

These giants were painted by
Jez Spencer from England.

Manticores by Daniel Joyce from Washington.

These demons were painted by
Greg Cymbalist from Canada.

These dragons were painted by
David Pederson from Wisconsin.

These kobolds and ferrox from the "Well of Darkness" expansion
were painted by Undave from the UK.

These golems were painted by
Scott Trego from Florida.

All of these miniatures come with the Descent game by Fantasy Flight Games. Please remember that Hirst Arts is not affiliated with or endorsed by Fantasy Flight Games in any way. You can see how to build a Descent board on our Game Board Building Instructions page.


Painting Doors

1.

I'll start by spray painting the doors flat white. If you use white plaster then you won't have to do this. However, since bare plaster soaks up paint you'll have to work much faster.

Take brown craft or artist's acrylic paint and brush it on the door. Then take a paper towel and wipe the paint off quickly. The paint will stay darker in the cracks. You may have to reapply the brown paint if it's not dark enough.

2.

Next, paint the iron parts solid black on both sides.

Finish the door by dry brushing silver paint onto the iron parts of the door. The bars will show up, but the black recesses will stay dark. Try not to dry brush silver onto the wooden parts of the door.

Paint the outside stone of the door separately and then glue the frames onto the doors after they're completely painted.

3.

The colored rune doors are painted the same way. For these I used a bronze color on the iron and painted the diamond stone inserts different colors.

Feel free to paint a rune onto the stone diamond if you like. I found that I liked the solid color better. These doors are from the Game Board Building Instructions page.

Painting Chests and Coin Piles

1.

Start by spray painting the chests flat white. If you use white plaster then you won't have to do this. However, since bare plaster soaks up paint you'll have to work much faster.

Take brown craft or artist's acrylic paint and brush it on the chest. Then take a paper towel and wipe the paint off quickly. The paint will stay darker in the cracks. You may have to reapply the brown paint if it's not dark enough.

2.

For the 3 different types of chests used in the Descent game, I used 3 different colors to stain them. For the copper chests I used a dark muted brown, for the silver chests I used a medium gray and for the gold chests I used a light golden brown.

3.

I painted the trim for each kind of chest in its matching color. Be careful not to let the paint get down into the cracks. The dark cracks outline the edge of the trim.

I also painted numbers on the bottoms of the chests to match the tokens from the Descent game.

4.

Spray paint the coin piles flat white.

Next I painted them using copper paint which made them come out very light copper colored with not much detail.

Finally I brushed brown ink wash over them and wiped off the excess to give the finished look in the last photo. These pieces are from the Game Board Building Instructions page.

Painting Planks and Making Bridges

1.

I'll start by spray painting 30 planks flat white. If you use white plaster then you won't have to do this. However, since bare plaster soaks up paint you'll have to work much faster.

Take brown craft or artist's acrylic paint and brush it on the planks. Then take a paper towel and wipe the paint off quickly. The paint will stay darker in the cracks. You may have to reapply the brown paint if it's not dark enough.

2.

The bridge ropes are made from elastic cord. This is small round stretchy cord you would find in the fabric department at Wal-Mart.

To paint the cord tan, I'm going to dip it in brown ink wash. I poured just enough in a cup to cover the bottom. You can also thin down brown paint but ink wash will put more color into it.

I'm painting about 24" of elastic. Stir it around with a paintbrush handle and make sure all parts are covered. Afterward, wipe it off with a paper towel to dry it. You can pour the extra ink wash back.

3.

Put a drop of glue on the end of the cord and make a loop. Wrap brown thread around the loop to secure it. The glue will spread everywhere and stick the thread down. I'm using Aleene's Tacky glue.

Put loops on both ends and make the ropes a little shorter than the span it will cover. The elastic will stretch to fit.

4.

Snap the elastic cords over the stones.

Put drops of glue on them and glue the planks onto the bridge.

5.

Elastic works nicely because you can remove the bridge later on if you want an uncrossable pit.

For the long bridge, make sure you get both pieces exactly 7" from end of loop to end of loop. This is a little tricky, but if one is longer than the other your bridge will not hang evenly.

Once again, glue the planks onto the ropes in groups of two. This way it's easier to see that moving every 2 planks is the same as moving one inch or one square.

To see what this bridge is for, visit the Game Board Building Instructions page.