Saturday, February 4, 2012

Warhound Titan Build.....Maybe

One used Warhound courtesy of eBay.
Last week one of our local commission painters, whose work you can find here, put up a post on our FLGS's forums needing help assembling models for some of his upcoming jobs. He needed help with building a Forgeworld heavy Nurgle Chaos Marine army, and a Warhound Titan. The titan wasn't needed anytime soon, but the Chaos army had to be done as quickly as possible. I took the models home Thursday night, started on them Friday after work, and finished the army on Sunday evening. So, this past Thursday I brought the completed Nurgle army back and picked up the Warhound.

The Warhound Titan was a salvage job from eBay. If you look closely at the top photo you can start to see some of the damage done by the previous owner. I simple cannot understand how someone can pay several hundred dollars for one model and then not take the time to properly assemble it! But, me being slightly insane and looking for a challenge, I decided to rebuild this poor guy and give him the treatment he deserves. I sat down last night and started going through all of the parts in the plastic bags. The other assembly job for the Nurgle Chaos marines had a few missing pieces as well, mainly the right hand and sword for Forgeworld's Great Unclean One. Luckily there was an extra left arm that originally went with Nurgle Plague Hulk. So, with a little patience I cut the sword from the hand as well as the thumb. Then it was just a matter of flipping the thumb to the top, pinning the sword back in place, and re-sculpting the hand. The converted arm actually went perfectly where the original should have gone. I wish I had gotten photos but maybe they'll show up on the painter's YouTube page above.

Looks like there's something missing......
After going through all the major parts and pieces, there was in fact more missing parts. If it was something simple it wouldn't be a big deal and I could probably recreate it with green stuff and plastic card. The missing piece? The entire lower right leg assembly! Since these models are so top heavy they really require being either pinned or bolted to a wooden base to keep them from falling over. I still need to go through the pistons and other small parts to make sure nothing else is missing before I contact the guy. With any luck, he can get or cast a replacement part and I can start to build this thing! When or if I do, I'll do a tutorial as I put him together.

4 comments:

  1. well, if you've got the opposite leg, then you can at least make a convincing pair or cast the new part using the existing one to create the mold?

    As a long shot, you MAY be able to buy a particular part from forge world? you'll have to try to plead your case.... and it might cost an arm and a leg (literally!! lol!)

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  2. I don't think Forgeworld will sell an individual piece, or replace one from a Titan bought on eBay. If it was purchased from Forgeworld, then I'd go that route.

    Either way I'll have to see what the owner wants to do. He has the capabilities of casting it. I guess if he casts the metal rod inside the leg, then strength wouldn't be much of an issue. That is my worry about casting the part, that it won't be strong enough to handle the weight of the Titan once it is fully assembled.

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  3. Casting with in intergrated metal rod (pin) sounds like an excellent idea. If nothing else... it saves you drilling!!

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  4. My thoughts were that if the pin was cast into the new part like rebar in concrete it would be strong enough to support the weight of the model. The pin would have to have perpendicular pieces of wire wrapped around it to give it the strength it would need. On a model like this, I would rather be over-cautious than not enough!

    All of the drilling I do on models this size are done with a small household drill. I've got several different drill bits to match the different sizes of brass and metal pins. My favorite pinning material has to be nails! I use the no head type for internal and the standard type for flying creatures, etc.

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