Dungeon section - Step by step

Versión en español

The basic materials used in this tutorial are:

• Foamboard of different thicknesses
• MDF
• PVA
• Putty

The first step consist on designing the sections, preferably using a complex design program... like Paint. My first sections will be:

An intersection or junction of corridors.

  

A long corridor and two interconnected rooms.

Lets start working. Chose the standard size for your tiles and cut the the areas for the room floors or corridors on the foamboard. On each "floor", remove one of the cardboard sides of the foamboard, leaving the foam on air on that side, and mark the tiles on it with a pen. What I did was draw a large grid on the plate of foamboard and then cut out the pieces (the corridor looks more irregular because it's made of leftover pieces). Once we have it ready, stick it on the MDF base. Notice that the corridor´s end extends to the edge of the base, so it will match the beginning of the next section.

Mark the separation between tiles using a thin object (a rule or a little sharp knife). I used a modeling knife to make the detailed cracks and broken tiles.

 Once finished, give a coat (better two) of very diluted PVA to harden the foam.
 

To make the walls I also used the foamboard (of different thicknesses) and cut strips with a predetermined heigh (the height of our dungeon ). Stick the strips to the MDF base with PVA and fill any gap with more foamboard.

You can remove the cardboard side of the foamboard and draw stone reliefs on the wall (as with tiles), but as it would be too much work for me, I decided to use a stone effect sheet on the corridor walls, and thus give some uniformity to the dungeon. The remaining walls is just the foamboard .

Finally we can use some putty to cover the top of the walls, where the cutting of the foamboard can be seen. Iuse a mixture of clay and plumber putty.

Time to add the doors, but I leave that for another tutorial... So there is only paint left, but before doing so it is a good idea to give a coat of diluted PVA to the walls. I used the following technique, similar to that used with rocks:

1. Paint the base color. For example, Basalt gray in the corridor.
2. Make two washes with very dilute black and brown paint.
3. Dry brush  the base color.
4. Another dry brush with a lighter collor (Stone gray).
5. Paint the "not visible zones" in black.

I hope you enjoy it and I encourage you to make your own dungeons, boards or whatever!

Nos vemos!