Papa's got a brand new Turbo

Ferrum Dominus - Carapace Turbo Laser

Stomping forward with a brand new carapace weapon - Ferrum Dominus loves his new turbo!

Titan flexibility

Since I completed Ferrum Dominus, Adeptus Titanicus was released and I attended a Titan Owners Club (TOC) Titan walk using the rule set.  Although Ferrum Dominus performed well, he lacked punch when facing enemy titans and was in danger of being overrun by large knight banners.  When I originally constructed him, I fixed the arms in place permanently, meaning his battlefield flexibility was always going to be limited.  The Apocalypse Missile Launcher was left detachable and this gave me the option of swapping it out for a different weapon if needed.

I decided that the although it looks great and is useful at long range, the Apocalypse missile launcher lacked the punch to hurt an un-shielded titan and wasn't high enough strength to consistently harm knight banners.  As my reaver already has decent medium / close range shield stripping armaments in the form of the Gatling blaster and Laser Blaster, I felt that he needs to be deployed as a medium range brawler, which the Apoc launcher is at odds with.

I could have added a Vulcan Mega Bolter or Warp Missile, but decided that having another weapon capable of causing hull damage to titans and effectively deleting knights was the best idea.  As such, I started work on scratch building a Turbo laser destructor turret for Ferrum Dominus' carapace.

Out with the old...

The first thing I decided to do was see if I had anything which I could rework into a suitable base for a TLD.  I've recently decided to resurrect my Imperator Titan project and part of that involved a complete overhaul and redesign.  I had already decided to rework a few key areas; one of them being the weaponry on the Imperator's carapace.  I had decided that the scratch built gatling blaster wasn't quite what I wanted, but it was approximately the right size to fit on a reaver...

This is the gatling blaster turret before being reworked for my reaver

After sourcing some spare gun barrels, the first step was to bring the design in line with the Reaver Titan aesthetic as it was significantly different in its current form.  I had originally studded the surface with square rivets and the platework was quite square and blocky.

I carefully removed all of the square rivets then sanded the surface flat.  I then moved on to the square armour plates, rounding the edges and making the joins less visible.

After cleanup, the gun barrels were added and a mounting was made with foamex

 Once I was happy with the overall shape and build, I filled gaps, created the panel edging and applied new large round rivets using bearings to mimic the reaver titan detailing.

Adding the armour edging was time consuming but definitely worth it!

After this test fitting, I decided to move the turret mount forward about 2 cm as the turret seemed too far forward and a little overbalanced

The finished Turret

I painted the turret armour to match Ferrum Dominus' Legio Metalica colours and tried to bring the Turbo laser barrels in line with the ones on the arm mounted Laser Blaster.

The black and white chevrons are a classic hallmark of Legio Metalica

I added one of the new Legio Metalica symbols to the rear of the turret and kill markings at the front

I was really pleased with the heat discolouration on the turbo laser barrel tips

Kill marking are also displayed on the left side along with the Opus Titanicus at the rear

From above, I think it's quite reminiscent of a Malcador super heavy tank turret

The power plant at the rear of the turret complete with warning emblams

 Ready to rumble!

Overall, I'm happy with the final look - it certainly makes Ferrum Dominus appear more squat and chunky.  He looks like a proper mid-range brawler now!