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A buddy gave me his Khador army for Warmachine. While I figure out exactly how I want to paint my stompy robots, I thought I'd paint up one of my warcasters. The red actually fairly easy, if time-consuming. Once I started going for details, it was a little harder. I originally went with red with brown leather (now only on the gun holster), but it was looking pretty muddy. I changed it to black for the most part, but the details were really getting lost. Changing a lot of the black to purple really helped get things to pop. I used a lot of Scale75 paints, using their red and Metal 'n Alchemy sets. The rest was done primarily with Reaper paints, with a few Games Workshop washes. The base was looking very plain until I added in some vegetation. I think it helped with the framing pretty well.

This is what happens when I get an idea stuck in my head that I have to get out before I can do anything else. It's obviously (I hope its obvious) a WIP as I need to get some earth to pack around the skull before I can move on to paint it. I also came up with a bit of background for it. Yes, all over the top for just the base for a moday for no apparent reason other than it was bouncing around in my head. The Vishnakov Anomaly The man before Kommander Zerkova resembled a Greylord no more than she resembled a fairytale princess, but be that as it may, he was…no, he once was a member of the Greylord Covenant, though a minor one at that. He was completely unremarkable in appearance, of average height, with brown hair and eyes, and she had read his file, nothing remarkable there either. He only resembled a homeless madman now, with his wild eyes, ragged and bloodied clothes. The only thing visible that he possessed was what appeared to be a student’s grammar book, from what little she could see of the cover, which he held in a deathgrip, clutched to his chest. Using her special eye, she saw a familiar glow about the book, which radiated down into his hand and into his body. Her scouts had stumbled across him lying in a ditch alongside the road they were traveling. The scout that had first touched him was now dead of a wasting disease that caused all the blood in his body to run out through his eyes and run along the ground and flow up the once Greylord’s body and into his eyes. The second scout was about the run back to camp when Antonin Vishnakov called out that he was here to see Kommander Zerkova and he could lead the way or tell him after he was dead. In truth, she felt no real fear of him as she was shielded against many kinds of magic, but her two bodyguards seemed to give the man pause and he stopped just inside the door’s entryway. He spoke in very precise words, as though he did not want to be misunderstood. “I have come very far to tell you that the anomaly should be left alone or we will all be forced to feed on each other’s blood.†At which he raised the grammar book as in a small salute and tossed it carefully about a third of the way into the room. Then he began to quiver as someone who’s trying to quietly laugh at a friend’s joke in a crowded room. He then violently slapped a hand over one eye and then the other as his body shook in a violent spasm. His mouth opened, but only the sound of gurgling issued forth, as though the last bit of water down a drain, and then he collapsed face first into the room, his hands never moving from in front of his eyes. The autopsy later revealed that his eyes had grown to twice their size, bloated with blood. Very little blood remained in his body otherwise. The book had taken time to disarm and unlock. By the time the book was free, Antonin Vishnakov’s file had appeared on her desk. Even with them both and some well spent coin, it still took the better part of two months to find the site of the former greylord’s camp, or what was left of it. It took month’s more careful work before they discovered what had now been deemed The Vishnakov Anomaly. The Anomaly could only be safely reached through the eyes and body of a warjack. Regular steamjacks tended to seize up or have untimely breakdowns anywhere near the Anomaly. The only activity from the Anomaly was random glowing that shown with no rhyme or reason that she’d been able to decipher so far. She’d had to requisition a specialty warjack to uncover as much of the Anomaly as she had. Lately, unconfirmed reports of Cryxian troops had grown more frequent. She knew she was running out of time to discover its secrets before she had to attempt to destroy the Anomaly or have it fall to Cryx. I apologize in advance for the quality of the videos (which I apparently can't upload, so I've linked to them instead). Here are the pictures though. Video without overhead lights - https://youtu.be/nRiHPQHc7KI Video with overhead lights - https://youtu.be/584Kcig89N0

This model is nicknamed "Bad Santa" by Warmachine players, I think because of his appearance and since traditional Khador colors are red, white and gray. As I painted him, I kept imagining him saying "Ho ho ho, who's been a good warjack this year?," as he has an ability to give a present (a point of Focus) to a warjack. So I decided to double-down on the Christmas theme and pull out my MSP Christmas Wreath and a slightly darker red than normal for Khador (MSP Big Top Red) for the primary colors on him. He actually came out a bit nicer-looking than I had planned on.

I met my goal for October by finishing these guys off. I have been meaning to post them for the RPChallenge but I haven't had time until now. There are areas I like quite a bit on these guys and other areas that I feel quite "meh" about. But they are painted and ready to be added to my new Khador army. For the game table I am happy with them. Here are two group shots. I took some individual photos but do not want to overwhelm the thread unless anyone would really like to see some closeups. C&C welcome as always. I hope you guys like them.

I finally decided to call Zerkova finished and now she is based and ready to bring victory to the Motherland. I quite enjoyed painting some parts of her and others decided to fight me a bit, but I pushed though and finished her up for August. Now to get to work on my Fall Exchange piece and then back to Khador to finish up my Doom Reavers. For those interested here is the link to the WIP. http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/63585-a-few-khador-privateer-press-minis/?hl=khador C&C welcome of course.

In preparation for the arrival of my Khador All-in-One Army Box, I decided to hit up my FLGS and see if they had anything worth grabbing ahead of time. In particular, I wanted to grab a non-Sorscha warcaster, since I’ve heard that changing up the warcaster can make the same army play very differently. Zerkova was on sale, so I picked her up. I want her to look reasonably nice, so she is getting a real paint job (most of that Army Box will be getting airbrushed with only a few details picked out – so I can actually play). But I also don’t want her to languish in half-finished land (like Dana, Kitty, Wild West Missionary, Suspect #7 #3, Miyuki and Natsumi (and that’s not even including the drawer of shame), so I’m trying something new… paint each section to completion before moving on. Detailing is my least favorite part of painting, so the theory is that spreading that out will cause the mini to finish sooner. So, starting with her face and hands (they may become gloves… not sure), I basecoated in MSP HD Caucasian Flesh, washed with MSP Flesh Wash, reclaimed the basecoat then highlighted with MSP Fair Skin. Just a touch of MSP Old West Rose for the lips. The art shows her with a slight brown/yellow tint to her lips, but I couldn’t figure out to make this work. The eyes are MSP Walnut Brown lining, MSP Linen White sclera and MSP Aqua Blue iris. The art for Zerkova shows her as a platinum blonde, so I walked up MSP HD Woodland Brown, MSP Blond Shadow, MSP Blond Hair, MSP Blond Highlight, MSP Pure White. The next section was her cloak, with I basecoated in VMC Basalt Grey, which I picked because it’s pretty similar P3 Greatcoat Grey. I used a thicker paint consistency that normal, which worked very well. The basecoat covered fully in two coats, as opposed to my previous 3-4. I shaded with VMC German Grey (also the inside of the cloak), then highlighted up to MSP Rainy Grey. I lined the fur with MSP Grey Liner. The fur (including the hat) is basecoated in MSP Rainy Grey, then drybrushed with MSP Pure White. I experimented with washing Pure White with Rainy Grey or Basalt Grey, but the former was barely noticably and the latter was too dark. There are a few ugly looking brushstrokes on the cloak, but overall I am very pleased. Thicker paint, wicking more off my brush and using more intermediate colors was the trick to getting it to look better and also not take forever. Thoughts, suggestions, comments? Now for super-closeup mugshot of making-my-painting-look horrible. It looks fine with the 3″ rule, but I do see a few spots I’ll fix. The left side of the mouth, some unevenness in the eye lower lining and extending the right eyebrow. Also, apparently she has a bleeding eye or something, but I cut off the “bleeding†and painted it normally.

The last of the minis I expect to finish for the January RPChallenge . The Butcher Unleashed unit painted for the start of my husbands Khador army. He wanted me to stay close to the studio scheme, at first I was unhappy as Bright Red is not something I am very good at. But thanks to DSmiles for posting how to paint Khador red I think I managed it. And thank you to NomadZeke for starting the challenge as so far it is helping to keep me painting. Here is a not so great photo of all three together(my apologizes) Now some better individual ones. First the main man himself The Butcher.. And his pups Comments and critiques are welcomed as every one helps me get better.

This is a mini that I painted up for a charity event a little while ago. She makes me want to paint more Khadorans in this color scheme (maybe I'll do one of the Butchers for the P3 grandmasters sometime). Here are some images. \

This is a Khador Berserker from Warmachine (33028). This is the metal version (I'm not sure if there's actually a plastic version of this guy). He'd been sitting at 95% done for months now, so I decided to finish him up (reward for finishing guys is being allowed to start new ones). I tried to do two-brush blending on him without brush-licking before I took Meg Maples class at ReaperCon. The main colors used are Khador Red Base, HD Crimson Red, Brown Liner, Polished Steel, and Clockwork Brass.

http://www.amazon.com/Privateer-Press-PIP33050-Warmachine-Conquest/dp/B008O6WID4 http://www.secretweaponminiatures.com/images/BFBTW01.gif what im going to work on now.