Warhound Titan (part II)

The Legs Constructed

So here is part II of my Warhound Titan build, for those that have not read part I, you can find it 'here'.

In this part, I will tell you about the leg construction and one of my favourite things, magnetising!  I apologise for the low photo quality but these were taken on my mobile, but they are good enough to show what's going on. I was fortunate to have a couple of days off work, allowing my full concentration on this part of the Titan. I spent long hours researching what other people have done and took a lot of advise on board. This advise I will pass onto you now, please keep reading and enjoy.

The pose

I figured that I would first need to work out what position I was going to have the Titan in, once I started gluing there would be no turning back! Resin and super glue do not give easily! Having found various pictures on the net I decided to go for a stalking type of pose, like the one above from Forge World. I wanted one foot forward and the other still on the ground, but lifting up to give it motion. I did not want the model to be on a base for gaming purposes, this would allow more battlefield movement and reduce the area of which I could be assaulted. So no base was desired.

Another major consideration would be whether or not to pin the model. After feeling the weight and doing research again, I thought this would be wise. I purchased some 20 gauge piano wire, available from any good model shop and did a test on some resin off cuts. After drilling a 1mm hole I cut the wire to length and test fitted the wire, I then dropped in some super glue and quickly (and you need to be quick) pushed the wire into place. After a few minutes I tested the join I had created and to my delight, it was very strong, strong enough to still be joined after standing on it.

The Feet

Already you can see the size of this model, the Grey Knight is for scale. I raised the main foot off the table about 1cm by placing three 25mm bases underneath, thus when assembled it would direct the weight onto the toes. I carefully dry fitted every part before starting to assemble the foot, once happy I glued a single part together and then drilled a hole through the two parts. I cut and test fitted some wire, dropped in some super glue and threaded the wire in very quickly. I then moved onto the next part dry fitting all the way.

Top Tip: "Dry fit, dry fit, dry fit, then dry fit again". You only get one chance at this generally, so make sure your parts fit and you happy before your glue goes near it!

Top Tip: "Move quickly". Super glue and resin bond very fast so after dry fitting apply your glue and part in the exact position you want, trying to move these after will be very difficult once set and will damage your model!

So with the foot and toes assembled and pinned, I cut the toe pistons to length and glued them into position, again dry fitting all the way. Below are some photos showing where the pins are.

Very carefully once dry I applied pressure onto the main foot. I basically wanted to test the load it could take, if it was no good I would have to rethink and add more pins. 6kg later I decided that its was strong enough to hold plenty of weight and moved on. After doing my research I decided to build one leg first up to the hip, then starting from the bottom build the other leg to match the same height, that way I would have a level waist to hold the upper part of the Titan.

Leg One

Due to being focused more on the build than taking photos, this is the only one for this stage of the build. I dry fitted for ages before deciding on the final position, when I was happy I placed pencil marks on the parts to remind me where they were going to line up.

Having great success with glueing the parts together first then pinning after, I applied the same process to the rest of the Titan. As the picture above shows, I inserted three long pins up through the bottom of the foot into the ankle ball joint, I managed to use the rivet indent detail to hide where I drilled for pinning. Where the lower and upper joints were, I decided to put pins right through the joints horizontally as this would be the strongest method. These tiny holes were later covered up using 'Green Stuff'. Planning the pose before hand, this foot would end up underneath the Titans head with the hips to the rear balancing the model nicely (finger crossed).

Magnets

I really wanted to make the most of this model, so I intended from the start to magnetise various parts. The ankle guards where one of these parts. Being as you get two plain and two detailed, I though I could use one plain and detailed to start with and the two spare I would pretty much create battle damage on them.

The Idea of this being that a Warhound Titan has three structure points, so when one is lost I could replace an ankle guard with a damaged one, and when a second is lost replace the other. This would not only record the damage but show it as well. Obviously when the third structure point is lost there would be no Titan left just a crater in the ground.

I used 3.2mm x 2mm magnets on the Titan as these were a perfect size to hold the parts. Using a matching size drill bit I very carefully (after dry fitting of course) drilled holes into the two parts the making sure the polarity was correct, super glued the magnets in. And as you can see it worked a treat, the ankle guards can now be swapped as and when needed.

Top Tip: "Make sure the polarity of the magnets are correct before glueing, as once glued you cannot get them out again"!

The good thing about doing this as well, is that when it comes to painting I can access the ankle with ease. With the leg fully pinned and the magnets in place, I finished the leg off by adding the Ankle, Leg and hip pistons. As always dry fitting and glueing carefully.

Leg Two and Hips

With the first leg all done it was time to build up the other. Again I have not got photos of the assembly but this was pretty much done the same. I dry fitted the foot and leg, marked with pencil and cracked on.

This foot was slightly harder to do as I had to have the weight on the front toes only. For this I made a little wedge out of foam card to hold the foot in position while I glued in together. The leg was far easier as I just needed to make sure it ended up at the same height as the other one.

Finally I dry fitted the hips then pinned and glued them together, I even placed a spirit level on top just to make sure it was perfect. I needed to make sure that the centre of balance was correct, otherwise when the top half of the Titan was placed on, it would topple the model over. Again having done my research this was achieved. 

A further eight pins were used to hold the hip ball joints onto the legs and another three pins through the waist into the ball joint. Believe it or not, the legs can support around 8kg of weight. that's how far I got before getting worried. I needed to make sure it was stable after all.

Below are the rough positions of where the hip and waist pins were inserted. and also the other pins added from the rear view.

Here is an aerial shot and from the side, as you can see the centre of gravity is between the toes giving it perfect balance. Careful planning and preparation paid off.

The hip pistons were added after these photos were taken, but the same method was applied. Dry fit then glue, I was lucky to have a couple of spare pistons as one of the hip pistons was quite poorly cast, as for the ankle, I miss judged (even after dry fitting) and cut a couple to short.

Below are a few statistic I gathered throughout the building process so far, I will total these up after each post.

Stats:

Pins used

• 68 from toes to waist, 34 in each leg.

Magnets used

• 15, two used on the right ankle guard and three on the left as this side was at a slight angle and needed one extra.

Well that's it for this part, hopefully I have passed on some useful advise and inspiration  This is a fantastic model to build and  is still not yet finished. The next part will involve building up the body and head.

~ To lack conviction is to invite defeat ~