Cerastus Knight (Showcase)

 

Pilot's favourite game: poker.

Sometimes I'm motivated to paint a particular model that I hadn't planned on that day or week. This is one of those occasions. I've actually had a couple of Titanicus scale Cerastus Knights assembled for quite some time now, and I wanted to test out a smaller nozzle on one of my airbrushes. I just wanted to see what level of control I could achieve, what limits of painting parts there would be. The Cerastus Knights were already painted with some metallic paints, so trying to get just the armour panels seemed like the ideal practice.

I followed the same scheme as used with previous Knights, but in this case I went too heavy with the second highlight layer and it just made everything a brighter blue-grey. A mistake, but not a terrible one because it makes this model stand out a little bit more. I just need to remember to mix the paints a little next time and keep some of the base layer showing.

Another change this time around was that when looking over the whole model I decided that it was both very detailed, but also heavily oriented towards metals. Instead of trying to pick out tiny details and then later add weathering I decided to give an oil wash another go. Before I had used them for panel lining, but this time I thought I'd wash the entire model and then remove the excess. I have to admit, this worked brilliantly: recesses are darkened which helps with light/dark contrast to read the model, and the use of a cotton bud to remove excess from larger panel areas naturally leaves behind some smudging and smearing. This fit the theme perfectly and I was pleased with the results.

Following on with experimentation I drybrushed over the metal areas with Ironbreaker. Drybrush is perhaps not the best term, but it does help explain the reduced level of paint in the brush's bristles and the motion used to apply paint to upper surfaces. There are some areas that I considered too detailed for this approach, but they're very few and easily fixed up later with a "normal" approach.

Much of the rest is as it's seen. I used Screaming Bell on the shield and the lance to help them stand out from the armour trim, and actually used less black armour than on previous Knights. Shadows on the ground is a continued theme to help represent some impression of scale, though I would like something else there - street cones, a lamp, something. Perhaps on later models I can do that, which will give these ones the same feel through association when standing together.

The base has one small addition that was a bit of fun: an explosion crater. It was make by prodding Astrogranite into a small circular mound, smoothing away the outside edges and then later painting in various browns. Nothing too fancy, but it definitely adds character. A character that some people could do without in the real world, sadly.

On the running tally I'm not at 12 models that I can allow myself to buy.

-- silly painter.