Masquerades and Markers - Hark!

Welcome to Hark! the article series where Ben talks about Wargames, Wargames Accessories, and the people who indulge in Wargames and Wargames Accessories.

As of late, my Monday nights have been spent at the shop. Its no secret that when you make your hobby your career, it drives a wedge between you and the thing that brought you peace, and so I've been trying to spend more time with the community I serve to nurture all of those relationships. Me, my hobby, and my community. 

Its not easy, but nothing worthwhile is.

One thing that has me distant from things has been my painting setup. My desk has had one day of the last three years where it hasn't been covered in half-finished projects and containers of gross things that might someday be beautiful gross things, which means that I have very little room to paint whatever strikes my fancy. A soul might think that the need for space would inspire one to finish projects or find forever-homes for the pots of goo and dust, but that person isn't a hobbyist. We wargamers are a special breed who make towers of precariously positioned boxes and books in the hopes that gravity will look the other way while we dare to paint and chop on a postage-stamp-sized sheet of desk.

Recently I had to come to grips with myself though. I have a TV tray that is now suffering from the same sickness as my desk, in that there's enough room for a bowl and a cup, and the rest of the surface has been colonized with the detritus that life tends to collect. I had finally run out of room to paint. I was cornered, back against the wall, trapped in a hell of my own making when...

Carnevale dropped its new starter set. I hadn't even finished painting my Pulcinella gang, and now I had a case of the "Oooo, Shiny" that paired remarkably well with my diagnosis of "you literally have no room to paint." I was torn, forced to reckon with the reflections of my two deepest shames; I can't set up to paint because I've run out of horizontal space, and this means I've hit a blockage when it comes to clearing projects so I can start new ones. I wasn't sure if it was too late for me to turn over a new leaf; maybe I could change, and be better, and less of a scatterbrained slob. Maybe I could clean, and have people over, and not have to apologize because all 12 chairs in my apartment are covered in piles of sweaters and rulebooks and Cadians...

And then it came to me; the answer.

AK Interactive makes a range of paint marker, (two actually last time I checked.) Markers, are like pens, which are like pencils, and pencils live in pencil-cases (unless you have a really cool mug) and those... those live in bags. 

I think the reasoning speaks for itself.

So I circumvented my dark night of the soul, by avoiding my problem completely. I got a set of paint markers as a portable solution, so that I could paint my models on the go and in those inconvenient spaces past-me left for now-me. This has been a very long way to say that in kicking the can down the road even further than I should have, I've gotten to spend time with both Carnevale and AK Interactive paint markers, and can now relay to you a much more considered opinion of each. If you've stuck with me this long, thank you. I hope to repay your trust with insight and interest.

Carnevale is a slick little skirmish game about 1780's Venice reeling from a cosmic horror apocalypse, originally from Vesper-On games, and more recently adopted and reshaped by the good folk of TT Combat. I like to describe it as "Assassin's Creed meets Cthulhu, and also Dracula is there?" but I feel like that undercuts some of the interesting decisions made about this world, that for me evoke Guy Davis's The Marquis and Lies of P from Neowitz. In essence, a rent opened in the sky and madness poured through, warping everyone who watched, and leaving everyone else trapped in the city with them. The rich now throw cannibal parties, and hunt the poor like foxes, and supernatural forces from within and without take advantage of the disorder to conceal their deeds or further their agendas. 

That's actually what's happening in the new starter set, Carnevale; The World's Faire Afterparty. A cadre of Doctors are trying to gather parts for their nefarious experiments in the dead of night, but become entangled in a skirmish with the haughty Patricians, who've decided that tonight's menu includes physician. 

On my personal blog, I've been known to review starter sets, and since we're here, I think this box is a terrific value. Each featured faction sports useful base gangs with spectacular build-out options (I like The Great Game Hunt for Patricians and The Sleepless Undead for the Doctors,) meaning that you wont be retiring these minis once you get the swing of things. Afterparty also comes with the full rules, where many other offerings might have alternate rules or rules with omissions to make onboarding easier for new players. The lowering of threshold is done strictly through the workhorse profiles of the models (strong, but not too intricate) and through scenarios tailored to be sweet, and focused on showcasing individual mechanics and goals (as is common in quality tutorials.) Overall, I think its a masterclass in how to present a game to a new audience, especially since the minis herein are HIPS instead of TT's usual resin fare.

But before I myself jump into the new hotness, I really ought to finish the figures who helped justify my new set of markers. Its only right.

For my pet subfaction, I picked Pulcinellas, clowns who specialize in going fast and being cheap. While they're kinda shrimpy on their own, the factions leaders can spend will points to give buffs to other clowns within line-of-sight, and then reciprocally those clowns can regenerate will points for the leaders who can see them. While the feedback loop is nice, there's no underestimating Pulcinellas once they've been souped up, especially the firebreathers and the brutes, who are outliers in the factions relatively anemic combat abilities. Also, these guys ride Ostriches! Who doesn't love that?!

And so with the passion established, I primed the clowns grey and broke out the magic markers.

They're actually AK Interactive's play markers, which are, arguably magical, but today we're excited about the undeniably practical aspects of their being. The range itself is maybe topping out at 50 or so individual colors, and that covers most situations as one might imagine. Perhaps the most applicable pigments for wargamers of all walks are their metallic colors, which are handy for highlights and drybrushes over most applications of gratuitous grime (hey slapchoppers!) 

But that all said, let's go through THE GAUNTLET OF THE QUESTIONS to see what these guys are all about, interspersed with pictures of the Carnivale gang I tested them out with.

Does it do what it says it'll do?

These markers do in fact make marks, with very decent coverage, especially if you prime them with enthusiasm. Depending on the color, you can usually have a solid coat between 2-4 layers with minimal streaking, and 

Is it intuitive?

I find that painting and drawing are not at all the same skill, and as someone who has seen people try to parley one skillset for another, I think this is a great workaround for if your brain works in the drawing (analog) way, or perhaps even in the ms paint way. Your strokes are all additive and while usually they're firm and bold, you can adjust that dial a bit to accomplish just enough variation that the breath of your tool makes sense. Also, the paint dries quick to the models, meaning you can keep going for quite some time (which is especially good when painting on a deadline.)

Is doing something I can't already do?

While this doesn't sound like praise, these markers can't blend, and these markers can't mix. The process becomes a paint by numbers, with glazes being your best bet at variation without additional tools to help refine the process or result. I think this is helpful though, since sometimes I can get lost questing for the exact right color, when really I need to consider my deadline, and the lighting I'm working in, and make choices that are firm and deliberate. In my artistic work, I greatly respect the economy of line and shape, and can take that respect and apply it to color, knowing that by being selective with my tools, I can create a clear communication. 

Is it novel?

Yes. Ak to my knowledge has been pushing the paint marker scene into the miniatures hobby, and have so far made a product that has been convenient for me when I'm on the go, or when my space is minimal, and one that is easy to share and teach. 

Final Verdict:

I think that experimenting with paint markers has shifted some of the ways I think about painting, not in a profound way, but in a process-literacy way. As a tool, paint markers with traditional-style acrylic are a straighforward, no nonsense way to get color on figures, that can be elevated with a development of mechanical strategy, and potentially augmented by the application of supplemental tools. From my time with them, I believe that the markers are more than adequate for getting your models tabletop ready, and for boardgamers this is the exact tool one would need to elevate your game to the next level.

There were a few things I did not subject my brushes to, like the textures on the bases for fear of ruining my set, and the base rims since I wanted a color outside of the marker's color range, but overall I would say the markers did a great job at making my Pulcinellas presentable. What the markers won't do however is make me a better pilot of the gang, but that in fairness would be asking a lot. While I don't think the markers will replace traditional painting for me entirely, I think they're an excellent little tool for combatting Shiny Syndrome, as they allow you to knock out new projects with a tabletop ready finish. I'm going to use them to round out my 2-4 (and maybe more) Carnevale factions, and maybe my 3-5 Quar Armies (Quarmies) that I've been procrastinating on.

And now that that's all written, maybe I should clean my desk...

(Fun Fact: Since the conception of this article, Pandemonium has expanded our marker selection to include AK Interactive's Real Color markers, and Army Painter's Speedpaint markers. I haven't yet done proper research into those lines, but one marker mark-up is probably enough for 2026 <3)

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Ben Doane has been a member of the Pandemonium Team since 2019, and has been playing wargames, rpgs, and tcgs since 2004 and earlier. When not blogging, Ben runs the wargames and mailing departments, and also puts together the store's newsletters. Her current favorite markers are the Skeleton and Zombie Playmarker Set.