The Titan Owners Club Northeast Regional Walk - Recap

So, I have been a bad tech adept.  I have not been keeping you up to date on the actual progress I have made while building #168.  I could have kept going without letting on to this fact, but the Titan Owners Club's (TOC's) Northeast Regional walk happened at Games and Stuff in Glen Burnie, MD.  It was the first time #168 took the field, so I need to show you, of course.

This means that, naturally, the Titan is built.  Or at least built enough to stand on its own in a game.  Lots of pieces are still in sub assemblies.  We will go over that more as I continue to post about its construction, but today I take you back in time to Saturday March 16th, 19M3 (I think that is how to do Warhammer 40,000 dates).

We had a respectable turnout.  You can see James' full Legio Astorum maniple on the left and Jake's Legio Crucius maniple on the right, supported by his knight house banner.  Romach Shel Raam is there, bare, in the center.  You know... ummm... mostly built.  The Warbringer really is a beautiful engine.  A great compromise in size and design between the Reaver and the Warlord.  In front of the Legio Astorum titans you can see my House Chesapeake banner lead by Apex Chelae.

The Walk itself played out as an 8th edition Warhammer 40,000 match.  Only Titans and Knights were present on the field.

The scenario was such each Titan-scale element could walk back on the board when it was destroyed.  Which means Knights could only come back once their whole banner was taken out.

There was some kind of toxic atmosphere rule too that made weapons explode on a 1 or something... but I think we forgot about it most of the time.

The forces in the fight were as follows (I am doing this to memory, and my knowledge of my forces vastly outstrips my knowledge of the forces of my fellow Princeps):

• Legio Crucius / Legio Hashmallim Alliance
• Legio Hashmallim
• Warbringer Titan #168 - Romach Shel Raam
• 1x Nemesis Quake Cannon
• 2x Battle Titan Volcano Cannons
• Compulsory Aux. Weapons:
• 3x Ardex-defensor Maulers
• 2x Anvillus-pattern Defence Batteries
• Legio Crucius
• Reaver Titan #1721 -  Astramos Mortis Æternem
• 1x Apocalypse Missile Launcher
• 1x Laser Blaster
• 1x Melta Cannon
• Reaver Titan #??? - ???
• 1x Plasma Blaster
• 1x Laser Blaster
• 1x Gatling Blaster
• Reaver Titan #??? - ???
• Do not recall loadout - Princeps Jake had an unfortunate incident that resulted in the armaments of two of his Reavers being left in New Jersey.  I recreated the specifications of #1721 from its TOC entry, but Jake's other Reavers were not there.  One of the unlisted Reavers (above) did have weapons modeled on it, so I counted those.  The other, I simply cannot recall how it was played.
• Warhound Titan #3305 - Blood of Caldos
• 2x Turbo Laser Destructor
• Warhound Titan #3628 - Black Strider
• 2x Turbo Laser Destructor 
• House Chesapeake
• Acastus Knight Porphyrion – “Apex Chelae” – Household #090117
• Dominus Knight Valiant – “UNDESIGNATED” – Household #060918β
• Questoris Knight [Gallant Refit] – “Dock Wrecker” – Household #0214
• Questoris Knight [Crusader Refit] – “Tidal Roar” – Household #050417
• Armiger Knight Helverin – “UNDESIGNATED” – Household #061118a
• Armiger Knight Helverin – “UNDESIGNATED” – Household #061118b
• Armiger Knight Warglaive – “UNDESIGNATED” Household #032618a
• Armiger Knight Warglaive – “UNDESIGNATED” Household #032618b

• Legio Astorum Battlegroup
• Axiom Maniple
• Warlord Titan #597 - Rex Caelestis
• 2x Laser Blasters
• 1x Belicosa Pattern Volcano Cannon
• 1x Sunfury Plasma Annihilator
• Reaver Titan #2028 - Invictorus
• 1x Apocalypse Missile Launcher
• 1x Gatling Blaster
• 1x Laser Blaster
• Reaver Titan #2274 - Questor Tyranis
• 1x Turbo Laser Destructor
• 1x Melta Cannon
• 1x Volcano Cannon
• Warhound #4920 - Canis Quartus
• 2x Turbo Laser Destructors
• Warhound #5485 - Caeleste Venandi
• 2x Turbo Laser Destructors
• Support
• Warbringer Titan #141 - Terrore Vindictae
• 1x Nemesis Quake Cannon
• 1x Gatling Blaster
• 1x Volcano Cannon

Whew... That is quite the list of engines!

Again, I did that to the best of my memory, if someone else can verify those loadouts or titan names, I am happy to update them.  Well, I mean, my memory was aided by the TOC database.

I did not record a play-by-play for this match, because it was not really intended to be competitive.  Plus the walk-back-on rules cut some of the tension in losing a titan.  This was probably for the best though.  Because ... ummm ... Macro hurts.  Most of the titans were killed every turn with so many macro shots flying around.

Fortunately the rules for the scenario were written in such a way that titans came back on a dice roll of 3+... so they came back a lot too.

 

I think that there is a real argument to be made for the elimination of the macro double damage rule.  It is just too much.  And macro weapons are not exactly hurting in terms of how much damage they can pump out before being doubled.  

Taking down a titan in Adeptus Titanicus feels good.  It takes a significant investment in firepower to do it.  Taking down a titan in 8th edition 40k, with another titan, felt trivial.  I think next time I would play without macro.

Regardless, the game was a blast and was a huge visual draw.  Lots of players and shoppers at Games and Stuff stopped by to inquire about the game, or simply to stare in (sometimes literal) jaw dropping awe at the titans.  

In the end the combined Legio Crucius / Hashmallim forces and their Knight allies won the day, but it was a close game.  

 Titans from largest to smallest! (Yes, yes, the Emperor titan is missing.  Just imagine a person standing on the table.)

Size comparison of the Acastus Knight with a Warhound Titan.  The Reaver in the background kind of baffles the comparison a bit, but you can tell that a Warhound is significantly larger than the largest knight.

I love the Acastus, but honestly if you were only going to get one I would probably go with the Warhound.  Neither is going to see a ton of table time, and Titans just have this awe-inspiring quality about them.  Plus the Warhound is much more viable in the kind of game where you are likely to play one of these.

I prefer the look of the Acastus, but that is really the only selling point I have there.

Take one last look at the built Warbringer, because it will be a while before you see it again.  Next time keep your eyes out for the Torso build.

A big thanks to the Titan Owners Club, James from TOC, and Shadow Wolf for arranging and running this event.  It was a blast and I hope that I will have the opportunity to go to more in the future!

Warbringer Nemesis #8 - Standing on Its Own Two Feet

I originally tried a different name for this post.  But it sounded dirty, so I changed it to this.

So, at this point I have both legs completely built, so it is time to attach them to the waist.  This, for me, was when I really started to feel like I had a Titan on my hands, instead of just bits and promise.

Started off by placing the Warbringer's waist piece on my Dremel Drill Press.  I originally bought this to drill level, even holes in thick resin pieces, but it did not work so well for that because the pieces themselves are not flat.

It did, however, work great for holding that waist piece.  The place where the Dremel tool goes formed a perfect cup for the waist to sit in and I was able to adjust the height as I pleased.  The only downside was that I could not get the legs to sit flat on the press's own platform, so I had to swivel the head around where it was unbalanced.  I solved this issue by placing a nice heavy ziploc container I was using to de-grease some other resin pieces on top of the platform.  Balanced.  See my results below:

 

I smeared some JB Weld on the inner (larger) part of the waist tube assembly and then placed it on the inside of the waist's socket.

 

 

I carefully wedged a toothpick in there to make sure the piece set centered in the socket.  Say that five times fast.  Oh, and I probably used a level stick balanced on top of the waist to make sure it was level.  We will see a picture of that later.  

Hot tip:  Levels only work if the table you are working on is also level.  That did not bite me too badly, but it definitely altered my finished pose a bit.

 

This is what the assembly looked like while setting.

 

And after.  Oh, you probably noticed I did both sides.  Yep.

 

At this stage I pinned the assembly with 1/4" brass rod.  I drilled diagonally up through the tubing into the waist piece.

Also, why are these pieces styled like... what... tube insulated joints?  Same thing on Imperial Knights and I am never sure how to paint it.  Matte black like it is rubberized?  Steel like it is metal?  I honestly just lack a good sense of what the designers were going for here.  Ultimately you will barely be able to see it on the completed Warbringer, but I am still curious.

 

Next I glued the legs onto the assembly, making sure to distress them first for better adhesion.  Remember, we are doing this for every part we glue.

 

Also remember, for this stage you want to make sure that the leg rotation ring is on the waist assembly before you glue the legs in place.  The instructions remind you, but I actually put this together without it first.  Fortunately, I was using JB Weld and it was maybe a minute before I noticed, so it was not a problem.  If I had left it to sit, though, I would have been one sad panda.

Note:  The rings are just hanging freely on the assembly at this point.  Once the legs are in place I will glue them so the pistons connect to the legs in a reasonable arrangement.

And there is the whole assembly with a level on top of it for verification purposes.  It actually turned out alright despite my wonky table.  

The armor plates here are either dry fitted or held on with white poster tac.  

And that is all for today.  Tune in next time for the start of:  The Upper Torso!!

Warbringer Nemesis #7 - Pinning the Femoral Head

Short Post today.


I was going to do something longer on putting the whole pelvis/waist assembly together, but I decided that first I should go into some detail about how I pinned the tops of the Warbringer's "femurs."  And that information would make the pelvis thing too long.

The Warbringer's femurs are similar to that of a Reaver Titan's in that they are primarily a series of pistons.  In the Reaver's case, one large and two small.  For the Warbringer, two large and one small.

These pistons, now and in all future references just for the Warbringer, are molded into the knee joint and the top part of the femur as shown in pictures below:

 

These pieces have pretty decent surface area coverage for glue, but I decided that they should also be pinned because they will carry a lot of weight, and bear a minor jolt every time I put the upper torso onto the legs.

I achieved this by pinning each of the three pistons.  After I glued them with JB Weld of course.

 For the front piston, I drilled a 1/8" hole diagonally up the piston into the socket.  Not all the way into the socket though.  Although that would have been okay too.

Like so.  I chose the 1/8" rod for this pin because the front piston is going to be mostly covered up by the Warbringer's armor plate.

That will totally cover up the hole!

Next I drilled a 1/16" hole in the rear piston.

I chose a smaller size pin this time because the rear piston will remain visible, so I wanted the hole to be fairly unobtrusive.

This time I did accidentally drill all the way up into the socket.  It was fine though, all of this is going to be sealed in by the hip connectors.  Or pelvis connectors?  Titans are not totally human shaped.

I drilled a 1/16" hole in the inner piston as well (there is no outer piston).  This piston is molded to the upper socket, so I drilled down into the knee joint here.

Then it was a simple matter of inserting sanded brass rod coated in thick super glue, waiting for that dry, and filling the holes with two part green epoxy.

I failed to document that step.  But it really is very simple.

Come to think of it, we have not really discussed two part epoxy, or green stuff (okay, sometimes it is green stuff).  I use the Army Painter stuff because the last time I ran out was around a NOVA Open and the Atlantis Games and Comics booth had that kind.  It works fine for me, but I cannot comment on its quality versus other variants.

There are a lot of guides for using green stuff out there, so for the time being I am not writing one.  If anyone is interested in that, I can.  If I think about useful tips while I am detailing this build, I will let you know.  Right now, I have none.