Two Titans

2010 Epic Fail/2011 Epic Finish

2011-01-05T15:32:00.003-05:00

After reading a bunch of hobby blogs and seeing how much everyone has done in the past year and upon reflection of my own effort I realize that 2010 was an EPIC HOBBY FAIL. I have a half finished Titan, and so many half ass'ed projects sitting around. This year I think I will spend finishing my current and shelved projects.

First up I am attending AdeptiCon this year, I'm really not into competitive play but I have some friends flying in so its the chance for me to visit and roll some dice. I'm playing the both the 40K and WFB championships, for 40K I'm bringing some Space Wolfs which I'll post up as I get them finished, for WFB its all about my Ogre Kingdoms. I wanted to play my Guard but I'm not putting my Guard army in the hands of the TSA. Stay tuned.

Prime Time

2010-08-04T07:31:00.002-04:00

Not to much to update, work has been keeping me down,
but if its was not called work it would be called play.

Anyway, I've gone ahead and primed the major parts of the
titan and added most of the smaller detail. I did this
in order to be able to start painting the inside detail
before putting it all together.

I hope to add some more updates this weekend.

Getting the colors right

2010-07-26T21:49:00.005-04:00

Taking a small break from the building to figure out the painting.

I used one of my "extra" parts FW sent for a test run. Pretty happy
with it so far.

IMG_0342 - Black Auto Primer

IMG_0343 - Armypainter Silver Spray

IMG_0344 - GW blue wash on Chaos, P3 Blight Gold on trim

IMG_0345 - GW Mud wash

IMG_0346 - GW Chestnut ink in damage areas

IMG_0347 - GW Black Wash

IMG_0349 - Floor Wax seal wash

IMG_0350 - Windsor Oil Brunt Umber wash

IMG_0351 - Windsor Oil Black wash

IMG_0353 - Dull Coat and some blue highlights on the chaos star

IMG_0354 - Some MIG Gun Metal run around the edges, a little
more blue and some flesh added to damage area

IMG_0356 - A side shot.

Get up - Stand up

2010-07-25T17:18:00.002-04:00

A quick look, standing on his own two feet.

The legs are NOT glued in place, held in with the brass rods
I'll get a shot of the legs pulled out later, I still have some
pinning to do for some extra support.

She's got legs

2010-07-24T19:48:00.004-04:00

Ok, so I got to the legs. It did offer me a slight challenge
because of the elevated foot. Keeping the hip move level
so the whole model does not look like its tipping over was
always on my mind and I did a lot of dry fitting.

So, on a double take I removed the screws from the feet.
I did this so I could use brass rods to help secure the
legs to the feet.

When picking the angle of the three leg parts kept me busy unit
I threw in the towel and went with what the front and rear
pistons would allow. On one note, it seems thy loyal servants
of the corps Emperor slipped in a "clean" part in hopes to weaken
my Titan.

Magnet time

2010-07-24T18:03:00.005-04:00

Before I get to the legs I went ahead and used magnets on the hip and
upper torso. I cut the hip's torso mounting "disk", after cutting it
scorch it with a hobby knife to give the green stuff some extra
surface to grip. Also, make sure you don't flip the magnets.

Lesson Learned

2010-07-22T22:43:00.004-04:00

Never let it be said that I don't learn from past mistakes.

On my last Titan build I had a hard time with the toe pistons
being to short on a couple of toe's. With this in mind I
headed down to the local Hobbytown and picked up a bunch of
different sized brass rods, and good thing because my gripping
foot's middle toe's piston was much to short - brass rod to the
rescue.

I've pinned the hip ball joints to the upper legs. I hope to
have the legs done this weekend, but its the wife's birthday
weekend so I'm not sure how much I'll get done.

These shoe's were made for walking

2010-07-20T16:01:00.005-04:00

Well a little late is better then never. So in dealing
with the position of the feet I've settled on the foot
location. To ensure no slipping I decided to screw the
foot base to the ahmm base. This will also allow me to
do less pinning on the toes since the titan will be on
a platform.

I was able to screw the first foot directly into the
wooden base but the second foot being so high was only
able to be screwed into the rhino. I'm going to do some
additional pinning of the toes to the base.

With the feet secure to the base I set the toes in place.
The rhino foot is in a gripping position pose while the foot
in the crater is in a support position.

Next up are the toe pistons. Next question is do I go
ahead and paint the base/feet now or wait until I have
the legs attached?

What ya doin with your feet son?

2010-07-05T16:35:00.003-04:00

Ok, back to my Warhound. I've got the base secure to the wooden base. Even with the resin epoxy I still had to use two wood screws on the corners to force it to lay flat because of a bend.

Now I've been working on foot position.

I think I'm going with something like this:

Trying to decide if I should go with a static foot position or an
action foot position.

I like the static because it provides me a more stable base but
the action position seems more "hunter" like. I'm open to
suggestions.

Panthers in the mist

2010-07-05T13:34:00.002-04:00

Well my break from my Warhound paid off. Seems FoW is really picking up steam in my area and since I posted a couple of WIP's I thought I would show how they turned out.

A break from the norm

2010-06-22T12:18:00.003-04:00

So I had my friend come visit me from Hawaii for the weekend, his name is Joe and he helps motivate me to stay on top of my painting and is one reason I started this blog so he can see that "yes" I do paint sometimes.

During this visit Joe decided it was time for me to break out my airbrush since I've yet to use it. He helped me mix the paint, not to hard as we were using Vallejo Model Air.

For the test subject we decided to use some Flames of War late war German Panthers.
Flames of War is a great break from the normal 40K/WFB I've been doing and
was fun to do.

Now these shots are WIP's since I still need to add the decals and some weathering but the airbrushing is done.

So now that I'm no longer an airbrush virgin and don't know why using the
airbrush was so scary I hope to be playing with it more and more.

Back to basics

2010-06-16T13:35:00.004-04:00

Good news, I received an email from Forgeworld and my replacement
part is on its way. I must say Forgeworld's customer service is head
and shoulders above most companies I have dealt with.

So, while I'm waiting on my replacement carapace I'm going to start
on the base and feet. I will not take all the credit for being original here
and am borrowing an idea I found on the internet.

I'm taking hints from "Khain" on the "40K Online" forum
http://www.40konline.com/community/index.php?topic=171509.0
for my base work.

I'm using Games Workshops Battlescape scenery as my base, but I also
need a wooden base to secure it together. Once again a trip to Walmart
produced an 8x11 bamboo cutting board that's perfect.

I use some Gorilla resin epoxy, clamps and rubber bands to secure it over
night.

and now I have my base.

Now to fill in the edges with some putty and I'll start mounting the feet.

Chaos God of Miscast

2010-06-15T19:17:00.003-04:00

*sigh* in my cleaning of my new Titan I found a hollow section in
the rear of the left carapace. I sent Forgeworld a nice email with
attached photos of the issue. I hope they can send me a replacment
or at least let me buy a replacment part.

If they can not help me I sure can use some advice, my green-stuff-fue
is weak.

Bath time

2010-06-14T16:45:00.003-04:00

So, its time to get back into my Titan fever. I've been holding onto
this Chaos Titan for a couple of months since sending off my
Imperial Titan.

I'm going to go just a little slower on this one because of other
projects in the works and the time of year, I have some vacation
time and some friends visiting me this summer, this does not
mean I can't prep.

Of course, if you have ever dealt with resin you know you
must clean it.

I use a mix of warm water and Super Clean I picked up from
Walmart, its a degreaser so it works very well and does not
harm the resin. I let it soak over night then using an old toothbrush
and the sink I scrub each part and wash it off.

I then lay the parts out for some air drying.

At this point it was off to work and later in the evening my wife
bunched it all up for me and put it in a plastic storage bin for seperation.

Something big

2010-06-13T16:53:00.002-04:00

While digging in some bitz box's and check out some unopened
terrain I decided on making an Imperial Leviathan to go along with my
project ADD. So far using two Bastion’s and a Shrine of The Aquila and
a set of Wal-Mart, bottom-shelf toy tank treads I have the makings of a
decent mobile command post for my Guard/Titans for my APOC games.

I still have a lot of work to do on it and right now its a battle with
time vs. my computer gaming collection ;)

But as I progress I'll be sure to post some WIP's as its not even in
decent WIP condition other then what you see.

It came from below

2010-06-13T12:20:00.002-04:00

I've not been super busy posting but that does not mean I've not been super busy ;)

I got my hands on 10 - yes I said TEN Armorcast Termites. Now I know they are recast and I did get a good deal on them. Half of them got used in an APOC game, noting like having 10 Vets pop out with flamers and melta's behind enemy lines.

I pointed them at 40 points a pop and deep stike them like drop pods. They also get a one time S4 AP- large blast if they come up under enemy models like the Tyranid model (his is a little stronger) who comes from below. I think it's balanced game play and it was well received by the other players.

I love it when a plan comes together

2010-04-23T18:43:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the lack of updates right now but it seems I've
been dragged into an "Ard Boyz" tourny and have to bust out
some IG; which I'll be sure to post here. But, I do have a
plan I want to run by my kind subscribers (all 16 of you :D)

With my Imperial Warhound I was going for a free standing pose
for more game support, but for this Chaos Warhound I wanted to go
a different direction with a static base but still want to be able
to use it in games. Has anyone had issues with using based Titans
in games? This one I might just chalk up as a project for display
if the base becomes an issue.

Thoughts? Ideas? Comments always welcome.

Beauty is skin deep

2010-04-17T19:19:00.002-04:00

So I started working on my Chaos Warhound and man is it fantastic.
While I still plan on picking up another Imperial Warhound in the
future this was a great deal.

This Warhound has a little more release agent on it so I'm going
to have to be more careful scrubbing.

Will Hayes and Simon Egan (the sculptors) really out did themselfs
and I'm already looking forward to my Chaos Reaver.

Just some teasers.

Same as with the Imperial, I break it up into smaller "projects" to
keep track and make it easier to move it around the house.

Here are some detail images from the inside, by far the best part.

Sea to shining sea

2010-04-01T18:17:00.004-04:00

I'm happy to report that my Titan has safely deployed to the sunny shores of Hawaii and await the paint job it truly deserves from my friend Joe, one of the BEST painters I know. I would also like to let you know that my home has been corrupted with an evil foul Titan dedicated to the Chaos Gods. Its detail is amazing and I can't wait to get started on it, but I'm going to knock out a couple of smaller projects before I tear into it that I'll be sure to share.

Its all coming together

2010-03-23T11:34:00.002-04:00

Well I finally finished up the arms.

I glued the arm's into the weapon mounts, when the glue had set
I drilled two pin holes that cross for extra support.

With both arms done I'm not able to attach the weapons:

With the arms done I'm not able to put the model together
for a stability test.

The torso's and arms are held on with nothing but pin's
and magnets at this point.

The good news is that I've gotten this far, the bad news is it goes in the
mail Saturday.

Right to keep and arm bears.

2010-03-21T00:24:00.002-04:00

Well even though I said I'm trading my current Warhound to my friend
for his Chaos Warhound I still want to share my progress.

This week was a little slow as my wife bakes cookies on the side and she
controlled much of the table this week.

But I did get the magnets onto the arms and weapons.

It was easier then I thought. I went to the local model shop and picked
up a sharper razor saw and some more green-stuff..

The hardest part is figuring out where to cut the arm. I first mounted
a magnet in the ball-joint in the weapon. Since the shape is a sphere
I pulled some green stuff and rolled it into a ball and placed in at the
bottom and pressed the magnet into it.

Once in place I judge where I need to cut on the arm, I cut it a little short
maybe measuring twice the width of the two magnets and going a little short
go allow the the green-stuff. Better to measure short and cut twice then
measure wrong and cut short.

I then roll a ball of green-stuff and use it as extra security on the
magnet, its better then superglue.

Once the green stuff I run a bead of glue between the magnet and green
stuff and the green-stuff and resin base.

Going to let that cure over night then I will pin the arms to the weapon extensions.

Grind to a hault...for now

2010-03-17T21:18:00.003-04:00

Well a deal was stuck, my friend Joe has offered me his Forge World
Chaos Warhound in trade for my Imperial Warhound, and after
throwing in some more stuff to boot I just could not pass on it.

One major reason I took it was because I had already planned on
buying a Chaos Warhound Titan anyway and if I can help my pal
all the better. This also gives me a chance to buy another Imperial
Warhound Titan. I'm sticking with the Mars pattern but I think
this go around I will switch up the weapons. The turbo laser has
a better stat line being a "D" weapon but should I go with two
turbo lasers or one, and what would be a good weapon to go along
with it?

Anyway, before I ship it off my buddy asked me to round it out a
little with the small bits so you'll see a few more pics before I ship
it off, then you will see a whole new project.

After my Chaos Warhound is done I'll see about doing my Imperial
Warhound...I still have my Imperial Reaver and asked my wife to
get me the Chaos Reaver for Christmas, so maybe before its over
"Two Titans" will be "Four Titans" :D

Colors..colors..colors.

2010-03-14T18:17:00.002-04:00

Well my construction phase has about wrapped up and I'm
starting to move into the painting. I have a few lose ends
and adjustments to make but overall its ready. I've tested
a auto-primer on a test piece and its done well, I'm letting it
sit for a couple of days to ensure its sticking.

So now I'm thinking colors. First up I want to avoid red and blue;
while they look good they are everywhere when I look at other titans.
I do see a few greens and off colors but most red and blue.

I was thinking about a "Dazzle camo" but I'm not sure I'm going to
get the look I'm looking for. I was also thinking about a split black/white
look or just solid black with either silver or gold trim with a white head
or some variation of that.

Any ideas on colors or looks?

The aye's have it

2010-03-09T12:49:00.002-05:00

Before I started this project I did a lot of reading
to try and head off issues, well, it did not work lol.

Yesterday I sawed off the tab on the torso and replaced it
with a magnet held in place with some green stuff and glue.

Today I attached the torso to the legs, after the glue dried
I drilled some holes in the bottom for some pin's

I also used green stuff to secure the other magnet inside
the carapace.

The heartache, the ankle and hip pistons. It took some work, and I
had some breaks but I got it together. WARNING!! when you position
legs make sure they are in a position that allows the pistons to
attach. One of my front hip pistons was not long enough and I had
to fashion an extension.

The photo is of the rear pistons.

My problem is the rear leg piston. With how I have my legs set its
impossible to attach the rear piston on one of the legs.

Here is where I need the community's help...HELP. The only
option I see is just leaving it off or using flex tubing
to replace the current piston's.

Left Leg (not glued)

Right leg, piston will not reach.

More pin's then Pinhead

2010-03-04T22:21:00.003-05:00

Well I took some sage advice and avoided my moment of magnet
madness just to have it replaced with pin madness.

So far I've pinned the front/center and two side's of the torso.

It's worked so far, this will allow me to prime and paint before I
glue it all together.

First up is the dry fit that I preach and preach about.

With my dry fit set I drill some guide holes.

I go with three more pin's in the pipping on the back for a
total of five pins on each side.

I then used four pins for the front of the torso.

This allows me some freedom with the torso.

How to proceed?

2010-02-26T10:59:00.002-05:00

Well I have some decisions to make and am hopping
the 10 of you can help ;)

This titan, as well as my future titans will be both
display and gaming figures.

With this titan I want to use magnets on the torso,
head and arms. I had also thought of using magnets
to attach the top section together instead of gluing.

This would allow me to assemble the total model
and still break it down for transport and painting.
So, what do you think about using magnets to assemble
the upper torso?

Am I asking for trouble?

On pin's and needles

2010-02-22T22:08:00.004-05:00

So, taking some sage advice I reinforced the pinning on the feet
and threw in some pins at the pivot/glue points connecting the upper
and lower legs.

I followed the "two pin" rule for extra support. For the leg pin's
after I drilled the hole and measured the pin I cut it just short
so I can fill in the top of the whole with some putty and smooth
the surface before painting.

On a person note its dang nerve wrecking to drill wholes into a
model like this, but I understand its for the better in the long
term.

She's got Legs, she know how to use them!

2010-02-21T19:11:00.002-05:00

Well I finally finished up the legs to hip portion.
Pretty much the same as the legs, dry fit, dry fit
again, pin, dry fit and glue.

Careful with the legs, pretty easy to flip around
and turn backwards if your not paying attention.

To note, I switched to a electric dremel vice a
pin vice, careful, the dremel cuts through resin like
a hot knife.

I drove a pin threw the bottom of the foot into the
ball joint for some extra hold.

When building the legs I found it better for the over all
look to keep the hip joints roughly the same height, this
will keep your hip-to-torso level.

I decided to pin the hip ball joints to the legs since the weight
of the torso would be resting on these joints.

Once I attached the hip ball joints I check for alignment one
more time.

The Shoe is on the other foot

2010-02-15T20:07:00.002-05:00

I started in on the other foot, I went out of town this
weekend so I could not work on it as much as I wanted to,
I also have a game of 40K next Saturday so we'll see how
it goes.

Well with this foot I kept up my pinning, but with the
angle I used I ran into pinning issues where I was drilling
into existing pins.

This was the toe pin:

So when I put this pin in I hit the toe pin:

To solve it I moved the center pin on the toe to the edges:

With the pinning worked out I could position my toes. Mind you that
a lot of dry fitting went into the planning.

Couple of issues at this point, the center toe piston needed glued tight
to its housing and even the top of the casing needed some trimming to get
it to fit:

With the toe angle worked out (endless dry fitting) I attached/pinned the
toes to the foot:

Issue two, the smaller toe pistons. With the toes at this angle the pistons
are two short. I went ahead and glued the pistons on but will be snipping
the thin bottoms and replacing them with metal rods:

What cha doin with your feet son?

2010-02-08T06:01:00.004-05:00

These dang feet need Nike's, what a pleasure and pain it is
dealing with them.

I went ahead and glued the toe joins to the foot base instead of
building them with the toe so I had more support when I glued
them for pinning.

I would highly suggest dry fitting everything and playing around
with different configurations to get a feel. Once you decide on
the foot's form its real important to pin for some added
support.

For this foot I went flat to add some support to the whole model.

Back to the Forge

2010-02-07T10:53:00.003-05:00

Well its time I put pen to paper and get busy doing what I
intended this blog to be for; my titans.

I broke my Warhound back out and have decided to make this
month "Month of the hound" and I hope to have him at least
together this month.

Let me start with the cleaning and cutting. This process took
me about two hours. I decided to cut and sand all pieces that I
could so I could wash it all at the same time.

On some pieces clippers work fine:

On others you need a razor saw:

And with resin you get breaks:

But with resin the break is clean, and after the panic has passed and cooler
heads prevail the fix is pretty easy:

After all the bits are cut I clean them and separate them into plastic
storage bins, tip: do NOT put them back in the plastic bags, the bags
have resin dust and residue, you will have to clean them again.

This also allows you to separate by area, such as all the foot pieces in one,
legs in another and arms in yet another. With a project this big with this
many pieces its important to stay organized.

To Hell(hound) and back

2010-02-06T12:15:00.002-05:00

Picked up the new Hellhound kit, it was a joy to build and
covered in little detail's. I wanted to try to move my hand painted
camo job from the Sent's over to some treads before using my
airbrush incase the airbrush did not work out. I like how it turned out
but am still itching to use my airbrush.

15th Infantry Support Regiment;
225th Hellhound Platoon;
Blue Squadron.

Same as my Sent's; a black undercoat and a heavy coat of German Gray (Vallejo)
I then taped it off with Tamiya tape and gave it a brushing of Calthan Brown.
After it was dry I gave it a coat of floor wax.
Once dry I applied the decals using Micro Sol and Set and when
dry I used floor wax just over decals once more.

I then used Winston oil paint black and burnt umber (brown)
for weathering and oil stain.

This time around I used Dull Coat, much better then the
GW stuff.

450th Sentinel

2009-12-05T23:23:00.006-05:00

33rd Recon Regiment, 762nd Heavy
Recon Platoon, Blue Squad; Ride #3

A quick post, I've gotten back into
some work on some armor and tanks
and before I dive into them I wanted
to spin up my skills and practice on
some Sentinels.

I do a brush base coat in German Grey
then tape off and do another coat in
Calthan Brown. When that's dry I
peel the tape and apply a coat of
floor wax, this is the base for my
decals and weathering. After I've
added the decals with Micro Sol and
Set and gave them another coat of
floor wax I do an oil wash with
black and burnt unber (deep brown)

When that is dry I do a "Ard Coat
or Dull Coat and then drybrush to
bring out the edges.

Storm Family of Tanks. Part 2

2009-11-22T00:24:00.004-05:00

Now that the gun housing is taken care of
I need to figure out how to swap the weapons.

This was not so hard to figure out. I attached a larger magnet on
the back side of the gun housing then to the weapon. I had to add
some scrap plastic to the two different weapons to mount the
magnets on.

Next is the "50 cal" mount for the Stormlord build in the rear. For
this I mounted small magnets on the side of the engine housing
and then on one of the 50 cal shields.

Storm Family of Tanks. Part 1

2009-11-20T10:58:00.004-05:00

This weekend my LGS will be hosting a Tanksgiving and I've been asked
to bring some heavy metal. For this go around they will be in urban,
fresh from the factory camo gray ;)

The Stormlord and Baneblade kits are fantastic and I've really enjoyed
them. With the Stormlord kit it's possible to make six different
tanks; The Stormlord, Doomhammer, Shadowsword, Banehammer, Banesword and
Stormsword. The key difference is the position of the gun housing and
the gun make up.

With some cleaver use of rare earth magnets its possible to not glue
a couple of key parts for reconfiguring.

First off build the basic body and the crew/engine housing and any
other smaller pieces as needed like sponsons and smoke launchers.

Next I build the gun housing and attached magnets to four corners:

I also use some magnets on the body plate:

To make sure I get the correct position I use red paint to mark the magnets
and do a dry fit leave the paint there the second magnets will be glued:

501st Ork Hunters "Black Blades"

2009-11-07T11:28:00.002-05:00

As my IG army grows and grows I like adding some
of the new fantastic range of miniatures to it,
but I also like putting my own spin on them.

I primarily run Steel Legion, but seeing as GW
has a hard-on for Catachan's and Cadians they
get the new models leaving much of the other
IG range in the dust.

The nice thing about Catachan's is they also
fit into the fluff about Steel Legion Ork Hunter
from the Armageddon Campaign book.

So to include some of the new range of models
my 450th Steel Legion has attached some 501st
Armageddon Ork Hunters to help root some Orks
out of some ruined Hives and Habs.

First up is my Gunnery Sgt. Harker model, I loved
painting this model but part way threw it I heard
a voice in my head that said: "I pity da fool"
and from that I give you Sgt. B.A. Barachas

As game terms to he an his men will NEVER deploy via Valkyrie

To this unit I'm still adding a heavy flamer, vox op and Demo charge

Next up is the Colonel 'Iron Hand' Straken model, again a great model
but for the Catachan range, so now he's an Ork Hunter and will
be filling the roll of a shotgun wielding Vet Sgt.

This squad is also getting a heavy flamer, demo charge and vox op.

One step closer

2009-11-06T16:47:00.002-05:00

I've allowed this Blog to trail off a little with a couple of post
that have NOTHING to do with Titans; I'm about to correct that.

Today I picked up an air compressor for my airbrush. I know that
the compressed air cans are not reliable enough for painting
large surfaces such as Titans.

I'll also be using this on my currently growing IG army which I will
post in a second Blog as to not bog this one down.

How the mighty have fallen

2009-09-28T07:26:00.002-04:00

Thanks to UK Games Day we have been given a better
look at the upcoming Chaos Reaver Titan. I want
to thank everyone who went and supported GW/FW
and was able to snap some shots and I want to
thank www.warseer.com , the source of the photos.

One thing to notice, it looks like you can have
the titan close combat weapon on either arm,
how SWEET is that?

What can Brown do for you?

2009-09-27T21:52:00.003-04:00

While working on my Chaos Warrior army and
reading over the army book I started having
visions of Grand-Ole Pappa Nurgle and read
this his Mark of Nurgle is pretty nasty
so I worked some up.

So many armies so little time

2009-09-27T21:45:00.005-04:00

I love Games Workshop games and hobbies, only
problem is I have so much of it. I had fully intended
to start my Titans by now, and I had sort of, but I
was side tracked by some Fantasy projects and of
course Space Hulk. So, I thought I would share
some of my fantasy work to let you all know I was
still kicking.

Not a fan of painting red so I know I did not do the best I could of

and the camera has shown me that. I will touch him up.

In Space No One Can Hear You Scream

2009-08-17T13:57:00.002-04:00

I'm so excited, Space Hulk is making a come back
though limited in release its endless in scope.
This was the game that bridged the gap between
board gaming and miniature gaming for me when
I was young and pulled me head long into my love
of the Warhammer Universe and the hobby over all.

If you have had a chance to check it out run over to
the Games Workshop web site and order your copy
today...now..do it NOW!!!

Evil Twins

2009-08-16T20:39:00.002-04:00

Today was a happy day for Titan lovers. Games Day Germany showed
even more of the up comming Chaos Reaver Titan. Guess i should get
started on my first Titan before this one comes up for sale.

Torn between projects

2009-08-15T13:07:00.002-04:00

Its been awhile since I posted and I have no one to blame
but myself. I missed my deadline on starting my Titans
due to other unfinished projects. I really seem to have
a hard time staying on one project at a time. Since
starting my Stompa and Titans I've found time to
finish off a Land Raider Crusader and some Ogre Kindoms

Now that those have been finished I can re.....what was I saying?

Anyway, I've signed up to do two year long painting challenges one for
40K and one for WFB, sometime in between all that I hope to
finish off my Stompa and get to my TITANS!!!

I want to paint it black

2009-04-25T14:34:00.002-04:00

A few hours after letting the black dry I
took an old rag and gave it a wipe down.

This is tricky as that salt gets in some
hard to get places. But even the salt
I miss still "fits" with the model.

After rubbing the model down for awhile
I started noticing that I was rubbing
it off the rivets and edges so it is
also adding to the weathering that is
to come.

Paint it Black

2009-04-25T14:30:00.002-04:00

I used some good sturdy auto body black primer.
GW primer is to $$$ to use to undercoat a model
this large.

I really like how the rust red shows threw in the
nooks and cranes. It already has some decent built
in weathering and shading and I've not even applied
paint yet.

Ork taste like chicken, just add salt

2009-04-25T14:24:00.002-04:00

After the undercoat is dry (overnight) I borrowed
some of my wife hair spray. I'm bald so it's not mine.
After I sprayed the models with hair spray I broke
out the salt. On the larger parts one shot of spray
will not hold the salt so I did sections.

Is it rusty in here?

2009-04-24T21:05:00.002-04:00

First coat of Rusty Brown to use a salt type paint job.
I'm going for a under coat rust look, hence the name of
the color lol.

Mek's been busy

2009-04-24T19:13:00.003-04:00

With my Titan build-off days away I thought I should wrap up my Stompa build
or at least get it to a point I could pick at it during the build.

I got all the bitz and scrap I think any self respecting Mek would throw
on a Stompa.

Next up would be the head. The top turret is not glued on yet so I can
paint it on its own.

This is what it would look like with the head attached. At this time its
just sitting their for a picture.

I also left the arms off for painting. I'm thinking of using Mags to
make it easy for moving.

Errr We Go!!

2009-04-19T02:14:00.003-04:00

As well as working on my Titan I've also started a "little" side
project.

While I've had Ork armies off and on for the length of this game
I really never gave them much thought but with the release of
the Stompa I just knew that I had to build one if just for
modeling sake.

I've decided to make this an FreeBootez type Stompa with
a pirate theam and will use Ork Kaptin Badrukk as my force
leader.

Did some work on it, I wanted to be abit further before I
started my titan but my work schedule has me bogged down.

I decided to put it together in stages and keep it apart
until I get a change to get it painted.

I started off with the body. Its five pices that fit pretty
easy once you move it around for the correct fit. I used
plastic glue which gives you some play, once I got the pices
to fit I used Zap-a-Gap on the inside to secure the hull.

I also used rubber bands to hold it secure until the glue
was dry, as you can see part of my rubber band became glued
to the hull LOL:

Next up come the stages I was speaking about. I constructed
the pipes and weapon arms. At first all the tubing is a
little daunting but really once you figure out the system
its reall well done.

I did go ahead and attached the pipe works, I fell it
pull the model together a little better when i start
painting it.

NOTE: The directions that come with the kit are well enough
but I had to use a combination of the directions and the
White Dwarf edition that highlighted a Stompa build to make
sure I was getting it right, I also refered back to the GW
web site for build information and I still got some
bits backwards like the shoulder gun that looks like a
killa kan.

Next thing is the head. I HATE the head as it comes in the
box, it looks to small and squad to be the command post for
anything that size. I took some insperation from the White
Dwarf and saw that someone used the front end of a Ork Battle
Wagon and love the "jaw" look of it.

I'm going to try the "salt" method of painting on the stompa,
I figure an Ork stompa is one place I can try risky stuff.

J

Time is ticking

2009-04-19T01:13:00.003-04:00

Well time is counting down to when my friend Joe and I really dive
into our Titan project. Getting a litte bit of a head start and
am starting to clean and trim off the extra bits.

I did not get to far before my wife kicked me out of the kitchen
because it was close to dinner time but this is what I did get
done. First off I look over model checkin each part for warping,
damage and over all condition. Its a good thing because I am
missing the brass eched vents for the top but a quick email
to Forgeworld took care of that and they are in the mail.
No bad warping or miscast that I've noticed yet but I'm just
getting started and while I will give it a good cleaning I did
not notice much release agent on the resin.

I did start cutting on the Mega Vulcan bolter and the Plasma
Blast gun before I was "asked" to remove my crap from the table lol.

Some of the vents are pretty easy to pick out:

Others are not so easy to see:

After finding the vents and cutting I like giving them a quick
sanding to smooth them out:

Thats about as far as I got, but I will be back it soon. Any
Advice or tips are welcome

Jon

"The Usual Suspects"

2009-04-12T20:34:00.002-04:00

SO Big Jon tells me the first step to approaching a big project , like a titan, is checking to see all the parts are there, and giving everything a good scrub to get off the mold release. I decided to set part of Easter Sunday aside for this task. My wife and I went to Mass (we're Catholic) Saturday night, because two of are good friends were being confirmed, and I was, in fact, one of the sponsors...
The service was 3 hours long (gotta love the Catholic church),and all of our butts were extremely sore afterward. The solution...lets go to the local Irish Pub (Kelly O'Niels), to celebrate! Big Jon can tell you more about our history with Kelly O'Neils...

Fast forward to this morning (I say fast forward because things are kinda blurry from last night), and I wake up at the crack of 12, instead of 9, like I'd hoped... Lets just say, I'm not in any mood to catalog Titan parts, and scrub...
Maybe you can help me....Here's a pic of my titan so far. Do you see anything missing? I'm deeply sad about not getting more done this week, but I did manage to catch a snap shot of the culprit in action....maybe I'll get more done next time...

IG uses Troops? Since when?

2009-04-07T01:20:00.005-04:00

An IG army is nothing without the grunt to do the grunt work.

With the new system troops are our friends and with IG you
can't have enough.

I tried to take the colors more from an American WWII
stand point instead of the typical Armageddon Steel
Legion and the current German WWII influnce used
heavly in Death Korps. I do like using Model Colors
as they are perfect for that WWII look.

My second set of troops.

And my HQ to lead them.

So, its not much but its a start. I do have a few more
done and will post them later.

Giving my Chimera a new hat

2009-04-07T01:09:00.005-04:00

I'm not a big fan of the turret that comes with the Chimera
but I do like the one that comes with the Space Marine Predator.
Its a pretty simple switch and the gun can be passed as either
an Autocannon or Mulit-las.

Noticed I've already hinged the hatch.

To get a good fit I glued a pin made from the frame for a more secure fit.

Next up I give it more of a "Guard" feeling by adding kit and a heavy stubber.

Chimera on the inside

2009-02-22T21:41:00.006-05:00

We have already established that I can't leave well enough alone so
this time around I've done some gut work on my Chimera. I'm not
going to convert all my Chimeras but I might do a couple.

I use plastic card stock with a grid pattern.
Its easy to cut to size without having to score it much.

I first cut it to fit the back and side walls and the floor.
I also wanted to create a couple of benches at this point
for my hardy guardsmen to rest upon.

Next I add some gear to add some detail to it does not
look like a padded room.

Next I added some end supports for the benches. I also went
ahead and primed the inside in black since once I get around
to painting it I don't want to mess around with the inside again.

When I painted the inside with GW Rotten Flesh, this is a
good off green color for the inside of AV's. I painted
the detail, not to close because once I close the top it
will not been seen much, just I will know its their.
I also gave it a heavy wash.

Again, not many folks will see it but from a modeler
point of view it sure was fun to do.

Chimera Doors and Hatches Part II

2009-02-19T12:58:00.004-05:00

Forgot to add in the hatch so I'm making this a part II. This can be used on
any hatch for any kit, just be carefull when drilling so you dont bust the
hinge.

Chimera Doors and Hatches

2009-02-18T10:40:00.005-05:00

I can't leave well enough alone and being a long time modeler I tend to tamper with pretty much everything plastic I can. If its a hatch I want to be able to open it.

First off I don't care for the laser guns sticking out from the sides so I have to
shut them down with a simple strip of plastic.

Next I start working the hatches and doors. I use a pin drill and brass
rod I picked up at a local hobby shop.

Sometimes it works, sometimes you run into a snag.

In this case you can hope you have a spare door or you can use
some very small plastic card to attempt to fix it. Sometimes
you just chalk it up to a mess up and let it ride.

Two Titans

2009-02-16T14:18:00.002-05:00

One of the reasons I kicked off this Blog is that my friend Joe and I both own Forgworld Titans, he a chaos one and I have a loyal one. We have both been to iffy to work on them and decided we will work on them together starting on 1 May so I've added a counter to help remind ME of how much time I have to get ready.

Jon

Cleaning My Miniatures

2009-02-15T21:25:00.001-05:00

This is one of my project, this is from Jon.

This is my first project posting. This is for my Imperial Guard army:

Armageddon Steel Legion "The Fighting 450th"

These guys have seen a lot of action and have been around the world twice. From the mountains of Afghanistan to the oceans of Hawaii. They have had paint and repaint. Here is their story.

First off is their bath, everyone in the pool

Next up the wash:

This is what I like to use:

The only problem with using the Castrol Super Clean is you can only use it
once, it works GREAT but its a degreaser so once it has chemically de-bounded
the paint it will not work again.

Next up is the cleaning. I love the use of an electric toothbrush:

First post.

2009-02-15T15:43:00.000-05:00

I've created this Blog to track the many projects me and my friend Joe are working on. He's half way across the world but thanks to the age of modern technology we are able to inspire each other.