Chaos Warhound Scout Titan – Part 1

Before We Begin…

In June of 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, like many others, I was at home. Bored. I had spent the previous half of the year powering through a lot of hobby projects. But, in doing that, I had left myself with a bit of a rut. I was having trouble finding a good ‘next project’ to work on. One day, after more or less pacing back and forth in the house, about to reach my wits end in boredom, I decided to break out the “big one”. The large box that I had bought from Forgeworld a few months prior. A Warhound Scout Titan. 

As I mentioned in a previous entry; 2020 – The Year of Papa Nurgle – Part 4, I wanted to do a much more detailed write up on how I achieved my ever-evolving vision for this project. Whereas, those two entries(Part’s 4 and 5) were just a summary of sorts, as part of a much larger year-encompassing series. They barely scratched the surface. With this three part series I hope to share a lot more about this specific project. My thought processes, the tools I used, the specific paints, any techniques, trial and errors, injuries, etc.

  • Part 1 will introduce the project itself, the tools I regularly used, and it will cover the building and painting of the lower half of the model.
  • Part 2 will cover the building and painting of the upper half of the model. Including the inner compartments. Bringing the Titan portion of the project to completion.
  • Part 3 will cover the evolution of the scenic base, discuss more tools, and cover the actual construction and painting of the base. I will also go into much more detail about the Titan itself.

I hope you enjoy this more or less step-by-step recounting of this massive project. I enjoyed it thoroughly(including the typing these articles) from beginning to end. Sure there were frustrations, failures, and road blocks. But this was never going to be easy. It was also not going to be quick. I told myself that I was going to take my time and do the best work I could on this model.


Getting Organized

Before doing anything serious with this kit, I checked to make sure I had everything. I had been burned once before by Forgeworld’s less-than-stellar quality control “Servitors”. This is something that I highly recommend everyone do if buying a large model like this. Hell, even for the smaller ones. You are paying a lot of money for these models. It stands to reason that you should be able to build them without worrying about missing or broken pieces. 

I was fortunate to have all the pieces I was supposed to have. It also came with a metal sheet of grating that would be used for the upper part of the body, and a clear piece of plastic for the eyes(cockpit windows). The one thing I really enjoyed was the certificate. A nice, and pretty difficult to read, certificate that congratulates me on owning the titan. I love the Excommunicate Traitoris stamp over the Imperial Aquila. A very nice touch.

The warhound kit, while a very large one, doesn’t have SO many pieces. Well, maybe not as many as I was expecting at least. The main parts of the body are mostly large chunks of solid, obviously very detailed, resin. That is not to say there were not a lot of smaller pieces. Mostly in the legs. So it definitely paid off to get everything sorted into assemblies early on. That way I was not fishing around for a single small bit that fell off of a mould gate at some point, when I was in a groove during the build.

I sorted things into bags based part of the body they belonged to. Left Leg, Right Leg, Head, etc.

During this preparation time I would also prep my desk area for this project. Clean all my tools and brushes, make sure all of my paints were easily accessible, and also make sure I was not in danger of running out of some basic colors, such as spray primer and whatnot. I hadn’t selected a paint palette yet. That process wasn’t even anywhere to be found in my head. But still, I wanted to be ready.


Tools: Cleaning and Building

Cleaning

Prior to building any resin model, you need to prepare the bits. That includes, but is not limited to: trimming the mould gates off of the pieces, filing or sanding the parts you cut, and washing the bits. I actually do the latter part twice. I wash the pieces before I do the sanding/filing, and again after. This way I make sure the pieces are free of the oils left behind during casting and free of that vicious resin dust. I have had awful sinuses since I was a baby. That dust murders me. I am a speck of any kind of dust away from a sinus infection at any given moment, of any given day. So I use an ultrasonic cleaner machine to assist in the cleaning. The same type of cleaner used by jewelers and glasses companies. And apparently gun owners, from the reviews I read. 

I also have a smaller machine that I bought much earlier than the big one. I use it for individual miniatures or smaller bits. For larger projects, such as this one, it is convenient to have both of these machines. Though, my wife doesn’t care for the space they both take up in the kitchen. I also use this smaller machine to clean my glasses, wedding ring, and various other submerge-able things from around the house.

I add some dishwashing soap into the water and mix it with an old broken chopstick prior to turning it on(a non-broken chopstick would work fine. Possibly…). The soap helps release the oils. I will run the machine on long cycles multiple times over the course of a few hours. Letting the pieces soak between cycles. Sometimes I will soak the larger pieces for most of a day. Afterwards, I scrub the pieces with an old toothbrush under warm faucet water. Using a strainer to make sure no pieces accidentally fall down the drain.

The 2.5L machine has a heater function that also helps loosen up the oils and accumulated dust. The water actually gets pretty hot if you use that heater. Like hot enough to soften up resin. Particularly on smaller pieces. I was surprised the first time I tried it, and haven’t used that heater much since then because i was worried about warpage on smaller bits. Another reason is, If you use a machine like this long enough, the water temperature will rise anyway, as part of the sonic agitation. So I don’t think you really need the heater. At least not for these types of hobby projects. Firearms, maybe. When finished, just be careful before pouring out the water. Small pieces can sometimes be shaken loose from the sprues or gates.

I found a curious thing about these machines. Not that I really read their poorly written instruction manuals completely. But it appears that the amount of things in the cleaning tank affects the agitation power. So if you fill the tank up with a whole bunch of larger stuff, it won’t have the same agitation power as it would with only a few pieces. The thing is, they come with baskets for ease of removing the components you’re cleaning. That basket alone reduces the power greatly. As the basket itself is a large hunk of plastic. 

Take a look at these pictures I took while cleaning the same resin Necromunda figure. The image on the left is obviously with the basket. The right, obviously no basket. In both pictures, the machine is on and the water agitation is completely different. Visibly so. If you put your finger in the water with the basket, you may not feel much. But if you put your finger in the water without the basket, it stings. Almost like being shocked. Kind of hurts. So, it goes without saying, the no-basket option gives you much more power. I would be careful about cleaning things like glasses or jewelry using the no basket option. You don’t want that powerful agitation to shake lose a small diamond from a wedding ring setting. I don’t know if that would happen. Just using my imagination.

Building

  • Army Painter Files and Cutters. The files work great for regular plastic models and resin. But resin does gum them up quicker than the regular plastic. So I toss them in the ultrasonic bath to clean them. I have noticed that these tend to rust if not dried properly. So definitely dry them immediately after cleaning. 
  • Carbon-Steel File Set. Larger files make short work of larger pieces. This set was a steal when I bought it on sale. These ones get gummed up a bit quicker than the army painter ones. And also take a bit longer to clean with the sonic cleaner, I’ve noticed.
  • God Hand Nippers. In my opinion, God Hand makes some of the best cutters. The cuts are so clean, that you often do not have to file down or trim the leftover stuff. As it is just not there. The Japanese know how to make hobby, well, anything. Remember, this is the same country that brought the world Gundam models.
  • Xacto Razor Saw. You can saw off a finger as easily as a resin gate. Probably… 
  • Loctite Mounting Putty. Great for mocking builds up, suspending paintbrushes in cleaning solution, and sticking stuff to other stuff. Not a good replacement for chewing gum.
  • Mercury Adhesives Medium Superglue. I learned about this company while watching a tutorial video by Creature Caster. The person was using this glue, and I got interested. Superglue has a shelf life. Which I did not know. If you are buying glue from the store, it’s probably old. Like, very old. As in, it’s been sitting on the shelf for years. Fresh superglue ensures solid adhesion. Check out Mercury Adhesives website for more info, they break it all down well. I’ve been using this brand for a couple years now, with almost zero complaints.
  • J-B Weld 5 Minute Epoxy. My first go with epoxy. All reviews point to this stuff. And it did work well. Just watch your nose. Those fumes are harsh.
  • Cordless Dremel. From drilling holes for pinning, to sawing off gates. A Dremel is a wonder tool. 
  • Steel T-pins. I used these for pinning. By cutting off the ‘T’ portion of the pin with a nail cutter, you are left with a strong, long, piece of steel. Perfect for supporting a massive hunk of resin.
  • 3M Half Facepiece Reusable Respirator 6200. I use a respirator mask when sanding and cutting resin. As well as air brushing. I mentioned it before, the resin dust kills me. For airbrushing, you are blowing ultra fine particles of paint out of that little airbrush. That cloud, particularly if you’re not properly ventilating the overspray, is most likely being inhaled, whether you realize it or not.

Many of the things listed here I have found from various similar style articles or videos.


The Build: Feet and Legs

You understand almost immediately, when you start this build, that it is going to be a big undertaking. And as you’re building the feet you start to wonder if all these parts will hold the weight of the model. I actually made a mistake when trimming the bits during the cleaning process. I cut off the pegs from a few of the toe joints. So I was worried a little more about the weight/stability issue even from the get go. I decided to pin those toes for a little extra peace of mind. And I did feel better afterward.

The pieces that I accidentally cut the pegs off of are in the pictures below. The six pieces on the middle right, with two on each gate. The circular pegs that attach the bit to the gate look like part of the gate. So I had already cut a few off before I realized my error. That would thankfully be my only mistake (and save) while building the feet. 

They look like gate supports. But they are very much part of the bit.

Unlike the knight models, with their mostly static legs and feet, you have a lot of artistic leeway when it comes to how you want to pose this model. Right down to the flex and turn of each of the toes. I opted for a flat look. It was… safe. This was my first titan-sized model after all. I didn’t want to get too technical.

Sgt Guinea Pig placed for size comparison

After attaching the toe pistons, next up would be the legs. When I was looking at the pieces for the legs, I kind of wondered how I would make this work. It looks pretty cut and dry. Everything has an obvious place. But almost everything is customizable. Connections points at the joints. You could have the titan kneeling a bit, walking, stomping on a tank, standing tall, the sky’s the limit.

So I had to start thinking about what I wanted for a pose. You can get an image in your head, but the execution can be tricky. I wanted the titan to be standing feet level, but not totally erect. Having a bit of a bend at the joints. And a foot turned out just a bit. That would also highlight the ball joints at the hip. At least in my head it looked good. I would mark the joints with a sharpie. This was so I knew where I wanted the flex or bend to be. I also marked the right and left sides. That way I didn’t mix the left side pieces up with the right side ones. Loctite Mounting Putty works wonders for visualizing and dry fitting. I used a lot.

For the legs, I used the epoxy and clamps to ensure a strong bond that can support the weight. It was my first time using this JB Weld stuff. I had the windows open, but pretty sure I fried some brain cells that day. It was tricky to get a good set. Considering that there are so many joints, and the epoxy is quick-set. That’s where the clamps come in. This was where I ended up making my second mistake. And it was a big, project altering one. But more on that in a bit.

After gluing everything and letting it set. Up next would be attaching the ball joints at the top of the legs and fixing them to the hip. But I had concerns about the load bearing capacity of this fixture. This is where both legs meet and the upper body rests. I wanted this area to be the most structurally sound. So I decided to pin both of these ball joints to the torso and made sure of a real good bond with the epoxy. The T-pins were perfect for a job this size. I used the larger sized one from the set I had bought. But trimmed it down just a tad. Didn’t need it too long. That would be a lot of drilling.

Once everything was in place and epoxied, I let all of it set for a good deal of time before I moved on to the pneumatics. The pneumatic pistons attach the toes to the feet, ankles to the feet, the lower leg to the knee, the knee to the upper leg, and the leg to the torso. There are a ton of them. The bits themselves may have to be trimmed depending on your pose. Some won’t need to be trimmed, and may just be the right size. They come long to allow for that customization. For one or two of them, there was barely enough piston. I believe that was on the right ankle. The two pieces were just barely long enough to meet. Got lucky there.

So, back to that pretty big mistake I made. Take a look at the above picture. Specifically the left leg(right leg in the picture). Somehow, even after marking the pieces with a marker at flex points, I managed to epoxy(and pin) the left leg so that it does not sit level with the right. The left leg is actually about ¾ of an inch higher than the right. So, now instead of the titan standing level, like I had planned, I had to model it standing on something. I had plans on putting this model on a large wooden base with some scenery for displaying. But now I needed something large enough for it to be stomping on. I had to think about that for a while. Because that something had to be a large and flat. Because remember, I had already glued(and pinned) the toes with zero flex. I was locked in here.

This problem wasn’t something I was going to solve at this juncture. So I decided that, with the skeleton of the lower body built(mistake or no), I was ready to move on to painting. I didn’t want this little hiccup to disrupt my build/painting plans. I had long ago decided to build and paint the two halves separately. This would break up the monotony of the two processes.


Tools: Painting

Paints

Citadel Spray: Grey SeerCitadel Shade: Reikland Fleshshade
Citadel Air: Sybarite GreenCitadel Shade: Nuln Oil
CItadel Air: Ulthuan GreyCitadel Shade: Biel-Tan Green
Citadel Air: LeadbelcherCitadel Shade: Druchii Violet
Citadel Base: Phoenician PurpleCitadel Dry: Necron Compound
Citadel Base: Iron WarriorsCitadel Dry: Golden Griffon
Citadel Layer: Sybarite GreenCitadel Dry: Nurgling Green
Citadel Layer: Ulthuan GreyCitadel Dry: Ryza Rust
Citadel Layer: Liberator GoldCitadel Technical: Typhus Corrosion
Citadel Layer: Evil Sunz Scarlet

Tools

  • Winsor & Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable Watercolor brushes. I learned about them from a painting tutorial video in early 2020, and had to try them out. I find them very easy to use and clean. They retain their shape very well with regular conditioning. For general painting I use the number 1 brush. For detail and tight areas the 0, 00, and 000.
  • Games Workshop’s Shade, Glaze, and their Dry brushes.
  • Winsor & Newton Brush Cleaner & Restorer. Every week, or so during a big project, or after the project is finished, I soak the brushes in this solution. Usually for 24 hours. But for heavily soiled brushes, like dry brushes, sometimes longer. This loosens up the paint and releases it from the brush hairs and also deeply conditions the brushes. It loosens the paint so well that it just falls off the brush. You will notice it accumulate at the bottom of the cup. After the soak, you work the deeper stuff out with your fingers and nails. A little caution should be exercised with this stuff. These brushes can be expensive, and this solution can also damage your brushes if used improperly. It will remove paint from a wood handle or release the glue holding the ferrule to the brush handle at the crimp. So the brush should only be soaked up to the ferrule. To accomplish this, I use painters tape around the edge of a paint cup. 
  • LabGenius MiniVortex Mixer. My shoulder acts up occasionally, and shaking paints can aggravate it. So this thing works wonders. It mixes up all types of paints really well. Even larger ink bottles.
  • GSI Creos Mr. Hobby Procon Boy FWA airbrush. I love this airbrush. It is a great all around airbrush that can do detail work. I’ve noticed that it doesn’t suffer from regular clogging like many do, and it is easy to clean and maintain. 
  • Master Airbrush Model TC-40T compressor for my air supply.
  • Master Airbrush Lighted Portable Hobby Airbrush Spray Booth. This helps keep the air clean in the apartment. When airbrushing, I almost never smell paint fumes. And for that, I love this machine. Again, the sinus issues. I do priming with it as well. As I live in an apartment complex, I cannot easily go outside to prime. Too far, too many doors. Too many people that would ask questions. The paint output from rattle-can paints can be a little much for the fans and filter. So I do get some fumes and smell in the house. But definitely not as much as I would if I was not using this booth.
  • Tamiya 10mm Masking Tape. Tamiya makes great hobby products. From paints to tools. Their masking tapes are great, and they come in various sizes.

Painting: Feet, Legs and Armor

Before I even began this process, I had to decide on my paint scheme. And to do that I needed to pick a traitor legion for my once-proud God Engine to belong to. I researched for quite some time. Usually at work during my downtime. I decided on Legio Krytos. The God Breakers. A long time ally to the Iron Warriors. Pre and Post Heresy. Perfect. Legio Krytos’ color scheme was also visually pleasing to me. Light greens, golds, and grayish-whites. 

I made a couple Amazon orders for the paints I needed, and once they arrived I got to work. I primed the entire assembly and the armor plates with Grey Seer. My go-to rattle can primer. When I can get my hand on it. It was not always in stock during the height of the pandemic(I still have trouble finding it in 2022). I really like this shade of white. It has a really good balance of gray and white. 

On top of the Grey Seer, on the armor plates, I airbrushed Ulthuan Grey. This would be my second main color. Ulthuan Grey is subtly different from Grey Seer. The green I chose for the primary color was Sybarite Green. A little brighter than most pictures I have seen of Legio Krytos titans. But I really like it. Prior to airbrushing the green, I used the Tamiya masking tape over certain areas to preserve the Ulthuan Grey there. I had long had an image in my head of how I wanted the armor to look. 

I was really loving this green and grey-white combination. I would love it even more once I fit the panels to the skeleton using the modeling putty. And even more so when I did the trim work and details.

It would be here that I would figure out how to fix that pretty large mistake I mentioned above in the build section, for the left leg. Seeing as I had pinned and epoxied most things, removing everything was not an option. I needed to work around this obstacle. I needed something for the titan to step on. For now, it would be cork. 

Next up would be the details. And this model has them, and then some. When it comes to painting details, regardless of the size, I do not have the steadiest of hands. And I didn’t want to ruin my nice airbrush coats. To accomplish that ‘want’, I tried a product I have never used before. At the suggestion of a much more artsy-minded friend(like, went to art school, artsy), I bought a bottle of Maskol. Liquid masking paint. 

Maskol is basically liquid rubber that you paint on in thin layers around where you want to mask. Once it dries you paint your model like normal. Once that layer dries you remove the dried rubber with needle-tip tweezers. What’s left behind is similar to what you would see if you use masking tape. 

As you can see, it paints on very thin. Like microns thin, if I had to guess. It dries really quick too, which kind of ruined a couple paint brushes. Luckily I used old ones that I didn’t care about. One potential down point of using this stuff is that it is totally time consuming. You are literally adding a couple extra steps to the paint process in application and removal. But you cannot argue with the results.

Of course there was touchups. 

These armor panels were not the only ones that needed the green and gold treatment. The skeleton of the legs also had armor panels. As well as the toes and pistons. Ugh… the pistons… Gluing all the pistons was one thing. Painting them? That was something else. Real tedious work. Particularly the gold parts.

Now that I had the bulk of the gold finished, I needed to dull it down by shading it. Reikland Fleshshade takes the gleam away from the gold. Leaving a nice rich/flat color. Making it look more rustic. I then used the same Liberator Gold to do a little highlighting. Probably the most highlighting I’ve done in a while. I generally don’t like to. Particularly on 32mm models.

I would also shade the battle damage with a couple applications of Biel-Tan Green and paint the backs of these armor panels with Iron Warriors metallic paint. The skeleton would then get a Nuln Oil treatment and a few splashes of Iron Warriors as a contrasting metallic color. 

Much later on, towards the end of the project, I would do the dry brushing and technical paint work. Also I would do more work on the battle damage. It was also around that time that I would realize that I totally forgot to paint the bottom of the toes. Oops. 

Actually, that ‘oops’ was a little premature. We will revisit that in Part 3 of this series. 

It was at this stage in the game that I was comfortable moving on to the upper body. I felt really good with how this was looking, and was eager to see it all come together. Really eager. This was exciting! I ended up getting way ahead of myself and, at risk of a catastrophic failure, put my titans heavy upper pieces together using the blue-tac. Just so I could see the titan standing on its own. I was super happy that it stood under its own weight.

The modeling putty was holding all of those heavy parts together like a single thread from a frayed mooring line struggling to hold a ship to the pier during a storm.

That concludes part 1 of the Warhound Titan project. In part 2, I work on the upper body and formulate a plan for the base. My work on the base, as a direct result of my misstep with the left foot, would lead me to completely change my direction for this project. Moving well away from just a base with some terrain on it, to a full blown diorama with a story to tell. 

To be continued…

[This post was originally published at Otherverse Games & Hobbies]



Robert

All of these are true except for one:

Robert is: a Hobbyist, a Music Lover, an RPG Gamer, a Mustard Lover, Chaotic Neutral, a Japanese Speaker, a Veteran, an Otaku, a Table Tennis Player, an Anime Fan, an Aviation Professional, a New York Rangers Fan, a Chaos Lover With Loyalist Tendencies.

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