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Forge World Reaver Titan, My ETL II Vow (Updated 07/07)


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The Journey begins

Hey everyone at B&C

So to start at the beginning of things, ever since I saw these giants many years ago I knew that if I ever got the money and time I would definitly want one and so I've bought a Reaver from Forge World about 3 months ago and I think it's about time to begin building and painting the giant heap of expensive plastic...

I've thought I would share my journey with all of you mainly for the feedback fellow hobbyists provide and second; that way I've got a reason to complete it and not lose steam halfway through. (Or so I hope)

One of the few things I've pondered a lot is what legion it should be from since it would make quite a big ripple effect if I changed my mind halfway through. My search landed me two options that I liked: it was either gonna be from the Legio Crucius or the Legio Metalica (Legio Astorum is nice but just a bit over represented on the web).

After some hard thinking I've went with the Legio Crucius of two simple reasons: I've haven't seen many of those around and my Space marines are dark red and gold so it would be a nice contrast to them.

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Legio_Crucius

With the planning complete I set about the mammoth task of taking inventory, washing and cleaning every last bit of Mechanicus engineering, and GOD are there many small parts in one of these bad boys wallbash.gif

But with those tedious tasks complete I went on to the fun part:

Assembly and painting of the legs. After I had undercoated the legs they where dry fitted and then painted.

I may take some flak for this but with a model this big and expensive I painted everything fully before it was permanently glued together, only final washes, highlights and weathering waited to after assembly.

So if you are still with me after the waterfall of words, I will start with the first official photos of Reaver Titan nr: 1003!

(Please remember that this is the first thing bigger than a rhino I've painted so bear with me and my painting skills sweat.gif)

After I took this picture I thought to myself what a lovely painted leg and then I remembered that it's really only the eagle that's visible once the armor goes on...

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Here the legs are mostly paited and laid out

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The legs have beed glued together in the final position using Loctite power epoxy as i don't really want these joints to fail... set to cure overnight

gallery_58716_8566_1691779.jpg

So this concludes the first post (of many to come if the Omnissiah wills it).

I hope you're enjoying seeing me try my best with this awesome project and you're all welcome to comment and give cc or tips.

Till next time brothers - C

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So I continue the story of my Reaver:


I have now joined the ETL for the Mechanicus as Captain Semper suggested and now I have even more motivation to get this big machine finished!


I've got some good work done friday afternoon and today and thought I would share the progress thus far.


The inner legs are now complete and painted. I have glued them in position and pinned them at every joint, the piston guards on the bottom of the legs are now on and I will move on to the toes and bigger armour plartes for the bottom legs.


As you maybe notice I've gone for a more dynamic pose where the Reaver is just starting to take a step so it does'nt look to static.

Here you can see my pinning stragegy, I would expect the resin to break before the joint as I used the Loctite power epoxy and 3mm aluminium rods for every joint:

gallery_58716_8566_69127.jpg

Here the bottom piston guards with pistons have been glued into place:

gallery_58716_8566_127008.jpg

And so I leave you for now as I return to the forges on Ryza and hopefully you will soon see the toes and armour plates go on...

Thanks for the support and most of all thanks for reading this!

ps. any comments are welcomesmile.png

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Time for another update from the forge world of Ryza:

I've managed to get the toes, toe-pistons, pelvis armour, pelvis tubes and the pelvis itself in place sunday evening and I've just glued the armour plating on the legs. It's been quite a hectic weekend with family taking priority but the titan was never forgotten!

The feet are painted a more dark and rusted colour than the rest of the titan since they will get a lot of wear and tear in battle, still the final washes remains.

The black and gold paintjob of the Legio Crucius are really growing on me and I hope that tomorrow will be kind to me as I will (hopefully) get the knee caps done, the only problem there, is it takes some freehand lettering and that is definetly not my best side to put it mildlysweat.gif

@ Edge-of-Infinity: It is quite a punch to you're wallet and it looks quite daunting when you get all the bags with bits and pieces. But so far it has been worth every penny and I'm sure you will enjoy the project and maybe take it as a learning experince as I have. Just remember to buy clamps!!

a close-up of the left foot from behind which is the one taking a step foward (pre-armour):

gallery_58716_8566_180457.jpg

Here the armour plates are drying and clamped good and solid, it's just two small contact spots per panel so a very strong glue/ epoxy is a must here!

gallery_58716_8566_178227.jpg

Thanks for watching, and as always please leave a comment thanks.gif

Till next time brothers!

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Hey everybody, it's that time again!

My week was a little more packed than I hoped for, so I've only finished the kneecaps yesterday evening, but I've managed to get the lower torso mounted and pinned as well. I used a water level to make sure the torso wouldn't sit too crooked.

The freehand on the right kneecap turned out much better than I've dared hoped for since it was the first time i've tried it. I used the method descriped in Imperial Armour model masterclass volume two where you print out the word in the right size and font and then use that as a template. I found the font that was used by Forge World since I like that gothic feel to the letters.

On the left knee I used some decals from the Black Templars transfer sheet (from Forge World) since the chapter I play are founded from the Black Templars and use their iconography. This particular titan has seen action in three crusades along with the Black Templars as stated by the crusade shields and therefore have earned the right and honour to bear the Templar cross and Crusade shields.

At last I've trown some size comparison shots in with a sergeant from my chapter playing around at the titans feet...

Left knee:

gallery_58716_8566_122452.jpg

Right knee:

gallery_58716_8566_159889.jpg

And at last size shot:

gallery_58716_8566_75137.jpg

So this concludes this update with a little work done, I hope to get going on the torso this weekend and will put it up here if I get some good progress.

Please let me know what you think and thanks for watching!

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You've done an excellent job with those kneepads! The white is a bit dirtied I suppose on purpose?

I think the metal rimming could benefit from some highlighting - maybe some silver? Even without it, it looks awsome! Keep it up! thumbsup.gif

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Thanks for the support my brothersthumbsup.gif

So this weekend was set in the interior's sign...

I got the techpriest and the interior walls with servitors etc. done and got started on the main torso itself.

I am really pleased with the interior as I was a little uncertain about the colour scheme, but it worked out beautifully. It's just a shame that you have too remove three pieces to see it when fully assembled dry.png

The main torso got a layer of paint and then the shoulders where glued on after they where completly painted, in addition to the power epoxy I have pinned the shoulders with 3mm aluminium rods and then ground them down to make the back wall flush. (thank the Omnissiah for the Dremel tool!)

@ Captain Semper: the white on the kneecap is dirty to show this titan is a century if not millenia old war machine and is in a prolonged engagement. As for the highlights I've thought about it myself and tried with a few different shades of silver but didn't get the result I hoped for, so I ditched it.

The interior:

gallery_58716_8566_227636.jpg

Here the shoulders has been glued and pinned and then the pin has been grounded down:

gallery_58716_8566_27177.jpg

I expect this to be a very busy week at work so I don't expect to get far on the torso before the weekend but I will let you know as soon as there has been any significant work completed.

As always thanks for using your precious time here and any comments are welcomethanks.gif

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Very, very nice work I love it. What paints are you using and are you airbrushing them on? I second having more highlighting on the larger panels but as you've said there's more painting stages to come. Keep it up!
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Well, the interior looks awesome! Really like the vital signs screens you've done there... Regarding the highlights, I hear ya. With a project of his magnitude better play safe than sorry.

 

Keep it up, I suspect the challenging stuff is ahead of you! :D

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Thanks for the positive comments!

@ Greyshift: I just use the standard GW paints, washes, dry compounds and the weathering powders from Forge World as a finishing touch and seal them in place with the washes.

I haven't got an airbrush so the whole thing is painted with GW brushes, the old-fashioned way. That is also why if you look real close you can see some brushmarks, they don't show up so much in the pictures but they are tiny sweat.gif

@ Captain Semper: I might second that thought as I was taking a short break in my painting yesterday and looked closely at the main carapace, that thing is cramped with details!

It will take some manning up to do thumbsup.gif

I've got some work done yesterday and today on the torso and hope to update in the weekend with a somewhat finished main torso...

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Well, no one can ever say you lack courage! A Titan for an ETL vow! blink.png

Looking very good so far! thumbsup.gif

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I would also like to salute you Brother Callius. I'm really enjoying this thread and have added myself to your growing list of followers. thumbsup.gif

The kneepad is my favorite update so far. Great work on the free hand. You mentioned that you printed the text and used it as a template. Could you elaborate a little on how you did this? Did you make a stencil or just use it for reference? Thanks

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First of all I want to thank you all for the support and positive comments. It really adds to the engagement and effort I'm putting into this thanks.gif

@ Lord Sondar: I downloaded the font Lucida Blackletter as that is the one used by Forge World and then I found the right size to match the scrollwork with the word itself not being too small or long. Since I don't have the hardware to make stencils i just cut out the little 'block' of paper with the word in the right size and lay it on the model above the scrollwork. That way I can make sure each letter I paint is the right size, shape and position. So the short answer here would be that I use it as reference sweat.gif

Again I want to thank you all for the support!

Till next time brothers!

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Greetings brothers, it's that time again!


Im really positively surprised that so many would like to follow the progress of a novice builder like me, but it's really motivating and the process is moving along smooth.


So I got a suprisingly good amount of work done in the week and as a result I now have a finished and assembled main torso.


The big thing to look out for when assembling this step is the back part of the torso. It is comprised of three different pieces and they have to be put together very precisely or there will be a gap somewhere when the whole piece is put on the torso.

It is here I made my biggest mistake so far wallbash.gif

I assembled the three pieces and glued them together with the power epoxy, while the epoxy was still wet I made sure the whole piece would fit on the torso and then clamped it together. It sounds fine this far but then I removed it so I could paint the toso but without the torso as a kind of bracing the back pieces ended up to narrow to fit on the torso. (With the epoxy hardened)


And so I toiled and sweared and I managed to get one of the side pieces off from the now solid chunk, I then had a good amount of grinding and cleaning to do to remove the hardened epoxy...


But in the end it worked out with new epoxy and triple checking everything even though I was quite irritated at the moment whistlingW.gif


So here is this weeks (so far) progress:


Main torso, I'm not going to do anything about the gap where the front meets the main torso as you dont see it when fully assembled:

The dark spots on the back metal trim are just wash that has gathered there and is not nearly as dark in real life, the photo somehow made it darker.

gallery_58716_8566_225046.jpg

Interior:

gallery_58716_8566_101678.jpg

Back vents, as you can see the whole back is slightly crooked thanks to my little epoxy mistake:

gallery_58716_8566_9876.jpg



So this is where I leave you and return to my Forge World to continue this amazing piece of machinery, thanks for watching and feel welcome to share your thoughts.

Hopefully I will get the head complete and glued on tomorrow but only time will tell...

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Well,what can I say? It comes along very nicely indeed! You've done great progress and you have kept the pace! This is going to be spectacular! I don't think the back is crooked at all - at least it doesn't show...

 

 

Keep walking! :)

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So it's time for a small update:

I got the head painted, assembled and glued on the titan itself using the Loctite power epoxy.

The whole process was a joy to do and with the princeps and the two Moderatii being seperate from the cockpit itself it was easy to pick out their details.

I found it quite hard to figure out what colours to paint the crew as there a no set scheme used by the crew with some having their own heraldy and others using the same colours as the titan legion they're part of.

I ended up using black and gold as that is the colours of the Legio Crucius and it's a good contrast to the worn gunmetal of the cockpit itself.

Here the head is painted and waiting for the epoxy to harden:


gallery_58716_8566_45098.jpg
The pilots and back interior:
gallery_58716_8566_4843.jpg
The dial show:
gallery_58716_8566_76087.jpg
Head with armor plating:
gallery_58716_8566_124624.jpg
So thats that for this weekend, now the big job lies ahead as I will tackle the different armor panels on the torso including the main carapace with a bunch of scrollwork and freehand just waiting to be painted sweat.gif
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WOW. Just fantastic job dude.

 

I love the titan bridge, and the moderati helmets and layout remind me of an AT-AT during the battle of hoth.....ahhh reminiscing

 

"Charge turbo lasers to maximum and target the shield generators..."

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