Titanicus was what really gave me the drive to get one, a seriously great read but i'm warning you it will really make you want to pilot your own engine on the tabletop.
So like a child on Christmas morning i was greeted a few weeks later by a package from England that was about 30 lbs of resin.
The size comparison when you put it next to the everyday 40k models is truly amazing
As anyone who has ever worked with resin before you know the first thing you have to do is scrub it all in warm soapy water to remove any lingering mold release agent. With a build this size it was the worst part of the entire build. Several days later with raw hands i was finished. I soaked and scrubbed and rinsed every piece twice which god willing removed any traces of the mold release that will screw up my paint job.
My friends and i ran into a Warlord titan about 6 months ago at Templecon in Rhode Island and chatted with the builder a bit. His Warlord was not magnetized at all and had to be transported as-is, he also talked about one of the model design shortcomings being the poor design of the knees and the enormous weight place on them. (his warlord tended to wiggle in the knees when jostled)
With this conversation in mind i planned my build around several key ideas
- Magnetization and making the Warlord modular for transport
- Pin the fuck out of all the joints
- Make a base for it for added stability
While waiting for the Warlord to arrive from Forgeworld i busied myself reading every blog out there detailing various owners builds and learned a lot. For example when you're dealing with resin pieces of this size i used things i thought i would never need for building Warhammer models like JB-Weld epoxy and clamps.
I did use some super glue for some smaller pieces, for example the Apocalypse Missile Launchers you need to glue in each missile. I HIGHLY suggest you dry fit each piece first as they do not "lock in" and you certainly want them all facing the same direction.
For the vast majority of the build i used JB-Weld Steel Epoxy for its strength in all the structural components of the Warlord. It's working time is somewhere around an hour once mixed with its cure time being around 12 hours. I got in the habit of once my wife and I got the kids to bed i went down to the basement for an hour or so then built, epoxied, and clamped whichever piece or pieces i was working on and letting it cure till the next night and repeating the process. Often because of the position of the clamps you really only can glue on one or two pieces at a time and have to wait for them to cure. Smart planning is to multitask by working on the body or legs then shifting to a gun or something else while the other drys.
One of the first things i did was get to work on the torso. I ordered some very large 1 inch x 1/2 inch magnets for the torso, these bad boys have a pull strength of 75 pounds which i quickly found was dangerous as i separated them from the plastic wafer they are shipped in and accidentally let them come together.... one $15 magnet obliterated and time to order more magnets....
This is one of the magnets seated in a cavity i drilled into the lower torso with a Forstner bit, you can see a small hole on either side to eject the excess JB Weld, It cured with a slight lean towards one side but still works just fine.
For the upper torso plate i debated drilling through it and having magnet to magnet contact but after my most recent experience with these beasts i went another way
That is its companion magnet sitting on top of the upper torso plate encased in a tomb of JB Weld.You'll also notice more liberally applied to all the seams for strength.
Pros:
The magnets not actually touching means less chance of destroying said magnet which would be near impossible to replace once the model is complete
Cons:
Since they are not touching and are separated by a quarter inch or so of resin the pull strength is reduced
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| Clamps... all the clamps |
Final verdict is it works, i dont have to worry about accidental magnet contact and destruction and the pull force is still sufficient to hold the titan together. You can also see in this picture the main body of the upper torso mostly complete.
It was at this point i said to myself "hey, there is like a giant 4x6x4 space inside this titan and i should put all the electronics and lights and smoke machines and things inside it!"
Then i realized the top part could not be magnetized since the engines are 3 pieces each and need to sit on top of it. I have seen some nice titans where people do put electronics in there and even lights in the heat sinks. The only way i can see them getting away with doing that and getting back in to change batteries and such is they must cut an access door somewhere that doesn't show upon inspection.
I may still add lights to the head as my friend John is deep into that stuff and thinks we can fit it all in the head cavity.
Finished the main weapons... Rhino for size. You'll also notice a very large wooden base my woodworker uncle was kind enough to make for me.
Attaching the shoulders: these hold on the 3 part shoulder plates and the shoulder mounted weapons. there IS a right and left so always dry fit before you glue. The problem i ran into with this is upon dry fitting i noticed they were not level. This could of been from resin warping or the way the arm mounts underneath were attached or both. Nothing to do about it at this point but adapt and overcome or the weapons once mounted would look ridiculous.
My dremel became a key part of this build. I shaved down the underside of the shoulder mounts and the groove on the top of the arm mounts. It looks ugly but will be hidden by the shoulder plates.
Upper torso nearly complete, shoulder armor dry fitted on, Murray the marine on top for size. All the armor plates were left off the model for ease of painting with the exception of the plate directly above the head socket. It's worth noting this doesn't want to stay in place for gluing and is nearly impossible to clamp so this was probably my first chance from JB Weld to JB Quick. Still a hard epoxy but sets in 10 minutes or less, it only has a working time of about 4 minutes once mixed so be ready!
Since i wanted my Warlord to be modular that meant in addition to magnets it need to be secure yet able to be removed from its base. This is what i came up with. I drilled two holes in each foot base and glue in barrel washers. These will meet up with bolts and washers coming up from the bottom of the wood base. After completion i realized two in each foot was probably overkill but hey i over engineer everything.
Assembling the legs was easily the most problematic part of the build as you need to get the ball joints of the ankles, the knee joints, and the hips all in the right spot on the pelvis... all at the same time.
What i did to accomplish this was this
- Figure out roughly where i wanted the feet
- hold the 2 sections of each leg together on the pelvis, figure out the stance and mark it on the knees.
- I then locked each knee into place with a brass rod running vertically and another horizontally
- With the knees locked in place i again held the legs onto the pelvis for several more dry fits. I also attached a level to the top of the hip and kept and eye on the bubble
- Finally i broke out the JB Quick (remember 4 min work time, 10 minute cure) and applied it to the hips and held the two legs on the hips for 10 minutes or so making minor adjustments while watching the level the whole time.
- Once that was done and i let it do a hard cure for 12 hours or so i went back in and used JB Weld on the knees (all the pins and the joints themselves). Again, waited for it to cure, i believe i used straight JB Weld on the knees for strength as they were locked in place with the pins and i didn't need to be around to hold them.
- Lastly once the legs were done i re-position the foot plates and attached the legs with JB Quick
- Allowed the whole thing to dry and then moved to install the leg pistons
- I also went back in and drilled through each hip into the pelvis to install long brass rods, this was probably overkill but again, i like to over engineer
It was at this point while dry fitting the leg armor i realized i fucked up... You may notice the top picture (the front) has detailed pistons and the bottom picture (the back) looks plainer.
This is because i'm an idiot and somewhere in the dozen of leg dry fittings i swapped the thighs and put them on backwards...
Well, nothing i can do about it except drink some fine tequila and wait for a solution to present itself.
So, dis-assembly and reattaching properly was NOT an option, 2 pins in each knee, another in each hip and completely cured JB Weld throughout. I would of destroyed the model if i had tried. So once again time to adapt and overcome.
I used brass rod stock to make extra long pistons, not shown is i also used a chunk of green stuff under each plate to support the underside.
The back thighs may look a little plain but my mistake is barely noticeable from the front
Moving on to the base! Obviously something as grand as a Warlord Titan needs something fancier than a plain base so i order 8 lbs of Apoxie Scuplt. This is a 2 part epoxy clay that has several hours of work time once mixed and then hardens and is not brittle.
It turns out i probably should of used at least another 4lbs if not more as i didnt get the base as thick as i wanted but with the solid wood and 8lbs of clay the base is already pretty damn heavy.
Some things i learned
- Mix the two parts in small doses, the clay is not pliable enough to try and mix all 4lbs at once
- Use plenty of water on your hands, surfaces, rolling pin, and tools to keep the clay from sticking
The application of clay and texturing was complete at this point, you can see where i started the first layer of sandbags for the bunker and you can see a little bit of an Eldar Wraithknight underneath the right leg. (Hey, a model this big needs to be crushing something underfoot)
More or less how the Wraithknight will look in the end, i actually changed the leg a bit, i was worried i put too many hoses and pistons in but i think it adds something.
Construction of the sandbag wall, battle damaged rhino and crushed Wraithknight.
Since my painting skills can best be described as sub par i opted to commission my good friend Chris who is an excellent painter to give this god machine the justice it deserves. More pictures once it's back from paint!
As i write this i realize i didn't take as many pictures as i thought during construction and am missing key parts of the build such as magnetizing all the weapons and some other basing details. More to come in part 2!
Big thanks to 30MM madnesses Warlord build guide among several others
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