15mm Dungeon: Bones and Boulders

 

Continuing on the theme of working on ‘plot points’ or encounter pieces for the dungeon crawl, I’ve been making use of the excellent ‘Dem Bones’ skeletal set from Alternative Armies in the UK:

https://www.alternative-armies.com/products/hot111-dem-bones-15mm-fantasy-scenics

Available from their extensive and varied 15mm ranges, the set contains some useful skull piles and other skeletal remains - de rigeur as decoration for any self-respecting dungeon ! - you’ll note that one of the prone skeletons (co-incidentally the largest body) has been sliced amidships - all part of  my cunning plan.

So - I started with the following sanded and crumbled blue foam offcuts:

 Only to put them all together for the following:

The skeleton has been ‘stretched’ by the aforementioned cut, enabling a more impressive squashing by the falling rocks - a natural tunnel collapse, perhaps - or maybe the hapless victim fell into a dastardly trap ?

In any event, the adventure party might have to discover something about the tragic event, loot the body of an important item, or perhaps the skeleton will revive and attack them ?

The base is some more scrap plastic card, and the collapsed earth some old flocking gel, suitably stained brown - I’ll probably want to finesse the form with a few more loose rocks, scrubby vegetation, etc, and look to add an aforementioned item of import - perhaps a magic weapon, or a piece of treasure ?

I had great fun putting this simple piece together, just with what were some left-over scraps, but topped off in style, I think, by the skeletal remains !

Next up, I have been working on an evil altar - somewhere as a focus for unpleasant goings-on, or where the party might encounter a big bad guy, up to no good:

Another scrap of foam serves as the altar top, pin inscribed with some dark symbology, and either side of the base, a gruesome pile of the skulls of the previously sacrificed…..

A skeleton from the same set fits nicely on top, if required:

I finished this off with a fire bowl from the Crom’s Anvil range at CP models, with an attempt at an unnatural green-glowing flame (Hum, maybe a bit more pistachio ice cream swirl than spooky fire…oh well…)

https://cpmodels.co.uk/shop/cas1501-fire-bowls/

The circular base has some eldritch zodiac style signs/sigils painted on, but the silvering doesn’t show up too well in the photos - or perhaps only those with a magical ability can divine them clearly and gain knowledge for the party……?

Next up, I’ll be taking the plunge with some monstrous dungeon denizens, and looking at what miniatures I plan on using to produce the various factions and adventurers - so stay tuned !