Soothsayer workplace v.2

https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/18/18271.phtml

Introduction: Tiny Furniture's Soothsayer Workplace is a multi-piece resin set of a fortune teller's table, two chairs, and globe on its own stand. The table has various fortune-telling props molded into the miniature: tarot (or other fortune-telling) cards, a plate with a pentagram, a bottle, an ornate cup, a wooden palm reader's hand (not necessarily palm reading nor even wooden!), a plate with a pentagram, a human skull with melted candle, a bird skull, and even a voodoo doll. The chairs are made of two resin pieces, and are decorated with fortune-telling symbols. The globe and its stand are a single piece.

The detail, like other Tiny Furniture miniatures, is incredible and highly atmospheric. The sun and moon symbols on the chairs even contribute to the set. I would say that this set is best suited for intermediate to advanced painters. The items molded onto the table are quite distinct enough to demand contrast, but still small, requiring good control. The cards and optionally other pieces, such as the globe, need a fair amount of freehand to illustrate. (One tip for the cards is to print out shrunken pictures of tarot cards from the internet and glue them to the cards.) Thankfully, Tiny Furniture sells a painted version (certain a version better than my intermediate skills!).

Although primarily a fantasy furniture set, this set can easily be used in other settings requiring a fortune teller. The old west had fortune tellers, a noir detective could have a fortune teller as a contact, fortune tellers still exist in the modern day, and even Japanese anime has the high school girl fortune teller at the school cultural event. Fortune tellers were part of the Victorian era, so could also appear in a Call of Cthulhu campaign — perhaps there was something to the occult after all?

I should mention that, if you don't have a gypsy miniature (well, one that's not dancing), Tiny Furniture has a Soothsayer gypsy woman miniature you can use with this set. Like the Soothsayer Workplace, the Soothsayer gypsy woman is available unpainted or painted. You can find the workplace and miniature in unpainted and painted versions at the Tiny Furniture website.

Paint Scheme: The tablecloths consist of a smaller cloth on a larger one, and you can use an analog scheme of two adjacent colors on the color wheel. I used red with purple, and Tiny Furniture used blue with purple. Paint the cushions of the chairs with one of these colors. I used red, and Tiny Furniture used purple. (If you don't know already, red tends to be a difficult color to paint with. Take a look at the Tiny Furniture painted version and see what you think of blue and purple!) You can also use two shades of the same color. The objects on the paint cloth need to stand out (contrast), so should use a different color than the cloth (including light colors, such as silver or gold for the metal objects, and skull white for the bird and human skulls).

Table: After priming the table white, I used Army Painter Red and Purple Inks to pre-shade the tablecloth. I then painted the tablecloth in Army Painter Dragon Red and Alien Purple. The tassels were painted in yellow Daemonic Yellow, washed with Red Ink to match the tablecloth. You can freehand a "rope" in yellow to connect the tassels. With yellow also being a difficult color to work with, you may try using gold paint instead.

Props: As I painted them, most of the items on the table can use a brown undercoat: the ochre skulls and cards, the brass and gold cup and plates, and, of course, the brown voodoo doll and hand. The metal plates and the cup were painted brass, then gold, then washed with brown Army Painter Strong Tone. The cards, skulls, and "teeth" of the voodoo doll were painted with ochre Army Painter Skeleton Bone, then washed with brown Strong Tone. The candle on the skull was left white since I wasn't sure and don't have a setting in mind for context. You should paint the candle in a color contrasting the ochre skull. Red and black would work, but these colors have connotations of blood or evil. Same with the cards. In the western Deadlands RPG, playing cards ("Hexes") are associated with magic, while a modern day setting would use tarot cards instead. A common suggestion for a color scheme is to have no more than two dominant colors (for the miniature set, I used red and purple), with neutrals (ochre, white, brown, brass, silver) and one or two accent colors (yellow/gold). The second accent color I went with was green. Green's a good color for the voodoo doll's eyes, and the green bottle contrasts with the red cloth.

Chairs: Each chair consists of two pieces. Paint them brown and match their cushions to one of the tablecloth colors. I also used brown wash for the wood, and red wash for the cushions. The cushions have small "nails" you can paint silver, and astrological decorations you can paint yellow, bronze, bright gold, etc.

Globe: The pedestal can be painted gold, by first underpainting it in brown. Then paint bronze then gold on the surface, and wash with a brown wash. The globe itself I painted a metallic white, but you can paint it another color, such as blue with freehand white swirls.

Conclusion: While not a commonly used miniature, the Soothsayer's Workplace can be an important one. You can use it with multiple genres, to provide information, puzzles, and tasks for your adventurers, heroes, and investigators. Painting the set may require intermediate and advanced skills, but a painted version is also available. Tiny Furniture also has a gypsy figure you can use with this set.