Karchev in Pink.

I was finally able to get the paints I needed to start working on the main portion of my Karchev and Kodiak for the Paint It Pink Challenge – P3 Murderous Magenta and P3 Carnal Pink.  I’m using these colors because Plarzoid is using them for his own pink Khador – although I think our end results will be very different.  He’s going much brighter on the highlights than I think I’ll be doing, and the work that I’ve done so far already stands out as different.

The base beneath the pink is GW’s Codex Grey – a very light grey that works really well as a base coat for the lighter pinks that don’t work so well over black primer.  I then cover with two thin coats of Murderous Magenta, and then do two washes of a 2:1 Murderous Magenta:Carnal Pink mix.  I haven’t started the shading or highlighting yet, but I like it so far.  I’d also love to try doing some battle damage on the minis, since I think it will be an interesting contrast with the pink.  Not that Karchev himself in pink isn’t already an eye-opener.  For contrasting color I’m using Thornwood Green and Traitor Green, which will work well with the pink.

This last Thursday I had some games with Zerkova and the 35 point list I put together.  She’s accompanied by a Spriggan and Beast-09, two Greylord Ternions, and a full Winterguard unit with UA and Joe.  The games were… interesting.  My first game was against our Press Ganger using eFeora, and I made the mistake of sending the infantry first in a wave that was easily taken out, set on fire, and decimated.  Needless to say – I lost.  My next two games were also losses against another Menoth player using first eSeverious, and then Thyra.  The game against Thyra was closer, and in the end it came down to only a few miniatures per side.  I found that Watcher is an amazing spell for threatening the opponent, although with SPD 4 Khador ‘jacks there’s only so much I can do; at least both the warjacks I took have reach.  Daughters of the Flame are a frightening unit…

I’m not the greatest player in the world, and I’m definitely lacking in experience against most of the factions – in my previous meta, I was basically only playing against two of my buddies, one using Mercs consistently and the other switching between Cryx and Menoth for the most part.  Coming here to Atlanta and finding myself up against a meta of at least a dozen players, probably quite a few more, opens up all sorts of new challenges that I’m going up against.

I picked up Zerkova mainly because she gets so much flack on the forums, and I’m the sort of person who has a tendency to go against the norm when it comes to forum advice.  So she was appealing from the start.  I’d actually ordered her at my old LGS, but the order was never placed and I didn’t have a chance to pick up the miniature before moving to Atlanta.  She needs to be far forward, and while Khador usually has a lot of self-reliant units, I think that when using Zerkova the army needs to work more in concert to accomplish goals as a single unit, rather than allowing everything to work separately.  The Winterguard sprays are great for taking out multiple enemies, especially with Joe’s boosted attack rolls.  The Greylords are there for the same reason – sprays and their Blizzards to help cover the advance.  I’m looking forward to getting in more games and experience.

Working with Inks and Paint

I’ve been busy the past few days working on a few things.  One of these is the new Fairy Tale Forest illustration in my Etsy shop. I’m offering an 8×10 print for now, and may add 5×7 prints later. This was a lot of fun to illustrate, and I liked doing all the trees and adding various smaller details. If you look around, you’ll see mushrooms, a skull, a badger den, and so on in the scene. I don’t think the goblins are terribly well hidden, either.

I’ve been working on my Warmachine miniatures as well. The pink paints haven’t arrived at my local game store yet, so for now I’m focusing on the other colors on the miniatures – the metallics and so on. The pink will actually be painted on a grey undercoat, so all the areas that will be pink had to be done in grey first.
I finished a Berserker warjack as well, and took some pictures of that, and those are down below.
I’ve been thinking about starting a Tier 4 Zerkova list, which would include a lot of Greylord Ternion units, several units of Kayazy Assassins, and a small number of warjacks in Zerkova’s battle group. One of the big benefits that her Tier 4 list gives is a 2″ deployment zone increase, which can be huge with fast models like the Kayazy. I also rather like the idea of a huge group of Greylord wizards, all sending out icy sprays and clouds to block line of sight. I’ve even given the color scheme some thought, and I think I want to use my standard dried-blood, rusty red, along with muted greys/dirty creams for the miniatures. Maybe I’ll experiment with Cryx Bane Highlight, because that’s almost the grey I have in mind. I have no game experience with Zerkova at all, but I’d love to learn how to use her in the game – she seems like a really excellent warcaster with lots of abilities to mess with your opponent.

If anyone wants to commission me for any illustration or miniature painting, please feel free to email at greylikestorms (at) me.com or reply here in the comment section. I’d even be open to painting miniatures in exchange for new miniatures.