Jodrell Plays Games

I started working on the Reaver in May, and finally finished it at the beginning of December. That's six months!

I am generally very happy with how it's turned out. There were a few glitches along the way but as is the case with any hobby project, those problems that did come up were fixable.

The paint scheme is, of course, the same one I have been painting my Epic titans for 25 years. Here's a quick run-down of how it was achieved:

• Prime with Vallejo black primer (via airbrush)
• Mask off armour plates leaving edge banding exposed
• Airbrush Vallejo Model Air Brass on banding
• Wash with Army Painter Soft Tone through the airbrush
• Remove masking and remask to expose quartered sections
• Spray with Citadel Skull White spray

The exposed metal of the superstructure was primed black as above then sprayed with Army Painter's Chain Mail, then washed with Strong Tone through the airbrush. Weathering was achieved using Citadel's Nihilakh Oxide, Typhus Corrosion and Forge World weathering powders.

The base is a simple cake base with a belt of plasticard around the outside. It's supposed to match the basing scheme I've used for my Salamander and Necron armies and the Leviathan. There is a layer of cork on top of the base to allow me to create depressions into which the titan's feet can be placed (to create the effect of the ground sinking beneath its feet). I added some crushed up aluminium foil and some craters from Amera Plastic Mouldings to add relief. I then painted with PVA and applied sand. once dried, I sprayed the base with a mix of Army Painter leather and Plasti-kote sprays, drybrushed with a few GW paints and then added static grass (GW's Dead Grass).

Overall, I'd say this project is pretty straightforward, requiring a lot of technique but not much skill: for example, knowing how to pin the leg joints in the most effective way. Since the model was painted almost entirely using the airbrush, the amount of masking required was pretty exhausting and very boring indeed!

Adeptus Mechanicus Collegia Titanica
Legio Pantera <Black Panthers>
Battle Group ΔVII <Delta-Seven>
Omega Crusis Maniple 533
"Invictus Ferrum" <Invincible Iron>
Mars Pattern Reaver class Battle Titan
Chassis Serial #MCCCXLVI
Currently on operations on Severus Ultis, Vastus Sector

The Reaver is done! Check out the rest of the photos on my Facebook page. I will post them here (along with a post-mortem of the build and paint) in a few days.

The Reaver is 98% done. Apart from this teaser, I'm not going to post any photos until it's 100%. I still have a few problems to fix and a couple of parts still to paint, and the whole issue of banners remains unanswered.

There have been a few ups and downs but I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out, more or less.

Stay tuned for the big reveal!

Work progresses on the Reaver. I've finished painting the sculpted detail on the carapace; here's a photo I posted on Twitter:



The text on the scrollwork is Latin cooked up by Google Translate from the following:

IN THE NAME OF THE GOD EMPEROR AND THE HOLY OMNISSIAH, LET THIS MIGHTY
ENGINE OF WAR BRING FORTH ITS WRATH UPON THE ENEMIES OF MANKIND. LET ITS
LEFT HAND BRING FORTH FURIOUS HEAT TO CLEANSE THE GALAXY OF THE UNCLEAN
AND THE ALIEN. LET ITS RIGHT HAND SMASH THE TRAITOR AND THE HERETIC. LET
IT RAIN DOWN DESTRUCTION FROM THE QUIVER UPON ITS BACK. LET NONE STAND
BEFORE IT. IN THE NAME OF THE GOD EMPEROR AND THE HOLY OMNISSIAH!

which apparently translates to:

IN NOMINE SANCTAE DEI ET PRINCEPS OMNISSIAH DIMITTE IRAM SUPER TANTO
MACHINA HUMANITATIS INIMICOS FERAT. PURIFICATIONEM EIUS GALAXIA CALUERE
ACCONGERO SINISTRA POLLUTUM ET ALIENUM. FRANGIT DEXTRIS EIUS TRADITOR ET
HAERETICUS. DE EXCIDIO PHARETRA STILLABIT SUPER SE SIT. NEMO RESISTERE
EI. IN NOMINE DOMINI DEI AD CAESAREM OMNISSIAH ET SANCTA

Here a few photos of the head, which is pretty much finished (it just needs varnishing and maybe some decals):

I don't have much to say, so here's a bunch of photos:

Here's one of the titan crew on foot, He came out of the blister with a little lean, which needed fixing:







Here's the Tech-Priest, who I magnetised so he can go inside the titan's torso, or on his own base:







Here's the assembled legs, compared to the Leviathan:









Completion of the legs and armour (everything is still in pieces as I still need to do varnishing and priming):







Miscellaneous photos:

The consulting firm Gartner is famous for its eponymous Hype cycle which tracks the development of new technology.

I've come to realise the my project to build and paint a Reaver titan also fits onto this graph. This time last week, I was definitely in the Trough of Disillusionment, as my frustration with the complexity of the leg assemblies (pistons! So many pistons!) overcame my enthusiasm.

Now, however, I have started working on the torso, head and weapons, I feel like my determination to get the bloody thing finished so I can get on with other things is reasserting itself, and I'm approaching the Plateau of Productivity, at which point, the Reaver will probably end up being finished fairly quickly.

Here's hoping the hype cycle holds true this time!

As you might imagine, the Reaver is a big project, hence the lack of updates. I won't bother giving you a blow-by-blow account of how I have been working on it; instead I'll just point to the blog posts that I've been working from instead:

• The Inner Geek
• 30mm Madness

As with the Leviathan, the legs are definitely the trickiest part of the model, and you need to take a lot of time testing out positioning. The general procedure is: measure twice, then measure again, then check on the Internet to see if anyone else has done it the same way, then measure again, then cut!

One innovation that I haven't seen anyone else write about is the magnetisation of the "helmet", or the roof of the Titan's head. I did this by drilling holes in the appropriate places (you'll notice that I had to do this a couple of times before i got it right) and inserting 3mm magnets that I bought from Gladius Game Arts.



Most of the leg and pelvis of the Titan has now been primed black, and the superstructure will then be sprayed using Army Painter chain mail. I tried a variety of white metal Vallejo model air paints but decided that none of them looked right over a black primer.

I've finished some of the interior parts: here are the wall panels that will sit inside the Titan's body:



I also have plans to give the Titan a base, although it would probably be fairly impractical to use it for gaming, so it's probably just going to be for display purposes. I found a 36cm-diameter cake base which looks like it will do the trick:



As I should probably have expected, I've made a few mistakes along the way, the most annoying of which was the realisation that I'd glued this plasticard logo onto the knee pad upside-down!



In the process of removing it I caused a fair bit of damage to the surface of the knee pad which I then made worse through clumsy application of a rotary tool. So exactly how I fix that will be the subject of a future post.

More to follow!

The nice man from UPS dropped by today and delivered my Reaver titan! Here is the certificate that came with the enormous pile of resin that's now sitting in a box under my desk:



Mine is the 1,346th Reaver Titan to roll of the Forge World production line, so I'm going to be using MCCCXLVI as part of the decoration of the model.

Now, if you excuse me, I have a lot of resin to wash and several pages of instructions to read...

After years of dithering, I have finally taken the plunge and ordered one:





After the success of last year's Leviathan I finally decided that I had the painting and modelling skills to take on the ultimate hobby project: a Forge World Reaver titan. I have bought the body only for now: I'll pick up the weapons when I've finished the body. And of course, I'll be blogging my progress. I plan on painting it in the same colour scheme as my Epic Titans, but obviously the level of detail will be far higher. I'm very excited!