Monday 9 January 2023

From DallasE: 40K-Scale Reaver Battle Titan (Sci-Fi: 160 points)

OK, so I have to admit that I wanted to leave this as a points bomb for the end of the Challenge, but I've been convinced to post it up now, and honestly I'm so excited about it I think it would be hard to sit on the post anyway.

In any event, here it is - a 3D-printed 40K-scale Reaver Battle Titan. I've always wanted a Reaver in 40K-scale and now I have one!

Here is the story behind it. A couple months ago I was browsing Warhammer classifieds on kijiji (free ad website, like Craigslist) and stumbled on a guy who was advertising 3D-printed proxy Titans. I'm talking Warlords, Reavers, and Warhounds. Anyway we got together and I saw that the models were decent quality, so I got him to print me one along with some extra weapons (actually I got two, and you might see the other later in the Challenge...?) 

The model required assembly of course, but not nearly as much assembly as a resin one from Forgeworld. Still fiddly in places but I would compare it to the difficulty level of the new tiny Reaver Titans from the Adeptus Titanicus (2018) game. Of course I magnetized the weapons with 3/8" neodymium magnets, which mostly worked OK.

I painted the God-machine as Legio Krytos - a Titan legio affiliated with the Iron Warriors space marine legion, which swore its fealty to the Warmaster Horus in the Horus Heresy. Krytos was the legio in whose colours I painted my AT18 titans as well.

Colours used: Vallejo German Uniform, Rakarth Flesh basecoat with Pallid Wych Flesh on the off-white bits, Leadbelcher on the metal parts, Brass Scorpion for the brass trim, Steel Legion Drab highlighted with Rakarth for the scrolls, the whole washed with Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade. I added some light dirt streaks with my new AK "Streaking Dirt" pencil and sponge chips with German Camo Black Brown. Dust was drybrushed on the feet with Rakarth.

Part of the coolness of Titans (and other ridiculously large war machines) is that they are all individually named. I chose "Dark Apostle" as the name of this Reaver, and that translates into "Warhammer Latin" as "Apostolus Tenebris". At least that's my best guess, anyway. The Krytos insignia on the shield is from the AT18 Legio Krytos decal sheet.

The model is actually pretty nicely detailed. Assembly was straightforward - mostly using superglue but some of the structural elements were secured with JB Kwik-Weld two-part epoxy.

How about this detail on the pistons on the backs of the legs!

Here's a good view of the Melta-Cannon arm weapon. This is actually pretty heavy (it has separate barrels inside the shroud) and the magnets I used to secure it could stand to be a bit stronger (those are on order). 

I used some decals from the Imperial Knights sheet to detail the weapon.

Speaking of Knight decals, I'd wanted to use the Aquila decals from the sheet on the pauldrons, but they were way too small. So I had to freehand the aquila onto the pauldron. The small cogged skull is from the Knight decal sheet though.

The other weapon is a very awesome looking laser blaster. I painted this to match the laser blasters on my AT18 Reavers.

More decal detail on the laser blaster.

I just HAD to put a "VIN plate" on the Titan as well.

And no Reaver Titan is complete without a massive power fist!! It was a little trickier to fit this one - I had to cut apart a spare arm piece to make a magnetized extension for the fist.

It's a big fist!!

Penetrating stare from the Reaver head. Such a cool look, but sadly there is no internal detailing here.

Group shot with my old Armorcast Legio Metalica Reaver. The new 3D printed model absolutely dwarfs it. You can see the Princeps and Moderati on the buildings in front of it. The scale of this Titan is massive.

Here's where the scale really shows. At front left is an Iron Warriors standard bearer and at right is an AT18 Reaver. The 3D printed Reaver is a little over 16" tall.

I'm going to post this model in the Sci-Fi studio but as I don't think a modern 3D-printed Titan has ever been painted in the Challenge, I'm going to suggest a tally for the Titan and extra weapon of 200 points.

Dallas this is fantastic, a proper monster of a figure. I've checked the annals of the challenge and only 1 28mm Titan has been posted, that was slightly smaller (a mere 13.5 inches high) and that was awarded 100pts. With that in mind I've reduced the value a little to 140pts for the figure plus Sci Fi bonus.

Martin 

18 comments:

  1. Wow, I think you just won the challenge!
    That is an epic (not 'epic' scale though) mini. I'm in awe of your ability to paint a model of that size to that level of detail, I get bored painting a tank. The decals and free-hand really add a lot to it, from the big Aquila on the pauldron to the little warning sign on the gun.

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  2. I remember the previous 28mm titan and that was insane. This is insane, too, but the modern 3D printers are quickly taking some insanity off from insanity. Nevertheless , the titan is awesome and painting is terrific! Painting a 28mm Rhino is something that wears me down, because it is big, there are so many details and it will never be ready, so seeing this kind of beasts painted just shocks me (in many levels). Congratulations for finishing this project and nice to see it now and not in the middle of the end of the Challenge mayhem!

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  3. I know nothing about 40K but am in awe of that - its just superb!

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  4. WOW very impressive .... great start to the week post!
    Cheers JezT

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  5. What! That's insane! Congratulations!

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  6. What a beast. I feel like we are gonna get some challenge scale creep as the years go on. 6ft painted models anyone? ;-) Bigatures I believe they are known as?

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  7. Wow, that’s a beast. Best of all was reading you geek out over it. No point in trying to be subtle and keep this bad boy in your back pocket until later in the challenge.

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  8. Ah, WOW to use a common theme in this thread. What a beast and excellent brush work. Well done.

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  9. BOOM! Fantastic work Dallas, it looks amazing!!

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  10. Bloody fantastic I want one now, just for display!

    Super entry and worthy of it points tally

    Cheers
    Matt

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  11. Thanks for the comments all and thanks for posting it Martin, wasn't expecting it up till next weekend.

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  12. Fabulous work, Dallas! This is such a tremendous 'mini'. Love the livery and the additional details (the VIN plate cracks me up). I can understand how you couldn't wait to get it up on the blogosphere. Well done!

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  13. That's a fantastic beast of a model, Dallas! Lovely stuff! :)

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  14. A really big great stomping robot thingy! What a fantastic model, awesome painting and a great story too. Excellent!

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  15. I don't know if this is insanely awesome or awesomely insane. Once again, you do great work, Dallas.

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