Rumour claims that in the caves, beyond the goblin infestation and the sticky strands of the drider’s lair, lies a fabled treasure horde and crystals of a mysterious nature. Only there, in the Deep Mines, will all answers be revealed.

The Deep Mines themed room in Dungeons and Lasers: Caves is a real eye-catching one. The focal points are, of course, the crystals, along with the enclaves which form a huge treasure pile. There are 4 sprues (plus connectors) in the set, which are all identical, meaning you get 2 of the treasure piles, although they’re pretty big so I can only see me using one. Given a different paint job, perhaps one could double as an objective in Age of Sigmar or a similar game. As I mentioned in the last blog, availability isn’t too widespread for this set, but at the time of writing, they’re up for preorder from Wayland Games.

These take a fair bit longer to paint than the walls in the core set because of all the extra detail and different colours. I chose to vary the colours of the crystals but I think it would still look great all in one colour. Here’s how I tackled it.

The rocks use the same process I used for the core set – quick and easy. Most of the effort is then on the details.

Crystals

I used a simple base coat, wash, drybrush method on the crystals. Nothing exciting here. Then I added a couple of steps to make them pop a bit more. First are reflections. These are just thin lines and extreme highlights at the sharpest points. Nothing fancy here – provided there’s a good point on your brush and the paint is flowing well, they’re just quick little lines. After the usual Colour Forge Matt Varnish spray when all the painting is done, I brushed on some Vallejo Gloss Varnish just on the crystals. That helped them stand out a bit more from what’s around them with a solid shine. Recipes for each crystal type are here:

Yellow
Base coat: GW Averland Sunset
Wash: GW Cassandora Yellow
Highlight: GW Yriel Yellow
Reflections: Vallejo White

Blue
Base coat: GW Sotek Green
Wash: GW Drakenhof Nightshade
Highlight: GW Temple Guard Blue
Reflections: Vallejo White

Green
Base coat: Two Thin Coats Emerald Green (pretty much matches GW Warpstone Glow but I find this has better coverage)
Wash: GW Coelia Greenshade
Highlight: GW Moot Green
Reflections: Vallejo Yellow Green

Red
Base coat: GW Mephiston Red
Wash: GW Carroburg Crimson
Highlight: GW Evil Sunz Scarlet
Reflections: GW Wild Rider Red

Purple
Base coat: GW Naggaroth Night
Wash: GW Druchii Violet
Highlight: GW Xereus Purple
Reflections: GW Emperor’s Children

Mushrooms and Wood

One thing I’ve always liked about fantasy subterranean settings is the glowing mushrooms. I scattered a few more ordinary off-white mushrooms around the set (just Vallejo Deck Tan and GW Agrax Earthshade) but mostly went with glowing ones. These are super easy to do. Just base coat with white then thin down some GW Temple Guard Blue with about 90% water, and slap it on those mushrooms. Job done.

The wooden frames dotted around some of the walls and floors are just a base coat of Two Thin Coats Cuirass Leather, washed with GW Agrax Earthshade, then drybrushed with GW Mournfang Brown and GW Baneblade Brown. The Dirty Down Moss Effect I usually use doesn’t show up too much on such dark wood, but I put some on anyway.

That’s about all there is to the Deep Mines themed room. It looks great when finished, but I admit to having some fatigue by the time I got to the last sprue. Perhaps it’s worth painting some other bits in-between sprues to keep things fresh. I’ll probably get back to my Bretonnians project for a bit before returning to this blog series with either the goblin or spidery themed room.

I’d like to see how others are approaching this set. Do let me know in the comments if you’ve painted some yourself or have thoughts on what I’ve done so far.

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