Mythic Battles Pantheon
Mythic Battles Pantheon was a kickstarter by Monolith Games of France which I missed out on because I didnt know about it and I didnt know what a Kickstarter was. I came into contact with the miniatures when they were sent to me from a client in Germany and i fell for them big time. Within a week I was on Ebay and soon bought the 1.5 version core and Pandoras box. I have now played the game a few times with little success but its a solid game as well as having great miniatures. Greek Gods, monsters heroes and minions all well sculpted and cast in a harder than usual plastic for game miniatures.
All the figures I have painted so far have been from the core box commission in the picture above and I imagine it will be a while until I get to paint my own collection due to a full commission load. I began painting them with the minions and worked up so that I had my eye in stylewise before I reached Olympus. This also kept me keen as I was learning en route, especially improving my flesh painting. I will start this review the other way around though looking at the Gods.
Zeus the King of the Gods and morally dubious character all around even by the standards of Ancient Greece. I havent actually played Zeus in the game but painting the mini was fun as there were several challenges, the cloth, the skin, the bronze and the lightning hand. Im not a fan of Persil white cloth with dark shadows on miniatures as it looks too harsh for me so the white cloth was painted in the method demonstrated by Angel Giraldez on his youtube channel starting with field grey, german camo beige, deck tan all airbrushed and then highlights by brush in various "whites."
The lightning hand is a tad bluer in real life than here but again was airbrushed using blue as a base and highlighting up to white. I considered going OSL on the body as the hand was the last thing painted but decided to leave it as I liked it.
Ares the God of War was all about the bronze. I discovered early on during the minion phase that vallejo bronze was the colour I liked. It doesnt have the warmth of the brassier colours and could be darkened and lightened with vallejo browns and silvers.Along with various washes this gave a range of Bronzy colours and shades . The cloak was straightforward airbrush work and the flower chosen to match. I have played Ares, and lost. This was due to my incompetence rather thanany deficency in Ares.
Athena is the Goddess I have used most so far as she has a neat tactical trick which allows her to use a higher than normal number of activations which can get some powerful pieces to kill a God. In my sole victory to date she was able to Cerberus and Hercules into a slightly weakened Hades for the kill. Painting her was all about getting the flesh right and female flesh is way harder than male. On male fantasy figures the flesh is blocky due to all the muscles but the female flesh has to look super smooth.
Transitions have to be smooth while keeping the highlights and shadows. This has always been tricky for me but using the airbrush does make it easier and I feel im getting the hang of it now.
Hades flesh was different as i used a different set of colours to reflect that his pallor would be less healthy due to lurking in the underworld. Definitely the short straw in God terms but in game terms this gives him a cool card draw mechanic which is very valuable. In brief when anything friend or foe dies he draws a card. Once again there is a light effect on the right hand of a greeny yellow which is just about visible. The blue flowers also work with the skin tone I hope.
Next time I'll bash through the Monsters from the core box, Cerberus, Minotaur, Hydra and Medusa.