<The Engines March>

[warp spider]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/104870318/865498.jpg

 

I like to think that my housemates don’t have that much influence over what I buy from forge world. That being said, I can single handily attribute the subject of this thread to my housemate Seb (who doesn’t even play 40k*) who convinced me over a weekend to make a little trip down the road to Warhammer world. My bank account suffered. Take that as a hint.

 

So on a Wednesday; Myself and two mates arrive at Warhammer world, Nottingham. After surviving the copyrighted Games Workshop assault from apparently every member of staff asking how we are, what we are after and any other question that they feel like asking us, we spent the obligatory ten or so minutes perusing the shelves, before I grabbed some terrain piece and went to pay. The exchange with the (incredibly helpful, admittedly) staffer went something like this:

 

‘So is there anything else you need? Paints, glue, anything like that?’ I stand, thoughtfully for a moment, considering the array of paints and other modelling supplies before me. ‘Actually, yes’.

 

Upon hearing my request, the staffer goes slightly pale, before searching behind the counter, and placing on the counter a very special, and very large box:

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/104870318/Photo%2013-12-2012%2001%2022%2029.jpg

 

‘You’re sure? That will be £expensive then, sir’

 

I open my wallet and begin counting coins. I get to about 27p (about 44 cents in monopoly money), before I realize I don't (quite) have enough.

 

‘Hey Ty’ I yell to my other housemate, ‘can I borrow three hundred odd quid?’ ‘Sure’ he replies, before handing me a wad of notes, ‘Just buy me a drink next time we go out, don't even worry about it’.

 

To say that the staffer was even paler by this point was a bit of an understatement. I paid, grabbed the very heavy box, jumped in my private helicopter and disappeared into the sunset before he could sell me anything else.

 

So that’s not exactly how it happened, as I’m sure you figured, but it was pretty close. Regardless, thanks to Seb, I have now acquired a Mars Pattern Warhound Titan.

 

And a large dent in my bank account.

 

*To be fair, that day he snapped and brought dark vengeance. He’s the kind of guy that once he’s had a taste, he’ll have three armies in a week, so I feel justice was served ;)

 

 

This thread is primarily intended to document the construction and painting of this Titan, and let you guys give some comments and criticism, as I haven’t really built anything this big before, so any advice I can get will be greatly appreciated. I will also go through in an almost step by step process as I work so slowly, so this might also make a good tutorial if I ever end up finishing the silly thing.

 

This will be an Imperial titan, of undecided name and titan legion (ideas welcome!). I’m currently working on a Adeptus Custodian army, so to go with them it might be best if I make it preheresy themed, possibly themed around the siege of the imperial palace.

 

So, on with the show. The mini (if I can even call it that :D ) came in many different bags, each seemingly containing many components, most of which I had no clue where they went. I’m going to say now; the quality of this mini is excellent. With larger models I often seen a tendency for detail to be lacking simply due to the size of the miniature. This is not the case here. There are details everywhere, from tiny AdMech Symbols all over the joints, to the insane detail of the interior. There was very little distortion or flashing, although there are some horrifically large vents on some of the shoulder pieces. This is an older kit, so it’s not as smooth as some of the newer stuff, but I’m not bothered. It's a freakin Titan!

 

A very good kit so far, I’ll review it some more as I go.

 

As with all forgeword miniatures, the first thing to be done was to get the pieces in soak and washed. I cheerfully started this about 9 pm, thinking I’d be done by 11pm or so, but it turns out that I finished the last bag at about 2am in the morning. To the point where two of my housemates actually came back from a night out to find me still washing the damn thing.

 

All the pieces laid out on my sofa, after a deep clean:

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/104870318/Photo%2013-12-2012%2001%2023%2012.jpg

 

Some instructions & the battlscape terrain piece for part of the base:

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/104870318/Photo%2013-12-2012%2001%2023%2039.jpg

 

I went for dual turbo lasers:

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/104870318/Photo%2013-12-2012%2023%2011%2048.jpg

 

Next day I stayed up late again to figure out how it went together:

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/104870318/Photo%2014-12-2012%2002%2003%2026.jpg

 

Construction is going to take a while. I started with a turbo laser, pinning the barrels to the body and adding some extra detail in the form of guitar wire (it’s great living with musicians, free guitar wire!). I recently grabbed some liquid green stuff, and it’s great for filling in those gaps that inevitably appear when you build a model, especially forgeword minis, so I also used that here:

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/104870318/photo%2019-12-2012%2021%2040%2045.jpg

 

I then decided to be completely random and clean up and pin (but not glue) the feet. My friend, is helping me build the base, so I wanted to keep them poseable as possible until it was built.

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/104870318/Photo%2017-12-2012%2022%2012%2042.jpg

 

Continuing the random building, I then attacked the massive vents on the shoulders, first with a breadknife, and then with a hacksaw. This worked but made a bit of a mess of the join:

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/104870318/Photo%2017-12-2012%2022%2012%2057.jpg

 

But fortunately the exhausts cover most of this. The edges were a bit messed up by the sawing, so I used the ‘sprue’ of some spare brass etch to neaten them up, as you can see above (before filing them down) I actually ended up re-‘edging’ both shoulders, which I think looks better anyway. I added some extra details like brass etch Aquila’s, and some vents to the central piece between the shoulders to add interest to the big blank space there. Held together, the back of the titan now looks like this:

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/104870318/Photo%2018-12-2012%2022%2041%2050.jpg

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/104870318/Photo%2018-12-2012%2022%2042%2030.jpg

 

It looks a bit messy with the green stuff, but it really is smooth. Honest.

 

I hope you guys like it, update coming tomorrow or more realistically Friday, with progress on the base.

[Olis]

Sweet! A new titan on the block! You'll have your work cut out for you brother, trust me. If you need help for a name I suggest thinking of a half decent moniker in english (fiery/flaming death/wrath/killer/whatever, etc, etc.), translate it online to get a Latin name and tweak it from there to get a good titan name. :wacko:

[wiplash]

are u pinning and glueing the whole thing? or keeping it modular for storage, painting, transportation etc?

 

 

planning anything interesting for the base?

[Melekharn]

This thread makes me want a warhound more...

Seeing the parts laid out like that doesn't look so intimidating - I know, looks can be deceiving.

 

My only concern is exactly what you've pointed out with the back - the amount of resin flash FW models have. (my last major FQ purchase was a fighta-bomma, before GW released the plastic kit.... and some of the flash was as thick as the fuselage... *sigh*)

 

Have you encountered any mould shifts? This is another thing that has concerned me with FW models.

Once again, my fighta-bomma was blessed with such imperfections, which were almost bad enough to warrant cutting the model along said shifts and gluing it back together "straight."

I would imagine such shifts on a warhound would be incredibly painful - particularly for such a pricey model.

[warp spider]

Thanks guys for all your feedback, I'm glad you like it! I'm going to hopefully post tomorrow an update on the base, so stay tuned.

 

My only concern is exactly what you've pointed out with the back - the amount of resin flash FW models have.

 

Have you encountered any mould shifts? This is another thing that has concerned me with FW models.

 

There is a LOT of flash. But I find its fine, you just need some clippers and files. It's really not damaging to the model itself. Some parts, like the massive shoulder vents are cleverly designed to have sections that cover up any damage you do to the actual mini: I just added brass edging because I sawed off the vent a little close to the mini, damaging it a bit. And because I'm OCD, I had to do both sides so its symmetrical.

 

No mould shifts from what I can see. Some warping, but nothing a little hot water won't fix. That really sucks about your fighter bomma though, I would have complained!

 

Re: wiplash, I'm going to magnetise much of it, and pin the rest. It will have to collapse for storage, otherwise I risk breakages. I'm going to do a scenic base for it, possibly even dioramic. More on that soon ;)

[AlexCrute]

That eye of terror rug is freaking me the hell out.

 

Nice work with the brass.

[Montuhotep]

As for a name:

 

"Imperator Vult" - The Emperor Wills it.

[Olis]

It's good enough, I'd say. :)

[Midnightmare]

Coooool! Looking forward to seeing this progress :)

[warp spider]

Finally, an update! Only 5 days later than promised, but hey ;)

 

This update mainly concerns the base. I've decided to do a large scenic base, and have the warhound detachable so I can put it on a smaller gaming sized base if I ever decide to play with the monster. Anyway, to this end, I looked for something with some fancy edging. I found this:

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/104870318/Photo%2013-12-2012%2001%2023%2025.jpg

 

It's a large clock, and I think that the rim will be perfect. Most people don't. But bear with me :)

 

My friend suggested I could glue some felt to the bottom of the base like a giant chess piece when it's done, and I like this idea, so I cut some foamboard to fit the bottom of the clock and filled in any gaps with pollyfilla, just so it's flat:

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/104870318/Photo%2022-12-2012%2012%2007%2044.jpg

 

Anyway, the idea here is to stick the Battlescape terrain piece onto part of the base, and have one of the titans feet crushing the rhino. One of my mates suggested using the fact that I'm going to have space under this to build some trenches and have some traitor guard shooting up in vain at the titan. I'll let you know if this idea deveops.

 

Anyway, I decided to add some interior detail to the rhino, as in the battlescape kit it's a bit bland. I used bits from an old circuit board for this, and the result:

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/104870318/Photo%2023-12-2012%2013%2017%2006.jpg

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/104870318/Photo%2023-12-2012%2013%2017%2011.jpg

 

I essentially built a box and filled it with circuit boards, and stuck it to the bottom of the rhino:

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/104870318/Photo%2023-12-2012%2013%2014%2028.jpg

 

I then started filling in the clock and preparing the trench:

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/104870318/Photo%2023-12-2012%2014%2037%2024.jpg

 

With the battlecape:

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/104870318/Photo%2024-12-2012%2014%2051%2022.jpg

 

I then started working on the trenchworks, using (for some reason, multi-colored) lollypop sticks. Don't worry, these will be painted :P

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/104870318/Photo%2024-12-2012%2018%2013%2003.jpg

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/104870318/Photo%2026-12-2012%2009%2056%2027.jpg

 

With a blu-tack ed together titan leg:

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/104870318/Photo%2023-12-2012%2018%2001%2004.jpg

 

 

 

Hope you guys like it, more updates soon. Sorry this one is a bit rushed.

[JeffJedi]

Awesome work!

[Olis]

Five days late or not, that is a great idea for a base. It's good to see you so industrious. :cuss

[Russ Brother 92]

I'm going to watch this intently :cuss good luck

[ChromeZephyr]

That's a great idea for the base. This is gonna be grand, I just know it.

[Studio Silvernale]

I'm loving the base more than the titan =D

[the damned artificer]

Looking good so far :ph34r: And for a second there I thought you'd built lights into the crushed rhino, would have been awesome to have a flickering light inside the hull to simulate that its circuitry was giving in under the pressure of the titans weight.

[Anaraion]

I am all in on this one. Can not wait to see how this goes and it looks awesome already!!

 

Thanks for sharing!!

[Dorns Padawan]

That base look's awesome! What a cracking project you got going there mate!

[warp spider]

And for a second there I thought you'd built lights into the crushed rhino, would have been awesome to have a flickering light inside the hull to simulate that its circuitry was giving in under the pressure of the titans weight.

THIS Might have to be done. Does anyone know how you can get a LED to flicker? Other than trying to partially break it? :)

[Studio Silvernale]

And for a second there I thought you'd built lights into the crushed rhino, would have been awesome to have a flickering light inside the hull to simulate that its circuitry was giving in under the pressure of the titans weight.

THIS Might have to be done. Does anyone know how you can get a LED to flicker? Other than trying to partially break it? ;)

 

There are LEDs designed to flicker

[Dosjetka]

Lovely work on the Titan! One can only hope that your painting skills match your modelling skills ;)

 

I, personally, think that the LED light wouldn't look great as it would probably detract people's attention. And I don't like having real lights on my plastic/resin toys :D

 

Ludovic

[warp spider]

Lovely work on the Titan! One can only hope that your painting skills match your modelling skills ^_^

 

I, personally, think that the LED light wouldn't look great as it would probably detract people's attention. And I don't like having real lights on my plastic/resin toys :rolleyes:

 

Ludovic

Haha, lets hope so. I'm actually looking into getting an airbrush to get this thing painted.

 

Yeah, I know what you mean. I've already glued the rhino onto the base, so I don't think I can really add any electronics there anyway. My friend suggested that I could wire it up so the titans eyes lit up, but unless it was very subtle, it might detract from the actual model.