Assembly: Cerastus Knight Castigator, Part 1

Yay! It finally came! It took a day shy of four weeks from the time I ordered it to when it arrived. Three of them in transit. Must have gotten stuck in customs. I have it now though, and I can finally start work on it. Unlike other Forge World models, this actually has pretty decent instructions. However, I thought a pictorial assembly guide may still help.

Here are the main torso pieces. This is where I'm starting. Front, two sides, back, and the Throne Mechanicum. It's kind of cool to see the controls, but once you have the carapace on, you'll never see it. I put it in since I wasn't sure if there would be structural issues if I didn't, but I don't plan on painting it.

First step, after removing the sprues and cleaning any errant mold lines, etc., is to attach the front and right side together. I think the instructions actually call it the left which is correct from your vantage point, but it's the right side of the torso. You can see a bit of the control screen on the front piece. Also note that at the bottom of those vertical braces on the right side piece, there are little sprues. I didn't think anything of them at first until I tried dry fitting the Throne in there and I realized they need to be removed. They are on both sides. Also of note, on the close side of the front piece you can see the grooves where the side piece fits in. It raises up where the small square bolted plates are on the outside? See it? And near the bottom that groove is like a narrow channel, just below where my pinkie is? I had to wiggle the side piece a bit, but eventually it snapped in to place. If you don't get it seated all the way, you're going to have a bad time. Mmmkay?

Next, in goes the Throne Mechanicum. It sits above the guide on the side piece.

And then the left torso side snaps into place. Don't forget to remove the little diagonal sprues from the vertical bracing on the torso piece or you'll be left wondering why it's not going on correctly.

Next, the back piece goes on. It took a fair amount of wiggling to get it seated properly, but once it goes in, it fits tight. Be mindful at the top where it joins the Throne piece that you only get glue where the two will touch. It's easy to get glue on exposed areas. Then again it will be covered by the carapace, but if you plan on not gluing the carapace to be able to show off the Throne, be mindful of it so you don't glop things up.

Finally the waist joint is inserted into the bottom. I should have taken a picture of the bottom prior to inserting it, but to let you know, it's keyed. The opening is a square, but it's offset from center so the joint will only fit in one way correctly. Once you push it in, keep pushing. It didn't look like it was seated all the way and I finally got a satisfying snap (as opposed to a heart attack inducing snap of something breaking) as it finally seated all the way.

Next comes the shoulder armor supports. The two supports look identical, however each will only fit on one side. It's a clever bit of keying. So if you try one side and it doesn't line up properly on the sides, don't despair. It goes on the other side.

Next comes the exhaust ports. These aren't as robust as the exhaust on the Questoris Knights. It's pretty easy to figure out which one goes on which side.

 The Chest plates are next. As you can see, if they are on they cover up a good portion of the piping, cables, and hoses underneath. So much so that it would be difficult to get primer in there and yet not enough that it can be ignored. So I haven't attached the chest plates yet.

So here's the completed torso. I'll use some sticky tack to cover the glue points and get this primed first, get those hoses and whatnot painted then get the chest plates on. I already know there's a few future steps I need to worry about when masking for priming such as where the head attaches and the cowling. That's easy to look up.

So that's it for part 1. Next task to tackle is the Leg assembly.