DaveT - still have some Dwarves to paint before Balin can do his expedition and waiting for GW to restock Grim Hammers (they seem to have a different interpretation of temporary than I do).

Love the Wile E. Coyote reference

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

That extra touch of gray really worked well to bring the stone look back to the rocks. Hopefully the restock the grim hammers soon. Makes me wonder how long I could have been waiting for the Master and Alfrid to get restocked had you not sent me them! Also, I think I see a style of tuft that I recognize on those rocks. If that is something I sent you, then I'm really pleased to see them getting used

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You can find me at: https://KuribosPainting.com/ and on Instagram @kuribospainting.

For DaveT



did a quick platform for inside, walls of shaper sheet I had done before for the inside of Moria

Wile will have to run further now before running into the fake wall.

Kuribo - yes, those are your tuffs!

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

Aces!

Yes, I decided to take the plunge and redo my East Gate of Moria

As it is going to be part of a game board, I wanted something more dramatic (?). I looked for some Dwarven Statues to replace my chess pieces statues I currently used.

Current Gate.



Looked at thormillion statues.



Then I saw these on Reddit



Made with a 3d printer from a company in the UK. https://www.whitefoot3dshop.com/

More expensive than what I usually spend but I liked the scale, thought they would make a statement on the board. He sold them with a gate but I asked if he could just sell the statues and the plinths. He accommodated and I ordered them. I'll put more particulars under the Suppliers Forum.

Built a new gate frame to see how I wanted to use them. Sorry for the whiteness, only had a piece of white cardboard big enough to put behind.

With the plinths on top of the gate platform



Plinths to be at the same level as the gate platform



My wife thinks with the plinths on top of the platform the statues are too tall, will make a platform and stairs that will fit between the plinths or I might just use the statues without the plinths on top of a platform.

So it begins.

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

I actually liked the chessmen, but, yeah, the Whitefoot models are more dramatic. (Thanks for the pointer, btw). I'm looking forward to seeing how the reworking goes, and hope it see it in action sometime!

Wow those statues are mighty, I actually like them on top of the platforms it looks very imposing.

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DaveT, I like the chessmen also, just feel I've used them too much. That said, I probably will use them on the board elsewhere. Either at the entrance to Durin's Stone or as Tylus mentioned, another place on the board for the dwarves, maybe a glade.





Mr Gimli, imposing is what I was going for!

Looking at my existing gate, filled in the mountain down to the gate itself, don't know why I didn't do it before



Did some work on the statues this week, used a x-acto to shave down some prominent print lines, did several layers of gesso to smooth the whole statue down.

Need better weather to prime them.

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

There's no doubt that the scale of the 3D printed statues is more in line with this terrain piece. Personally, I like that they're armored too as I feel like that is what the dwarves would make to "guard" the entrance of their kingdom. The smaller statues are perfect as "memorial" statues to some of the dwarven kings of old I'd say and it seems like you're already thinking something similar I am excited to see those statues weathered up like the stones (unless you're for a brass or bronze finish). Adding a moss effect like the stones have will really make them look nice I think.

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You can find me at: https://KuribosPainting.com/ and on Instagram @kuribospainting.

Old East Gate on left, new one on right. Went big.



Just on it's own base for now, still figuring out how big of a platform. Added depth to this, farther to go before running into the Wile E. Coyote wall.





Nain confronting Azog with his mattock



Young Dain avenging his father's death



Dwarf king converted to Nain with the addition of a mattock head, original axe head went to dwarf captain to make him a Khazad Guard captain, that axe head when to young Dain (Gimli head, grim hammer body)

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

That new gate was well worth putting the time into. Now that is a gate worthy of Durin himself! I look forward to seeing it all painted up and among the other terrain you've completed. The conversions don't look too shabby either

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You can find me at: https://KuribosPainting.com/ and on Instagram @kuribospainting.

Had some nice weather to sit outside and do some dry bushing. Thought I would do something different with the statues, usually I start out dark and then go grey, wash, grey, white.

Did a base color of sand, then light dry brushes of grey, then white. Kinda of a wind worn look I think. Still need to do some selective washes in the recesses, etc but I'm rather hesitant as I like the look now.

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

That is a nice and clean-looking statue! I'd definitely encourage you to add some shade in there if you can. Keeping the wash thin with water or Lahmia Medium should help you build it up/decide how far you want to go.

This won't surprise you but I like a bit more contrast and I can share what I do. My method for painting something rocky is to start with a medium or dark gray so either Dawnstone, Mechanicus Gray, or Eshin Gray, and then highlight in "layers" of drybrushing and I'll go lighter and lighter with each color so Dawnstone > Administratum Gray > Ulthuan Gray > White Scar. You don't even need to clean off your drybrush in between those as the colors mix on the bristles and make it look pretty smooth. I don't know if that info is of any use to you but I thought I'd share and you can do with it, what you will

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You can find me at: https://KuribosPainting.com/ and on Instagram @kuribospainting.

Yup, the statue is too clean, just haven't had the time to "dirty" it up. Appreciate you sharing your layering scheme, most of the time my terrain projects are too large to use gw paints and I use craft paints instead, with the associated lack of finesse. I really need to look into lahmia medium, do you use gw's or a brand from a craft/artist supply store?

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

I always forget that the more widely accepted practice is to use cheaper craft paints, I'm a maniac and use GW paints for everything, probably because I'm comfortable with them and I'm a creature of habit! I use GW's product for medium but I would encourage you to match the brand of medium with the paint you're using. If I used Vallejo, I'd get Vallejo's medium as I would expect that they are formulated to work together. You can use water to thin paint too but I think medium delivers superior results, especially with washes.

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You can find me at: https://KuribosPainting.com/ and on Instagram @kuribospainting.

Haven't had much progress on this as I would like as I need to work on this outside my hobby space, so either on the workbench or outside.

Mountain face with plaster molds of rocks, still need to do the right outside and the facing walls next to the gate before I can fill in gaps, hide lines,etc.



With the gate and statues placed.



Still haven't figures out the terrain/slope/road etc.

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

Its great to see some progress on this. The scale of it is pretty epic looking! I really like the look of those statues. They look imposing and very dwarven to me. Looking forward to seeing more as you have the inspiration to work on it!

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You can find me at: https://KuribosPainting.com/ and on Instagram @kuribospainting.

Sealed the plaster of paris walls with gesso, did a light wash to show details better. Dwarf Kings on steps for reference

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

Had time with the weather being nice and no chores to work on this. Fairly happy with the color of the mountain side itself, added some wash to the statues to help define the features, still have a lot of work to do.

At the end of the table, mountain side cut at the top to fit under window sill, and below the light switch.



the lookout area at the top left



having a discussion with my wife on the colors, she thinks the mountain side needs to be more grey to blend with the gate more (as it was carved out of the mountain), I say I like it being different so it stands out better. My thinking is that under the top part of the rocks, it would be more grey underneath. Another thought is to color the gate to match the mountain side by making it more brown.



Any thoughts?

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

I think you ought to do it the way you like, not like how we (or even your wife, with all due respect) think.

I don't especially mind the contrast, but if you want to tone it down a bit maybe a light wash of brown on the grey wouldn't go amiss.