In the Dark, Dark House...

And so, the oft promised Super Dungeon Explore fully painted Von DrakK Manor set update!
This is a long post with a lot of pictures, but it has been so long delayed (mostly Dark Souls 2's fault, From Software are clearly insensitive to my plight) so I just did it in one big hit...

Let me start off by saying that I LOVE Super Dungeon Explore. Really love it. It is a Chibi (Japanese super deformed) style dungeon crawler (read: modern tactical miniatures game set in a dungeon - old school dungeon crawlers are long dead) and it pays homage to the old 8bit dungeon adventure games such as Zelda, Gaunlet and the like. You beat up monsters and destroy their spawn points all the while collecting loot until the dungeon boss spawns - kill him/her/it and you win. Brilliant.

Anyway, on with the miniatures:

Von Drakk Manor is a set based around a spoo
ky house ruled over by a Vampire (Von Drakk himself). It contains 2 spawn points of monsters, the bosses and the heroes.
It was quite a change of pace to paint Chibi miniatures (from my usual SAGA/Warhammer style). I had to make them look more 'cartoon' than usual and this meant a bright palette and highlights that were several shades lighter than the base colours (rather than gradual/more minimal highlights/shades).
Also, as they are a softer plastic and will be extensively handled, I gave them a full coat of gloss varnish (2 coats on the bits that stick out) and them also sprayed them matt varnish to dull the gloss and provide even more protection. The paint job was made to last.
The colour scheme on some of these miniatures where inspired either by the game art, my own imagination, or miniatures I have seen on my interwebz travels (cannot credit specifics because I cannot remember, sorry).

The first spawn point is the Shallow Grave spawn, based around skeletons and necromancers. I tried to tie them all together with a green/purple with white bone colour palette.

These are the shallow grave spawn points. They typify the colour palette I used here with the green glowing crystal and the purple candle. I tried to show the crystal was glowing in the cracks of the grave.

The Rattle-Bones were the first models I painted from the set (as they were the easiest). I would normally shade bone deeper than this but on these models it looked odd, so I went with a simple 2 tone grey-white bone. Purple trousers and green eyes tie them in to the set.

 The Boneheads were mostly armour and it took me several attempts to get the armour to the way i wanted it and I am still not totally happy. I tried to make it rusty but then realised I had slipped into 'normal' paint mode and not clean cartoon. But I never felt like totally repainting and so some of the 'rust' colour shows through. I think they are ok, but the model are not that great to paint, to be honest.

 The fully armoured Dread Knights came out a little better. I agonised over how to do the swords; they do cold damage but blue was not part of the palette. In the end the blue looked good and I needed to use blue on the Dust Mages anyway.

 The Dust Mages would have been too much purple if I had painted their robes purple (and green would not have looked right), so I decided on blue. Originally I intended red like Mickey Mouse in the Sorcerer's Apprentice, which would have been awesome, but the red really did not fit the set at all.

The final miniature in the Shallow Grave set is the Dust Coven Necromancer (who I am pretty sure is female...). I wanted to use quite a subdued colour scheme on her and the purple contrasted well with her blue/grey skin. I think she came out well.
Why did I not give the skull green eyes? I thought about it but decided it would shift the focal point of the model too much.

Next is the Pumpkin Patch spawn point. This set is focused around the witches and their magic.
This set mostly carried on the purple/green colour scheme, though in a lesser manner.

The Witches are the focal point of the set and, atypically for these monsters, are also 'cutesy' in style. In the game, they have a one-shot potion to turn characters into toads and you need to keep track of when they used it; to help this I painted them with different coloured hair. I really like these models and I am also quite proud of the way they came out; they were my first attempt at painting anime style miniatures.

One thing that annoyed me about these miniatures is that they actually sculpted detail into the eyes rather than giving us a blank canvas. No idea why they thought this was a good idea...

I noticed, when I photographed these miniatures, I had not done red heads base... ooops. It is now done.

 The actual pumpkin spawn point. The tree is fairly basic as the pumpkin is the focal point and it turned out quite a nice colour.

 The Crypt Spider. This model I painted last of this little group and I struggled to get the green/purple colour on the model. In the end I opted for nice bright colours and I really like how it turned out, one of my favourite models I painted. Also, I don't think it looks out of place, either. I kept the scenery on the base a simple grey stone to further make those bright colours pop.

 Here are the 'toads' that the witches turn the players into (they look like frogs to me...). I just used a simple colour scheme on these and painted the eyes different so you can tell which player is which when in frog... erm... toad form.

 Finally, these are the Skullbats. I painted these first in this set and kept with the green/purple/white bone colour scheme. they are simple, but effective.
Looking at them again, I am not totally sure why I painted the plaster on their head blue. Not sure what other colour I could have used, though...

Meet the Death Spectre, the mini-boss of the set. I really like this miniature and think it turned out pretty good. However, I caused myself no end of problems trying to paint the yellow detail on the black hood. I think it looks good, don't get me wrong, but it was not easy.
I filled in the eye pupil on the reverse side of the scythe because I wanted it to be more of an actual eyeball that swivels around. I also carried the green colour on up through the gaps in this bones to make it look like the smoke was part of him rather than him just riding on it.

 Here is Von Drakk himself. I liked painting this miniature, it is nicely posed with some good features (like his sword). I painted his skin a palid colour and did his eyes simple and cold; it suits him rather than 'anime' eyes, I think. I painted him red simply because that was the colour of my Warhammer Vampires. He does have some purple on him to tie him in a little, though.

Nocturne. This is the creature that Von Drakk can shapeshift into; a giant were-bat thing. Very cool.
I struggled with his colour scheme and, in the end, I just followed the game art (as I did for all the heroes, too). I think his simple colour scheme turned out pretty well and his red eyes and his red crystal amulet contrast well with his skin tone.

Next up are the Heroes, which required a different style compared to the monsters and they took me a fair while to complete; not in terms of pure man hours, I paint fast, but in terms of CBA attitude because, frankly, I did not really enjoy painting the heroes.

Here is the Sister of Light, essentially a cleric. As I stated, I followed the game art for colour scheme and I think the blue came out quite nice; a contrast to her golden hair and white tabbard.
Her eyes make her look exceedingly happy, but she is quite happy on her art too so that is ok.

The Celestial Herald is an angel and I painted her in pastel colours to give her an other-world appearance. I did not think her wing feathers would have looked right shaded grey, so I picked blue to add to her overall aesthetic. I think it came out ok, but was certainly a learning experience.

Van Helsing... erm, sorry, Van Wilding has quite subdued colour palette in the game art. I added more colour by painting his cloak yellow (it looks brown in the art). I painted him last because I really did not want to paint him but, in the end, he was the more enjoyable hero to paint and I like how he turned out.
Van Wilding shapeshifts into...

...Van Wilder, the werewolf. Again, I followed the art but I always thought it strange how a guy dressed mostly in brown shifts into a purple werewolf... I actually like the colours on this model and I think the yellow eyes contrast well.

And there you have it, the Super Dungeon Explore: Von Drakk Manor set in all its painted glory. Its been a challenge but I am happy that I did it.

Oh, these models are now for sale. If you are interested then email me:
anthony dot dybacz at ntlworld dot com

See you in the next update!