Scratch-building a Chaos Warhound Titan

[Araziel]

I don’t think I’m alone in saying that I’ve always wanted a Titan to accompany by army into the world of Apocalypse. Of course, the problem then arises – the damn things are so, so expensive.

Well, my girlfriend and I were talking about them (Miss-Jam from here on the B+C) and we decided that, both having an understanding on 3D construction from art and design-related courses through college, that we could probably build one ourselves to march to war with my WIP Death Guard CSM force (found in my sig.)

 

So, that is where this blog comes in. We’re going to upload everything we do, and provide any help we can to people who have questions. Now, we’re not going to be building something that looks identical to the Forge World sculpts, as well – we’re not sculptors.

We will be providing the blog with photos of everything – of the build, the products we purchase to build it, everything. We’ll also be providing an exact total of the cash we’ll be spending on the project (this will be based in GBP, as we reside there).

 

And so, it begins….

 

 

Phase 1

 

We had to decide a number of things before we rushed out and bought everything. The main example that springs to mind to me is the fact that I wanted to go and build a Warlord straight away, not tell any of my opponents and turn up to the next Apocalypse battle with a “nice surprise” for all involved.

As you can imagine, she beat me down to building a Warhound. (This is where I added in my head the phrase “to begin with”.)

 

We decided to make the main construction out of 3mm foam board. This is for a variety of reasons – mainly being that it is a strong, sturdy material with a nice, low cost. I went out and bought two A1 sheets, costing £5.95 each.

I also picked up a pad of A1 graph paper, costing £1.25, and a pack of tracing paper, costing £1.29.

As the beast was going to end up pretty tall, and possibly top heavy (we decided we’d be arming it with a Turbo-laser and Vulcan – the easiest weapons to design) with the introduction of plastic tubing for the guns, I realised we’d need a base. For this, I went out and bought six 12” vinyl records for £1 from our local charity shop. There was no reason behind the amount we bought, other than the fact that I could get six for that price – although I’m full well going to use it as an excuse to build five more once we finish.

 

I detailed the base with a moonscape crater from GW, and an old LOTR ruin I had in lying around. To make sure this point is clear; I’m not adding anything I already had in my possession into the cost for this product. We all have a mad amount of stuff lying around our hobby areas, so I’m sure other people following this blog (if anybody follows it, I should say) will have similar things they can use.

I then covered the base in a layer of filler (again, I already had this in my house) before pressing a card template of the titan’s foot into it before it had set. This was so I could texture and paint the base separate to my heart’s content without having to worry about the foot being on an angled area.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7029/6782830981_c6e023c7bb.jpg

IMG_0242 by Araziel 619, on Flickr

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7008/6782832117_47fdbe0ebb.jpg

IMG_0249 by Araziel 619, on Flickr

 

After I finished all the blueprints of the model onto graph paper, my girlfriend then began the long, and no doubt boring, process of first tracing them, and then transferring the design onto one sheet of the foam board. I really can’t thank her enough for this, as I’d have gone mental trying, and probably given up to play Xbox instead :D

The only part that is not, as of yet, marked out onto the foam is the head of the titan. I want to see the rest of the model built before I’m convinced that I have the right measurements and scale for it. Everything needed to build the main body, legs, and gun mounts for the arms have, so far, fitted onto a single sheet of the A1 foam board sheet. There is still plenty of space on the sheet as well, so I have no doubt that I won’t actually need the second sheet I bought at the same time. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to make another with the left-overs, eh?

 

I've begun to upload photographs of the blueprints I made, and I present them to you here;

 

The Feet

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7167/6782827729_5d7b7722c2.jpg

IMG_0239 by Araziel 619, on Flickr

 

The Groin section/armour plate.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7035/6782829993_21a43a31cd.jpg

IMG_0241 by Araziel 619, on Flickr

 

The Torso.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7018/6782833089_35ea23b188.jpg

IMG_0250 by Araziel 619, on Flickr

 

The Head.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7006/6782829063_f5d93885a6.jpg

IMG_0240 by Araziel 619, on Flickr

 

The Gun-mounts/Arms.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7175/6782834129_93b953f620.jpg

IMG_0251 by Araziel 619, on Flickr

 

This is all we have right now in the photo-related department. I think its worth noting that neither of us have embarked upon a project quite like this before, and I fully expect to not have everything quite 100%. But hey, we're going to give it our best go!

 

The new University term starts tomorrow, and we both want to be present during all the building stages so the next session won't be until Wednesday. With any luck, there will be a big photo update next weekend.

 

The total cost of the project so far is £15.44

[Goreshed]

I will most certainly be watching this. Excellent work so far!

[Araziel]

Thanks very much. Its good to know we're off to the right start!

 

I'm not at my house right now, but my girlfriend's. All the parts are at mine, other wise I'd make a new update detailing the measurements I've used for each piece, how they connect, and how many of them I had put onto the board for each part.

As it is, I'm afraid you'll have to make do with what can (just about) be read in the photographs in the OP.

[Grimdarkness]

Sounds interesting looking forward to seeing what come's about from this project.

[Olis]

Would saying excellent progress so far be a bit premature? It is just a base and plans, atm. I must admit, you certainly are thorough. B)

[Araziel]

I've made some progress as of late. Its not much, but you can blame that on me running out of hot glue-gun sticks and the shops around here not stocking the size I need. I am not a happy heretic right now...

 

But anyway. I was going to wait to upload more images at once, but I figured that it would probably be easier to digest a project as a reader if I make smaller updates, as opposed to hardly adding anything, but popping an essay onto the thread whenever I deem it large enough.

 

So, without any more of my insescent rambling..

 

The feet + leg

 

I began with the titan's assembly with the left foot. The right is going to be built around the crater on the base, so I figured I'd go for the simpler one for kick-starting it.

http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q495/Araziel619/103_0092.jpg

 

All of the pieces of the foot were cut out individually from one-another, and I cut two out for each section.

This accounts for a total of;

 

16 x toes

4 x sole

 

Each section was double up together to build the correct thickness. I will note here that I am going to be shaping these parts, but will be awaiting the completion of both feet and legs before proceeding.

You will notice that the square marked out on the blueprints of the foot has been cut out of the top layer of the two that make the sole of the foot (I hope that makes sense).

 

This is so the leg section can easily fit into the foot.

 

Once all of the double pieces were glued together as separate components (each foot comprising of eight two's, and two sole's built upon each other), I glued them together, and then to the base.

 

http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q495/Araziel619/103_0094.jpg

 

It is worth noting that if following this thread and mimicking my build, you will only need to make the feet as multiple separate components if you want one, or both, of the feet to have some sense of motion. You will still need two feet per foot though, in order to provide the rough appropriate size of the FW sculpt.

 

Next, I built the lower leg (below the knee).

http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q495/Araziel619/103_0096.jpg

 

This is constructed using a template not photographed in any previous post, but its measurements are very simple - a rectangle of 2cm width, and 9cm in length.

These pieces then need to be cut down width-wise. There will be no exact measurement if you are attempting this build, so I would suggest that you basically wing it.

 

I placed the back section of the leg vertically within the leg hole previously cut into the foot. I then marked out on the side pieces how much I would need to trim off to make them fit alongside the back piece (this was 2mm on each for me, if memory serves). You will then need to repeat the process again for the front section (I believe I trimmed a further 2mm from mine).

 

Next, you'll obviously want to glue it all together, before test-fitting its position when placed (without glue!!) into the foot;

 

http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q495/Araziel619/103_0097.jpg

 

You'll now want to repeat the above mentioned process three more times, giving you a total of 4 leg sections.

 

 

And that is, I'm afraid, when I ran out of glue. I'm scouring the internet as we speak to find the correct size for my gun, so it hopefully won't be too long until I get to work some more on him.

 

If you have any questions so far, please don't hesitate to ask. I'm pretty friendly for a heretic!!

 

 

Before I leave, I want to give you a sneak peak of the aim for this project (I told you this was just the beginning...)

 

http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q495/Araziel619/103_0098.jpg