Warlord Titan (Part 12 - more shoulder armour!)

 I'm trying to stick to my 2021 promise of posting something weekly and - as I said in my previous post - I've still been working on my Titan but fallen behind schedule with photographing and posting about it.

I've completed the remainder of the shoulder armour. I'm still trying t experiment with a bit of freehand painting. It doesn't come naturally but I think I'm happy with my results so far.

I have one more update to provide on the Titan whereby it gets some proper weapons for the first time! After that there might be short Titan-hiatus whilst I post some updates on some pieces I've completed for Blood Bowl, the Middle-Earth SBG and Necromunda.

My intention for 2021 is to complete this Titan, complete my ME:SBG collection, my Blood Bowl collection and my Necromunda collection. 

Then start working through "the cupboard of shame"!

More Warlord Titan Stuff:

Warlord Titan (Part 11 - Shoulder Armour)

 Happy new year to you all!

I have (sad to say) been a lazy, lazy, 'orrible, lazy git; I have woefully neglected my little blog in 2020. 

That's not to say I haven't built and painted stuff - I have. I just haven't photographed much and written it up. Time for things to change. 

The Titan I am working on still isn't finished, but I have made some progress. I've been slowed down somewhat by some other stuff I worked on (posts to follow) and also by the fact that it's winter and as this is a 3D-printed model and my 3D-printer is in my shed the colder, more damp weather tends to cause difficulties in the printing process. So the printer has had a couple of months off.

That said, there are bits I printed and painted that I haven't blogged about yet, so by way of a catch-up I'll present here the first section of the shoulder armour.

I'm going to try to get back to posting on a weekly basis in 2021. 

More Warlord Titan Stuff:

Warlord Titan (Part 10 - Collar armour and Shoulders)

 As I've been working through this model I have been pushing myself into areas of painting I've never dabbled in before.

I started off in my old comfortable way of drybrushing the hell out of it and painting armour in basically solid colours. By the time I had completed the model up to the hips, I was starting to appreciate that this approach - whilst fine for anything up to the size of a tank - was starting to fail.

The model was looking too flat and "slabby".

So I decided to try to vary things up a little and introduced the red & silver "trompe l'oiel" stripes and checkers. I'd never done anything like them before and (whilst I will fully admit my approach is very simplistic) I'm pleased with the results.

So I've decided to try to go a little further and attempt (without a safety net) a little freehand painting:

Stay tuned for more (if you're still awake 😋).

I've also added some shoulders to the model ready to hang some arms off and support shoulder armour:

Done some weathering too 😁.

More Warlord Titan Stuff:

Warlord Titan (Part 9 - If you want to get ahead...)

 Get a head!

This is undoubtedly my favourite part of the model. I'm impressed with the level of detail that the modeller has put into the design and how well my little 3D Printer has rendered it.

It was fun to print and fun to paint too.

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Warlord Titan (Part 8 - and about time too...)

Why is it that work keeps getting in the way of real life?

It's been about seven weeks since I last posted anything. I've not been idle, but just haven't gotten around to posting as work has kept me busy and I've quite honestly gotten a bit tired of looking at screens.

Anyway - my Titan now has a reactor and some void-shield generators!

Warlord Titan (Part 7 - The only way is up...)

So in the spirit of "Onwards and upwards" I have progressed up past the model's waist into the torso area.

One of the issues I've repeatedly had with this build stems from a total lack of instructions. I ended up mis-building the damn thing again and had to literally tear the torso section apart and put it all back together again. 

Nerve wracking, but it worked. 

As I mentioned in the previous post, I have made a move away from the solid blue/yellow and added a contrasting red/metal stripes/squares pattern. I tend not to do any freehand work, but I decided to challenge myself.

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Warlord Titan (Part 6 - Armour-geddin' on with it...)

So I decided not to try to solve my issue with the legs bing on backwards as - once the armour was on (hail blu-tak!) it looked OK and seemed to be stable (bye-bye blu-tak, hello glue!).

The trickiest bit was the patella-plates - they're sort of pinned, sort of perched. The rest is fine.

However, I am now facing a new dilemma...

When I started this, I figured "this is going to be a big model. I like to keep my range of colours to a minimum as I dislike 'busy' paintjobs, but all one colour would be a bit too solid."

So I opted for a two-tone scheme. And I'm starting to worry that even that may be too solid. So for the upper part of the model, I might introduce something else. Don't know what yet.

More Warlord Titan Stuff:

Warlord Titan (Part 5 - Hip Hip Hooray!)

I have printed, painted and assembled the Titan's upper legs and hips.

I *have* made an error along the way though: I have assembled the lower legs backward (so the front armour is on the back of the legs). Unfortunately I didn't realise this until I'd attached the upper part of the legs.

So the net effect is that the knees are all wrong!

I have dry-fitted the upper leg and knee armour and I think that - when painted - I will get away with it.

I still feel like a complete mung-bean though. I *could* try and break it apart and reassemble it, but I don't want to damage either the model or the paintjob.

I'll soldier on, I think.

More Warlord Titan Stuff:

Warlord Titan (Part 4 - Two legs!)

Progress is still being made. I've assembled and don initial painting on both lower-leg sections.

This has been a drybrushing jamboree! Hope I don't run short of metallics before finishing this off.

I think the blue/yellow combination works well, but I am realising why I normally avoid yellow - it's a horrible colour to paint with. I've never found a yellow that covers well; it always requires many coats to build up a decent solid cover.

There's a lot of armour left to add to these legs - can't wait!

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Warlord Titan (Part 3 - The first leg!)

I have been busy with the glue and the paint and assembled the first let (up to as far as the knee) of my 3D Printed Warlord Titan.

I must say as a relative newbie to 3D Printing I am very impressed with what can be achieved with a very low-cost machine.

The detail in the model is impressive and the printer is doing a great job!

The printed parts are rock-solid. I don't doubt that there will be times when a re-inforcing pin or two may be required, but on the whole - as I said - I am very impressed.

I've decided on a two-tone colour scheme (yellow/blue). As yet there is no weathering - I'll get on to that later - and there is also a heap more armour to apply:

Necromunda model added for scale

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Warlord Titan (Part 2 - Been busy printing...)

Hi all

Whilst this may be my first post for a few months I have not been idle (and neither has my 3D Printer!)

I have printed, assembled and painted loads more of my Titan project (and I'm still not finished) but I have been remiss in not posting about it. My blog has been horribly ignored for a while and I need to do something about that.

So, here is the first in a series of catch-up posts on the Titan.

So you can see from the photo above that I have printed all the parts required to build the Titan up as far as the knees. The feet have been assembled, spray-undercoated and given a first drybrush. The other bits (in black) just spray-undercoated and the white parts were fresh off the printer when the photo was taken.

I took the photo on my cutting mat to give an idea of scale (the squares are 1cm).

More updates WILL follow!

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Warlord Titan (Part 1 - First foot forward...)

So I got myself a new toy last year - a 3D Printer. My intention is to use it for creating scenery pieces.

As is my wont, however, after using the machine to print several upgrades for itself and learning a bunch in the process, I got distracted...

I'm still going to use it for scenery pieces (I have a bunch of stuff to print for my Middle Earth SBG Moria army, for example), but I have discovered that some nice person has created the models for printing a 28mm scale Warlord Titan.

So now I'm making one of those.

These things take a long time to print - the five components making up this foot took a couple of days, for example. This is a project that I will be running with for some time.

Now a confession: I have actually printed quite a bit of this model and am working through painting it up, so there will be a series of posts over the next few weeks to get me up to date with where I really am, then it may well all slow down.

More Warlord Titan Stuff:

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:

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.

November: New Year's Resolution

At the present time, it is difficult for me to work on modelling projects due to family circumstances. Being slightly obsessive, such things are rarely far from my mind and I found myself having a nose through my blog and reviewing some things I've worked on in the past.

As often happens with me, I found myself feeling guilty about unfinished work and work that hadn't been completed to a standard that I now find is "up to scratch". This led me to two of my biggest modelling regrets (and there are others, I promise!)

2018 will be the 10th anniversary of two of the biggest scratch-build projects I have ever worked on. I was given a copy of the first edition of the "Apocalypse" rulebook by my friend Mike who also gave my son James (who at that point was still gaming) a Baneblade model. This, along with a challenge which James gave me to scratch-build a Titan - inspired us to do some modelling work and arrange an Apocalypse game!

The Baneblade was quickly assembled by James, but lay unpainted for a long time until I picked it up and completed it a while back.

So, since we're not millionaires, I accepted James' challenge and embarked upon my first scratch-build project - a 28mm scale Warhound Titan.

Whilst I am still immensely proud of the achievement, I've always felt disappointed by the overall result; the paint-job is poor and there is not nearly enough detail on the model. Too many flat surfaces. The basing is uninspiring too. Don't even start me on the banners - awful. I'd like to think my painting skills have improved somewhat since I did this and it looks horrible to me now.

The "good guys" were sorted - a large force of Imperial Guard (played by me) with allied Ultramarines (supplied and played by a friend of James') were facing off against a force of Orks (played by James) with allied Necrons (played by Mike).

Conscious of the fact that the "baddies" were under-represented with larger models, I also scratch-built a Stompa for the Orks.

Neither the stompa nor the titan have progressed past this point. Enough is enough, so, I resolve for 2018 to get this Battle-Puppy  and metallic Bigfoot back out of their boxes and rework the finish. I may even build the two missing guns that I was originally going to create for the Titan, so that it can have interchangeable weapons. The Stompa needs its feet working on, a better head and the gatling cannon thingy is a bit naff too.

I also have in mind another "Lords of War" scale project - I might do it in 2018. Not decided yet. I picked up a second Baneblade model a while back with a view to using it as the basis for an Astra Militarum Gorgon troop carrier. I've always loved the Gorgon model but as I've already said "I'm not a millionaire".

Watch this space. Brace yourselves for lots of black-and-yellow hazard markings!

Epic Ultramarines: Warlord Titan 4

I almost forgot this guy!

I painted him months ago along with three other Warlords and a Reaver. For some reason he got overlooked when I photographed the other Titans. All the other Titans got put away, along with their interchangeable weapons.

When I realised I hadn't photographed this model, he ended up set to one side as all the weapons were put away.

Anyway - I stumbled across him a few days ago and decided to right that wrong.

More Epic Ultramarine stuff: