Imperial Knights - Cerastus Twins in manufactorum pt5. - Rough Iron and Copper

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer on the Cerastus Knights. I can't quite convey just how little motivation I had to do the metallics on both these knights. I was thoroughly overwhelmed by just how much needed doing and for weeks I couldn't bring myself to even contemplate putting paint on them. 

Couple that with a heatwave which made the shed unbearable, even in the evenings and it took a monumental push to get the Army Painter Rough Iron base coat on the skeleton and trim. 

But I was blown away how quick it actually was to apply. I think I did 80-90% of them in about 80 minutes. It was incredibly satisfying, which provided some motivation to keep that momentum going.

 However, I was beset by doubts about what came next, was it the texture stippling of the armour plates or the VGC Hammered Copper highlights on the metallics? If only I had some record of doing these Knights previously so I didn't have to make such decisions and could just follow the plan... 

The thing is, I'm pretty sure it's not one way or the other. The battle damage always covers a multitude of sins so I can make all sorts of mistakes and it can be hidden or covered up. I don't know why I fret about these things.

And then I sabotage myself by not doing everything at once. The Acheron Reaper Chain Fist is missing a couple of pistons on the elbow joint. I wanted to make the pistons possible, which I hadn't figured out how to achieve. So while everything else had metallics up to first highlights with the sponged on Hammered Copper, the Chain Fist was just primed.

But the sponging had been relatively straightforward. It might not have been as quick as the Rough Iron base coat but I was making progress and it was filling me with hope. Which can be a dangerous thing because I'd already been imagining these would easily be complete by the end of the hobby season. But then I squandered a couple of weeks of potential progress with my lack of hobby mojo. 

You can never take any of it for granted. I'd gone from imaging these completed alongside a few other projects and now my hope is this and I'd be ecstatic to get the Adeptus Titanicus buildings done too by the end of the season. I've still got some design work to do as well though so there are no guarantees.

But this is not only significant progress, but more importantly actual progress. Particularly because as I write this I know I have stippled all the Vermillion [sic] armour texture, added the Retributor Armour sponge highlights and shaded all the trim, with just the two skeletons still to add sepia washes on. Even more progress. Now, the metallic results aren't great. I wasn't happy with how much gold I added, so went overboard with the sepia.

 There will be more work to do to try and bring it all back to what I'm happy with. But if there's one thing I know about my brassy bronze - it can all be fixed by Blessed Verdigris! 🗽As soon as I get the remaining sepia done, then maybe some Strong Tone in other areas. I can do a bit of extra Retributor sponging, where I won't go overboard. Then some Runelord Brass [or similar] and at that point the metallics are all done. Then I get the fun of choosing my actual colour scheme for the panels. I think I know what I'm doing but just blocking in the colours will make such a huge difference to my motivation. I would just add at this point there's just a smidge of regret for not actually doing a knight with a gunmetal/silver skeleton. I may have done them for my Adeptus Titanicus Atrapos, but I couldn't bring myself this time round, nevermind. 

Cerastus Knight Twins in Manufactorum
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