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!

On the Workbench [July] - HH DA Knights Cenobium and AT Legio Ignatum Warhounds

A short post today to share what's been on my workbench in July.  While I am always painting, I like to take breaks from time to time during the month to build new things.  The Inner Circle Knights Cenobium from Forge World are a very detailed kit for the Dark Angels in 30K. They are going the be VERY fun to paint.  Lots and lots of detail in these sculpts.  

I need to straighten the swords (common when working with resin) then attach them and prime the models.  The capes will be left off for painting and glued on later. My 30K backlog is growing so expect to see them on the painting table soon.

I'm finally going to play a game of Adeptus Titanicus!  I quickly assembled these warhound titans to bulk out the existing three Legio Ignatum engines.  I'm setting up an outside game, for social distancing and all the best safety measures, between my Tempestus and the Ignatum engines.  This game will be an opportunity to introduce a close friend to the game and try the rules out myself.

Perhaps you'll find an inaugural battle report for the blog at some point.  I don't think I've every really done that before. Hmmm...

Anyway, that's what's on the work bench this month.

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!