Jewel of July: House Taranis Cerastus Knight-Castigator - week 4 - TO DONE

Welcome to week four of the Jewel of July challenge.  As expected, I was able to finish off the Cerastus Knight-Castigator.  It stands proud, leading my growing collection of House Taranis knights.  I have five more built and primed waiting forlornly for more paint.  For now, I'll be content to put the big seal o' DONE on this model.

After applying a good coat of lacquer to the whole model, I brushed on some weathering powders soaked in pigment fixer. When that was dry, I dropped a little water effects in the deepest craters and holes on the base.  I don't use water effects much, so I decided this base offered a good opportunity to give 'em a go.

Otherwise, the decals were finished and additional highlights added prior to the coat of lacquer going on.  Here is how the Knight-Castigator turned out.  I'm pleased with the result.  I do favor a cleaner look than some, but I think the knight still stands tall and proud regardless of its lack of weathering and battle damage.

Ready to bring the Omnissiah's Justice to Heretic and Xenos alike.

The big guns never tire...

A good shot of the 10 - 20 seconds of ammo available for the bullet hose.

Crackling power sword ready to cleave something in two...

Our Baron seated in his comfy chair, watching the battle play out on thrice blessed displays.

So that puts and end to the Jewel of July challenge for me.  I hope everyone isn't now burnt out on Knight-Castigator WIP picks.  Moving on, I'll start painting Dark Angels - either 30k or some new 40k Primaris.  I'm torn as I have the backlog of 30K models built, primed and ready - but I also got my Indomitus box and so have some really great new 40k Primaris to paint in Dark Angels livery.

I also have two Legio Ignatum Warhound Titans for Adeptus Titanicus waiting for some paint.  I do love painting tiny titans.

You'll have to check back next week to see what I move forward, I'm afraid.

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Jewel of July: House Taranis Cerastus Knight-Castigator WIP - week 3

Hello, and welcome to week three of my Jewel of July project, a Cerastus Knight-Castigator for House Taranis.  During week three, I recognized that I needed to stop stalling and paint in the white stripes on the carapace that would designate this knight as being piloted by a House Taranis baron. This process involved masking out the stripes, painting them with white scar using an airbrush, adding a coat of lacquer, adding the panel shading to match the rest of the carapace (I should have done the stripes before all the shading), then cleaning things up.

I added the red highlights and some steel edge highlights on the armor panels.  I need to make another pass at highlights, but things are coming along. I painted in the Mechanicum symbol and added color to the "skylight" on the top hatch.  Then it was time for decals...

I'm going to do more on the Baron's banner.  He needs lots of accolades and what not for his long years of service. But things are coming along.  Also - I don't know why I used the steels trim on the banner.  It has to go.  I think I'll use black, the same as the back of the banner to go along with the black/white House Taranis motif.

Typical top down shot to see what the Knight looks like with it's iconography.  I'm going to add some little Mechanicum techie symbols to jazz things up a bit.

I added a House Taranis icon on the ammo loader for a bit of interest from this side of the model and break up the large flat red panel.

All assembled and standing proudly on its base.  I have all the major iconography applied.  I'm going back in with another pass to fill out the banner and add some interesting little bits.  These large Mechanicum models are gran for decals and adding lots of interesting images.

I'll definitely get this model done for the challenge.  Having made great progress early on, I have slowed down a bit to work on some other side projects (like assembling the AT Warhounds).  It helps to avoid burnout when working on large models.

I hoep everyone's summer is going well.  Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Jewel of July: House Taranis Cerastus Knight-Castigator WIP - week 2

Welcome to Jewel of July week two.  Since last week, I put some time into the Castigator's eyes (seen above) and attached the rest of the armor to the chest and shoulders.  He's now fully assembled, though the waist has not been glued yet to make it easier to paint.

Taking a break from painting the Knight, I spent some time with the base this week. I'm following the paint recipe for House Taranis so this base will compliment the Knight Paladin and the two Armigers I've already painted for House Taranis.  In the pic above, the washes are still drying.  I like to apply washes for the base as a wet blend like this to prevent a splotchy outcome. With the two GW greens merging with the Agrax I get a range of shades when things are all dry that make the surface of the ground look a bit more interesting.

Above, the washes are dry and I have applied a heavy dry brush over the whole base,  The sand bags were painted using a supper heavy dry brushing.   The barrel was painted liberally all over with GW Typhus Corrosion and then dabbed with the GW Ryza Rust while the Typhus was still wet.  A used a little GW Nihilakh Oxide on the shells. Vallejo Brass picks out the name plaque nicely. 

As noted, the pilot for this Knight is Baron Harkon and the knight has been named Gladius Martis (Sword of Mars)...cause big sword, right? :)  I find it best not to over think this stuff.  As I worked on the base, I thought it would be fun to continue what I started with the Knight Paladin and use some bits from the Death Korps of Krieg as a nod to 262Krieg.  I painted up a melta gun and a couple mines and glued them down.  

Here is how things will look with the knight standing on the base.Simple, so as not to detract from the knight itself, but still interesting enough to tell a short story of its own, I hope.

So that is where I have gotten to by the end of week two of Jewel of July; well on my way to completion.  I'll get some decals and highlighting on this beast and then we'll see where we are at.

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Jewel of July: House Taranis Cerastus Knight-Castigator WIP - week 1b

As I sail through week one of the Jewel of July painting challenge, I'm making great progress on the Knight-Castigator.  Washes are down, and even some highlights have gone onto the legs (dry-brushing). The legs are fully assembled now, with armor plates and banner attached.

I decided to take a break from the mundane and put some work into the sword last night.  I took inspiration from the old Duncan GW method for Custodes power weapons and combined it with an approach from Spikey Bits, though using standard brushes and not air brushing the crackling energy. 

The body details are almost done.  I have to complete the work on the chest cabling so I can attach the armor. Some bits can be seen in the pic below.  Apparently, I didn't capture any images that illustrate the bony details any better.

The Castigator bolt cannon is coming along well. What a bullet hose that thing looks like. Yikes. Here is the bucket of bullets.  Seems like about 30 - 45 seconds worth of ammo for that cannon unless it has a seriously slow rate of fire...

So as week one of the Jewel of July passes on, we're looking in a great position to complete this model during the challenge.  Which means I'll have to look for the next thing to complete, since the challenge is about completing projects. Heh, but I shouldn't get ahead of myself.  There is a lot of work yet to do, including the untouched base.

Best of luck for all the other challenges out there. Stay safe.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Jewel of July: House Taranis Cerastus Knight-Castigator WIP - week 1

Greetings.  This week I kick off a new community challenge Jewel of July with a Cerastus Knight-Castigator, painted in the livery of House Taranis. I bought this model a couple years back and finally built is last year.  It has since sat waiting for a paint job (although I had at least painted it's interior before setting it aside). So this model was a good pick for a challenge on completing projects.

I started out air brushing the panels and main skeleton of the Castigator according to my House Taranis paint recipe (see recipe tabs above). The one change I made was using ScaleColor  Black Metal (SC-63) for the skeleton instead of starting with a steel dry brush over the primer.  This brightens the model a bit, but still offers a nice contrast to the chrome and steel accents that follow. I started using the black Metal with the Adeptus Titanicus Titans and I like it a lot.

After masking and air brushing the various colors, I got started on the legs.  Vallejo Chrome was used on the piston shafts and Vallejo Steel was used on the armor panel trim.  Vallejo Dark Rubber was applied to the flexible joints where the legs join the hips. All of this will be shaded soon and that will help things look more defined.

We're only six days in, but there has been solid progress so far. I hope this will be a fierce looking knight to lead my House Taranis force.

Not much to see from the back yet, but still a good illustration of all the great detail on this model.

I plan to leave the carapace loose (probably magnetized) so I can get in to see the great detail on the optional pilot cockpit kit that I added when building the model. As I recall, this was available separately from Forge World.  Not sure if it is an option anymore, but I felt it was well worth the extra money at the time

.

The pilot is keeping tabs on the fight, tracking both allied and enemy engines. I pre-painted the cockpit before assembly and so had a jump start on that bit of painting going into this challenge.

That's where I'm at so far.  Check back towards the end of the week for more progress. I'm trying to keep up my regular two-post-per-week cadence, but I'll fill in a post or two on other projects no doubt as the month moves on.

Best wishes for all of the other Jewel of July challengers out there.

Stay safe.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

On the Workbench [December] - Cerastus Knight-Castigator Part 2

I was able to put more work into the Castigator this week and now the build is complete. Before reaching this point, I needed to complete the pilot so the body could be assembled since there is no way to get him settled in his seat through the top hatch.

Nothing fancy here, but enough detail and care to look great when viewed through the hatch.  If I had really wanted to go over the top, I could have sorted out the installation of a green LED out of sight with the light defused enough to enhance the model and provide a convincing glow for the cockpit when the hatch is opened.  As it is, this pilot will sit in darkness and can only be decently viewed with a strong light shining in through the open hatch. Still, I know he's there, and I know the work that went into him.

The armor was painted using GW Mephiston Red and highlighted with GW Wild Rider Red.  The gold is Vallejo Brass.  I did not highlight it with silver since there aren't and sharp bright lights hitting the model from inside the cockpit.  I used GW Doombull Brown on the leather, same as the throne seat cushions.  The whole model was shaded with GW Agrax Earthshade, then the silver was painted using Vallejo Steel shaded with GW Nuln Oil.  The hoses were painted with Vallejo Dark Rubber and also shaded using GW Nuln Oil.  GW Abbadon Black was painted across the eye slit to darken it as I wasn't looking to paint OSL for a glowing visor.

After sealing the model with a coat of Model Masters Lusterless Flat coat, I returned to the assembly line.  I glued the throne to one side of the knight's body while completing the pilot.  Once the flat coat dried, the pilot was glued in place as well.

Next the front panel of the body was glued in place.  Now the Scion pilot can be seen facing the knight's command console. For short work, the interior is really coming together!

The other side was then glued in place as well.  Here's the last best view of the pilot and interior before the carapace armor is eventually glued down.

I am quite pleased with the results.  Perhaps a bit dark, and I didn't go the distance with LEDs or any OSL form the screens lighting the front of the Scion's armor, but heck, it's the Grim "Dark" after all.

With the body assembled I could finally complete the build.  The top carapace armor rests in place and is not glued down yet to help with final painting of the model.  Honestly, it sits tight enough that I could leave it unglued so I could see the full interior in the future.  I'll have to see about that once painting is complete.  It's also easy to forget and lift the model by the carapace and have it come loose, allowing the model to drop back onto the table, and no doubt breaking something...so that has to be considered.

The body is pinned to the legs with a length of brass rod, tightly fitted.  This approach should allow me to take it apart for painting and future storage.  Magnets could work if done well, but I didn't feel it was worth the extra effort in this case.  The resin here is MUCH heaver than the plastic knights.  The body with arms attached would require the best from my magnets.  A long, tightly fitted rod is secure with no risk of knocking the top off inadvertently. 

And the knight is now standing tall and looking fierce; ready to cleave an enemy war machine in half with its mighty sword.  This was a great model to build.  It went together much easier than anticipated with all parts fitting accurately together with little to no warping.  I used a heat gun only to adjust the shape of the ammo belt so it wouldn't interfere with the position of the arm, and this step is even called out in the instructions.  Reshaping the belt is unavoidable with the pose-ability of the arm. The elbow joints were pinned like the knees to make it easier to pose the arms while the glue dried.  Everything is glued in place now and the arms and legs are rigid.  The pins remain to reinforce the glue joins.

All armor is temporarily attached, or not attached at all (chest plates).  These parts will only get permanently attached once the body is fully painted.  I'm looking forward to breaking out the air brush and laying down a cool House Taranis paint scheme on this beast.  I'll follow up with some comparison shots along side the Questoris and Armiger knights.  This dude is tall! Not Titan tall, but head and shoulders above the Questoris Knights.  It'll make a good ride for my House Taranis baron, and a strong centerpiece for the Imperial Knight force in general.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

On the Workbench [December] - Cerastus Knight-Castigator

Greetings!  Well December and the holidays are a busy, busy time for my family and this year we've thrown in a good dose of illness to go with.  So it is, that I put up my first post for December 12 days in.  Yikes.  Anyway, although busy and sick, I haven't been idle.

While busily plugging away at my Adeptus Titanicus Maniple, I got inspired to take on a Forge Wold kit languishing on my hobby shelves.  The Knight-Castigator will serve as the lead knight for my House Taranis collection, a suitable ride for a Baron, I thought.

It all started like this...

I decided to build this knight literally from the ground up.  He'll be mounted on a Secret Weapon Miniatures base that I got a while back in a "Bag O Crap" and recently primed for the occasion. The legs have been pinned in key places to provide additional support for the super glue.  I also now make a habit of scratching up the surfaces to be joined to give the glue more to adhere to.  This cross-hatching can be seen below on the ball of the waist joint.

The brass rods seen above not only serve as pins, they are also quite helpful for assisting with the final pose. These legs are very pose-able, but can also be VERY fiddly to keep in place while the glue sets up. The pic below shows the completed legs with the armor temporarily attached, not glued down.  The large rectangular mounting sockets are great for this, since the armor is just about press-fit tight.

So I was ripping along with the assembly, and having a great time, when I suddenly realized that this knight has a fully detailed cockpit and knight scion within.  This can of course be ignored since it is invisible unless you leave the top hatch unglued.  But for the cost of this kit, and respect for all the detail work that goes into it, I simply couldn't take the short cut!

So assembly came to a grinding halt while I primed the interior pieces and driver for painting.  Then that had to dry so I could get to work on the paint.  I did compromise somewhat with a very simple paint job.  After all, it will be only barely visible through the raised top hatch on the model.  I want the first glance into the knight suit to be intriguing and deliver some pop.  But I don't need to spend an additional week painting for a Crystal Brush here (yeah, I know...as if...).

So a straight forward metal dry brush with various Vallejo metals followed by a GW Nuln Oil shade for the side panels.  Then some additional detail for the controls.

Army Painter Copper and Vallejo Brass were used for the details completed with Vallejo Green Taillight for the screens.  The whole thing was then shaded with GW Nuln Oil.  There's a lot more that could be done here, but remember that with the scion seated before it and the whole thing only visible at an angle looking down into the top hatch, most good detail would be lost to a viewer.  But it's a BIG screen you say...

Yeah, I thought so too.  So I put some details in.  Green dots for good guys, red for bad guys....simple, right?  Then the upper screen got the targeter treatment with the two bad guys lit up and ready to get got.  My hope is that these simple bright details will look cool and convincing on first glance down into the cockpit.

Then, of course, the throne got paint too.  Another simple job to pick out details and convince the eye towards its mechanical nature.  The seated scion will cover up most of the detail, with both arms completely covering the armrests and controls.  So no extra effort there.  Other projects await! Not sure if I'm convincing myself or you that I didn't totally cheap out here...

In a follow up post, I hope to show the completed Knight Scion who today sits primed black and pinned to a cork for painting, along with his standing self.  Writing this, I realize that I bought the scions and throne as additional components for this kit.  The base kit does have the detailed interior panels and roof/hatch, but the throne and scions come extra.  I didn't plan on additional knights (and still don't) from Forge World, so I wanted this one to have all the bells and whistles!

Thanks for reading this far and indulging me in a bit of the Hobby Butterfly syndrome lately.  Rest assured that I will plow on with my Titanicus projects and should even get back to my Mechanicum Kill Team before long.  Then of course the Rogue Traitor minis await...and those form Blackstone Fortress...and...well...all the rest!

I hope your projects are going well, too.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!