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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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!

Terrain is everything - Red Planet BASE! 🔴 Board extension - TO DONE!

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer on some extra flat pieces of terrain board that we can use to extend, or replace sections of my Red Planet BASE! 🔴 Realm of Battle Board. Essentially, what happened was I turned up to Otty's shed and he handed me these three 1'x2' sections and told me to paint them red! Totally ambushed, but what could I do? He had used some textured wallpaper to give a relief, but I had to add some sand in places to cover up the seams.

Then I got totally fixated on finishing! It wasn't a huge task, so despite being an unexpected new project I [thought I] knew what I was doing. First up, the prime. Rather than go with a spray primer I still had a tin of Red Oxide  paint on primer I'd used on the edges of my RoBB. 

Slopped it on, maybe we can still see those joins but the subsequent highlights might disguise them.

OK, so I thought I knew how to do this - subsequent highlighted Vermillion blobs to create a mottled random pattern. But I think I did the blobs smaller than I did on my RoBB. Or at least it looks that way now I refer back to the finished showcase pics. I hadn't put a wash on top of the primer, which was not as matt as I expected it to be. I hoped the matt varnish would flatten it all out.

But I thought there was far too much contrast between the blobs, so did a light overspray with my Red Oxide Car Primer to give the flattening a head start.

Then I flicked on some bonewhite paint to get my wraithbone chips

It worked really well all things considered.

From this angle it's not too bad

But compared to the RoBB you can see I was much more subtle in how I created the highlighted areas. It'll be fine with terrain on I hope but yeah, not a match I'm happy with, but I'll survive

And here we go after the varnish.

Well it's definitely matt, which has helped to remove the shine from the paint on primer at least.

It hasn't quite smoothed out the contrast that I'd hoped but it'll do.

We'll just have to wait and see when it actually gets used.

So I get a Great Big Chrome 'BIG BUILD' BASE Stamp of Approval.

As well as the Great Big Chrome Stamp of Approval according to my spreadsheet I've judged the three pieces together as 20 points, plus a 5 point terrain bonus. Therefore, this brings me up to 245 points for the season so far.

 

Imperial Knights - House Corvus Twins in manufactorum pt16. - WHITE BACKGROUND PICS ⚪

Afternoon #Warhammer Community following up my red background pics with the obligatory white background ones. Not much more to say about them, this is Ser Ellenbogen.

And Lady Pettorini...

While I was at it I couldn't forget Euronymous the Fallen Knight and his tiny twin. Notice how the basing material has started to completely delaminate from the base?

I've had to go back in with some superglue, hoping capillary action would draw it further underneath to hold it in place. 🤞

Imperial Knights - House Corvus Twins in Manufactorum
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