Friday 29 January 2016

Mars Alpha Pattern Warlord Titan COMPLETE!

Wow....I never thought I'd see the day when this beauty would be done! I'm glad to say though the day is  finally here, and the Warlord Titan is complete!

Followers of this project may note the rather large jump from the last post to this! There hasn't been any WIP posts for the weapons aside from the build, the last post documenting my efforts with the head of the Warlord. I was so tantalisingly close to the finish line that i decided to crack on hard with the remaining pieces and just get it finished! This meant no time to stop and take pictures for the blog - you guys are far more interested in the finished article I'm sure!!

So here he is, the yet un-named Warlord. I apologies in advance for the variable picture quality. I had to set up a very large 'photo booth' in my living room which didn't quite have the level  of control on ambient lighting that my hobby room has. Nor did i have a tall enough tripod to take the pictures! Never mind, you get the idea! 






The Volcano Cannons were incredibly satisfying to complete! They're huge! They also look so bad ass with the gun shields on the sides. I made sure i added a good deal of transfers to this large area. I was going to add different patterning to the quarters on the gun shield, but figured that the Warlord would look more like an Eldar Harlequin if i added to much patterning! So Astorum yellow it was in the end. I'm glad i went with that.



I added a good deal of heat distortion to the weapons of the Warlord, as they are all energy weapons. This was achieved simply by spraying light layers of purple and blue washes onto the barrel ends. The ends were then hit with some black weathering powder.


The Astorum transfer sheet had a load of small, hazard label type transfers on it as well. I used these on weapon access hatched to help break up the metal areas.


Next up is the Laser Blasters. Similarly painted like the Volcano Cannons but with a blue weapon housing.


A little more heat distortion was added along the barrels of the Laser Blasters, cos you know, they're Laser Blasters, and they're hot and stuff. More importantly it breaks up the gun  metal a bit better!


Not much else was done to the moving parts at the rear of the Warlord, but they do look a lot better after the armour pannels went on.


A few more of the hazard warning transfers went onto the Warlords Gyros.


Defensive Lascannons.


The main exhausts were also hit with some black weathering powder.


The Warlords access hatch. I'm glad i kept the palette simple here, as i think it would have looked far to busy if i'd done much mroe here. I was undecided wether to add transfers to the access hatch. There wern't any suitable ones on the Astorum sheet, but there may be some on a Knight sheet...


The shoulder plating finished off the model nicely!


I pondered for a long time on the centermost armour plate. While it looked good, it seemed lacking a bit... So i plundered the Astorum transfer sheet for some ideas to liven up the area a bit. While good, these transfers are very thick, thicker than normal transfers. not sure what the reason for this is, but the result is that the whole of the transfer mounting shows up on dark surfaces. This is a little disappointing, but theres nothing i could do about it.


Some of the tiniest transfers were identification numbers or hatch markings. I added a few of these to the large yellow shoulder plates.



The heraldry shields looked great once mounted!



The armour plates on the chest got some attention. I imagined that the crew of the Warlord inscribed their mighty battle deeds upon these plates!


The exhaust ridges along the back of the warlord ramained the same, except for a little weathering powder on the smaller exhaust ports.


It was very satisfying to finally get some transfers onto those knee pads!




A random shot of the back of a lag...got in there somehow...


Finally the head of the Warlord! Again, i was really pleased that i went with the white rather than the yellow.


Magnetised of corse to aid transport. It would also make for a cool objective!


I haven't actually made a start on the crew yet, beena  bit lasy in that regard! They will slot in nicely once done.






That is my Warlord Titan! Its been a hell of a journey, but i would serioulsy do it all again (if Mrs GunGrave wuld ever let me have another one!) While i wait for that particular miricle to happen, i'll be trying to get this baby into a game and see what kind of destruction it can wreak!

The GunGrave 

14 comments:

  1. That's quite a special Titan... A billion Internet points for you! The oxidisation on the barrels is amazing.

    Did you gloss varnish the panels before transfers? I'm surprised they are thick, I've used the new house Makabius and alpha legion transfers and they are nice and thin. Seriously, I doubt you opponents will notice.... They will be too busy scoping models of the table!

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    1. Thanks Col

      No I didn't, but saw it suggested several times after I finally researched it. I decided it wasn't the transfers but me (don't a few Knights since this as well and had the same problem) I'm just going to have to live with it, unless I'm willing to scrap half a FW transfer sheet and replace the lot! :-(

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    2. It still looks better than most Titans (not just warlords) out there.

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  2. Absolutely awesome! That is a great model and you have done an amazing job with it.

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  3. Awesome Tim, all there is to say!

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    1. Cheers me dears! Remember me when the next Apoc' game comes around! The Reavers been repainted to match as well!

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  4. Brilliant Gun Grave, can't wait to get to that point with mine, it's a bit far off at the moment! Great inspiration, thank-you. And we'll done, great looking Titan, I'll watch out for those transfers, did you try MicroSol to help soften them and blend them in?

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    1. Thanks dude! No i didn't try MicroSol but ended up in the situation mentioned above. Gonna have to pay a lot more attention to my transfer work in the future!

      You look like your coming close to the end of your build! Fun part starts soon!

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  5. Massive effort mate, I can't even begin to imagine how much work a project this massive would be or how I would even start tackling it! It looks amazing though, every bit as good as the studio one and as the Colonel said, the heat effect on the laser blasters in particular is really amazing, well done!

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  6. Thanks Scorps! It. Was a labour of love, but incredibly satisfying. Taken around 4 months from begining to end. It went quickly though!

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  7. Absolutely fantastic, you've done a really great job of that. I really like the balance of colours, and the brass doesn't seem over the top either which I was worried it might be when you first started out with it. The transfers really add to it as well.

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  8. Yep. All o'that. Knock out job. Looking forward to the first Batrep...

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  9. That is a great looking Titan. Congratulations on a job well done! I'm starting my own Warlord next month, and I will be looking back at this blog for inspiration.

    I did a step-by-step tutorial on my blog on decal setting. Please give it a look:
    Atomicwarlords.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-devil-is-in-decals.html

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