Warhound Titan Revamp - Part 4 (Volcano Cannon)

Well now. Here's an update on a well-overdue project.

A long, long time ago (over 10 years) I scratch-built a Warhound Titan for use in W40K Apocalypse games.

Whilst I was, on the whole, impressed with what I had done at the time, my skills as a modeller and painter have improved since then and it no longer stands up to scrutiny.

To be totally frank, it's a bit pants.

So I decided that as a New Year's Resolution that I was going to get it out and fancy-it-up a bit.

That was my resolution for last year - 2018. March 2019 now and not a lot of progress has been made.

Overcome by guilt, I decided that it was high time that I progressed the project a bit so I repaired, upgraded and repainted a weapon arm over the weekend:

More Titan stuff:

RandomArmyChallenge - xmas 2018 (Part 2 - finished!)

It took some doing, but I've completed the Deathshroud unit I decided to build and paint for the "Random Army Challenge" over on MeWe.

If you recall from my previous post, I  had an old unit of plastic terminators and some Forgeworld Manreaper scythes that I was going to hack together. Some greenstuff would be added to scabby them up a bit.

So I did, and this is what I ended up with:

The Unit

Individually, they look like this:

This:

This:

This:

And finally, this:

These guys are a bodyguard unit for the Death Guard Primarch, Mortarion. So here they are with the boss-man (it's a "counts-as" model rather than the Forgeworld original):

More Heresy Death Guard stuff:

RandomArmyChallenge - xmas 2018 (Part 1 - preparation)

This one took me by surprise.

Historically, like a lot of other people, I tended to share a lot of my blog posts over on Google+. With the impending demise of the G+ platform, many of us have migrated over to MeWe.

So, I'm happily burbling along, painting stuff, posting stuff and sharing stuff and I receive a message inviting me to participate in an event on MeWe called the "Random Army Challenge".

The basic idea is you pick something 40K-shaped that you haven't worked on before and are challenged to complete a model, squad, kill team or army before 2018 winds itself up on New Years' Eve.

I got this message a couple of days ago.

No rush, no pressure.

The closest thing to hand was a handful of minis I bought off eBay ages ago when I was getting excited about Horus Heresy and collected a bunch of ancient models to build a Death Guard army out of; I grabbed a load of RTB-01 Space Marines and 1st Edition Rhinos, Predators etc. I figured it'd make a good force and decided to - as far as possible - stick with vintage minis. Death Guard needed a Mortarion. Mortarion needed a Death Shroud unit. So, I bought a bunch of old plastic Terminators and some Forgeworld Death Shroud scythes.

I did a test paintjob on this guy over a year ago, and painted a dreadnought for Dreadtober in 2017. And there the project lay with no further progress. Until now. The terminators are what came to hand when I was invited to join the challenge, so, at the moment they look like this:

As soon as I get a moment, I'll get some texture on the bases and get the spraycan out and then the real work can begin.

More Heresy Death Guard stuff:

Warhound Titan Revamp - Part 3 (Head)

I'm not going nearly fast enough - there's no way that I will complete renovating this model in 2018.

From that perspective, I will fail my New Years' resolution.

However, at least it has left its box and is being worked on now. I'll keep plugging on until it's done.

Over the last week I turned my attention to refinishing the model's head.

This has involved adding some detail (Nurgle's rot, some gashes etc.) with greenstuff and a repainting job. The crew are sealed inside so they haven't been touched, but that's no biggy IMHO.

I had a choice to make when working on this fella. The head was already one of the most detailed parts of the model in terms of construction. Did I want to model more detail (like armour plates) or not?

I elected "not". But when I'd finished "rotting it up" I felt that it could have benefitted from a few more bits, so I painted on a few panel-lines here and there. It worked, I think.

And this is what it used to look like before the renovation:

More Titan stuff:

Nurgle Knight Titans - Part 16 (Fifth Knight Finished)

As you are all no doubt aware, Armiger Helverins come in pairs. So...

...following on from my recent post about this dude, it won't come as a surprise that I have another one to show off:

More Nurgle Knights stuff:

Nurgle Knight Titans - Part 15 (Fourth Knight Finished)

Papa Nurgle is back with more corrupty-goodness!

He's corrupted another Imperial Knight to join the ranks of House Putrefacio.

This time it's the first of a pair of Armiger Helverins that I picked up when they were released.

I like these guys. In fact, I think if I was a pilot of a Knight I'd prefer one of these to their bigger cousins.

More Nurgle Knights stuff:

Warhound Titan Revamp - Part 2 (Turbo Laser Phase 2)

I'm too easily distracted - I set myself the project of revamping my very tired, unprofessional-looking scratch-built Warhound as a New Year's resolution and so far all I've managed is to add some Nurgley-gloop, grilles and tubes to one weapon and paint it up.

It's a huge improvement to what the weapon originally looked like, but the rate of progress has been virtually at a standstill.

I think I'm a little daunted by the prospect of moving past the weapons and onto the model proper, if I'm honest. It's a massive canvas to have to work on and is also quite fragile.

I need to "man up".

Anyway - this is the finished article (except that when I get to working on the body I'll probably add some hoses connecting the weapon to the carapace):

More Titan stuff:

Warhound Titan Revamp - Part 1 (Turbo Laser Phase 1)

Late last year I made a new year's resolution. I'm determined (but overdue) to stick to it.

A decade ago I scratch-built a Warhound Titan. Back then my modelling skills were not what they are now (and they ain't that great now!) and neither was my painting (ditto).

So I decided to dig it out, and smarten it up. That is to say "I'm going to dump a can of Nurgle all over it." so that it can become the focal point of my Nurgle-themed Knight army.

I've decided to start on a manageable piece and selected one of the two weapons I built - a Titan Turbo Laser.

It originally looked like this:

Top

Bottom

And now, part-way through the renovation, it looks like this:

One side

Other side

Bottom

I'm not done yet - I feel that it needs more detail. I don't want to go too mental on it, though, as when I get to the main Titan carapace I need to be able to scale up whatever I do here. Pipes and tubes - I think that's what it needs.

Stay tuned.

Heresy Death Guard: Contemptor Dreadnought (DreadTober 2017 - Part 5. Finished)

Hi all.

Here is the - somewhat belatedly - finished product for my contribution to DreadTober 2017.

Life went to hell in a handbasket a few weeks ago when a family member was hospitalised. We had to make significant changes to our home and schedules in order to provide care for her. Wargaming, painting and modelling had to take a back seat.

Whilst we're still mired in the situation, I did manage to find a few minutes yesterday to photograph some of the models I'd been working on at the time so that I can upload something new to the blog instead of re-sharing finished projects from days of yore (that said I've got a few more of those to share so I'll drop one in from time to time).

Anyway, here is the finished product:

More Heresy Death Guard stuff:
More DreadTober 2017 stuff:

Heresy Death Guard: Contemptor Dreadnought (DreadTober 2017 - Part 4)

Getting near the end now. In my last post I laid down all the flat base colours. The model still looked pretty ropey at that point (some may argue it still looks ropey now!).

Since last time, some washes have been applied, some drybrushing on the metallic bits, the lenses, buboes and Nurgle's Rot has been painted. A little drybrushing has been done on the base too. It's shaping up and the final form is becoming more obvious.

SO, I need to find somewhere to apply a decal (not easy on this model), apply some weathering and do some more work on the basing (there's a dead Marine down there somewhere, remember) to finish it off.

More Heresy Death Guard stuff:
More DreadTober 2017 stuff:

Heresy Death Guard: Contemptor Dreadnought (DreadTober 2017 - Part 3)

It's DreadTober 2017 Week 3 and my aim for this week was to block in the model with colours - no shading or highlighting, just base colours so everything would at least suggest the final look of the model.

So, things definitely don't look too spectacular at this stage, but as I'm really just working out where each colour will fall I'm happy enough.

More Heresy Death Guard stuff:
More DreadTober 2017 stuff:

Heresy Death Guard: Contemptor Dreadnought (DreadTober 2017 - Part 2)

It's week 2 of DreadTober 2017 and things are going to schedule.

My collection of bits & pieces has now been assembled into a viable model. The model is intended to represent a dreadnought for the Death Guard Legion from the Horus Heresy so I have added a very few Nurgle-y embellishments (a few buboes on the top, a bit of Nurgle's Rot on the left foot and (just visible from the rear) a suspiciously fleshy-looking gash on the left hip.

As the old Rogue Trader dreadnoughts came with two different lengths of legs (yes - really. You can see one of the taller versions as part of my other Marine army here) and this is the shorter version of the two, I needed to boost it up a bit. Anyway, they were quite a bit smaller than a modern dreadnought model. So, I've used the builders' foam to build a rocky base to give the model a bit of loft.

More Heresy Death Guard stuff:
More DreadTober 2017 stuff:

Heresy Death Guard: Contemptor Dreadnought (Dreadtober 2017 - Part 1)

Woohoo! It's Dreadtober time again!

I had a blast doing this last year and have been looking forward to it again since.

I'm only doing one model this time.

One of my (many) projects at the moment which is just getting underway is a Death Guard army to represent a Heresy-era Legion.

My intention is to (as far as possible) build this legion using models from the Rogue Trader period - First Edition Warhammer 40K stuff.

So, with that aim in mind, I've been digging out all my old RTB01 Marines and picking up bits and bobs from eBay.

For DreadTober, that manifests as a Contemptor Dreadnought, armed with what were (in the day) twin-linked bolters on each arm, but (using current rules) will count as a pair of close-combat fists with a storm bolter on each.

Here is the pile of bits I'm planning to use:

You can probably spot some RTB01 Marine parts and a chunk of
builders' foam in the pile. These will form some basing details.

More Heresy Death Guard stuff:
More DreadTober 2017 stuff:

Nurgle Knight Titans - Part 14 (Maniple)

The Knights of Nurgle march forth - it's a good job you can only see them and that the internet doesn't yet (though I believe it's intended for the next release of the iPhone) carry smells!

Muahahahaha!

More Nurgle Knights stuff: