The Secret Weapon Miniatures: Malice RPG: Treasure Chest set is an excellent project for new painters, as well as experienced painters who need a few unusual treasure chests and sacks of coins. The set of thirteen miniatures are 28mm and are on the small side. However, this means you can place them on miniature tables or other raised areas more easily than large chests. The set consists of thirteen chests and sacks, with a good variety among the treasure chests. The miniatures are cast in resin, allowing them more detail than typical plastic miniatures. Also, like most of the other resin miniatures and bases by Secret Weapon Miniatures, the miniatures pretty much have no mold lines. As said, these miniatures are very accessible for new painters, and, myself, I assembly-line painted them to advanced tabletop. Besides a look at these miniatures, I'll mention how I painted them, and end with a professionally-painted picture of the miniatures. (The Stone House and Freestanding Tower used in the photographs are by Epix Haven AS.)
The set sells for ten dollars, although they're currently only available on the Secret Weapon Miniatures site. I used the Secret Weapon Miniatures washes Dark Sepia (brown), Hard Body Black (black), and Stone (stone) when painting, and found Blue Black useful as well, so you might want to pick up these washes with your order. (Secret Weapon Miniatures also casts a Malice RPG Starter Set of game tiles, which also make great dungeon decor accessories). Besides washes, I also used Tamiya Clear Red. Dark Sepia and Hard Body Black are also easy to use to blackline the miniatures. I highly recommend the Stone wash for dungeon-style stone, particularly game tiles; just drybrush grey and white, then wash with Stone.
Chests: I first painted the wooden parts of all the chests brown, with Dark Sepia as a brown wash. Then I painted the metallic parts black. Not all chests are bound in shiny metal, so, for variety, I left these chests in their black undercoat, rather than continue painting them. The chest with the vines was, of course, trickier to paint than the other chests. For the chest with rocks, I drybrushed the rocks in grey with white edges, then washed with Secret Weapon Wash Stone. I then applied the black Hard Body Black wash in the recesses and flat areas of the stone.
Chests: These chests I painted metal on top of the black paint. Secret Weapon Wash Hard Body Black was useful to tone down the shinyness of the metal, as well as various blacklining. The eagle icon was painted similarly to the gold coins below.
Chest: This unusual chest with the demonic face is an uncommon chance to try something unique and crazy. I went with an over-the-top chest which players would suspect as being cursed or alive. The tongue was an obvious place to start, so I chose green as a complimentary color. I painted the chest metallic, then painted the tongue and eyes red with Tamiya Clear Red. I painted the sides of the chest metallic green. Instead of Hard Body Black, which I felt gave a "realistic" color, I used Blue Black to shade the "fantasy silver" metallic color (blue is often used as a shade for silver or metal). Feel free to try another demonic color combination, such as a red box with black horns and black metal trim.
Sacks and Chests: The sacks were painted ochre, then brown. I used the brown wash Secret Weapon Miniatures Dark Sepia to wash the sacks. For the coins of the sacks and chests, I painted them brown then gold, with Dark Sepia used again. I also highlighted the drawstrings in ochre. Brown is an easy color to paint sacks, although you can also try painting them ochre and other colors for variety. You can color indvidual coins in other metallic colors to suggest gems and jewels.
Other color schemes: As seen above, you can paint the miniatures in different colors.
Conclusion: At ten dollars for thirteen miniatures, the Secret Weapon Miniatures: Malice RPG: Treasure Chest set makes both a good project for new painters, and a good set of uncommon treasure miniatures. As said, it's only available at the Secret Weapon Miniatures, so I recommend subscribing to their newsletter for sales on their other products you may be interested in. The Secret Weapon Miniatures: Malice RPG: Starter Set is a good set of dungeon decor as well as game tiles, and can be painted with the Stone and Hard Body Black washes.
