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!