Saturday, September 20, 2008

Reaver Titan Pt 9 (In Color!)

Just a small update this time. It's not a lack of work going into the Titan, simply a lack of the appearance of work going into the Titan.

I've finalized the legs to waist connection this week. I've also added the upper arms and begun to splash some paint about!

The Titans waist is made up of three pieces from top to bottom, Lower Torso, Waist, and Pelvis. The pelvis is, of course, already in place holding the legs together. The waist proper allows the Titan to rotate in the middle. The lower torso is a ball and socket that allows some tilt to go into the mid section. One thing I found was that a lot more of this work could have been done before priming than what I did. The lower torso could be added to the torso without hiding any detail that would later need to be painted. The waist could then be attached to this, still without causing any painting problems later. This would also allow the Reavers upper half and lower half to be dry fit. Here is a picture of the lower torso attached to the bottom of the, already primered, torso... live and learn.



This finishing of the waist allowed me to position the upper arms into the shoulder sockets. This is another of those awesome spots where you can glue first and pin second due to later parts hiding the pins. The upper arms each got two pins to the shoulder, I don't trust a ball and socket joint to just one. I'm sorry there aren't pictures of this process, they came out absolutely terrible so I scrapped them. You can see the arms connected to the shoulders in a picture later in the blog.

As for the color. I picked up an airbrush recently and still have my compressor from about a million years ago. For an easy entry into airbrush land I sprayed the legs from the knee joint down with Boltgun Metal. This went on really nicely, so I got a little more brave. I've been playing with the Piston Guards and experimenting with painting them. After a coat of black primer, I sprayed them with Mordian Blue foundation paint. I then went back around the edges of the armor with Necron Abyss foundation paint. This was a decent effect and would have been better if I had more practice with an airbrush. The blue looked nice, but I couldn't leave well enough alone. I kept thinking about how the old Legio Astorum epic minis had flames painted on them. I wasn't sure how I felt about this, but I decided to do a couple test pieces. By the way, the piston armor pieces became my test bed as they are all going to be stripped and redone anyway. I find that with every different thing I try, I get much better with the airbrush. Anyway, I know I don't want flames all over this beast, but I thought around the lower legs would be a nice nod the old days of the Legio. Thus I came up with the following ideas...

Traditional flames...



And what I like to call, Ghost flames...



Not trusting anything to chance I thought I better lay down some bronze on the trim to make sure I have an accurate comparison of the two effects.




There is some, "yuck" that is noticeable around the blue flames. This is due to the method I used to draw the flames on and will not be there in any end result. Also, I found a genius tool for airbrushing those flames on and I'd expect to see a tutorial with plenty of pics in the next week or so.

I'll also toss in a picture of the Reaver as it stands (pun intended). The upper and lower halves are not attached, merely pinned and dry fit. Here you can see the upper leg pistons have been given a coat of Mithril Silver since they seem to be hydraulics to me and should be shiny. Also, the upper arms are attached. As I mentioned above about the lower torso, this too could have been done pre-primer.



Aside from a bit of work on the smaller pieces and hand painting a million pistons, that's it for this week. Like I said, a lot of work, but not a lot to show for it! I would like to solicit opinions on the leg flames idea. Love it, hate it, take it, leave it, if you have an opinion please put it in a comment. I considered a poll, but that doesn't encourage people to explain why they think what they do, and I want to know! Personally I will tell you, I'm leaning towards the blue flames heavily.

Thanks for stopping by. Look for that flames tutorial in the near future, you can probably come up with other ways to use it besides flames. If you have any thoughts whatsoever, take a second and drop me a comment.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Reaver Titan Pt 8 (Big Guns Never Tire)

It was a slow Titan week. I've had other distractions outside the hobby plus a work week from hell. But, things should settle down for the foreseeable future and we can plow ahead.

This week I didn't have much time, but I did manage to get the Titans' arms done. I also used a hair dryer and straightened two parts that were not quite right. I tried taking pictures of the warped pieces, but the warping was so sleight that the pictures really didn't show it anyway. Suffice to say that the hair dryer worked and now the pieces are perfect! Also, my camera was giving me fits, so I used the girlfriends for a couple of these pics... I may be using it more often as the pics seemed to come out a little better. Also, being a shorter (less pictures) post this week, the pictures are bigger, so click on them for a larger view. On to the arms!

The Laser Blaster barrels were first up on the list to be attached. There is a little widget that supports the ends of the barrels and you can see it in this next pic.



I attached the barrel which I had already glued the barrel widget to on first. Then I attached the other two barrels to the arm and the first barrel. Here you can see the complete arm including the little armor bit that covers part of the gun. This will be painted separately and glued on near the end. This armor piece was one of the two warped pieces that received the hair dryer treatment.



Next up I turned my sights on the Gatling Blaster. This has six barrels of death and another widget to support the barrels ends. I started with just two barrels across from each other and the barrel end bit.



Then, with the framework of the first two barrels in place, I added the remaining four barrels.



And a finished shot of the Gatling Blaster arm...



As I'm photographing these parts I just can't help but feel that our friend The Priest isn't doing the scale of these weapons justice. So, I dug out some Imperial Guard armor to try to convey just how big these guns are.


That Leman Russ is feeling a bit inadequate at this point. But, I think it does do a fine job of showing the scale of the guns.

That's all I achieved this week, sadly. I did trim a few miscellaneous tiny detail pieces while the epoxy was drying, but nothing worth going into. The coming week will probably see a good deal of priming and maybe even a little airbrush practice action!

On another note, I appreciate all the feedback on the trophy rack/wall of honor idea. It is still up in the air at the moment. I'm going to try and do a mock up of a wall to see if the room available inside the Titan would make it feasible or not. I was going to do this today, but my sheets of plastic seem to have been lost in the recent move. But, it's definitely still on my mind!

I would also like to fish for opinions about another decision that is coming up quickly. In some of the old Epic pictures, Titans have a banner on each weapon touting the weapons name and kills. This I plan to do in some fashion no matter what. But, some also had a banner which hung between the legs with other information on it. Would this banner be worth doing? Would it make it too busy or cluttered? Also, I'm thinking of making magnetized mounts for the banners so they can be removed during travel. Basically, a magnet in the Titan where the banner or one end of the banner chain attaches and another on each end of chain. Work vs Reward, does this sound like a worthwhile idea?

Thanks for dropping in. I'm always happy to answer questions, I'll even answer in rhyme if you request it. I'm also eager, as always, to read any other comments you might have, so leave'em if you got'em!

Monday, September 8, 2008

Reaver Titan Pt 7 (continued cleaning and assembly) Plus News!

We'll get the, "news" out of the way first. I visited my local GW store Saturday to pick up my copy of Assault on Black Reach. They had a raffle of several great prizes and several not that impressive prizes. Having won nothing in the last few raffles though, I thought it would be nice to win something, anything. And I did! I won a one year subscription to White Dwarf. The subscription is in-store pick up only, but that means that I will be eligible to purchase the limited mini this Christmas season. The limited mini for in store subscription only folks is some promotion they are starting to increase the number of in store subscriptions... whatever, I won!

Also on the news front, I was able to get a decent deal on the limited edition Forge World Reaver Titan Princeps on foot, and Imperial Navy Pilot on foot. I'm sure these guys will have tons to talk about whilst kicking back in the officers mess! The Titan base may have a spot incorporated into it allowing the Princeps to stand around beneath it looking smug. And, while I could claim the Naval pilot is flying my Marauder Destroyer, I'm sure it will simply convince me to get a Thunderbolt sometime in the future.

Now for some Titan progress!

This past week I've been continuing to clean, prep, prime, and do some assembly. The scale continues to amaze me. I'll not waste anymore time and get right into it!

Here is a shot of the head/cockpit with the Princeps removed...


And one with the crew in place (though they will be painted before being glued in).



Next is a rather large piece of the rear torso. This is the three part mega chunk of resin from Reaver Titan Pt 6. The vents are shown just below their final position. These pieces caused me some consternation because there is a spare set. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather have extra pieces than not enough!



Next up is a shot of the interior. This shot shows a completed dry fit example, and the separated pieces below. The interior panels are basically the same on both sides, but this will be fine. I have also considered leaving out one panel and putting up some sort of Trophy Rack, or Wall of Fame. If I do this I may ask my friends out there in the blogosphere who visit regularly to contribute. Maybe a SM shoulder pad from CrusherJoe to commemorate some long ago battle the Titan fought alongside his Marines on the planet Fluffnypton, for example. Or maybe some bit of kit scavenged after a battle fought against chaos and dvdhwk's Sons of Sek? It's just a thought and I'd love to hear what folks think, so leave a comment and let me know. Here is the interior...



Moving along we have the weapons, all cleaned and ready to prime and/or assemble. In some cases I'm still trying to decide which order is best. Especially on the gun barrels.

First off is the Apocalypse Missile Launcher.



Then we have the Laser Blaster. This piece also has an armor cowling that fits over the top of it. I apologize for not getting it in the pic, but it doesn't add much bulk so this is a fairly accurate representation of size.



And, last but not least, we have the Gatling Blaster... all six barrels of death dealing goodness! I've placed the upper arm on in this shot to show the size of that piece as well.



Finally, we have a shot of the Torso Armor pieces. From the viewers left to right we have the Upper Torso Armor (goes under main armor, right over the 'neck'), the Main Torso Armor, and the Lower Torso Armor (goes under the chin and to the chest). This picture is actually larger when clicked on.



I've been asked recently how many hours this is taking. I hadn't even thought to count? However, I can tell you that just the weapons pictured above took about three to four hours Sunday afternoon to trim. So I believe that I probably don't want to know! It really hasn't seemed like that long, though I know it has been many many hours of work already. It's fun and the time is just swimming by.

I've also found my digital weights scale. The following is a rundown of the weight of the items pictured above and also the legs assembly from Reaver Titan Pt 6. The first weight is ounces, the second is grams for my homies in those other parts of the world.

Missile Launcher = 8.9/252
Rear Torso = 14.1/399
Head = 3.3/93
Laser Blaster = 8.1/229
Gatling Blaster = 10.9/310
Legs = 24.2/687

I appreciate everyone who stops by and has a look. Though, I'll admit, I appreciate you even more if you leave a comment. I'm always happy answer any questions you have, either in the comments themselves, or in the next blog. Also, don't forget to tell me what you think of the Trophy Rack/Wall of Honor idea for the interior! Till next time, enjoy yourself... or enjoy someone else... your prerogative.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Reaver Titan Pt 6 (Legs, Logistics, and Torso)

It's been a busy week, both on and off the workbench. While it's not the most exciting part, I'm going to start with the 'logistics' topic first.

The assembly of the titan moves forward unimpeded, but finality and even painting are being put off for just a little while. I've pre-ordered The Siege of Vraks Part Two and I'm wanting to see what information it has on the Legio Astorum, The Warp Runners. My mind has been 90% made up to do that legion with only a paltry 10% still thinking of the War Gryphons (or however you spell it in 40k land). I don't want to commit to anything until I read up on The Warp Runners. For instance, I don't want to paint chevrons on the left knee just to find out that only the most cowardly princeps get that marking or some such nonsense! Likewise with a name. If there is a piece of fluff on a certain Reaver that catches my eye, I might base the titan off of that. Otherwise, there might very well be a, 'what's my name going to be' poll up before the end!

So with this in mind we move on. Certain parts of the titan can only be worked to a certain point. Any work past this point is either prohibited by work that must be done before continuing, or by the wait for The Siege of Vraks Part Two to arrive. Therefore I'm moving onwards with assembly and prep and we will come back to some finer assembly points later on down the road.

The legs are a prime example. Also they are a primed example!



The legs and their many detail parts (not pictured) have been primed and look great! I may actually do some painting on the inner mechanical parts as these shouldn't change the overall titan and are parts that I believe are probably pretty standard from titan to titan.

Many parts have been trimmed and the torso is starting to take shape. Some of these parts had some pretty big vents and a small saw was needed to get them off before a hobby knife could clean the area up. Here is a shot of the main Torso...



As you can see, very roomy for now!

The rear part of the Torso is made up of three separate parts. The two sides are huge chunks of resin, and solid!



To glue the three parts of the rear Torso together I actually applied the JB Kwik epoxy then held them onto the main Torso to make sure they set in the perfect position. Here is a shot of the three of them assembled.



Next up I cleaned the shoulders and attached them. This was another great opportunity to take advantage of the fact that the inside wall would be covered in a later step and so the drill hole from drilling and pinning could be allowed to go all the way through. However, there was no way to attach the parts first and still be able to get a drill into the titan to make the hole. So, I used the putty method explained in Reaver Titan Part 5 to line up the holes that would be pinned. Here we see the shoulders firmly attached to the main Torso.



So far dry fit is the order of the day. For every step you see there are numerous dry fits to check and double check (and often triple and quadruple check) the fit of the pieces before committing to glue/epoxy. Besides, there is some joy in just holding the parts together to see where you are heading! Here is a dry fit of the entire Torso assembly.



This does not include the upper, lower, and main armor plates. Those have been dry fitted and are very close to correct at this point. To reach parts of the interior with a paint brush, some parts must be painted un-assembled. All parts will be primed as we progress though, and the interior may see some paint in the next couple weeks. Or, I may concentrate on getting parts assembled as far as I can before painting? Tough choice! Trimming the head has been started and the cockpit interior will follow that. I will wait for the upcoming book before I paint any crew in case there is good information on uniform colors or markings. Then I expect it will be on to the weapons.

Thanks for stopping by again and checking out this project. I'm enjoying the assembly a lot, but I think the painting will bring an excitement all its own! As always, if you have any questions, comments, limericks, or anything else to share, feel free to leave a comment!

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