- by Iain Wilson



The launch of the Maelstrom's Edge V2 Rulebook was accompanied by a Starter Force box for each faction that included around 50 points of models. I thought it would be fun to try pitting these starter forces against each other in a series of battle reports, the first of which features the Kaigus Pact against the Karist Enclave (and which you can find here!). So this week, I'm sharing a closer look at the models from the Kaigus Pact force.





The Kaigus Pact - Canto Mualii





Click for larger image.




In the spirit of assembling the starter force as it comes out of the box, I restrained the urge to do any converting on these models... although I couldn't resist chopping something up and gluing it back together again, so wound up adding a so far un-named little critter to the Curator's base, made from parts from a leftover Tamakin Ripper Claw arm.





Curator Mualii.




I wanted a super fast and easy paint scheme for this force, and was mostly successful. I started with a spray of Army Painter Necrotic Flesh, and then a zenithal* spray of white (*sprayed from above, so the base layer stays in the crevasses and undersides of the model).



The colours are mostly Army Painter Speedpaints - Pallid Bone over the bone parts, and then Fire Giant Orange over the rest of the model. For the fleshy parts, I added two layers of Sand Golem over the orange, but this gave too little contrast from the orange underneath, so I wound up also adding a coat of Vallejo Copper Brown Xpress Color. The pink bits were recoated with white, and then given a layer of Purple Alchemy, with a highlight of white. Because I was using the first generation Speedpaints, this highlight partially sank into the purple, tinting it to a pale pink.





Biologis Attendants.




I also used regular white acrylic paint for the eyes and forehead gems, although as with the purple this was largely killed by the orange bleeding back through. So I gave everything a spray with matte sealer and then went back over the eyes and gems on the Curator and Attendants.





Tamakin Combat Thralls.




The bases were very simple. I didn't add any additional texture, just used them bases as is. I gave them a base coat of white, and then a layer of Satchel Brown Speedpaint, and then when that was dry I painted the edges with black.





Krii Shatter Thralls.






Krii Vapor Thralls.




The 50 point force all together:




The 50 point Force.




What's Next?
The starter force is, as the name implies, a good start, but some additional models are needed to expand out to the full 120 points for a standard game. So I'm fleshing out the force with another two bases of each of the Krii types and a unit of two Orakan Shield Thralls. A second detachment will include a Dissolution Curator, a unit of four Attendants, another two Orakan, a unit of four Dart Tamakin, and a 6-thrall unit of Ripper Tamakin to get up close and personal!





The Expanded 120 point Force.




Coming up, I'll share a look at my Guardians of Alsa patrol for the Kaigus Pact, and the next in the battle report series, featuring the winners of the first battle up against an Epirian Foundation force. Stay tuned!



For other building ideas, modeling tutorials, army spotlights and conversion walkthroughs, check out the Hobby section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here.



What are you working on? We would love to see your models and terrain in the Comm Guild Facebook group!