Blackadders Warlord WIP

[Blackadder]

Well I did have to cut the upper legs down again another 4MM all around. I installed the skin (AGAIN) and am working on the detail.

I made a couple of jigs to facilitate the assembly first a cutting jig so the zipper-like trim is homogeneous and equally spaced.

And a small aligning jig so the truncated pieces are aligned with their opposite number.

DS has 9 sets up the back of the leg but I got ten with approximately the same spacing so either his are larger or his legs are shorter or he isn't as anal about the spacing.



http://i.imgur.com/TxC3n.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/VS9QD.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/OXFmS.jpg

Cutting jig

http://i.imgur.com/F0DbE.jpg

Aligning jig

[Blackadder]

I use Ambroid ProWeld when I can get it. I keep it in a Tamiya bottle because it's less prone to tipping and the fine tipped brush wastes a lot less solvent (Its really not a glue so much as a plastic melter.)

For really large surfaces I use Testors red or blue tubed styrene cement. I see little difference between the two other than the toxicity of the red but I've never ben afacked bi iet myslef.


Hmmm.......... I seem to have experienced a flurry of activity this weekend completing the basic upper leg structure and adding a bit of detail.

Time to take stock and see where I've gone wrong.

One step forward and two steps back seems to be my mantra.....................


http://i.imgur.com/QrumW.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/Ldi0k.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/wCBgI.jpg

[[MaGiC]]

can't wait to see these legs with some armor plating on them

your mantra must make it really hard to even get started?

[Blackadder]

What is wrong is I was at this point last week, seven days ago and I couldn't accept the front to back size of the upper leg.

I knew it was unacceptably wrong but it took me a lot of mental anguish to decide to cut the upper leg down a further 8MM; 4 from the back, around the hip radius and 4 from the front plus re-lengthening the lower legs 12.5MM so instead of presenting this as it is last Monday so I lost a week during the rebuilding and am showing it today as it should have been a week ago.

Speaking of massive the hip unit even without the external side trim tips the scale at 5.5 ounces and each leg unit masses 19.05 ounces. Thats a lot of plastic!

[[MaGiC]]

with that amount of plastic you could call it MJ or Cher!

[Blackadder]

The Blackadder is in his glory. I relish doing the fine detail. Well this project is fraught with minute detail some of which is smaller than the pixel resolution in the images I have.

You're going to have to look close (If you're so inclined I won't presume my work is worth more than a causal glance.) to see where the changes are in the detail. I'm particularly pleased with the piping on the edge of the hip plate reinforcement which is literally a thread of styrene 0.4 MM by 0.75 MM. Strips so fine as to be ephemeral when full strength ProWeld is applied. I used de-volatilized Proweld to keep it from disappearing. The cog components on the ankle quadrant (sic) are a gimmee.
Note that the strips on either side of the Bow-tie like trim which I presume serve some utilitarian function.

The Knee plate reinforcements are in progress at the moment............

http://i.imgur.com/Y61a8.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/YDhLP.jpg

[40k1Gamern]

I guess you haven´t thought about it much really, and very early to ask such a question, but are you considering making a viewable cockpit & engine room like with the ForgeWorld´s Reaver one when you come to that part?
Know it won´t be as detailed as the ForgeWold´s Reaver Titan, (and doesn´t need to be either) but still. You get my picture.
Very nice work so far, I like it. I better start work with my own Titan soon. But most likely you´re finished building this one before I have even finished painting mine.

[Blackadder]

I guess you haven´t thought about it much really, and very early to ask such a question, but are you considering making a viewable cockpit & engine room like with the ForgeWorld´s Reaver one when you come to that part?
Know it won´t be as detailed as the ForgeWold´s Reaver Titan, (and doesn´t need to be either) but still. You get my picture.
Very nice work so far, I like it. I better start work with my own Titan soon. But most likely you´re finished building this one before I have even finished painting mine.

I'd like to make a complete hull interior including the cockpit with lighting but I have no idea how big to make them as yet. They have to be in scale with the legs and feet so until they are done I can't consider the body and head.

You'll probably be playing yours long before I finish this.

[40k1Gamern]

Well, guess I should begin to paint it then instead of it up until now has just been lying around and collecting dust. But honestly, I think you will finish this one Warlord of yours before I am done painting my Titan.
Too bad when I thinks about it and haven´t even started painting it yet. It´s a shame really.
Anyway, looking forward to see more of your work on your Warlord Titan. I know you will manage to build a damn good looking one.

[Blackadder]

A poor showing this week I'm afraid, my real job workload was staggering but I did manage to rebuild the front of the knee joint (Why does it look like a marshmallow Easter peep?) and add a lot of basic detail.

God this will be detail heavy I'm up over a pound for each leg and half the detail isn't installed.

I'm taking a crash course on fiber optics and will be incorporating it in this and the Thunderhawk


http://i.imgur.com/GLg6l.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/EcUcel.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/lFLrX.jpg

[Blackadder]

It's time to address the most baffling component of this project, namely what the outrageously long hydraulic cylinder is for running down the calf of the leg?

It appears in the epic model as well as the DS construct but I can fathom no applicable purpose. The quadrant gear in the ankle provides the step motion and that is supplemented by the small cylinders attached to the heel which mimic the function of the Achilles tendon. Were the cylinder attached upper leg behind the knee it would serve as the calf muscle but it doesn't attach there anyway it looks very interesting so I am including it in my construct complete with superfluous safety guard rails so people twenty feet off the ground don't lose an arm in the massive hydraulic piston.

As it is right now each of these legs are as complex as anything I have built with the exception of Lucie's pedal appendages and they are about only half detailed. Surprisingly my enthusiasm has not flagged.

http://i.imgur.com/ySHyN.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/opJp9.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/OBj8D.jpg

[Blackadder]

Just another bit before I put this aside for the weekend. The detail is progressing nicely although what these devices actually do is a mystery. but they do look intricate and that is the look I am going for.

http://i.imgur.com/TSHHq.jpg


Tomorrow the main lower leg cylinders; that should be fun.

[Cuddles]

The detail really adds to the model and helps to bring it to 'life', if you get my meaning. Very impressive thus far.

[Blackadder]

First let me apologize for such a tawdry post but I figured there are those that might benefit from an image from the beginning of the construction. The waist block is probably the most important structure in the whole model. Not only must it bear the weight of the structure above but it must transfer that weight to the movable legs and sustain that transfer for the conceivable future (At least until The Blackadder has shuffled off this mortal coil.)

You will note that the structure is grossly undersized as it is about 5 cm square. This is intentional. You can always add girth, subtracting is more difficult. tomorrow I shall apply my solution to the articulation problem; i.e. a workable material that will sustain the pressure of the upper works and still be small enough to remain within scale.

In addition the thigh detail is coming along nicely (IMHO)

http://i.imgur.com/ndbbS.jpg

[Blackadder]

I found these marvelous 'Tee' fittings that are just perfect to supply the fore to aft swing of the hip joint. They take a nice 1/4 -20 thread and are strong enough to support the weight of the model without being too cumbersome. I was going to go with copper tube 'Tee' fittings filled with epoxy and drilled and tapped but these are better as they are machined perfect and the tap self centers when cutting the thread.

Now some readers of this may baulk at the employment of these tools but they are easy to use and readily available at the local 'Home Depot' or 'Lowes' and a cheap 'T' handle and tap set is adequate for modeling purposes. I happen to have a fairly good machinist set but that quality is not necessary.

http://i.imgur.com/X28BG.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/823ZR.jpg

[40k1Gamern]

Been a while since I actually saw a Warlord Titan, (Epic one ofc that is) but isn´t those lower legs supposed to be much larger and bulkier like hexagonal shaped or roundly shaped?
See you have quite a lot of detail on those lower legs, but is it really necessary and will it even be seenable if they are gonna be bulked up a lot?

[Blackadder]

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I post on a lot of fora and somehow on this forum I neglected to post that the Warlord I am attempting to replicate is the Dave Smith Titan; in my estimation the most realistic version of a Warlord I have ever seen. You will note that the lower legs are a flat rectangle with a lot of external paraphernalia including hydraulic cylinders that have no function but they are in some respect on the Epic model from which he took his work. My Warlord will be based on his work with the added feature that it will have pose-able limbs.

http://i.imgur.com/8HEWy.jpg http://i.imgur.com/F6ziQ.jpg

[Blackadder]

Today I worked on the pelvic mechanism which needs a bit of revising. Even though it works just as I wanted the sphere halves need to be undercut to fit the 'Tee' fittings thereby retreating further into the pelvic block. Therefore I need to mount the 'Tees' further outboard so they will be visible and allow for a great range of motion.

http://i.imgur.com/kiq1U.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/LjIlP.jpg

[Blackadder]

It strikes me that this model is insufficiently complex.

Just kidding but over the weekend I received a query on another forum as to whether I was going to include an interior to the cockpit. I had alway intended to make the cockpit interior but it got me to thinking about my regrets when building the Lucie Warhound; namely no interior whatsoever. So...........

I threw together a front view of the compartments this weekend just so I could get a feel for how the various areas might be arranged.

Surprisingly it all fits and each compartment has about an 11 ft ceiling.

My dementia is serving me well.

Naturally the cockpit will be forward of the bridge and is not represented in this diagram.

http://i.imgur.com/eJxy0.jpg

[Blackadder]

I'm toying with the idea of stacking the decks like a child's stacking toy about the center pivot post:



This should afford ease in viewing the internal detail.

There are so many interlocking armour plates that alignment should be relatively easy to maintain plus there is the added bonus of modular construction which should facilitate modification and repair not to mention adding lighting at a later date as opposed to wiring it as I build.

[Inquisitor Lok]

Lighting and (Full?) Interior? Man you so crazy!

[Blackadder]

I just finished reinforcing the top and bottom of the block with 3mm scrap plastic which will give plenty of strength to this all important area as small as it is it must take all the weight and movement from the above structure and also the legs.

Theres a 10 inch 3/8 ths diameter inch bolt threaded through 'Tee' nuts top and bottom and the for to aft hip gimbals are mounted with 10-32 screws through 'Tee' nuts as well. There is a 7/16 dia. inch tube inside of a 1/2 dia. inch tube as a compression spacer that the pivot rod runs through and the whole is strong enough to stand on if you don't weigh 18 stone.

Now that I've taken the pictures I can seal the gimbals in under their cap plates and the pelvis will be completed.

http://i.imgur.com/EloLM.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/Gl1GE.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/JZ9tO.jpg

[Blackadder]

Okay let's recap for the week to establish where we stand. The pelvic block is basically done and the legs are basically done except for the detail.

Now the cross 'Tees' are temporarily in place to establish the width of the hips and allow for the splaying of the legs ala the 'classic Reaver pose'.



I figure I should get this in before the weekend as I will be working on the 'hip articulation' whilst everyone is off having a life for the next few days.

I can see already that my greatest fear has been allayed and the pelvic block is not too big and that I actually have to increase the width of the hip joints once the hip gimbals are installed.

For that I shall have to employ a couple of PVC fittings to house the spheres and fill them with resin so they will take a thread much in the manner of the Lucie hip joints but this much larger model gives me the luxury of two articulation points instead of one that the limited space in Lucie provided.

http://i.imgur.com/QrSyc.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/GXt6s.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/kj875.jpg

[Blackadder]

Now we will further address the manufacture of the pelvis/hip attachment.

I found some ideal PVC 1 inch pipe nipple to PVC tubing adapters that fill the bill for the hip joint ideally. There is even an internal shoulder ridge after the threaded portion is cut off to act as the race flange for the gimbal sphere to be retained by.

The remaining sleeve is drilled, tapped, and countersunk to receive the 1/4 inch axle screws............ (I apologize for the American Standard measures but there isn't the diversity in hardware available on this side of the pond for me to render this in metric components.

There may very well be metric items that equal or exceed the materials used but they are not available to me .).............

As I was saying, using only 1/2 the hip sphere it leaves ample room for the epoxy plug in the end of the sleeve to be threaded and hold the leg attachment screw.

I hope to achieve this later today.

http://i.imgur.com/noiY9.jpg



http://i.imgur.com/pFMWZ.jpg


Note the degree of flexibility that can be achieved with this setup. Stops will have to be added to cut down on this amount.

[Blackadder]

Time for the weekly recap along with a pic in pic comparison with the DS model.

I have to admit waiting for the resin to dry consumed a lot of the production time but I worked my butt off to get to this stage and it's a testament to the durability of this thing that nothing snapped as I slapped the components together.

Now I know the legs look a bit thin but if you look at the comparison shot and mentally remove the armour and spurious hydraulics there is a reasonable case for verisimilitude.

The images are self-explanatory when taken in conjunction with the recent WIP posts but I can explain any area that anyone might be unclear about.

http://i.imgur.com/CQ1BA.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/uQF8B.jpg

This is a very bad pose but it does demonstrate the flexibility of the design.

http://i.imgur.com/NVgrW.jpg

A pose reminiscent of the classic Reaver stance.

http://i.imgur.com/I8lZN.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/Mkwk0.jpg

A pic-in-pic comparison with the DS model.

http://i.imgur.com/pUzzc.jpg

[Blackadder]

As you may know I post on a lot of fora and the question/criticism I get most often is that the legs look too thin. When I was building Lucie that was the most frequent observation and I appreciated the kind intent to warn me of impending mistakes. It turns out that I kept increasing the cross section of Lucie's legs until I realized a reference namely the banners on the knee segment.

It turns out that Lucie's appendages are much more robust than the FW model and the latter looks anorexic vis-à-vis Lucie.

Now the same concern is being voiced regarding this model and I do appreciate the critique; I'm also a bit anxious about it so I 'shopped the DS leg from the back removing all the front armour and if anything the legs actually look thinner than my titan's. I couldn't remove the hydraulics.

http://i.imgur.com/Kgq0Z.jpg


There are a few inconsistencies as my ankle discs is thicker than his but I needed that to make the ankle flex. and I have one more dart in the zipper-like design running over the front and back of the upper leg but thats just a matter of artistic interpretation as there are only five or six on the epic model.

So to paraphrase the line of 'The Black Adder' in the Infanta's Beard episode, "So Percy, what you are telling me is something you've never seen is slightly less thick than something else you've never seen."

I appreciate the candor,

The incorrigible Blackadder

[Shoota Fodder]

This is absolutely amazing to watch. The only way you could be more insane would be if you wrapped a towel round you're head, stuck a pencil up each nostril and said 'wibble'. I look forward to seeing the interiors if you decide to include them.

[Civik]

tape up one of those dozer blade attachments (if you have one) to the ankle, it'll make a really easy reference since it's literally sitting right there. Amazing work so far on this thing, can't wait to see the progress.

[Blackadder]

Right you are Civik I wasn't aware of this, see below.

This just in:

New information regarding the size of the legs:

The fine line of madness seems to be serving me in good stead. My son on return from college apprises me that there is a perfect Leman Russ component that will verify or refute the scale and width of the leg components.

He recognized right off that the ankle disc leveling device on the DS Warlord is actually the dozer blade actuator of the Leman Russ item 4 on the image below and that all I need do is apply it to the rear of the lower leg to determine if my eye was off or on regarding the width of the DS model.

http://i.imgur.com/dP8Gd.jpg


The images below vindicate my perception at least regarding the lower leg width as it appears that I cannot be off by more than the tiniest fraction of a millimeter,. whew!

http://i.imgur.com/bATIm.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/sfSNd.jpg

[Civik]

Hey BA, what other forum(s) are you posting updates of this on?

Also, that bit next to the 3 is from the Sanctum Imperialis building. Just FYI.

[Blackadder]

A lot but mostly repetitions of the posts here. There is a differences in the responses (In the main,positive) and some get quite humorous as in Dakka Dakka............ Some forums I get virtually no responses at all; in those forums I post only bare bones updates unless I receive a 'question' reply. Unfortunately I haven't time to explore other threads as much as I would like but between work, building and posting on my threads I don't have much free time.....................

Started on the greaves yesterday, it's interesting that such a simple looking panel is so difficult to get right. There are so many compound angles on these that I had to invent new ways to make them. I settled on a twelve mm thickness for the basic structure, most of the Warlords I see have armour way too thick to be practical. 12 mm translates to 2.57142857 feet which I believe is quite thick enough considering that the Iowa class battleships (the heaviest armoured ships ever built) have a belt thickness of only 19 inches. Given that in the far off bellicose future there is ceramic and/or depleted uranium armour; 30 inches seems to me to be more than sufficient.

http://i.imgur.com/0wuVH.jpg


Unless it don't look right!

[Blackadder]

Each greave has two large search lights on the flying portion both on the DS model and the Invictus rendering. I thought it would be nice to have them light up. I plan to do a lot of wiring on this model because I feel it will be worth it.

http://i.imgur.com/wuHfF.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/zuKHc.jpg

[Dark]

Lucky for anyone wanting to wire up a titan that you can have the wires on the exterior and still have it where it won't look out of place, or hide them inside as well. With the Warlord I am making I am using a very large magnet to connect the top and bottom together, which should still transfer an electric current if I do the same thing. You could do the same and have the battery location in the generators on the shoulders for shit's and giggles. My overall most difficult worry is the head as I too want to do interior design with it and have a crew in there.

[Blackadder]

Hmmm, have not posted for a week this will never do.

I got caught up in building the greaves and rather than post a half a--ed response I waited until I actually had something to show.

First the diagonal toes, I was wondering how I would mount them that they could be movable. They needed to twist when the front and back toes were flexed so they could maintain contact with the ground as the foot lifts during the step.

I woke up Wednesday with an epiphany* the solution was simplicity in itself; no wonder I couldn't think of it (I never do anything the easy way.) Anyway drilling 7/16 holes in the diagonal toe mounts and drilling 3/8 holes in the toes themselves, gluing in the respective tubes and letting the dry overnight I trimmed and sanded them today and walla the toes are mounted. Now for the kick in the a-- from the great equalizer in the sky, they can only twist a couple of degrees! HA!

Oh well it's the exercise that counts.

*Is that what they're calling it nowadays?

http://i.imgur.com/1XR3O.jpg



On to the greaves:

As they were when last presented they were too boxy looking IMHO and I thought the DS model looked a bit overly large and clumsy with those wide straight sided panels. I still will make the panels but slightly smaller and the flying portion is at a tighter angle to the leg.

http://i.imgur.com/knCRu.jpg



The greave base section is what is pictured today and I built battery boxes into them for 9 volt batteries. I'm not sure a switch will be necessary as the whole greave is easily removable and uncapping the battery requires but a few seconds. I can still install a switch if I find one small enough.

http://i.imgur.com/CJKTy.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/ylmzp.jpg


The greave on the left is clamped because the battery compartment is glued in place and drying. Once assembled the box will slide on rails into the compartment and help center the leg to the greave along with rare earth magnets to hold the greave in place.

[Blackadder]

Ah summer when young men's thoughts turn to something other than tiny anthropomorphic figurines...................

meanwhile the Blackadder blunders on. This has been a very productive weekend having come close to completing the detail on the inner surface of the greaves replicating as closely as I could (because I changed the shape of the greaves a bit to suit my aesthetic sensibilities) the DS model.

First the DS model for reference:

http://i.imgur.com/lZOma.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/ARboG.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/6Rawd.jpg


I have a feeling I won't be seeing any more critiques on the legs being too thin; quite the reverse in fact considering that the hydraulics haven't been installed yet.

I don't have any idea why so much electric conduit is needed for such basic structures; there must be a lot more than just armour plating going on in these greaves. Considering that these titans are millennia old I guess a lot of additional retrofitting has taken place as technology changes. Finding space for wiring and the like inside the structure isn't always practicable so running it outside may be the expedient way to go.

Anyway the detail on the toes is next because if I don't do it now I may not after the superstructure is completed.

[Civik]

Ah summer when young men's thoughts turn to something other than tiny anthropomorphic figurines...................

You are obviously not in the northwest, we are suffering from a terrible case of Juneuary.

As for the wiring, we'll go with 'it looks cool and makes it look busy instead of a completely barren, flat surface'. Maybe the original designer had an idea what they were for, but that's too much to just be the ankle-lamps. I believe the proper term for them is 'Greeblies'.

[Blackadder]

The bloom is off the Tudor rose it would appear. The Blackadder has lost a lot of momentum judging by a cursory glance at the last few days effort but a closer examination will reveal a plethora of tiny detail on the toes all of which is time consuming.

On the basic structure front I began the upper leg armour and was very surprised how small the actual size was. Granted they represent armour on the order of more than a meter thick and twelve th fifteen feet long but they do look small even to me. I was use to looking at the top image on my screen which made the part look huge. I was actually concerned I had enough plastic to construct them. As it turned out I constructed them out of the scrap box.

http://i.imgur.com/ejWUT.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/fo1TS.jpg

[Blackadder]

Once again the devil is in the details. I spent this weekend producing what amounts to about twelve square inches of armour for a model that will have I figure about 500 to 600 square inches of highly detailed surface. And thats not counting the framework or interior detail plus the lighting and the fiber optics.

It is highly satisfying to work on a model in this manner though. Were I to complete the basic structure and then attempt the intricate work I might be tempted to skimp on the finishing up; this way if I get lazy toward the end the huge blank surfaces will be readily apparent and that will never do so I shall be committed to keeping up the intensity of the intricacies.

Perhaps "committed" applies in more ways than one.

Anyway the thigh armour is more or less complete except for the bitz and the moss-like fuzzy that abounds on the DS model. I cannot figure out what that material is.

http://i.imgur.com/kF0R7.jpg


I it has a nurgle like quality to it that conveys great age and decay; could it be dryer lint? I must remember to save the lint the next time I do my underwear.

http://i.imgur.com/GocUY.jp


http://i.imgur.com/fryYx.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/PVNmV.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/NPpvn.jpg


This is my favorite picture so far, It really conveys the scale of this thing.

"Aye lads there's majesty for you." Ahab to his boat crew in pursuit of the white whale.

[Civik]

Looking at the 'fluff' on the model, it looks to me more like it was a terrible attempt to use a filler or something for gaps in the card which he was putting together. Or perhaps the remnants of some poorly placed textured paint to give the surface some texture for drybrushing?

[Tinweasel]

Anyway the thigh armour is more or less complete except for the bitz and the moss-like fuzzy that abounds on the DS model. I cannot figure out what that material is.

If it were me, I'd use cornmeal glued on in patches with slightly watered-down Elmer's Wood Glue. It's amazing how versatile the stuff is in terms of all the different things/effects you can use it for.
http://users.wowway.com/~tinweasel/cb_speculo.html
http://users.wowway.com/~tinweasel/fw_psykers.html
http://users.wowway.com/~tinweasel/gw_chaos_wizard.html

[Exetus]

Is it a question of figuring out what material was used for it or are you saying that you don't know what it's supposed to represent? I was thinking that you were asking the latter. at first I thought it was weathering, but that doesn't really make sense as it's the same color as the titan's paint scheme. That being said, it doesn't look like it's in places where it would be covering up gaps. I'm a little perplexed myself, but maybe it WAS meant to be weathering that just never got a final touch-up to represent dirt, grit, rust, etc.

[Civik]

It looks like it is over the entire back half of the model including the engine bits. I'm going to stick with a textured paint fail in an attempt to add surface detail to drybrush as though it were a building.

[Blackadder]

Time to assemble the whole and see where we stand:

The upper thigh armour needs to be lengthened about a quarter of an inch but the hinge and plate should take care of that.

The trailing legs don't have a large enough range of movement.

The leg joint lock systems works well but the bolts still need to be concealed.

The hip axles are way too thin in diameter but the length looks right.

http://i.imgur.com/ikTXV.jpg


The step dynamics look right in both the static and the step out pose
http://i.imgur.com/51WPc.jpg


The front elevation while bland will convey the power of this brute.

I may have to mount the greaves higher.

http://i.imgur.com/4QfE2.jpg


And I just love these low angle shots
http://i.imgur.com/I0Er1.jpg

[Blackadder]

I'm looking on this thread as more of a public service. While I can't hope to equal Mr Smith in originality I do hope to shed some light on how he accomplished his Magnum Opus with a few little Blackadderisms thrown in to keep my self respect.

Today I worked on the massive block that supports the weight of the upper torso and transfers it to the legs.

The pelvis is the de facto heart of this beast and many of the models I have examined it is usually much too small. We must assume this Titan masses on the order of a thousand metric tonnes at least half of which is above the waist block. There must be something substantial to support this mass and still provide the flexibility to achieve bipedal locomotion.

Below is my interpretation which masses a third of a kilo already (about 11 ounces).

I built it in two interlocking parts so I have access to the adjustment screws to change the pose.

I figure when complete it will mass about half a kilo or thirteen ounces.

That's a lot of plasticard.

http://i.imgur.com/wzcVr.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/28sm5.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/GQp3H.jpg

[Blackadder]

Someone get the canvas jacket; ya know the one with the extra long sleeves. I was piddlin' around detailing the pelvis and I couldn't find a satisfactory Adeptus Mechanicus emblem so I decided to make one of my own, after all I mean how hard could it be.

Well I have to tell you the cogged sprocket was tedious. If I do another one I'll make it in pieces.

The plugs and wiring wasn't too bad I shaved down my smallest diameter rods to half round for the plugs and and used shavings for some of the smallest cables.

http://i.imgur.com/8GNYJ.jpg


The skull wasn't that difficult at all. I first tried to make it of a single scrap of 2.0 MM sheet styrene but found the relief wasn't deep enough so I glued on another layer and carved away everything that didn't look like a skull.




Periodically I doused the sculpture down with thinset cement to soften the cuts and blend the seams. Right now I am waiting for the glue to dry so I can put on the final detailing.

http://i.imgur.com/6wrIf.jpg


Now I copied this off of "The city of the dead" emblem which I like better than the standard Adeptus Mechanicus emblem BTW it appears that the emblems can be mirror imaged, is that right?

Anyway it took less time to make the tiny thing (It's only a centimeter wide the skull that is.) than it has to write this reply.

I gotta learn to type someday.

[Blackadder]

Hmmm this doesn't bear a close inspection. I brushed the piece with a shoe brush to see if I could accentuate the relief and the skull looks a bit flawed at close range highlighted. The lens rim also has to be thinned down a tad. This is the best close up I've managed with this camera and wouldn't you know it's of dubious work. Faa!

http://i.imgur.com/fOi2g.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/xAcTi.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/4DiaV.jpg

[Civik]

BA, I suggest you spend too much time on AIM or ICQ, or even IRC for about a year. If that doesn't get you to home in on the home keys and type faster, I don't know what will.

The torso is looking spectacular and the emblem is good, however I agree, it looks like some of the edge got taken off it using the shoe brush... perhaps a light sanding to help smooth some of the corners out? I haven't yet had much luck working smaller bits of plasticard. There appears to be a large skull on the shield of the SM statue that could be modified to fit in that area and made to look like the mechanicus symbol. It looks to be about 1cm across.

An idea I had looking at this beast, a way to break up some of the upper surfaces. Make some textured areas and/or some railings on the top of this bad boy. There would likely be maintenance pathways and hatches on the top and across the Titan in order to facilitate maintenance. Perhaps using some texture like a pumice textured paint to make it look like an anti-slip coating could help break up the upper surfaces and add some additional detail.

[Blackadder]

It's like you were reading my mind, There is a gargantuan two meter tall Warlord titan making the expos that is ridiculously too tall but it does have some interesting features such as catwalks under the carapace to service the main guns.

Note the size of the figures


The catwalks provide a nice touch


There are maintenance walks even on the guns

When I get to that point I would like to incorporate that effect into this model albeit at a more believable scale.

Believable? What am I saying!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BTW the shoe brush served a good purpose; by darkening the high points it gave me a guide to scrape the skull smooth by just removing the high areas. The skull is looking much better now.

BTW BTW this whole emblem is as small as my thumbnail; sanding is out of the question.

http://i.imgur.com/prU6y.jpg

[Exetus]

BA, I know that you want to largely make this at little cost and you're friggin' amazing, but what about purchasing the skulls from Forgeworld and then modeling the eyepiece onto it?

[Blackadder]

Part of the fun of scratchbuilding is seeing how far you can push your limits.