The Road To Golden Demon, Warhound Progress & Making A Princeps

It's been a while since I've posted as I've been keeping some of my projects under wraps.  The majority of these have been in preparation for either events or the big one itself... Golden Demon!

The road is long...

I've asked several this year whether I've ever won a Golden Demon - the simple answer to this question is no!  I don't generally attend events these days - juggling a young family with work commitments hasn't left me with much spare time in my calendar!  But I decided that this year would be different...

I have booked a ticket to Warhammer-fest in May and have decided on the 6 categories I'll be entering.  To be honest, if I take home a bronze award, I'll be over the moon!  Anyway, here are the ones I'm entering:

1). 40k vehicle - Touching up the Fisher King as he's a firm favourite!
2). AoS Large model - Again, I'm looking to touch up the Frost Giant (and am hand-carving plinths for all of my entries!)
3). Duel - I'm afraid this one is a secret for now!
4). Small scale miniature - Again, this one's a secret, but I will say that it's an Adeptus Titanicus focussed piece...
5).  Lord of The Rings Miniature - I'm working on Sauron the Necromancer at the moment.  In terms of the miniature, he's built straight from the box.  His display base is considerably more involved though!  So far, I have very quickly put together a rough idea of what it will look like.  Essentially, it will be Sauron moving through a fiery arch in Dol Guldur...

Very much a work in progress, but you get the idea I'm sure!

6). Finally, I will be entering Mollog's Mob into the AoS Warband category.  I love these miniatures so much; ever since I saw them previewed, I have wanted to paint them and create a freestanding display depicting them emerging from a cave.

Although I still need to finish Mollog himself, the whole piece is almost complete!

Warhound

It's been a while since I posted about my Warhound, so I thought I'd give a quick update.  I've almost completed the internal details.  Once these are done, I can finally assemble the torso and work on the outer sections.  With only the engine room and a Moderati left to paint, this should move along quickly now!  To be honest, I need to make significant progress on this once alongside my Golden Demon entries as the Titan Owner's Club Walk is only a month behind Warhammer Fest and I'll need both Warhounds for that!

Although complex, once the Warhound internals are complete, they are beautiful!

After building the Reaver Titan with its internal Tech-Priest, this Warhound felt a bit empty, so I added a Servitor!

This Servitor guards the bridge, maintains vital systems and probably loads the dishwasher as required.

The Servitor was pinned to the crew lift and had to be carefully inserted into the Warhound's torso

This is the engine-room door which will be glued in place in due course

Flip side of the engine-room door.  I was pleased with the rust and scratches on the door from years of use and abuse!

I finally got round to sticking in the Warhound's 'eye' viewing ports.  I use a flexible, clear, solvent free glue to glue these in place.  Any excess is carefully trimmed after drying.

The base construction and texturing is now complete

The hound is supported entirely by the right-hand leg which is now pinned so thoroughly with aluminium rod that only a targeted nuclear strike will remove it...

The destroyed Knight on the base is made entirely from spare parts.  'No actual kits were harmed in the making of this base!'

The whole of the base and legs have been given a mucky wash and are ready for proper painting!  Eventually, I think the Knight will be in the colours of the hated House Malinax!

And Finally...

As I'm sure any regular reader of my blog will know, I do frequently throw myself bodily down the rabbit hole and create some crazy hobby-related artefacts.  Well, my Titan obsession has lead to another new side-project!

I decided whilst creating a Roman Gladiator outfit for my son to wear to school that (in a fit of fevered madness), I could also make a Titan Princeps cuirass relatively easily.  I mean, how hard could it be?!

The answer?  About this hard... :)



I used a Sharpie to sketch out a (very) rough design on some EVA foam matting (I use red as it's easier to see pen marks on)

I cut out the components...

...and test fit them with some of the bits I'd be using on the finished piece

This is my jig for shaping foam.  Yes, it's effectively a ballcock on a stick!

After gluing the cog in place and carving out all of the detail with a rotary tool, I used a heat gun and the jig to shape and seal the foam.

I then bolted on some foam shoulder guards made from knee-pads and added other components for detailing.

This is how it looks prior to painting.

As I'm sure you can see, I felt the need to build lights into it as well! :)

A shot of the rear - the tougher black foam joining plate can be unscrewed should someone with a 'fat head' need to put the cuirass on!

And here is after a through surface prime and painting!

Heavy weathering and a little extra detailing really brings the whole thing to life

 

Not content with just having part a costume, I decided to also make myself a Titan themed prop in the form of a 41st millennium engineering and maintenance tome!  I purchased an old book from a charity shop and created some stencils using masking tape before painting on the symbols and giving the page edges some nice golden edging.

 

I chose this book as its contents seemed rather fitting!

 

I carefully cut the stencil from layers of masking tape (which was stuck to baking parchment for easy release after cutting!)

As you can see, I used a sponge and brush.  Really hi-tech.

The Opus Titanicus on the from was made with two stencils as they would be different colours

There was a little bleed on the stencils, but I tidied this up using a knife and fine brush

The finished cover.  I used some tape to deliberately remove small patches of the embossed pattern before varnishing

Gold edging on the pages really gives it a lavish 'Mechanicus' look

That's all from me for now, but as always, I'd love to hear your feedback in the comments section below!