Miniature Showcase

Desk and Chair

I’ve written about how powerful set pieces can be in bringing a touch of reality to a game. I love furniture because it is fairly easy to paint, can look really good, can add dimension to a 3D map. This miniature set is a wooden desk and a wooden chair. They can be used in various settings: offices, libraries, and homes.

The miniature looks fairly simple but you can use a bit of paint to bring it to life. The pictures above are of the desk and chair in an unpainted state. With a bit a paint, they will become set pieces for a future game somewhere. Everyone loves cool set pieces that do something like magic circles, torture devices, or whole buildings. Furniture is often overlooked as a useful part of the set building process. When your setting is a simple office or room, it can be harder to find things to send that message across.

I started by painting everything with a base coat of black. When painting wood, I found that black is the best base color to get the best shadows and contrast of wood. If that is too dark, you can always use a dark brown too. For lighter wood, you just use a lighter color for the base. For birch, I would use grey and layer light yellow and white over it. I love darker wood so I started with black for the deepest shadows I could get.

The second step was using some brown to add a heavy dry brush of color over the black. You can already see the contrast that the black causes in the miniature. It is already looking like real wood but I’m not done yet. If I wanted a red, mahogany look, I would add some dark red instead of brown and then a brighter red. I really like how this miniature is built. Depending on what you want, it can look like a basic desk or like a high end piece of furniture.

For the final step in painting wood, I added some light brown and dry brushed a bit onto the furniture. It brightens up the wood a bit while maintaining the shadows in the texture. I did the same for the chair and it really shows the contrast of the wood grain. I could have made this a basic desk but wanted to make it look high end so I decided to add some golden accents to bring out the richness of the wood.

The end result was amazing! I can just imagine some noble or mage sitting there by candlelight. They would be writing a letter or transcribing a spell. When we use it, I will be sure to post a photo of the setting. I’m really happy with the look of the wood grain and the gold on the furniture works well for me. I can’t wait to use this set in the next campaign.

Have any questions or comments? Message below or find me on Twitter @DnDWifeStories and on Instagram @dndwife. I would love to hear from you!