+ Work in progress: Posing a Reaver Titan – part II +
+ Part I of this project can be found here:
[+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]
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| + 'Old Spiteful' of Legio Sumer-Nikator, traversing rough ground at speed + |
‘Raising a Reaver Titan is a matter not of construction, but of faith. The Machine-Spirit must be invited (a coy term for ‘lured’) into the mechanical frame once it has been correctly sanctified.
‘Once aboard, a series of increasingly secretive rites must be observed and warily conducted, culminating in the sacrifice of a local predator-beast in the sanctum of the reactor core. The aim is to bind the Anima to the metal, ivory and plastek construction; thereby making a synthesis that invests cold metal with spirit. The more puissant the creature, the more powerful the binding and the resultant Titan.
‘Fewer than one in a thousand attempts is a success; more than a quarter of the attempts are fatal for the Priest-Attendant.’
– Liber Humer-Ghant; extr. On the Enthusiasm of War Engines
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+ Our last look at our Legio Maximal Reaver saw it with a sculpted base with the feet firmly integrated to give it a sense of presence and weight. It's now time to move on to working upwards, constructing the legs and torso. +
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| + Battle Bling upgrade armour plates – Loyalist; Classic option – tacked in place. + |
+ My personal preference for building any model is to build it in its entirety, as I find it holds my interest and I enjoy the process more (not to mention it saves bits getting lost when things have to be packed away!) but I do occasionally use subassemblies. +
+ Not only does it make it easier to paint into recesses, but it offers you the ability to basecoast things with starkly different primers, saving painting work later, but it also forces you to slow down and consider things. That particular note is handy for Reaver Titans, which have a number of things about the legs that can trip up the builder. +
+ Lower legs +
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| The back of the lower leg is on the left; and the front on the right. |
+ We looked last time at the subtly non-symmetrical feet, and a similar thing applies to the lower legs. Here, you want to make sure that the Aquila (double-headed eagle) detail faces backwards, as in the picture above. I've clipped the armour plates in place to help make this clear; but the reason for it is that the Aquila should remains visible once the armour's in place. As you can see, the Battle Bling upgrade armour preserves this nice little touch. +
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| Traitor armour plates showing the same thing – and perhaps it would have been nice for these to have an additional detail to obscure the Aquila. |
+ Another thing to note about the armour upgrades (both Loyal and Traitor) is that they replace the knee armour completely – it's integrated into the shin armour a bit like Mark VI power armour. This doesn't make any difference here, but it does mean that you can't make another common building mistake for the standard kit, which is to glue the kneepads on upside-down. +
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+ Upper legs and pelvis +
+ The pelvis/groin/hips piece is simple – there's a larger and smaller hole to receive armour plates on front and back. The upgrade armour's fit on these is nice and snug, so they'll stay in place without any temporary fixes for painting. +
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| + Loyalist rear + |
+ Whether loyal or traitor, these pieces are the same for both options in the respective upgrade packs. +
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+ Assembling the legs +
+ When assembling the legs, bear in mind the pose you decided upon (see part I), and keep it in mind as you work. Dry fit the parts – and feel free to use Blu-tak or similar to hold it temporarily. +
+ When you feel confident, you can begin to glue things. Work joint by joint, building upwards from the feet.
+ The key things to remember when assembling the lower legs are:
- Get the pieces the right way round
- Don't overextend joints, or the armour won't fit
- Ensure that the recesses on the legs broadly align with the recess/divots for the pistons – you've got a little bit of play, but not much.
+ While the glue on the lower legs is drying, dry fit the armour to check that it fits, and that there is sufficient space for the pistons. The poses available here are surprisingly limited without carving into the pistons and armour – but don't worry, you only need a few degrees off vertical/horizontal to create a convincing pose. +
+ Upper legs and waist +
+ My advice here is to allow the lower legs to dry completely, which will give you a firm foundation to build upon. Placing the upper legs on top too quickly can cause the lower legs (which have a relatively small attachment point) to move, which means you'll be trying to keep too many components in place at once, and risk ending up with a wrong or awkward pose. +
+ Add a small amount of glue to the hips and attach the upper legs loosely. Before this subassembly dries, dry fit it against the knees. There are a series of grooves on the top of the lower leg that should fit snugly. If they don't, try adjusting the hip until the upper leg grooves slot in. +
+ If they still don't fit, disassemble the hips and upper leg subassembly and leave to dry. Add a touch of polystyrene cement to the ankle of the problematic lower leg and wait until you can flex the joint. Reset it to a less extreme pose (but bear in mind your original aim) and start again. +
+ The key things to remember when assembling the upper legs and waist are:
- Get the pieces the right way round
- Work slowly, and on top of a firm foundation
- Don't be afraid to tilt the upper legs – much of the 'weight' of the pose will come from the angle you choose, and you can be quite extreme here as long as the centre of gravity remains where you want it.
- Generally speaking, the more acute the angle of the upper leg, the further forward the knee should be compared with the foot.
- The waist determines how the entire upper torso and weapons will sit. Unless you have a particularly dynamic pose in mind, the top of the waist piece should be near parallel to the ground, or tilted slightly forwards.
+ Example poses +
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| + Moving at pace, Senex Codomannus is caught mid-stride. The centre of gravity sits forward, the front leg bent as it settles into a new position (note drooping toes as it finds firm footing); the rear leg straight, trailing and lifting. The torso is canted forward on the waist to give more impression of momentum, and the weapons are trained downwards. + |
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| + In contrast, Mercato Stipent looks wary and hesitant. Both feet are firmly placed and braced on the ground. Here, the rear leg is bent, and the front straighter; giving the sense that the Titan has stepped backwards or is adjusting its placement – note how the centre of gravity is set further back. The weapons are up and the head follows the direction of the Gatling blaster. + |
+ Alternatively, you can build up one leg at a time. Start with the leg you're happy with and glue on the upper leg and pelvis. Adjust this so that the top of the pelvis is parallel with the ground or canted only slightly – any more than this will quickly make the Titan look like it's overbalancing. Once one leg is in position, you can adjust to get the other leg into place. +
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+ Once the legs are fully assembled, attach the pistons. The longer one sits at the front, as shown; the other three are interchangeable. +
+ With the pistons in place, dry fit the armour plates again, and adjust if necessary. These small pieces have quite a bit of play – but as a general note, it's worth doing this assembly with small amounts of glue to make adjustments easier. You can go back and reinforce joints later, often simply through the capillary action of the glue into the joint, with no breakage necessary. +
+ When adding the pistons, bear in mind that these will have additional small armour plates themselves, so try to sit them as centrally as possible in the recesses and divots, to give yourself as much space and flex for these. Keep the pistons upright and straight if you can, too – it gives a neater final effect. +
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| + The pose of the foot has forced the front piston on the left leg (right of picture) out at an angle – but note that I've used what flexibility is there to ensure enough space for the piston armour to fit in the gap left in the leg armour. + |
+ When reposing the foot to an extreme, it's fairly inevitable that you'll end up with some parts needing to be adjusted; whether that's a toe, shin, piston or even the entire leg. If you're willing to compromise the pose, it's best to do this on the fly – but if you've got something really specific in mind, then you can trim down the relevant parts to get things to fit. I suggest, however, that this is a last resort, and that wherever possible you make such changes in an unobstrusive place as possible. +
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+ Upper body +
+ A plate is included to cover the bottom of the upper body (the 'chest', if you imagine the Reaver stooping). This slots neatly into place, and like the other parts, will stay in place through friction; useful for painting the plates separately. +
+ ...And the top plate simply sits on top. This isn't quite so snug, but is fine for temporary work. +
+ The pauldrons then balance in place on top of the shoulders. The Battle Bling designers have added positional details inside to ensure a precise fit. Note that because this is circular, you do have some limited poseability; shrugging the armour forward to close the gaps at the front, for example. +
+ The shoulders are one of the most distinguishing parts of the upgrade kits. The Loyalist Classic and Traitor Heretic packs have the larger pauldrons above, which hang down at front and back. These are symmetrical and interchangeable, so you can use either pad on either side. If you want to represent reinforced or extra armour in-game, these are a good way to do so. +
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| + Traitor equivalent – Forsaken variant + |
+ The Loyalist Winged and Traitor Forsaken packs instead have designs closer to the plastic originals, with asymmetrical shapes and less coverage. These give a lighter, sleeker look – just make sure you glue them on on the correct sides! +
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+ Assembly and painting +
+ With all the subassemblies completed, slot the armour plates in place to do a final check on the pose. If you're happy, your ready to prime and paint. +
+ As noted, keeping the armour plates separate can help when painting, allowing you to use a dark primer on the structural skeleton and a different primer entirely on the armour plates – here's what that looks like with Halfords camo brown (recently rebranded and repackaged, but I'm happy to say still the same reliable stuff) and Games Workshop's Grey Seer. +
+ And the upgrade kit (Loyalist – Classic) in all its glory. +
+ Kit review summary – Battle Bling Titan armour upgrades +
+ I'm impressed with these kit. All are really well engineered, and it fits like a dream, particularly impressive given the awkwardness of the shapes and the precision needed. I've no hesitation in recommending it. All four of the variants fit right in, and are ideal for adding some individuality to your Titans, whether that's to make it easier to distinguish Titans within your Maniple or Battlegroup, or simply for the fun of having something a bit different. +
+ Here's the link:
+ Future ideas +
+ I hope that Battle Bling continue to produce different armour variants like this (and indeed there's a few spiked options already), and I'd love to see a proper asymmetric monstrous one for possessed Titans. I'm really surprised no-one's tried to tackle this yet, as an easy upgrade kit seems to be leaving money on the table. +
+ Likewise it would be nice to see upgrades that reflect specific things like wargear upgrades. Not only would they be nice aesthetic upgrades, but they'd also be useful for providing a physical reminder of which Titans have upgrades. These could be nice and generic:
- Engine upgrade to fit in the gap at the back of the body, between the shield generators: Plasmatic binders/Motive subreactors/Bi-folded power containment/Plasma channels
- Armour upgrade including parts to cover the upper legs (like the Warbringer)
- Sensor upgrade to fit around the cowl above the head, perhaps, to represent upgrades like Gravitonic sensor array/
+ ... and on an entirely subjective and selfish note, I'd also love to see a head or two to supplement these armour sets. Long-time readers will know I've been hoping some enterprising individual would make a modern take on the other classic Reaver head 2 (below), as I think Titan's heads are the key to their personality, and helps your giant robot feel like your giant robot. +
+ Until then, I'll be using a conversion I made from a spare Warlord head and 40k Knight. You can see the first splashes of colour on the Titan, too. Keep your eyes peeled for more! +
