Specialty shrooms for Dwarven Forge's Caverns!

Howdy,

Here's a sneak peek of some cavern decor I've been working on lately. Two Mega Mushrooms that will go great with the new Cavern Kickstarter Pieces by Dwarven Forge. More to come soon....

Dwarven Forge Caverns Kickstarter is a go!

Have you been living under a rock in a cavern somewhere? If not, you've probably already heard about Dwarven Forge's latest Kickstarter campaign - Caverns! 

Basic set of painted cavern pieces.

Last year, their first foray into the Kickstarter realm for their new Game Tiles was a great success and so far this one seems to be following right behind.

The sets come in either hand painted or dark gray (for a bit cheaper). There are a lot of stretch goals planned that will make this a super duper deal when it's all said and done. 

Hand Painted basic pieces.

Dark Gray basic pieces.

These are truly fantastic products and are a great value if you're into 3D gaming terrain. If you're considering these, get in now cuz the deal with all the stretch goals only happens during the Kickstarter campaign.

I warned ya so don't come crying to me if you miss out!

Ellus Mann miniature with flickering flame

Here's the latest project I've been working on - painting the Reaper miniature, Ellus Mann. I also replaced the pewter flame in his hand with a flickering light (LED) effect:



The video doesn't show the brightness of the flame flicker very well. It looks better in person.
Here's a still shot:

Ellus Mann, man!

This project took some careful drilling to run the wires from the base (where the battery is located) through the foot to the tiny LED that is embedded in the hand.

Running wires through the figure (the LED isn't wired up yet).

I cut off the top of a Dwarven Forge column piece to mount the figure on and used another slice to hide the battery and flicker circuitry. A tiny switch is installed at the back of the base to turn the flame LED on and off.

Primed mini showing the battery and flicker circuity in the bottom part of the base.

The flame is made out of clear silicone caulking and painted orange, yellow, and red.

Painted and showing the bottom.

Hope you like it. Please leave a comment below. Thanks for looking!

I've got a crush you...

Deep within the forbidden corners of The Dungeon Workshop, here's my latest Dwarven Forge conversion project. Looks like a secret door..... or is it?





Below is a short video showing the inner workings followed by some pictures with descriptions:



For this project, I attached a modified Swinging Log Trap piece (with the top sections cut off) to the middle section of a standard "T" corridor piece using pins and glue. This was to extend the length of the hallway that will house the motor, gears, and electronics.

Section showing the pins before it's attached to the main corridor. This was actually a Swinging Log Trap
piece before I cut the top sections cut off and covered the holes with putty. Sorry for the crappy photo...

The extension piece (shown above) was glued to the main corridor section.
 The white putty still needs to be painted.

Next, I took a standard Dwarven Forge secret door piece and carefully cut the floor section off, leaving only the wall frame and secret door. The wall frame was inserted in the opening of the main corridor then glued in place. Putty was added in the gaps then shaped and painted to match the surrounding wall. I made a false backing piece to put behind the opening so that the hardware can't be seen when the trap wall is extended.

Using some scrap pieces of Dwarven Forge from a previous project, I constructed a long, straight piece and attached it to the back of the secret door. This "arm" piece is what pushes the wall out and back.

Close-up of the corridor with the frame of the secret door opening installed in the "T" section of the main corridor.

Same piece, but with the secret wall installed - ready to be UNLEASHED!
Mwa-ha-ha!

Same piece again showing the wall partially extended with the pushing "arm" behind it.

Now to get that wall extension thingie electronicized (my new word)!! Inside the extended corridor section, I glued down a small, flat Lego plate on which a Lego motor was mounted. The motor is controlled by a motor driver circuit that turns a worm gear to extend the DF "arm" which, therefore, extends the secret wall.

The Lego motor (inside the DF piece) with the worm gear attached. The motor
driver circuit is also shown with some wires attached.

When the worm gear spins, it moves the "arm" back and forth. I glued a magnet on the "arm" so that when it moves near a small reed switch, the switch closes and the motor reverses direction causing the wall to move back to the original "start" position.

There's a pushbutton switch mounted on the back to trigger the whole mechanism. A slide switch lets the DM control how far the wall travels outward before retuning (either full extension or half way to avoid hitting any miniatures in its path).

View of the inside before the motor is installed. The circuitry is mounted inside
 on the left wall and the wires to the reed switches can be seen on the right.

To hide the hardware and electronics, I constructed a lid and back end piece out of resin and painted them to look similar to typical Dwarven Forge passage pieces (or at least as best I could!).

Top cover to hide the hardware stuff (before being painted).

Back end cover showing a pushbutton switch to trigger the trap (top right), a slide switch to choose how far
the wall extends into the corridor (bottom right), and a plug for the power (bottom left).

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Stay tuned. I'm close to finishing a few more projects so there'll be more stuff coming soon.