BERSERKERBLADE: Titan

Showing posts with label Titan. Show all posts

Friday, 23 October 2020

Adeptus Titanicus - Legio Fureans Warbringer Nemesis Titan

It took me a little while to paint this one up but I'm back with another tiny titan for my Legio Fureans forces.

Serious firepower!

I really like the look of the Nemesis Warbringer, so it's a joy to have one (even a tiny one) in my Fureans maniple. As with my Warhounds, the arms are magnetised so I can change the weapon fit. I didn't bother to magnetise the quake cannon up top as it seems like a really solid option and the modelling looked fiddly. At the moment I've only painted the laser blaster and volcano cannon, but I intend to add a gatling blaster in the near future.

So much yellow paint.

It was pretty arduous laying down all that yellow by hand and then freehanding black flames over the top, but I'm very happy with the final result. I pushed myself by freehanding the Fureans logo on the left kneepad too.

Flame on!

I've stuck with aethermatic blue contrast paint for the weapon glow effects and I'm very pleased with the way it looks. The time investment is very low but the colour really pops, just what you need when you're starting to go yellow blind.

I can't wait to get her on the field, but the Legio Atarus will definitely need some reinforcements before trying to tangle with this beastie. I've made a start working on a Cerastus knight banner to oppose her and I hope to add a Reaver as well. That should even things up and make it interesting.

Fureans walks!

Tune in next time when I hope to have some Legio Atarus titans to show off as well as talking about some of the results of our early test games. We've had a couple so far and I have to say Titanicus is an excellent game!

Tuesday, 22 September 2020

Adeptus Titanicus - The first steps of a new Princeps

As the title suggests I'm dipping my toes into a new game. Namely Adeptus Titanicus!

Painted up my first Warhound.

As many of you will know, I am a regular 40k player. However, a number of factors have made me want to move away from 40k. First off, lockdown due to Covid-19 has caused a dramatic decrease in the number of games I've been able to play over recent months. This, coupled with the increasing complexity of faction special rules (most prevalent with Space Marines) has made me lose interest somewhat. I still love 40k and still want to play it, but it feels like time for a bit of a step back and to try something new.

I've wanted to try smaller scale gaming for some time but have been put off of Adeptus Titanicus due to the pricing. However, as it was my Birthday this month I was able to get the starter set as a gift from my lovely wife. So far, I'm very impressed with the miniatures and the rules, although I've yet to try them out on the tabletop.

I chose Legio Fureans, basically because they look cool.

In terms of the awesome little titans, my plan is to paint them up as two different forces. That way I might be able to do a bit of socially distanced gaming with them. I've chosen Legio Fureans as my traitor forces and painted up the first warhound in their colours. I've named her Bavajuda, which roughly translates as Spite.

For the loyalist forces, I'm thinking that it will be Legio Atarus. That way I can set all the battles within the second Paramar V campaign which creates a nice historical narrative.

Final shot of Bavajuda.

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. Working from home has somehow left me less time for blogging (I kind of feel like it should be the other way around!) I will make the effort to do more regular updates here so you can follow my Titanicus journey.

Tuesday, 10 September 2019

Acastus Knight Porphyrion - Complete at last!

If you've read any of my posts over the last month or so you'll know I've been slaving away on my Knight Porphrion. Well, behold the fruits of my labours!

She's such a bruiser.

I started painting her at the College of Artisans event at Warhammer World and made some good progress. This is such a huge detailed miniature though that even with a jump start it still took ages for me to finish. Still, I feel it was worth the effort.

Feels like it's been a long time coming.

The paint scheme uses a lot of the same colours as my Imperial Knights and Adeptus Mechanicus models. However, I added some hazard striping borrowed from my 30k models and tried for a bit of a heat staining effect on the magna-lascannon barrels too. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out.

I wore my paintbrush down to a nub.

I also tried to be a bit more creative with the base. For those that aren't aware, the Porphyrion isn't supplied with a base so I had to source one separately. In the end I opted for a laser cut mdf oval which I found on Ebay for a few quid. It seems to have suited my purposes pretty well. However, it is an absolutely huge area of base to cover, so I added, rocks, terrain, grass tufts and some splashes of different colours in an effort to break it up and make it look more realistic. I don't know if it really worked, but I feel like I was able to stretch myself as a painter and modeller when doing it.

Detail of the base.

I have become accustomed to smothering my Imperial Knights with transfers and the Porphyrion is no exception. I even treated myself to a horribly expensive transfer sheet from Forgeworld with which to decorate her. I have to say, despite the price, the Forgeworld transfers are really nice to work with and go on very smoothly. If you can afford it then they're well worth springing for.

Note the gold transfer on the face guard.

I have found that working on a model of this size leads to a bit of scale blindness after a while. So once I was done, I dug out one of my other knights to do a bit of comparison.

Truly titanic!

I hope you all like her. For me, it's been a bit of an arduous journey and I think I'm going to go and lie down in the recovery position for a little while. We'll see what emerges next once I recover my painting mojo.

Monday, 18 March 2019

Monster March - Hierophant Bio-titan week 2

First off, sorry for the delayed post. This really should have gone up last week as part of Monster March but some things got in the way. Namely, finding the right space to take some half decent photos of this massive beast!

Now that's a big bug!

Eventually I managed to find a couple of huge pieces of paper to make a background and got a few shots of the finished article. That's right, she's officially finished! (No comments of 'you missed a spot' please.)

The Hierophant has actually been quite a relaxed project to work on. Partially because it is such a simple paint scheme (see my previous post) but also because it was part way finished when I kicked off this month; so it has felt easier than having to start from scratch.

She's so pretty!

Profile shot.

However, we're only about half way through March, so I feel like I should add another model to the Monster March challenge run by Path of an Outcast. Unfortunately I don't have another suitable monster (and let's be honest, what could follow the Hierophant?) so I'm following the theme of getting things finished off.

Without asking permission, I'm going to chuck in an Onager Dunecrawler that I started painting about two years ago but never finished. It's in a bit of a sorry state and will need some TLC to bring it up to scratch. Here's the current state of things.

Why oh why didn't I part assemble it??

So, it needs a lot of work. The painting is shambolic and it needs a base, feet, a gun and lots of hugs and kisses. I have done a bit of work on it to even get it to this stage. The legs have been cleaned up and I'm fairly happy with how they're progressing. That upper hull though........ugh.

Anyway, tune in next time to see if I've manage to make a beauty out of this beast!

Wednesday, 6 March 2019

Monster March - Hierophant Bio-Titan week 1

It's March once again and that means time for Monster March! This is an annual painting challenge run by Swordmaster over at Path of an Outcast. Once again I'm thrilled to participate with another huge model; this time, trying to finish off a Hierophant Bio-Titan for my Tyranid army. If you read my previous post, you will know that I had made a start on this beast a couple of years ago; but had never gotten around to completing the model. Well, it's time to change all that!

So terrifying!

As you can see from the above, I've made great progress this week; getting a lot of the base colours finished off and starting to add detail. It's been interesting to go back to a Tyranid after painting so many Adeptus Mechanicus models recently. My Tyranid colour scheme was created over a decade ago and was designed for a novice painter (me) to get reasonable looking models on the field quickly. I haven't been able to change the scheme much over the years because it would create disparity within the army. So, what you see on the Hierophant is a pretty basic paint scheme.

On the one hand it's nice to paint something so simply and be able to make lots of quick progress. On the other, it's frustrating not to be able to apply skills that I've learned over the last ten years. Nevertheless, it's a bold, bright scheme and looks good on the tabletop. So I'm not too miserable about it.

I'm always amazed at the size of this thing.

In terms of progress, there's not too much left to do. Basically details to paint, a few areas to touch up and that big old base to deal with. If I have a good week next week it might even be finished by my next post! Then I will have to deal with the problem of trying to properly photograph a model this size!

Tune in next week to see how I'm getting on and if I decide to add a second model to the Monster March pledge.

Thursday, 28 February 2019

Monster March - Return of the Hierophant Bio-titan

If you've been hanging around here long enough (you poor souls), you may recall my ill advised foray into the world of titanic units. Specifically the Hierophant Bio-Titan. Basically I made a start painting the thing about two years ago but it never got finished; you can read more about that escapade here.

Basically the state of things right now.

As you can see from the photo, I banged a few basecoats on it (no mean feat with a beast this size) and that was as far as it got.

Well, it's March and that means Monster March! Run by Path of an Outcast, this event is meant for participants to build and paint (or otherwise finish off) a suitable monster within the month. So, my intention is clear, I will finish painting the biggest of all monsters for this month's pledge!

Tune in next week for an update and to see if my paintbrush has been worn down to a nub.

Tuesday, 25 April 2017

Salute 2017 - Aftermath

For those that missed it, last Saturday (22nd April) Salute 2017 was held at Excel London. Allegedly the biggest wargaming event in Europe, this massive expo is hosted annually by South London Warlords. I was fortunate enough to attend and spent the day shopping and painting with Blazmo from Tabletop Apocalypse.

Warlords' Warlord!

We decided to drive down to the venue as I wanted to buy plenty of terrain and it was bound to be heavy. Despite the wallet crippling parking fee (still cheaper than the train!) they journey down was easy and we arrived just before the doors opened at 10am. Needless to say there was already a huge queue of eager gamers ahead of us ready to spend their hard earned cash!

So many nerds!

Despite the lengthy queue, it moved swiftly and we were soon inside the exhibition hall. As usual, the show included plenty of trade stands for all kinds of different games and wargaming products.

Nerdvana!

Having made a rough game plan beforehand, we headed straight for Troll Trader as we had found some excellent deals there in 2016. Once again we were not disappointed, quickly snatching up a copy of Red Veil for Infinity and a huge stack of TT Combat mdf terrain. We quickly realized our error as we had to carry around a massive block of wood for the rest of the day, how foolish!

Plenty more spending was to come as we grabbed more Infinity figures and templates from various stands (Micro Art Studios was one but there were too many to remember.) Every shop seemed to be offering discounts and freebees, I ended up with a small pile of different miniatures from random games systems. Always nice to have!

The other highlight of the day was the speed painting competition hosted by Eavier Metal. In a mere 25 minutes contestants were challenged to paint a model to completion, obviously no mean feat!

Blazmo and I, furiously painting!

This was my first experience of speed painting and I enjoyed it immensely. It was a great laugh as we manically splattered paint onto the miniatures. Even getting a basecoat on every area seemed like a challenge at first! It was also my first time using Army Painter products, which seemed strange at first but over the 25 minute period I came to actually quite like them. I will definitely consider Army Painter when I need paints in the future.

Such skills! Mine is the one on the left.

Another highlight was the massive 30k Horus Heresy display put on by the Warlords themselves. This seems to be a fixture which grows in scope every year. The obvious standout this year was the enormous (though definitely under scaled) Warlord titan. Despite my dislike of the model (because of the scale issues) I had to admit that it was an impressive piece which had been masterfully painted. The display itself was full of great details which were well worth taking the time to admire. One of my favourites was the three gore spattered World Eaters contemptors shown below.

So evocative!

Strangely, despite spending plenty of money, I didn't buy any 40k figures this year. There just didn't seem to be any stand out deals on the day. Still, with a pile of terrain and Infinity figures, I should be kept busy for some time yet. All in all the day was a blast and I look forward to heading down again next year.

Tuesday, 28 March 2017

Titan in a day! - How to build an Eldar Phantom Titan

This was a hell of a project and something that I was thrilled to be involved with.

Hot damn! That's impressive!

To explain a little, a good friend of mine who shall remain nameless (Jack) has a bad habit of buying enormous Forgeworld models that he's too intimidated to construct. Now I have every sympathy here, having built my own Hierophant Bio-titan which was a tricky and time-consuming job but very rewarding in the end. At any rate, Jack has been hassling me for some time to help him out with his growing pile of un-built Forgeworld super-heavies, the grand-daddy amongst them being the Eldar Phantom Titan pictured above. After many months of hassling and a couple of tins of beer I finally snapped and agreed to set aside a day to help him out with these projects.

As the fateful day loomed we talked briefly about what we would need and what models to build. I supplied an enormous shopping list (drills, pins, putty, glue, cookies etc) which Jack went out and bought. As there were several models available including a Revenant Titan, Scorpion grav-tank and a Vampire Raider we weren't exactly sure which to attempt or even how much we could get done in a day.

As a beautiful Friday morning dawned (nothing like building titans in the sunshine) I headed on over to Jack's and we got stuck in to some resiny goodness. After looking at the models we both knew we had to attempt the Phantom, after all, the point of the day was twofold. Firstly to build some badass miniatures but secondly, to give Jack the confidence to tackle some more of these projects alone.

Early progress showing the left leg.

Straight away I could see it was going to be a challenge, the left foot alone was made up of nine separate components all of which had to be trimmed, pinned and glued. On the upside, the feet of a Phantom Titan are exceptionally poseable enabling you to make some really outlandish miniatures if you're feeling brave.

Completed leg assembly, we weren't brave enough to go for a one legged pose!

Strangely, the legs themselves only consist of three separate components, the upper, lower and the knee. These needed to be reinforced as strongly as possible so they were thoroughly pinned along with the hips to make the lower section of the Titan stable. We were able to drive a pin straight through both hips providing a good connection between both legs.

As you can see from the photos we were making a horrendous mess (anyone who's ever drilled and sawn resin will vouch for the amount of debris created). The hoover was used liberally throughout the day to try and keep on top of the stuff.

When it came to the torso assembly we hit a snag, one of the components (front breastplate) was missing. Ultimately I left it down to Jack to decide what he wanted to do, should we stop building and try to build the Revenant instead? Luckily he had a brainwave, a battered Wraithknight was laying around in his bitz box and its chestplate was just what we needed, you can see it in the photos below (the horrible purple part).

Starting to look impressive!

The main torso was quite straightforward and we were able to drive a single pin through all four of the components and into the hips making it rock solid. The shoulder assembly was quite something, involving all the holofield fins, the missile launchers and the massive pauldrons. It all went together pretty quickly though (despite me getting superglue on the coffee table) hence the lack of progress photos.

Then came time to add the head, arms and weapons. Jack declined to paint the inside of the cockpit so the head went straight on. The arms turned out to be a major headache as the guns were really heavy. Much pinning gluing and swearing later and the beast was finished!

Getting there!

Jack wanted to magnetise the right arm as he had both D-cannon and close combat options for the Titan. In the end, we got the sword ready to go but the D-cannon was left for a later date.

Taste the beast!

At any rate it was a fantastic day and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Thanks to Jack for letting me be part of such an awesome build, now all he has to do is paint it!

Tuesday, 10 January 2017

Tyranid Hierophant Bio-titan - Painting progress

A few months ago (back in September I think!) the Hierophant Bio-titan I ordered finally arrived.

Cue rough progress photo

Just so we're clear, he didn't arrive in this state but was a brand new kit in need of much building. And what a task that turned out to be! Having read from several sources that these guys are notorious for bending/warping under their own weight I knew that I would have some work to do if I ever wanted to be able to use him on the battlefield.

To begin with, I had a look around online to see if there were any tutorials I could follow. As it turns out there are several, and, by cross referencing, I formulated a plan to construct my own Bio-titan. The main difficulty is the strength of the legs compared with the weight of the torso (a huge solid lump of resin); in an attempt to remedy this, I cut each leg into 3 pieces using a razor saw and then drilled and inserted 2mm steel pins. I also sawed the front claws in half and pinned them using paperclips.

After that was done (including bending one of the legs back into shape using a hairdryer) it became the usual task of building a resin model. All the usual cutting, bending, pinning etc. In the end, I went a bit pin happy with this thing, pinning all the limbs, the head, both mandibles and even some of the larger carapace spines!

Once the main build was complete I used plenty of green stuff and Apoxie Sculpt to fill the gaps and iron out any casting flaws and air bubbles. The Hierophant was surprisingly gappy when built (common with ball and socket joints) and I used up plenty of putty filling around the arms and legs.

After all of that it was time to build the base. For those that don't know, these models are too large to be supplied with a base so it is left to the intrepid hobbyist to make their own or go without. One look at the Hierophant should be enough to convince you that a base is very, very necessary. I have seen plenty of different examples online of people making large circular bases out of timber. Whilst this would work pretty well for a display piece, I was unconvinced of the ability to maneuver something like this on the battlefield. That and I'm not totally sure that the added weight of a hefty piece of mdf would do this model any favours. In the end I opted for two layers of thick plasticard, stuck together and cut to shape, this helped with the rigidity of the finished model and also allows it to maintain a reasonable footprint (for a titan!)

After the base was formed and the Hierophant was fixed down (cue more pins and glue) it was getting on for late October. Excessive amounts of Chaos Black spray were applied (Abaddon black?!) and then it was down to me and my big brush to get some colour on it. Unfortunately, at this point I encountered a minor snag. The recesses in the Hierophant's carapace are so deep and many that I found it virtually impossible to paint them with a normal brush. After a little trying and frustration, the project was shelved for a later date.

A couple of months later and in stepped the mighty Blazmo of Tabletop Apocalypse fame. Wielding his airbrush, he generously agreed to hit up the Hierophant with a coat of red paint (and as it turned out, a little white and some grey too!) So, on Christmas day we sat down in the bathroom with our respirators on and got down to business (now there's a sentence I never thought I'd write!)

Since then, I've carried on painting with great enthusiasm, finishing off the red basecoat by hand and then applying my usual black wash. At this point, I've almost finished the white basecoat to the chitinous areas which means that the model isn't too far from completion! Tune in for the next episode when I hope to be able to show off the finished article.