Miniature Monday – Stone Lurker
This week’s mini is a classic, a very weird monster from early editions of D&D, where it is called a “Roper”, a dungeon creature using its long tentacles to bother adventurers.
This time we have quite a lot of enties, obviously this strange monster caught veryone’s attention. Or was it fond memories of long-ago RPG sessions? 😀
(Posting by Antonia)
As for our state of mind (and life), we spent most of the evening yesterday on a baby care crash course. Although it took several hours, it showed us that caring for a newborn is not really rocket science, if you have read some books and know some tricks – which was very reassuring, fortunately.
Unfortunately the course didn’t include miniature painting, therefore our Stone Lurkers aren’t as elaborately painted as yours, but here we go:
Dirk’s Lurker goes the “dungeon monster” way with a greyis-brown body and contrasting purple tentacles:
This is still the WIP, we maybe can manage to update later. Dirk said he’ll do another layer of grey because the color looks still a bit too brown to him (although of course stone can be brown too. It’s just a mini painter’s convention to make every stone grey, easy to recognize, but since Dirk a geologist he should be allowed to differ 😀 )
I decided to paint the Lurker as a kind of jungle creature to use in one of our ongoing RPG campaigns:
I used different shades of brown and green because I thought the creature would try to blend in like a tree, swiping and gripping animals and adventurers alike. Since we (again) hadn’t that much time I used wet blending, a wash and a drybrush before I called it a day, but together with the flocked base it turned out okay, I’d say.
Arjen sent us a “classic Roper”:
Since I never checked the monster manual for my lurker I can’t tell if this is the classic color scheme, but it looks great anyway. Nice work with the dark spots on the tentacle tips, that adds a lot of detail. The combination of the pale grey and the red mouth even gives me a “zombie” feeling on this 😉 I wonder if these strange creatures can turn undead?
Jim also chose a take on the D&D roper, which he said is one of his favourite monsters of the early D&D era, esp. because it so strange and completely made up with no mythical background:
He said he had quite fun painting the model and taking pics, and I think it shows! The edges are nicely highlighted, and I really like the eye on this beast. I can imagine to wander through dark tunnels and have this critter waiting around the corner. Creepy!
John S. painted a wonderfully strange Lurker in purple and grey:
The color scheme in combination with the red eye and the added crystal gives the awesome impression of some horrible alien creature – well done! Did you have some sort of inspiration for this, some movie or book?
Kylie fiddled with a color scheme and surface effects alike:
The effect is very impressive: I love the contrast between the stone surface of the main body and the slimy green of the tentacles! Would you mind to share how you achieved the gloss, was it varnish or some glue, like some people use it? You wrote you’d liked the slime a bit more runny, perhaps someone has an idea on that 😀
This week’s gallery:
Soon we’ll have our announced break, since we can’t say how care intensive our baby will be. But of course Miniature Monday will resume again, so we are already thinking about what to paint next.
Do you have ideas? Wishes? Which mini from the Bones II core set (or perhaps Add-ons too) would you like to show? Are you interested in monsters, characters, undead?
Yours, Antonia
Coming Next:
10/31/16 Kar Drakir, Reptile Warrior (Core Set)
A dragon humanoid and quite detailed mini where you can paint a lot of things: Scales, armour, weapons, clothes and a veeery tiny head 😉
Want to participate in next week’s post? Email the pictures of your minis until 10/30/16 to
11/07/16 TBA – maybe Baby break
11/14/16 TBA – maybe Baby break
11/21/16 TBA – maybe Baby break
Caffeineforge 
Some excellent results today!
I thought the mini was a bit too smooth looking, so I tried to make it look rougher with spots and washes. I like how Kylie got an even better roughness by using what looks like five shades of grey (any special technique you used for that effect?). My favourite this time is John’s electrifying underdark/space version which combines rough and gritty with flashy and shiny: very original and well executed. I like Dirk’s base as well, show us when it’s painted.
Some really amazing and unique takes on this monster 🙂 Awesome work everyone!
@ Arjen on stone effects
I didnt really do anything special for the stone, I based it in black and then dry brushed 3 different layers of grey. Starting with the darkest to the lightest. Each layer I was lighter with the brush to let the shades beneath show through. Its probably where different shades overlap differently that causes it to look like more than 3 greys.
I use reaper paints & the greys I use are 09088: Stormy Grey; 09038: Rainy Grey & 09090: Misty Grey.
As for the tentacles, I painted them with a wet blend to be dark green to light green before applying the “goo”. I actually did some experiments this week to figure out how to do it. I used a gloss sealer medium called ‘Modge Podge” (its what I have used for water on my bases in the past) – its water based so it mixes with paint well. To keep the transparency, my tests showed washes worked best but I didnt have a wash in the right colour. I mixed flow improver with the paint colour I liked and then mixed it with the Modge Podge. You dont need to mix much of the wash with it.
I applied it to the tentacles but I didnt cover them properly as I didnt want to totally cover the shading underneath. Once that coat was dry I cover all of the tentacles completely with another coat of the Modge Podge only this time I kept it clear.
What I love about Modge Podge is that you can just paint it on thin like a normal sealant but you can also apply it thick to give texture etc.
Hope this helps people 🙂
Lot’s of good stuff this week! I’ve never seen so many ropers or storopers in one place.
I really like John’s ultraviolet/black light lurker. It truly captures the subterranean effect and combines it with a good dose of eerie.
Kylie’s slimy tentacles came out very icky. Spot on. I should go back and add some veins to my eye.
If (when) Dirk is able to finish, I definitely want to see it, so please update.
I don’t know if anyone else remembers, but there used to be a monster similar to the roper/storoper called a kampfult. I think Antonia nailed it! Even though Arjen’s works well as stone, it also reminds me of a birch or aspen tree. Sort of a dual use mini.
One option I was hoping someone might try was an ice version. I didn’t want to tackle that but the mini would work great for it.
I think what really makes this mini effective is that big creepy eye. Everyone had a good, but different take on the eye. Very cool! I just wish my pic showed the contrast between the matte body and the super glossy eye a little better.