...Moreso about the torso, further Reaver Titan updates

I've been fairly busy on the Reaver these last few days. I've managed to hammer out the interior detail. well most of it, starting with the two crazy servitor panels:

This allowed me to spray up and paint the rest of the main torso. I've not touched the armour plates or the carapace yet, but they're probably next on the list. 

 

I put the chevrons in there because they scream '40k' to me, though I didn't go over the top, as I didn't want it to look like the iron warriors got their hands on the thing.

Couple of shots from the rear. Looks a little flat at the minute but I've got to add some serious weathering to it to break it up.

One waist joint painted up too and you can see its starting to come together a little now.

The more of the project I finish, the happier I'm becoming with the results. Can't wait to see it finished myself now!

Til next time

Gonders

Doing it on the cheap

As a break to the titan project, I'd like to make a point about buying stuff of ebay for the this hobby of ours. If anyone has been following this blog for the last few months, you'd know I've undertaken the apocalypse challenge of putting together approximately 8000 points of chaos before the end of the summer for some big old games.

One of the problems I've encountered during in the process, is its becoming a massive drain on my wallet. So to combat this, I've recently started buying old tanks from every one's favorite auction website.

My latest purchase can be seen here:

Crappy Old Exterminator

As you can see from the link, The young man who built this can't be older than 12. No disrespect to him, but this model isn't up to my gaming standard. I'm sure he'll get there one day. :-P

My point is, that after an hour with a tank modellers bits box, a can of spray paint, and a bit of patience, we have this:

Now, for the cost of 12 pound, I've got what I'd consider a tank that can be painted up to fit in with my dirty rebels. For to long I've not thought about my purchases and was bought straight from my local GW, but with the prices they're charging now, ebay can really be a modeller's best friend.

So, take heed, and bid your hearts out. Just know I'll be nipping in there with 20 seconds to go.

Til next time.

Gonders

Knee Face!

Well! As you can see, I painted the silly titan knee! Actually, I quite like this thing. I know a lot of people must hate it. It does belong on £500 of very serious model, and adds a certain '90's chaos flare' but at the same time, I can't help but look at it a smile. I genuinely think is ace! 

 

I have also done some more serious work on the machine. Started painting armour plates. Got as far a doing the legs. I'm quite proud of the granite colour I've got going on here. just a tad of green to ensure it doesn't look like on imperial bunker on legs. Here's how I did it:

First off, I base coated the armour charadon granite. A nice colour to start. 

Next, I blocked in the main colour with a large artist's brush. The colour is 2/3rds charadon granite, 1/3rd bleached bone, approximately. 

 Finally, 50-50 bleached bone to charadon granite, and gently applied it with a soft sponge. This breaks up the edges and the uneven texture makes it look like its stood the test of time a bit more than regular highlighting. 

So this is where I'm up to now. The legs as unpainted, but the armour still isn't glued on. I'm going to get the whole titan to this stage, then I'll begin to weather the whole thing, so I can see how it'll look and I don't go overboard. 

Keep an eye out! 

Thanks for looking,

Gonders

A big old Sunday update, Including Reaver Titan update.

Well, The apocaproject is ever rolling on. Been quite a productive week. Firstly, There's a Second hell hound(and thusly more weather practise) to show the world:

I'm definitely getting the hang of weathering powders. Glad I'm practising before I hit up the big guy though! Also I'm quite impressed at how my dremelled in chaos star appears to have come out.

Next up for the chaos horde, The head conspirator of the nightmarish Zombie plague. I needed a non marine nurgle chaos lord to head up the tide of undeath, so I knocked this guy out, for a bit of a laugh really. 

 

 

As can be seen on this picture though, I managed to have a good play around with my chaotic skin tone technique on him too.

I've also painted the titan's base. Happy with how this is turning out too. My build up some more weathering powder first before I seal it though. 

The same base, pre-weathering. Also, the washes were still wet when I took this picture. 

Right, as for the big man himself, Painting has begun!

First up, a Blaster with grey car primer(not pictured), then a blaster with good ol' chaos black. Easy. 

Next, all the metal gets a flat tin bitz base coat. Looking very steampunk! 

Followed by several layers of light boltgun metal drybrushing. Normally, I hate dry brushing, But on this thing, its served me well. After this, a VERY light mithril silver dry brush on the edges of the metals.

After this every rivet got picked out with badab black, to provide shading. Also I've begun painting his big brassy thighs :-P

This is how the metals look close up now. Still need some washes and bits to go yet... But this is all the progress so far. I'm trying to hammer down as much as I can but still have it look good. 

On a sad note, This pot of putrid green, which I purchased when I was in year 5 at school, and was my very first paint, has dried up.  Me and him have been through some crazy times, I feel like I've lost a friend.

Til Next time 

Gonders 

Forgeworld Chaos Reaver Titan, The second day.

Ok, so most of my Sunday went into this thing too... Lets have a see, where did we leave off? Legs pinned and glued on Saturday, Sunday goes as follows...

First off, I had to get the titan a base. Then I can pin him to it, take him off again and begin painting. So I marked out roughly where he was going to stand on his broken Aquila. The base is 12mm MDF. My earlier titan had an 18mm one and it looks to heavy. Yet another warhound lesson learnt.

 Next, using an ancient joiner's technique known only as 'Two pins an' a bit o' boot lace', I marked out the oval shape I wanted. The picture pretty much explains it. Mark out a cross down the middle, hammer two pins in and use a shoe lace as a guide. As you can see, it takes a bit of trial and error to get just the right shape. See, being a tradesman has its advantages in this hobby. 

I cut out the base using a coping saw, Just follow the lines and take your time. I forgot to take a picture.

After that, I pinned the extra leg and groin armour on that I hadn't by then, and started detailing the base.

Did the piping between his legs too. That was a pain... 

Added some chain between his legs to make him extra gnarly too.

 This was done buy pinning a tiny bit of bent paper clip in place and hooking some brass chain through it:

Bit of battle damage, experimented by trying a forgeworld master class style shell impact(note, NOT a 'bullet 'ole', my titan does not get bullet holes like a soggy cardboard box, thanks). Done by grinding out a chunk of resin, then filling the hole with green stuff, smoothing it off and sculpting a shell strike in it.

Added waist joint...

 Yeah, standin' tall!

I started pinning the torso together. Its worth noting at this point, none of the work today had involved any glue(apart from the chain and the pipes between his legs)

The titan at its full height. Bloody tall. Yet more pinning without glue...

Coming together. These last few pics speak for themselves really. Pinned the pipes on his head and glues them.

The laser blaster I pinned and glued together, but not in, late on last night. This is how he looks now. I'm quite impressed that my pinning skills are enough to hold it together without glue. This is a good omen for the future. 

Well, until next time. 

Gonders 

Forgeworld Chaos Reaver Titan, The first day.

Well, I've finally made a decent start on the Reaver. 

This kit is monstrous, and it certainly isn't for the faint hearted, or the inexperienced. These following pictures Are after a long morning's work on the legs. I've washed the whole kit and prepped it over the last 3 weeks, and yesterday I finally knuckled down to get some serious work done.

 

Posing it was the first step. I knew I wanted it walking over the Aquila from the honoured imperium set, it appeared big enough, and it seemed a fitting display of power for a mighty chaos titan to have cast down those who wronged them 10,000 years ago.

When I build my warhound a few years back, I learned when posing forgeworld titan, That trying the armour on the legs every step of the way is essential. When the legs are just bare bones, they appear to be very posable, until you fit all the armour and none of it fits anymore. The same appears to be true with a reaver's piston housing as well, so a got 2 hours was spent test fitting and dry running before I even touched it with glue.

Once I finally got the pose sorted, I pinned all the major joints with 2mm brass rod and a dremel, drilling a good 20mm in each where possible. I glued the biggest and most important joints with arreldite resin glue. This stuff has a longer working time than super glue, and sticks 20 times as well. Proper titan glue!

Next came fitting and gluing the piston housings, still test fitting the armour as i went. Just regular super-glue here, there's no weight on these joints. Also, I pinned the armour brackets into the housings at this point.

Next came toes and toe pistons. This is a pain in the arse job. The best way I figured to do it was to blu tac the pistons in the toes, and clip the pistons down bit by bit til you get the right length. Then super glue the end of each piston and push the toe up, leaving it to dry. Take the toe off so the pistons are left in the housings, take out the blu tac and glue the toe on. 

Lastly, I pinned and glued the groin in place, just with 1mm paper clips and arreldite again. At the point I'd had enough for the day, so I left it there. Next up I'm going to cut out a base for it and detail the legs. 

Just a scaling shot with my favourite toys at the minute so you can see just how big it is! 

Til next time.

Gonders 

Rusty Dawg... Rebel Hellhound Tank

The first Rebel Armour is rolling out...

For the apocalypse summer, we'll be fighting over a planet named geth-something-or-other, a planet with a continent that is basically a tank grave yard. The thinking is the planet has a large ammount of spare land mass, so its where the administration send de-commissioned tanks. Unfortunatly for the imperium, my bunch of dirty rebels have got their hands on some of the hulks, and are currantly refitting them for themselves!

This I saw as a modelling opportunity, and ordered myself a set of forgeworld waethering powders. I've been experimenting with them this week, but this is the first tank I've finished properly that I'm happy with.

There's some stuff I'd do alot differently, and infact will do. I bought these two hellhounds from a bloke on warseer, I think as they are the old style hellhounds they fit the 'decommissioned' bill rather well!

The second one I've ground the chaos stars in the side with my dremel, as the one on this one got a bit washed out. The powders are a learning curve and a half... though I'd reccomend trying them out.

More pics to leave you with.

I can't wait to give this treatment to a super heavy or two!

Gonders

Bases, Bosses, and the gift of Spawndom.

Yet more efforts to the growing horde. I've finished off the hell talon's base, with some of my magic mud effects, and a splash of paint, we're finished. I think it looks suitablyy bombed out and abandoned.

So here the talon is all finished off and ready to bomb folks...

Next up for this update, I'm instilling some discipline in the ranks. 2 more of my overseers, and a head honcho overseer, which I'm going to use as a lord commissar. Think he looks suitably grizzled and 'ard enough for the role. The head is from the Cadian command sprue, I think its a fine choice.

Next, a bit of a wild card I'm going to throw in the army. A big gribbly spawn! Managed to get this second hand, was a bit beaten up, but he's painted up OK. My mates are telling me this is going to be a massive waste of 140 points, but I know better than them! Can't wait till he's tearing though them!

This model was massively fun to paint, I can't keep a straight face to gaze upon his many faces!

There my not be much progress this next week, I'm waiting for an order through of modelling supplies, mainly to start building this super duper forge world toy I have sat waiting for me...

Till next time...