Dungeon Depths Set

A palette put together for a damp underground

Eight bottles of the Game Color range are held together by a single scene. Cellars, catacombs and collapsed passages, where exposed bone, weathered masonry and the rusty stains left by somebody who passed through earlier all meet. The selection is put together so that one box is enough for the figure of an adventurer and for the base beneath it alike.

The shades and their roles

A bone white and the gray tone of a stone wall make up the light side of the palette, and a dark blue-gray adds a cool shading to them. A saturated brown covers leather, wood and packed earth. The pair of red tones distinguishes fresh from dried blood, and it is that difference the credibility of the whole scene rests on. The set is closed by two glazes, a sepia and a black. The light and the dark component are chosen so that room is left between them for one intermediate step mixed straight on the palette.

Practical notes for a build

• Apply a glaze only over a perfectly dry opaque coat, as otherwise the base beneath will bleed.
• The bone shade works better if it is merely suggested on the edges and projections in the last step.
• Dried blood belongs in the hollows and the gaps, while fresh blood goes on the raised surfaces.
• Bring the gray wall to life with irregular patches of damp, as a uniform area looks like a backdrop.

The cool gray-blue shadows also suit use outside fantasy. They work everywhere a scene is meant to give a cellar-like, unventilated impression, that is on bunkers, sewers and on the rubble of a wrecked building. The blue-gray also serves as a good starting tone for metal that is meant to look cold rather than polished.