Custom Nameplates for Tiny Titans - TO DONE

 Greetings, and welcome to another post on custom name plates. These fantastic mini-titans for Adeptus Titanicus cry out to be named and what better way to display those names, than with some shiny plaques on the bases! To that end, I reached out once again to Versatile Terrain with a list of my Titan's names to be cast into custom name plates.

I got them back pretty quick, which is a credit to the team at Versatile Terrain.  Seems they are taking a break currently, so I got in just under the wire.  The quality of the names plates is great and they fit the various base sizes they were targeted at quite well.  I chose a gothic look to match the Warhammer 30K/40K universe.

Here is what the plates look like glued to Warhound Titan bases.  These are the next two Warhounds in the Manufactorum for Legio Ignatum.  Since I hadn't begun painting these, I glued the plates on directly.  The rest were painted prior to being attached so I wouldn't mess up my painted Mars terrain bases.

I started by priming the plates with Vallejo Surface Primer Black, then layered on a coat of Pro-Acryl Bronze with an airbrush.  I did not remove the plates from the sprue at this point; this gave me something to hold on to while painting.  

Back at the painting desk, I shaded the plates with GW Agrax Earthshade.  Once that had thoroughly dried, I came back in and highlighted the text and sharp edges of the plates with Pro-Acryl Light Bronze.  I felt the bronze look lent some age and weight to the titans.  The light bronze really helps the text pop a bit, making it easier to read at a glance.  The plates were given a coat of varnish and left to dry over night before being removed from their sprue and attached to the various titans in my Adeptus Titanicus collection.

The Legio Tempestus Axiom Maniple is shown above sporting their new name plates. Click through to the original images if you want to get a better close up.  The plates stand out without drawing too much attention from the titans themselves.

Last up is a family shot with the Loyalists of Legio Ignatum and the Ordo Sinister.  This final touch to the titans really polishes the project and should add some fun narrative to my games. Also, there is less chance of confusing which titans go with which terminals and players can more easily refer to them during games, especially with the more plentiful Warhounds.  And finally, I could never recall the correct names for all of the titans anyway, so that is now no longer an issue.

So I'll indulge in a stamp of DONE for that little side project.  That is for 14 truly completed titans now.

Not sure what to pick up next.  I have a bunch of terrain for Adeptus Titanicus calling out for attention; however I owe some time to other projects too and I've sunk a bunch into AT so far this year.  Maybe some characters for Blackstone Fortress?  That's overdue...or perhaps I'll return to the Dark Angels.  I have a primarch waiting for assembly and a host of other units for both 30K and 40K...

Check back later to see where the hobby butterfly takes me.

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Legio Ignatum Warhound Titans for Adeptus Titanicus - TO DONE

 

Imperatoris Canis and Celeri Morte

As promised, I have two completed Adeptus Titanicus Warhound Titans to share this week. I'm very pleased with how the Legio Ignatum colors came out on these two. It's time to celebrate with a big seal o' DONE!

This brings Legio strength to six Ignatum engines and seven for the Loyalists if we include the Warlord-Sinister in that count. Here is how my Legio Ignatum collection is progressing.  I can't wait to add in the Warmaster Titan...

...but I have a couple more Warhounds to finish first; and one more Warlord Titan for Legio Tempestus. I am completing two roughly balanced forces so I can get some local friend to play.  The game is simply too expensive to entice most responsible adults my age into.  But a table full of ready-made terrain and cool titans is too much to pass up for some socially distanced fresh air pick-up gaming.

Speaking of which, next up will be some overdue Titanicus terrain projects.  I have some new stuff to share. But until then, I'll leave you with some more photbooth pics of the completed Warhounds.

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Imperatoris Canis

Celeri Morte

Legio Ignatum Warhound Titans for Adeptus Titanicus - WIP

Boy, am I on a roll now. It's like a hobby avalanche. Between inspiration from #MonsterMarch5 and the release of the new Warmaster Titan, I just can't get enough enjoyment from my Adeptus Titanicus hobby projects. I've moved on from the Reaver Titan to two Warhound titans that I had assembled last year and left to do pile.

After completing all the trim on the airbrushed armor panels, I cleaned everything up (mistakes, over-spray, etc.) and glued on all the armor.  I did not glue the waist joints at this point. I'm not magnetizing the waists, but it still helps to get at everything during painting if you don't attach the body to the legs until you get some of the body detail out of the way.

However, be warned. If you paint two warhounds at once like this, you MAY get the legs mixed up when you DO glue them back together. Compare the picture above with the title picture and you will see what I mean. Somewhere between working on details and gluing things together for final assembly, I got the legs mixed up. 😂 After careful consideration, and no small amount of cursing, I realized that the new configurations looked fine. In fact, I like the outcome better than the original configurations anyway. And so the painting carried on...

I really like how these Warhounds look in Legio Ignatum livery.  I'm looking forward to adding decals/transfers! These picture were taken after the first pass of shading was dry and the waist joints had been glued (and after I stopped cursing).

So that's two Warhounds very much on their way to completion.  I hope to post the finished pics next week.  Then I have a terrain review/surprise to share.  So a bit more Titanicus content to come before I eventually take a breather to work on some 28mm projects.

I hope all is well in your hobby world.

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Legio Ignatum Reaver for Adeptus Titanicus - TO DONE

 

Shown left to right: Verum Imperatoria and Ad Gloria

Greetings!  Today, I'm sharing a second completed Reaver Battle Titan for my Legio Ignatum force, Verum Imperatoria.  Painting the Warlord-Sinister for #MonsterMarch5 got me really inspired to get my Legio Ignatum titans finished up.  Here's a big ol' seal of DONE for the Reaver.

 

Now I'm on to the Warhounds I built last year, which have also been waiting in the queue. You have to "strike while the iron is hot", as they say. And so I am. So far, I have the armor base coats applied so I can see how the heraldry will lay out on each.

So it's going to be about more tiny titans for a week or two more here. I have a pre-order for the new Warmastercoming at some point too.  I can't decide which Legio to send it too, though.  And I also have two more Warhounds to build for Legio Ignatum, and a second Warlord for Legio Tempestus.  So lots more titan fun in the future.  I expect I'll take a break once I finish these two Warhounds, to avoid burnout, and switch back to 28mm projects.

 

I'll close with this collection of loyal Titans I have completed so far, then scroll on down below to see more studio closeups of the recently completed Reaver. I have to say, projects like this are daunting and hard to make progress on at first.  Yet, there is a tipping point at which it seems to get much easier to just "knock off a few more".  Having 12 completed titans has really done that for me.

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Legio Ignatum Reaver for Adeptus Titanicus - WIP - Part 2

 

Greetings!  Towards the end of January 2021, I began painting a second Reaver Battle Titan for my Adeptus Titanicus Legio Ignatum force.  I had to put the project on the shelf to make way for my Squaduary 2021 and #MonsterMarch5 work.  But the Psi-Titan for #MonsterMarch5 inspired me to keep painting mini-titans, so I took the Reaver project off the shelf and got back to work on it.

I left the project at a point where the armor was ready to be attached, so that's where I started.  After a little 5-minute two-part epoxy, and some patience, here's how it looked.  I left the head off to make painting around it more convenient. Once the glue dried, it was time to finish the paint work. The little places where the pieces were clipped from the sprue got touched up first.

The head was finished (eye lenses and what not), and then attached.  The weapons were detailed and the armor plates cleaned up of any mistakes.  The missiles were painted too.

Details like the void generator were painted, along with parts of the Titan's skeleton (like the backs of the legs, and various piston shafts). Then the armor trim and other various bits were shaded and cleaned up.  The base got painted next and the titan was finally glued down - it's just resting on its base in the pictures above.

Once glued down, the weathering powders were applied and left to dry thoroughly.  Also, the armor trim and a few other bits were highlighted.  All of the painting details can be found above under the painting recipe tab for Legio Ignatum. Some heat staining on the weapon arms was attempted and the transfers were applied.  I think I went too light on the weapons, so another pass will likely happen prior to wrapping things up.

Applying transfers to titans is always fun.  I get into picking through my collection of transfer sheets looking for a good mix of heraldry for these god engines.  I take into account how they would be viewed form different angles, but particularly from the ground since they tower over most non-titan viewers.

The cogs on the backs of the weapon arms were re-painted gold for more pop.  I realized I had used bronze by mistake after comparing this titan to the first Legio Ignatum Reaver I completed.  This is the point I make such comparisons to insure I am being consistent among members of the same Legio. 

Here, again, the heat staining is really too faint to be seen in the photos.  While I favor a subtle hand here, this is perhaps way TOO subtle.  I'll fix that up next session when I look over the model once more for things that got missed or still need cleaning up.

She's otherwise very close to complete.  One more session and I'll seal the model and call it done.  I'm so glad I got this one under way prior to the annual challenges so I could knock it off so quickly now.  What I'm sharing here is the result of only three (relatively) short evening painting sessions since completing the Warlord-Sinister.

What are you all working on now? I'm not sure what I will move on to.  I'm looking forward to painting Heavy Intercessors, but I also have Blackstone Fortress heroes and more First Legion models in the queue...and maybe some Aeronautica Imperialis at last?  And more tiny titans!!

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

#MonsterMarch5 - TO DONE!

 

#MonsterMarch5 is over and my project is complete.  Above we have all the options painted and lacquered. Some may note and wonder that I did not include any glowing runes as were used on the Forge World studio model.  I thought a lot about that, and in the end decided to forgo them.  Aesthetically, I really like the solemn, ominous featureless black.  Additionally, I felt I did not need to copy the artistic choices of the Forge World model which make it unique. Here, I have an Ordo Sinister paint scheme (based on what little we have to go on) without copying the work of others.  This allows my model to be its own and not a replica of another artist's work.  Anyway, a personal choice and somewhat disappointing as I really liked the glowing runes!

So, after the big seal o' DONE, here are some additional studio shots of the completed project, starting with the default load out as presented by Forge World.

Now with the Sunfury Plasma Annihilator:

Now with the Belicosa Volcano Cannon:

And finally with the Apocalypse Missile Launchers:

A good few options to lend some facility to my games of Adeptus Titanicus.  I hope you have enjoyed watching the Warlord-Sinister take shape.  I've certainly enjoyed painting and sharing it here as part of #MonsterMarch5. It has inspired me to complete the second Legio Ignatum Reaver Titan I have waiting in the to-be-completed pile. So check back next week to see how that is going.

Many thanks to Swordmaster at Path of an Outcast for hosting the challenge again this year. Best wishes to all.

 Stay safe out there.

 Cheers and Happy Gaming!