Karax Shieldwall

I’m back painting again after a too-long hiatus thanks to Overwatch. Most nights, I’m painting for a few hours, then playing for a few, when friends are online.

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by Trevor Christensen, from the Chain Attack podcast. His commission painter, Ashton Holbrook (aka. Red Modeling & Painting), was no longer taking commissions (for a very good reason) and Ashton had referred Trevor to me as a possible replacement. Trevor needed his Karax unit painted before he heads to Amsterdam for the WTC next month, so I got to work as soon as I could. Trevor asked for something quick and simple, so he’d be sure to have them on time. I’ve always wanted to paint these models (I love cool looking shields) so I gave them an extra special treatment and went all-out.

I’m not going to go into the process and recipes used here – it’s predominately 2-brush blending with a little glazing. The recipes are Ashton’s and truth be told, I enjoyed mostly being a mechanic following the directions as written rather than having to actively figure everything out. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy that part too, but this was rather refreshing.

Trevor sent along an Extoller Advocate to use as a test model, along with a few models Ashton had painted for color and quality reference. Since this was the first time I was painting someone else’s color scheme to match previously done models, this was incredibly helpful. I’ll probably ask for that sort of thing next time I have to match an existing scheme for a project.

Trevor seems pretty happy with the results, and I’ll be showing these guys at the Nova Open next weekend before shipping them to Trevor. I’m not sure how well they’ll do in the painting competition where every brush stroke is examined – corners were cut for time and I didn’t worry about getting every blend perfect, but they’re firmly an above tabletop quality job on a 10-man unit done in about 12-15 hours, and I’m eager to get feedback on them. I’m confident that an army painted to this level would be in contention ofr a Master Craftsman award, and I’m very happy I was able to do that as quickly as I did.

Enjoy the pics, and stay tuned for more models in this scheme in the future!