[Pimp] Escape the Curse of the Temple (2nd edition)

[Not Quite Dead]

Hi there!

 

Some months ago, I ran into Escape the Curse of the Temple, made by Queen Games. As I really enjoyed playing this game, I took the first chance to get the second edition.

 

 

If you're not familiar with this game, I'll describe quickly its gameplay. A game last exactly ten minutes, during which the players must leave a cursed temple about to collapse. They must escape together. If one is left behind, everyone lose. Everyone plays simultaneously, rolling dice as quickly as possible and keeping combos of dice in order to perform different actions, such as moving, discovering new areas, interacting with machinery in the temple, and so on. Luck is an important thing in this game, but you must also be coordinate with your fellow adventurers and choose quickly what the team should do. The game can be played by boys like my son (7 years old).

 

The Big Box of the 2nd edition is far better than the first. First, the organizer of the box is smart and effective. Second, there is more content in this version of the game. 8 expansions and 10 mini-addon, which is enough to keep the interest of the players and allow they to face greater and more complex challenges.

 

 

As my summer holidays are about to start, I decided to pimp this game by replacing the original wooden meeple by miniatures of explorers. I thus bought some Pulp Figures by Bob Murch. They are made of pewter (I guess), smaller and less detailed than Conan's mini. I really like their aspect. Some of them features quite serious characters, while others are quite humorous.

 

 

I've found at Feldherr's a foam tray that fits almost perfectly the box of the game, so that, once painted, my miniatures will be sheltered and neatly stored.

 

 

Now, this is the work I intend to do before the end of august:

- clean the miniatures and glue them on proper bases;

- use some greenstuff or another epoxy product in order to hide the original pewter base. I guess I'll try to sculpt a paving looking like the one of the tiles of the game;

- paint and varnish the miniatures.

 

I'll show you on this topic the progress of my work.

 

Have a nice summer!

[Not Quite Dead]

The first six miniatures have been given a new base.

 

 

I'm quite new at this, so I'm carving with my bare fingers and a toothpick. This has two downsides: fingerprints and not really flat bases.

 

 

Well, I guess I'll try to paint this first serie before basing the second one, in order to see if that okayish first look is fine once the base is painted.

[Not Quite Dead]

The first miniature related to the purple meeple is done. I'll paint a second one, male, at some point later.

 

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First (male) version of the black meeple. Starting the blue one.

 

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And a blue player. The right eye is a total mess, sadly. Luckily, it's meant to be tabletop miniatures, not exposition ones.

 

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And, now, the green player:

 

 

I'm already fearing to paint the miniature for the red meeple: there will be an OSL...

[Not Quite Dead]

And here's the red player. I'm quite happy with her face, but the OSL isn't as good as it should be. It seems to me that I shouldn't have enlighted her collarbone. The light is maybe too yellow on the whitish shirt. But overall, it looks good in my opinion.

 

[Not Quite Dead]

I have now one painted miniature for each player. I really like this mini, with a character both cute and funny.

 

 

Time to work on the base of the remnant of the miniatures (six more adventurers and a ghost).

[Epaka]

Fun project! Nice work...  I have a copy of Temple of Chac and Pyramid of Horus. Both games of the Adventurers series. They seem similar, but they are both rather simplistic in terms of gameplay. Probably lesser games in comparison to Escape... I love the theme though. And I did paint all the minis and rocks, etc. that the games came with. I’ll dig them out and take some pics to share. 

[Not Quite Dead]

I'd be quite interested to see your pictures, @Epaka. I haven't play those games, but the titles are quite appealing! 🙂

 

Here are both versions of the Red Meeple, a feminine and a masculine one:

 

 

[Epaka]

Here they are! I had a lot of fun doing the boulder and ornate rock walls. These were possibly the first minis I ever painted properly (wither primer and everything!)  after doing a very rough job on the small minis that come with the Age of Conan Strategy Game. I think for these I was still using Min-Wax Polyurethane for shading and sealing. 

 

[Not Quite Dead]

Hi there!

 

I've just finished the second version of the Black Meeple. Both will be male, sadly, but I managed to have one woman and one man for each other color.

 

 

Now, I have to make the base of the last five miniatures.

[Not Quite Dead]

The second miniature for the White Meeple is a young aviator. Not sure she will get along well with the old geezer I previously painted.

 

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With the male version of the Blue Meeple, there's only three miniatures left to paint. Huzzah!

 

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And... the Green Meeple is done.

 

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Guess who's on a painting spree?

 

 

Now, the ghost miniature will very likely require more time than the previous one.

[Not Quite Dead]

And here's the miniature replacing the final meeple: the Ghost.

 

I found it at Reaper Miniatures. It may be a bit tall for that game, but I was looking for a ghost without a weapon, and when I stumbled upon that miniature, I found it so gorgeous that I bought it right away. Well, instead of one ghost, the adventurer will have to escort to its tomb a horde of skellies. Good enough.

 

 

Painting on translucent plastic was quite stressful. I couldn't make mistake without grabbing a cutter in order to scrub away the excess of paint and it was sometimes tedious. I wasn't sure about what I would do with the flames/smoke, and I finally went for an edge of light green, but didn't apply shades. They were messing too much with transparency and added a kinda dirty look to the flames, that displeased me. In my opinion, those edges add to the readability of the miniature, so I'll stick with it, even if it isn't as neat as I wished. It will look good enough on the tabletop.

[garbetsp]

That is really wonderful. A new technique to consider. Adding fine detail to translucent minis. Thanks for this post.

[Not Quite Dead]

And here's a short video to see those miniatures on the board: