The Staff of Zeus

Touched by Zeus, the God of Thunder

The Staff of Zeus, touched by the God of Thunder Himself. I created this Staff while working with Him, four bolts of lightning powering Him, being sent through the Staff. Swirling from the top, the four bolts travel down, emerging from the bottom.

There wasn't a page started for this when I first began working on it, I think I wanted it to be a surprise when it was revealed, but moving to England delayed the project. However, now that we have moved and settled in, the Staff can begin again, and I speak with Zeus all the same, working once again on this magnificent project.

The wood itself is poplar, with crisscrossing linework creating diamonds along the side, swirling tight at the top, charging through the grip, and straightening and emerging at the bottom.

Painted black like the night and to accentuate the silver, the Staff feels like lightning in your hands.

After the black was added, silver paint (with a touch of electric blue) was painted into all of the grooves. After this, we needed to tape the insides of the grooves, so that we could go back and repaint the black over top again, so that the inner sides of the grooves are black as well, leaving only the inner core of the Staff lightning silver.

So with all of the tape laboriously applied, we repainted the entire staff (minus the grip) black again (I like that the grip is a slightly lighter shade of black compared to the rest), taking an ENTIRE bottle of model paint, and peeled all of our meticulously applied tape off once again (which made for some particularly cool looking pieces of tape). With that done, we went back over it with the black and silver, touching up any spots where the black got under the tape, or the silver was climbing up onto the edges of the grooves, and basically, a lot more meticulous work.

With THAT done, we could finally finish the grip! The kinda staticky looking electricity surging through the grip (since it's no longer contained inside of the grooves) was made using an old toothbrush, and lining it up by using strips of tape to make sure I'm following the correct angle. This naturally got some of the static around the grooves at the top and bottom, so we had to go back over those again. But with that, the entire painting process was complete, and it was ready for a final varnishing!

To be completed after fully drying, after which beauty shots and the finish date will be added :D

Finished May x, 2025

The Staff, painted black with an overpainting of the silver inside the grooves, leaning up against a wall, partially in the sun.

The inner grooves near the base of the Staff, partially filled in with green painters tape.

A photo of the staff, with all of the lines for the bottom half of the staff filled in with green painters tape.

The staff being held up, and appearing mostly black with the paint covering the majority of the tape, with some spots of green visible mainly at the top.

The partially peeled tape from the staff, almost looking a bit like a headband blowing in the wind, with the clean, crisp silver lines beneath where the tape was removed.

The top portion of the staff to the grip, shiny and silver inside the grooves, with the grip now fully covered in green painters tape.

The grip of the staff, with two lines already painted, and the placement of the next line figured out by using strips of the green painters tape wrapped around the grip following an earlier line, and an old toothbrush held up beside the staff showing it as the tool to be used to paint in a staticky manner by dipping it in silver paint, then swiping it back and forth in short movements.

The finished grip, with the diamond pattern now visible amongst the static, and the edges above the grip now cleaned up and repainted black.