3 February 2022

Fembruary: Pandora

Cue Brad Pitt: "WHAT'S IN THE BOX??"

According to Greek mythology, Pandora was the first human woman, created from dirt by the god Hephaestus and endowed with all sorts of skills. Unfortunately, she was also given a box (actually a jar,  but mistranslated) containing all the evils of humanity. For reasons best known to herself, Pandora pretty much immediately opened the box jar, and the rest is history.

Pandora was a freebie I got when I received my Amazon War Party from RBJ Games' Kickstarter. She's a tiny figure and was stupidly easy to paint, and I knocked her out quickly yesterday afternoon. As usual I was stuck for colours but after a google search I found Carlo Perugini's painting Pandora:

Ooo, looks easy.

I started by painting the box Flat Earth, shading it with Umber Wash, and highlighting it with a mix of Flat Earth and Light Brown. The decoration is just Averland Sunset as I didn't fancy going over the tiny lines again with a metallic shade.

After that I did her hair with Cavalry Brown and Wild Rider Red, and it was while applying the colours I discovered she's got a wreath of leaves around her head. I painted it White, then Park Green Flat, washed it with Biel-Tan Green and highlighted it with Light Green. 

Her skin is my own mix, shaded with Reikland Fleshshade and highlighted by adding Pale Flesh. With all of the colours out of the way, her dress and sandals got a couple of coats of Off-White, some Grey Wash and highlights with White. The final touch was painting her sash Heavy Orange and totally forgetting to shade it with Red Tone.

The only issue was her eyes. As usual I got one done first time, and the other took about four attempts before I gave up and left it.

For her base I used one of the resin paving stone ones I bought years ago. I thought I'd give marble a shot, so painted it Ivory and then did some thin veins with watered-down Sombre Grey. After that I blobbed on some Strong Tone, left it for 30 seconds, and dabbed it off, before giving the base a final coat of thinned White. Lastly I filled the gaps between the stones with more Strong Tone. I think it looks... OK.

14 comments:

  1. Great work on Pandora Matt, has an old masters feel to the painting. Have found contrasts paint works well for marble, on the background shades, then I use normal paints for the lines, does take a little practice, but you've done a good job on the stones.

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    1. Thanks, Dave! The marble kind of works but looks a lot better from a distance :-)

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  2. Terrific little mini and paint-job, Matt. Lovely work and Pandora's box looks especially good, imho. Nice brushwork on all the tiny details.

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    1. Thanks, Simon! She came out better than I thought, especially as she's about half the height of a Space Marine!

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  3. Her eyes look fine from here. Very serious young lady though.

    Maybe her box is what summoned all your undead to rise up from their graves?

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    1. Cheers, Dai! Haha, you never know, she could be responsible for the zeds rising up!

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  4. The figure and paint-job is great but I do wonder to what use you are going to use her!

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    1. Thanks, Joe! I probably won't use her for anything, she was just fun to paint and a good way to kick off Fembruary :-)

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  5. Pandora is a cool little sculpt! She has a lot of personality and I think you did a great job with her hair and face. She came out looking very lifelike!

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    1. Thanks very much, Jeff! I'm happy with her face, she looks a tad sad.

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  6. As Kuribo said she is a cool little sculpt, and nicely painted too I must say.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thanks, Roger, she's a decent sculpt for a freebie.

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  7. Ahhh! She looks so sad!
    Lovely work Matt and I feel your pain when it comes to eyes - the minis left eye, no worries, right, no chance!

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    1. Cheers, Justin, I think her sad look is pretty apt for her given what she's about to do LOL! And I'm the same with eyes, the left one is usually easy, the right one a nightmare.

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