Imperial Knights - Cerastus Twins in manufactorum pt6. - Gold and Vermilion armour texture

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer on the Cerastus Knights. I've finally managed to make the next couple of steps. 

Retributor Armour stippled on to the brassy bronze areas. Now I know I will be shading this but I think already I had reservations about how gold the skeleton had become.

Bearing in mind that I had originally intended to experiment with a silver subframe this gold is far more than I expected or ever intended. We're almost wandering into Khorne territory. 

Again, there will be plenty of other colours in play but despite the satisfaction in progress I'm not wholly satisfied with the result. But it is all mostly done so next steps are available and I can always see how I can rectify things. And lets not overlook the Vermillion [sic] art acrylic that has been stippled on.

So, the Vermillion [sic] art acrylic is a key element in my paint scheme. The paint has a gel-like texture that can be sponged on to create the hammered, cast-iron effect I prefer. This means the armour plates are not flat. You can drybrush or stipple it and it's incredibly forgiving. The texture hides any imperfections in coverage. Or rather enhances poor coverage to give more depth and weathering to the panels. So I decided to record painting a panel so you can see how easy it is.

Now this is just the basecoat. There will be shading, highlights and battle damage to do that will capitalise on the texture. But from a distance, if you were so inclined or not into painting I don't see why you couldn't stop here. A little extra shading or darker definition would add so much more though. 

And on to the Acheron. And this definitely feels too gold, even with the chain fist just primed. Hopefully the shade wash will help tone it down a bit.

I've managed to add the pistons to the Reaper Chain Fist and they are functional! 

There is an awful lot of time at this stage trying to visualise the colour scheme. I do have some Cerastus outline pictures that I had intended to colour in an work on my schemes in advance. But it all seemed like a lot of work.

The irony being is that I may end up doing it down the line when it's less helpful in decision making but will provide some fluff imagery. 

The plan was to do both shins and feet yellow on this one. But I can't seem to reconcile it in my head. I can visualise it but something is not quite right and it doesn't wholly fit with the heraldry rules. It still needs to be Raven, even with the chevron marks. Trying to balance the schemes of both Cerastus at this stage is really quite difficult.

Cerastus Knight Twins in Manufactorum
Parts: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |

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
Parts: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

Imperial Knights - Cerastus Twins in manufactorum pt4. - Hatches

Afternoon #Warhammer Community it's been a while for hobby updates. After the Capillary Towers I've spent some time finishing off the hatches on the Cerastus Knights so that they open/close. I've started some other projects, built and primed, but they're top secret for a while. My son visited for half-term as well, which meant we watched anime rather than hobbying. So apologies for the quiet. Anyway, how to make your hatch open/close - drill either side of the hatch hinge socket and then cut out the top bits. 

Drill through the hinge and glue a metal pin into the hole.

Make some 'sprue-goo' I used the drill swarf and bits I removed from either side of the hinge socket. Chopped finely, mixed with polycement and splodged on. 

After a days rest I then smoothed it down with scalpel and fine sanding pads.

It's not perfect, but the texture and damage I will add will hide any issues. 

I also added a hatch on each of them. The left one is a plastic handle, from the carapace launcher. But it was very small so I had doubts it would be helpful when used to actually open the hatch. So I created a staple from a metal rod which is more substantial. But, it's not straight and the primer rubs of easily, just like old white metal models!

Well, it was an experiment in different choices. Anyway, you can see they're primed now and I'm starting to add the metallics. A tedious task and one made less appealing to record. I'll probably do my next WiP when the first highlight is done but the sub-assemblies are not conducive to good blog content. Not to mention [as I have many, many times] I just find metallics unpleasant to paint. All the glitter in your paint water and brushes that refuse to clean properly - yuk! However, these two are THE primary project and when the metallics are done we will make lots of progress. I want them complete by the end of the hobby season, and if I'm lucky the two secret squirrel projects. These Knights have been ongoing for over 2 years - it's about time they got TO DONE!

'nids part 387 - Terrain is everything - 3D printed capillary towers - TO DONE! 🔴⚪

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer on the 3D printed capillary towers. As the project came to an end I was lax again in keeping track of timing. I did record the red fleshy highlights though.

Red highlights 1, was 68 minutes. Red highlights 2. was 50 minutes. I didn't keep track of anything else.

Further highlights, shading, matt varnish, gloss varnish and Tamiya Clear Red X-27 followed. Really happy with the final result, but I ummed and ahhed for quite along time over the 'value' in hobby points. 

The biggest spires are as big as an Imperial Knight but are they worth 20 points each? I figured the two of them were worth 20 points The medium ones are they 10 points each? If so they're effectively the same value as the big ones. I did think not to worry about it and it balances out only giving the big ones 20 points. But in the end I valued them at 5 points each and the small ones at 2 points each.

Add the 5 point Terrain bonus and the entire suite of towers was valued at 39 points. The MESBG terrain was 80 points [plus 5]. This does feel like half the amount of effort, maybe a little more... 🤷What do you think?

A Great Big Chrome Stamp of Approval adding to my spreadsheet this is worth 39 points [plus 5 bonus terrain points]. Therefore, this brings me up to 289 points for the season so far.

And against the white background. Probably could have done to add a Termagant in for scale but forgot.