Willmark:
As my avatar would say impressive, most impressive.
This awesome tutorial has been noted…
Nicodemus:
I’ve been SO nervous about spraying the matte finish coat on them and seeing them disintegrate before my eyes (this has happened with some 40K interiors I made) that it’s been almost two weeks since I finished everything.
I can happily report that everything got a finishing coat and there’s not the slightest sign of trouble at all (I’m using Krylon Matte Finish).
FYI: It was nice and warm outside tonight and not too humid so things would dry reasonably quickly. I applied a very thin coat to all the sides of the bases and then a quick thin pass over the tops and into corners, etc. After waiting ~5 mins (the spray can said 10 mins, but I get impatient) I sprayed the sides of the bases again going a little more slowly and then did the same with the tops. After it was looking mostly dry I applied a third coat to the top surface of everything (as it’s going to get some wear).
So there you have it… don’t be shy to use the spray cans, especially if you have put on several base coats and then more paints on top. Of course you always want to test the finish sprays to see how bad they’ll chew things up and then work accordingly. I tested on some scraps of bare foam and I couldn’t see any problems with the Krylon finish. With that on the surface I think it’s pretty safe to move up to stronger clear coats as well if people wanted to.
Next stop is the Chaos Dwarf Objective room and Dungeon rooms :hat off
~N
P.S. One of the things I forgot to mention previously (speaking of being impatient) is that when I’m doing my base coats or any other stage of painting I have a high speed floor fan going. As I finish off applying a coat of paint it goes in front of the fan so that it’s ready ASAP. Just a little trick that helps keep the pace up… especially if anyone else out there decides to base coat every WHQ tile ever made all in one night ;) Be warned though, these foam boards are light and even the big ones will blow away if they’re too close to the fan, tumbling across the floor spreading black base coat with them as they go 
GRNDL:
The trick to insulation foam is to use acrylic house primer or other kind of acrylic paint before painting, ie, as a primer. It seals the styrene and won’t allow the nasty propellants in spray cans to eat at it.
Bassman:
Impressive and… impressed!
I use unsulation foam for basing, like rocks and stuff like that. Me too fear corrosion so I alwas “seal” the foam with vynilic glue. It does the trick for me.
I have to say I do noe make massive scenery like yours, just a few bases for my Dhawi Zharr.
Loki:
Awesome amazing work :o You have got them looking just like the card tiles with the correct lighting and colours but yours are a million times better what with being 3D, Quirrik’s Lab has to be my favourite
Taedae:
I am completely speachless. These 3D boards are completely awesome. You got me wanting to make me own set of them. Great pics also. It all looks so life like.
Nicodemus:
Putting the finishing touches on the project…
Since my squares at 50% larger than the original ones all of the original tiles are too small as well. 
I scanned in all of them at 600DPI and then resized them to 150%, printed them in colour and mounted them on cardstock. I figured this was also a good time to make extra copies of them as well, like the treasure chest, pile of bones, and spiked pits…
Here’s the final version (compare with the image above):
Never mind the unfinished paint jobs on the minis… the tiles just give a sense of what things will look like in-play:
don’t worry about the Wizard, he’s levitating
Because some of the entrances to the dungeon rooms are not at the same height, such as the Fighting Pit, the stairs, or the shaman’s den from the Lair of the Orc Lord expansion, I needed some way of elevating the other dungeon tiles to keep things lined up.
These were recycled from a tower I was building and decided I didn’t like the look of ;) Here’s the start of my circular support columns (some doorway supports are shown on the right as well):
~N
turquois dwarf:
I realy like these rooms! the pillars are a good idea.
could you put the file with the counters on this thread or would there be copywrite/file size problems?
wallacer:
I love this thread. Keep it coming.
Nicodemus:
could you put the file with the counters on this thread or would there be copywrite/file size problems?I'm honestly not sure, but I assume there would be, and I don't want to cause any fuss with being seen as distributing copywritten stuff via the forum.
turquois dwarf
I know there are a few sources for getting your hands on these. The stock answer people give is eBay (which is as unhelpful to type as it is to read). While I would never suggest you do such a thing, and I don't think anyone on the forum would offer assistance in this regard, ... I've been told WHQ is floating around on some of the file sharing networks. Of course the scanned quality isn't likely to be as good as the original and there are often pages missing in such things, so it's no substitute for the original (of which I have 2.5 copies).
One final aside (a little off-topic)... In regards to Games-Workshop and distributing such material... The Sheriff and the Frog, a seller on eBay, has been selling re-printed copies of Warhammer Quest articles from White Dwarf for about 7-8 years now with apparently no ill-effects. He also has high-res scans of some of the expansions and well as some of the more expensive Talisman and HeroQuest expansions, again, the odd one he sells is an original, but more often than not he splits up sets and sells miniatures with re-printed booklets. If you look at some of his auctions you'll see that a lot of his stuff is incomplete, mostly he has reprinted copies of books, rules, cards and tiles, but there will be 1/3'rd or fewer of the minis... and no box. Plus there's no real pics of what you are buying. Plus he'll buy something like the Pit Fighter mini, print the character card, rules, etc, and sell it as complete, but note that there's no box... but he'll still easily get double what he paid to get just the mini. How he manages to sell re-prints of copywritten stuff without being hunted by GW legal dept is beyond me... Oh, and don't buy from him. He charges an arm and a leg for what he offers and tacks on exorbitant handling charges. I've had the hate on for him since 2001. here's a good example of an item selling for $9 which is just a single re-printed card and totally misrepresentative photo. But he still gives himself a personal 9.5/10 rating. I have fantasies of seeing him out and about in Quebec one day and punching him in the chops.
~N
cornixt:
That reminds me of the people who sell something as “Xbox 360” and only partway through the description does it actually say “This is for the box of an Xbox360 only, the Xbox is not included”, so someone pays $200 for a cardboard box because everything else made it look like it was the whole lot.
Bare in mind that he is selling a single card, which is $9 on its own, plus at least $9 in shipping! Ouch. Must be printed on gold or something.
The description of “near mint” is rather amusing too.
clam:
Never had the chance to play this game myself - but I love your passion for this OOP game.
Your 3D tiles are awesome - and there are some very nice hits and advises in here - to be used for terrain building in generel.
Keep up the good work.
Nicodemus:
Forgot to post the finished Sewer tile from White Dwarf:
Here’s a quick & rough example of the support pieces for getting some quick height built up off the table:
(The door is from the boardgame Dark World)
The last thing I’m working on that’s going to be a longer term project are themed Warhammer Quest doorways to go with each Objective Room tile.
Here’s the plan for the Tomb Chamber:
The miniature on either side of the doorway, in case it’s not clear, is a kneeling/praying paladin, from Reaper Miniatures. I’m planning to paint them up as statues…
Some of the older minis from games like Dark World, HeroQuest, and especially Battle Masters have somewhat static poses, but that means they make stellar statues.
Here’s a good example that would make a decent statue, a Halberdier from Battle Masters:
Battle Masters goes for pretty cheap on eBay and has a ton of stuff. I think the Battle Masters Goblin Wolf riders might also be useful for Hobgoblin conversions in a pinch, at least the wolves are usable.
Once I start on my Hobgoblins I’ll see how it goes. The Battle Masters plastic for the green skins (green plastic) and some of the Empire troops like the Crossbowmen (red plastic) is pretty brittle and things have a habit of cracking or snapping where you don’t want them to while you cut (at least mine do), This is in contrast to the grey-coloured Empire Halberdiers that came with that set, which are about the same consistency as the BFSP plastics… Oh, and all of the horses that come with that game could possibly be converted into shorter-legged bull centaurs, although I haven’t tried this!
I believe Vexxus’ Chaos Dwarf Molten Stronghold uses the Battle Masters tower… very nicely done. Battle Masters auctions usually have these towers missing as keeners usually pilfer it for other projects
~N
Kera foehunter:
Wow like the doorway
Taedae:
god i cant wait to get my warhammer quest in the mail. i so want to make this stuff myself also.
turquois dwarf:
those pillars work realy well. the themed door is also very nice. are you using normal games workshop paints for these? it seems a large area to cover with such a small pot
Nicodemus:
those pillars work realy well. the themed door is also very nice. are you using normal games workshop paints for these? it seems a large area to cover with such a small potNo, there's no way I could afford to paint these with GW paints. I use acrylic paints from a craft store. They aren't the cheapest ones, but not the most expensive either. From what I've found the cheap ones have a lot less pigment in them and when you mix a few colours together everything starts to look grey-ish and you lose contrast. With higher pigment you can do a lot more mixing. The GW paints have a lot of pigment in them, which is why colours can still look striking on a small scale.
turquois dwarf
My acrylics cost maybe $30 all together. I got a half-liter bottle of black for $6, and all my other colours were around $1.50-$2.50 for ~60mL. For the entire project (so all of the board sections) I only had to go back and buy one additional bottle, which was another 60mL bottle of white. Oh, and the brand of acrylics I use is "Craft Smart" with I believe is a Michael's store exclusive, but I could be wrong. I also have some "Americana" brand colours for doing lava. Toward the end of the project I picked up a few others from Michael's craft store that were on sale. They are "Apple Barrel" brand acrylics, 60mL of paint for ~$0.75 each... but I'm really not happy with them at all, much less pigment in them and I don't think I'll end up using them again. Even mixing the Apple Barrel white with other colours like green or brown made everything grey.
In general anything that's on the scale of the "dungeon" such as board sections and stairways I use acrylics. Anything smaller than that, including doorways, barrels, weapons, skulls, etc all get painted with GW paints so that the colour and detail is maintained. Painting things on a miniature scale (something the size of a 25mm miniature) with acrylics will just end up looking washed out and dull. In my experience anyway.
~N
turquois dwarf:
I will have to look for these paints. At first I tried using poster paints for terrain! this was a very bad idea because if you tried to hilight something the paint wets the previouse layer and they all blend together to make one couler. i had to paint a tower i undercoated black “white” just to get a dark grey! 
Taedae:
. Oh, and the brand of acrylics I use is "Craft Smart" with I believe is a Michael's store exclusive, but I could be wrong. I also have some "Americana" brand colours for doing lava. Toward the end of the project I picked up a few others from Michael's craft store that were on sale. They are "Apple Barrel" brand acrylics, 60mL of paint for ~$0.75 each... but I'm really not happy with them at all, much less pigment in them and I don't think I'll end up using them again. Even mixing the Apple Barrel white with other colours like green or brown made everything grey.do you like these paints? do you use them on minis also?
NIcodemus
Nicodemus:
I will have to look for these paints. At first I tried using poster paints for terrain! this was a very bad idea because if you tried to hilight something the paint wets the previouse layer and they all blend together to make one couler. i had to paint a tower i undercoated black "white" just to get a dark grey! :)I keep a high speed floor fan propped up next to my dungeon painting area so that each layer dries as fast as possible. This way you can apply the next layer of paint as soon as possible... but you're right - you have to wait for coats to dry before applying successive coats, (especially if you're dry brushing).
turquois dwarf
I paint the black under-coat. Let is dry completely. Apply a second black coat. Let it dry completely. Start with a dark base coat of what ever the main colour is. Let it dry completely. Add the next lighter shade. ... you guessed it, let it dry completely. And keep going until I've painted up to just the high lights.
do you like these paints? do you use them on minis also?I like the paints fine, for terrain... never for minis. I tried painting a few barrels with some of the brown acrylics and there just isn't enough colour to make things stand out.
taedae
For sure go with miniature paints (which ever brand you like) for anything smaller than "terrain/dungeon" scale objects. BTW: I'd considering most war machines miniatures, so I wouldn't use acrylics on them either... but I would consider mixing a tiny volume of acrylic with something like Games Workshop paints for a BIG war machine... if nothing else it makes the better quality GW paints last longer on big projects.
Hope that helps.
~N