Tomb Thursday P40: Hired Hands

Greetings, fellow sand diggers! We’ve got a fun spin on a free 3D-print download and a slick piece of scatter terrain to complete the tomb vibe. Let’s get our hands dirty!

Today’s DnD miniatures are a bit on the smaller side, so DM Ben was pretty apprehensive about painting them. However, these are the core worker bees of the Tomb minis hierarchy, so they’re showing a bit more skin, which puts his nerves at a little more ease. Still, this was a lip-biter of a paint project if he ever saw one.

Anyone who watches all those old epic Egyptian movies like The Ten Commandments (1956), Cleopatra (1963), and The Mummy (1999) will remember these classic dudes wearing only a simple white cloth. Not a lot of air conditioning in those tombs, right? Some of ’em were called Plebs, and the body-prep mortuary priests were called “servants of the ka.” So, it’s only natural to represent these poor guys in our Beneath the Sands series.

Besides all those amazing movies, our inspiration comes from a random scroll of mz4250’s absolutely insane Patreon library. Like, you could scroll for days on end and easily find some fresh STLs to 3D print for your DnD game. That’s how we found this amazing Corpse Thief, which was yet another free download. This desert-style STL has some super-creepy features, but we think he’s perfect for filling our Tomb servant role.

DM Ben employed some batch-painting tactics here because we’ll certainly need a mitful of these meager dudes to cover a host of different DnD encounters. The miniature is on the smaller side, but there’s plenty of skin and just a few simple design elements, so he thought he would give ’em the ol’ college try.

• Prime Flat White.
• Skin P1: Layer on FAN Barbarian Flesh.
• Skin P2: FAN Soft Tone Wash.
• Necklace: GSW Tropical Turquoise.
• Cloth: ASP Holy White.
• Nails: WAR Matt White.

We decided to go with a grey-ish Holy White Speedpaint rather than a bright white because these dudes are working in some pretty dirty environments. Still, DM Ben might go back and do a little white edging on the cloth so it’s a little lighter overall. He also went a little too crazy on the long white fingernails, so he’ll probably tone down that effect a little more.

We took some wisdom from Miniature Hobbyist and decided not to paint the eyes and Joker-style mouth because it could do more harm than good. They look solid just the way they are, and those facial features are still easily visible.

Longtime 3DRPGers probably remember our no-waste-whenever-possible motto. If a 3D print comes out poorly or snaps a limb while removing the supports, we’ll still save that print. Then we’ll initially test our planned color scheme on that one first, just in case our picks aren’t what we’re hoping for.

Today’s miniature (on the left) is a great example, as we inadvertently snapped off this poor guy’s arm and initially tried ASP Crusader Skin, followed by a WAR Flesh Wash. That color attempt came off way too dark and dingy. We went back over it by dabbing it with the lighter FAN Barbarian Flesh, and that is starting to grow on us. So, our one-armed guy makes the final cut, and we’ll just say there was a fallen stone incident. 😉

Next, we have this sa-weet Pontiff’s Lectern by JLuna 3D. This was another free download (although tips are encouraged). The artist rendering immediately caught our eye, but we were wondering how this one might look post-print. We love it!

DM Ben was super comfortable painting this one as he’s really gotten the hang of stone lately. Let’s review the simple steps he used here.

• Prime Flat Black | Slapchop.
• Stone Base: ASP Gravelord Grey.
• Stone Middle: ASP Runic Grey + White Drybrush.
• Book: ASP Pallid Bone + White Drybrush.
• Candle: WAR Mummy Robes + ASP Zealot Yellow.

Frickin’ fantastic, right?! You can almost hear a Servant of the Ka reading from the good book as they prepare the next body for burial.

Until next time!