Starting big....

To get myself active in blogging again, I've decided to move this blog from stream-of-consciousness type to more of a showcase for my nerd hobbies, that is, modelling and painting SF miniatures and models. I also love photography, and will be flexing those muscles as I document the things that roll off my hobby desk. As such, we'll start big with the biggest thing I've scratchbuilt to date: a Warhound Titan for Warhammer 40,000. 

There's the big chap in all his glory. I built him to spec using measurements taken from, of all things, the 40k Landspeeder model. Since it featured two pilots, side by side, I reasoned it  would do for the dimensions of head, which is a bit wider and longer now due to armor, etc. For those of you who need something for scale reference, here's a picture of him with his Techpriest minder:

As you can see, while there's a pile of detail on him, he's still missing the Collegia Titanicus iconography, as well as a detailed war-banner on his crotch plate. In my defense, however, he's articulated at the neck, hips, shoulders, elbows, and ankles. I had to glue the "knees" in place because the mechanisms turned out to be far too frail for the weight of the model. Yes, you read right. I said he's posable. I like my toys to move. I found some large-size ball joints from the new Zoids hobby line on eBay, and they were perfect... until the model was assembled, and the sheer weight of all the plastic made some parts looser than others. Oh well. At least I can disassemble him for transport, if necessary. Here he is plodding towards you to say hello (by way of his large-bore cannons).

As far as parts go, a lot of him is made from plastic card reinforced with sprues. I used legs from an old Gundam model for the rear reactors, bits from the Manfactorum set (notably the gorgeous Mechanicus cog on his carapace), legs, arms and a torso from an old Dougram model, shields from WHF grail pilgrims, and a variety of other bits and bobs from my bits box. More pics:

The Vulcan Mega-Bolter as presented in the Apocalypse rules is woefully underpowered for its size, and a twin-mount model (that's 10 barrels! Yikes!) would require the thing to pull a cart twice its size for its own ammo. So, I made a massive single cannon with a big ammo drum (yes, that's an old paint pot). I think it looks much more imposing, although the elbow joint has started to losen, so the cannon sags after a while. Strangely enough, the Plasma Blastgun arm stays up and won't go down at all. Somewhere (where I can't reach) the mechanism got stopped by another part inside the blastgun. Wish that'd happened with the vulcan....

The Blastgun was another case of things just coming together after a while. I would've preferred some kind of green transparent tubing, but being a cheapskate, I settled for plastic tube painted accordingly. The sheer size of the model allowed me to add all sorts of other little details. The thing has vents all over the place (sold as "stairs" in varying sizes), and I even stuck a little Adepta Sororitas sign in there. (See? Next to the head?). I have the terrible habit of saving everything "in case I need it later", which is where I got little panels for fine detailing. The Manufactorum box helped an awful lot, as you can see from the top view and the rear.

I had the most trouble with the feet, and they turned out rather undersized for the model. This thing has enough one-of-a-kind parts to make it a one-of-a-kind itself. It would take a lot of finding to replicate it perfectly, but I don't need another Warhound anyway. I play 40k sporadically enough nowadays, and Apocalypse never, really. Still, I'd like to roll this thing out on the gaming table at least once, even if doing so results in my opponent's entire army blowing it away. 

The paint scheme is what I imagined for the Legio Invicta from Dan Abnett's Titanicus novel, although there are enough "undocumented" Titan legions that he could be from any one of a number of them, really. The red scheme matches my Adeptus Mechanicus army quite well, actually. You'll see a showcase of those posted here later on. 


Till next time!