Pandora’s Box [Insert innuendo]

So… I needed a couple of minis for the RPG I’m running… most important being the goddess that is trapped and in need of rescuing…

Not sure if the goddess in question will be represented by the Aphrodite, or Persephone mini… might even be Hecate… but I painted the first two (before I decided to make this a spring clean challenge) which is why those minis are done.

The other three (Lion, Centaur and Satyr) were needed in a previous campaign.

Anyway… enough waffle… the plan is to complete as much of this box as possible… with the initial goal being the top layer that I’ve already started.

Before I dive into the project I would like make a statement…

I’m not a great painter and there are plenty of people in this forum that are much better than me… this project exists to motivate me.

I don’t feel qualified to provide painting tutorials… so I won’t, but I might tell you how not to do something after I messed up bigtime.

That’s it… on with the show now.

Not much achieved this week as my time was devoted to my current RPG project which involved a lot of writing and painting of required miniatures.

All I’ve done of this project is paint the 10 terrain columns and I’m not entirely happy with them…

In a related matter… my paint queue just got longer and while it’s linked to this project… it’s not part of it… I may have accidentally bought Poseidon, Hephaestus and Hera expansions 🙂

Slow progress. Done a little painting on Artemis, Circe, Echo and the Graeae.

Had some trees to paint this week for RPG night and they took a while.

Got a week off soon and I hope to get stuck in then, but I’ll keep plodding.

Been working on the scaly ones mostly this week, but I have started the rest of the top layer which is ahead of schedule and that’s good.

Not had much time to paint this week, but just starting my leave and hope to get more done in the next week, or so.

Majority of them are part painted now, but some still need work.

Finished the top layer of Pandora’s box… to a standard…

There is one missing figure… the viking that was a preview of Ragnorok.

Painted the bigatures first as I suspected I might… the troops are tedious and I don’t like painting units.

As is often the case… I’m not overly impressed with my own work, but they have paint on now.

I finally painted the viking from the top layer, but he’s not greek and gets no photo.

Also made some progress on the bottom layer… painted both sets of Spartoi, the Hellhounds, the Colchidian Dragon, the lump of rock called Tityos and Hippolyta.

That leaves 16 troops, Helios, Hermes and Jason. Not an impossible feat.

Of course I did buy three expansions recently, but they are new and technically not a Spring Clean Challenge until next year…

Edit: Forgot about Atlas… he’s going to be a right pain… he’s huge!

It’s done. Completed more of the spring clean challenge than anticipated and the Pandora’s Box is painted.

Quality is not great, particularly on the troops, but I hate painting units… not ideal for wargaming… but I’m more a role-player.

I may yet do something with the bases, but not so much that they won’t fit back in the box as I have the store the damned thing.

And here’s Atlas… the only titan that was part of the core pledge.

I know… he looks a bit crap… but I slapped a lot of contrast paint on him and hoped he’d come out… less crap…

Having used an awful lot of contrast and speed paint in this project I have mixed feelings on them. With textures: cloth, scales, fur, wood and the like they are a useful tool in the painting arsenal. But there are parts of models that look better with conventional paints and a separate wash afterwards.

During the painting of this project I had some moments of madness… three of them… and bought Hephaestus, Hera and Poseidon expansions.

As they are new… they are not part of the Spring Clean Challenge for this year.

But they will appear in the project system at some point.

One thing that has come out of painting this game is a desire to paint 75mm miniatures and I bought my first one… a cheapo Masterbox mini.

It did not go well as I tried to paint it first and assemble after… lets just say the glue was poorly applied and I had to do a lot of repainting. If I make it look acceptable I’ll post an image at some point.

I have since bought two more figures, but they have not arrived yet.

Not sure about my next project. I have a Carnevale kickstarter that has barely been touched, incomplete armies for Warmachine, the last box of Journeys in Middle Earth and everything I bought for Shatterpoint… plus a load more.