Imperial Knights - Cerastus Twins in manufactorum pt7. Shading and Gamboge

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer on the Cerastus Knights. And onto some colour. First up the Gamboge art acrylic. This is stippled directly over the sponged Vermillion [sic]. The two shoulder pads are freshly applied, or have had two coats, which is why they're a bit brighter. But you can see how it darkens down a bit. These were panels that I was certain would need yellow...

Here you can see the shoulder pad is much darker, which is either just the first coat or how much it changes as it dries!

All of the amour has had a shade wash which was quite a few nights of work really. It was a hard slog and should not be overlooked for the impact it has on the model, and yet it is easy to overlook because it's not quite as impactful as adding the brighter colours. I also drybrush some more Warplock Bronze in places to tone down the gold. The top of the hip and thigh in particular. 

I'm much happier about this now, and the gold being less dominant. I also highlighted some areas with Runelord Brass, both drybrush and sponging. It's definitely created a more ancient and aged patina across the bronze. You can also see I picked out some silver areas too on the pistons.

It could probably do with a bit more differentiation in all the metallics to help define areas but I can add more shading in places and we will have the Blessed Verdigris 🗽which will change things immensely. I'm also going to pick out some of the pipework too so it won't be wholly bronze.

As I write this, further down the line than the pictures I know I debated this scheme constantly. Something about it wasn't right, but I was judging it on elements I hadn't even painted yet. The toes and left knee-pad were going to be yellow and the left half of the carapace. This meant the yellow right shin should have been red. 

The cruel irony being that as I look at the pictures now I see that I could have got away with this pattern, if I had have accepted the red toes, knee pad and carapace. Maybe it's something to bank for further down the line? But I had also thought to have the chain fist yellow/black on this [its right] side and black on the inside. I'd already decided to split the right shin, half black on the inner and this would be reflected in the chain fist blade with the red cowl on the heavy bolters.

But I absolutely couldn't get away from the idea that I had chosen to halve the whole scheme - split down the middle. So all of these yellow elements on the right hand side seemed contrary to this idea. But were sentimental hangovers from the original idea of how I was going to paint this.

Ultimately, I did some quick and dirty diagrams on post-it notes of  what both Cerastus schemes should be. Finally a plan to follow. But as happy as this made me - with something to work toward it had two downsides...

Number one, some of these panels had to be changed back to red. And number two, I won't get to realise the original vision I had for these knights. Now that's not the end of the world. Because throughout that vision didn't sit right with me. Certainly with something like a knight, where it's heraldry speaks volumes about it's history and how it fits into the rest of the force. There's a huge commitment as it represents so much. But ultimately, maybe these aren't 'decisions' in the normal sense. The Knight is communicating how it wants to be decorated. It's personality is manifesting itself just as its machine spirit might communicate...

But there are still a couple of knights missing from my pantheon. I don't have any Dominus or Destriers, so there could be scope to try to recapture this. Although I'd always imagined the Dominus was going to have a full chevron carapace - the entire top being yellow/black stripes.

Cerastus Knight Twins in Manufactorum
Parts: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |

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!