40K-Scale Warhound Titan!

Here's the last post I made in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge - Canis Negris, a 40K-scale Warhound Titan of Legio Krytos.

This is another 3D printed model I got from the same chap who printed me Apostolus Tenebris, the Reaver Titan I painted earlier in the Challenge. The Warhound is an awesome model too, and also adheres pretty stringently to the "Codex Look" of Warhammer 40K Titans. In terms of intellectual property and other awkward considerations, sometimes it's better to do as the great Harry Flashman was advised once upon a time: "lick up the honey, stranger, and ask no questions."

Anyway, the Warhound was quite a bit less fiddly to assemble than the Reaver. One thing I did, though, was to grind down the neck somewhat as it stood too proud of the carapace as cast. I like the hunchback look of Titans and a sticky-out neck is not for me. Of course the weapons look grand, don't they? Turbo-laser Destructor and Plasma Blastgun for the win. There's also a Vulcan Mega-Bolter that will make an appearance farther down the page.

One of the shinguard armour plates has some wonderful cast-on detail which I customized to my own build.

Plasma Blastgun!

Rear view of the Warhound. Some nice cast-in aquila detail on the panels. 

Vulcan Mega-Bolter taking the place of the Turbo-laser.

Standing beside the Reaver.

As for scoring... I submitted this model for the "Books Studio", reserved for models related to books that would make a great movie. I haven't read a ton of Warhammer 40K novels (many of them are dreck and merely "bolter porn") but I LOVE the work of Dan Abnett, his Eisenhorn and Ravenor books are fantastic, and "Horus Rising" (the first book in the Horus Heresy series of 400+ novels) is sublime. But one of my all-time favourites of his is "Titanicus", a novel about engine (Titan) combat in the 41st millennium. It goes into great detail about how the god-machines work with their "mind-impulse units", sarcophagi full of amniotic goo, etc. but doesn't forget the PBI either. The descriptions of Titans from an infantryman's point of view are awesome, and all the details he includes about the Chaos titans and their sirens wailing scrapcode just bring so much life to the setting. Great book and one I would LOVE to see made into a movie.  

Anyway thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the post!

Some New Warhounds - WITH Magnets!

New Warhound titans from GW's Adeptus Titanicus - spare weapon options seen at the feet of the bases.

Some more machines for GW's "Adeptus Titanicus" - these are Warhound-class titans, multi-part plastic kits from GW. Each side of the Horus Heresy gets a new machine here - the grey and yellow titan serves with the loyalists of Legio Gryphonicus, while 30k fans will probably already be familiar with the purple and red colours of Legio Mortis, who fight for the cause of the Warmaster.

Legio Mortis engine sporting twin plasma blast guns - these weapons are hard on the Warhound's reactor, but also very deadly to an enemy engine that has lost its void shields.

A mixed weapon load...mega bolter on the left "arm", and a laser blaster on the right "arm".

Twin flame cannons...probably an ineffective weapon loadout, but in the Horus Heresy there are some problems which can only be solved with lots and lots of fire...

The Warhound is the "smallest" of the battle titans that serve in the ranks of the Titan Legions of the Horus Heresy. They are sometimes called "scout titans", which is conceptually hilarious, but these machines are (relatively) lighter and faster than the other city-crushing titans. They can maneuver more deftly, and while their weapons are (again, relatively) "lighter" than those carried by the Reavers and Warlords, they are still dangerous - the Warhound is a real threat to enemy machines, even the larger chassis.

Legio Gryphonicus Warhound.

Warhounds are particularly dangerous in groups, and they can cooperate groups, sharing their void shields and joining their firing together to cause serious damage to their enemies. I already had two Warhounds for each Legio in my collection, but a third Warhound for each side will help the "pack" reach a nice critical mass.

Twin mega bolters...this weapon variant is very, very dangerous to enemy void shields, although the weapons cannot do much damage once the shields are down. That's where the "pack" part come into play...

There is one special thing about these models that is a different from the Warhound models I built previously - I managed to magnetize the weapon mounts on these! I was inspired by Dallas to figure this out. Dallas is very smart with his use of magnets, but I am so clumsy with them. Magnets are an old hobby foe of mine, and efforts involving magnets often end in frustration and swearing. I constantly, constantly screw up the polarity on the magnets.

Some of the new Adeptus Titanicus models from GW are designed specifically to accommodate small magnets, and I usually manage OK with those. The Reaver and Warhound kits, however, were not designed specifically to use the magnets, they use a kind of ball joint instead. So you either had to glue the weapons on, or come up with your own solution that worked with/around the ball joints on the weapons.

Here is a photo with the loyalist machine sporting the flame cannons.

Confronted with the option of doing some of my own hobby engineering, I chickened out at the time and I glued the weapons into place on my previous models. But Dallas, Curt and others have shown that, with some clever modifications, the magnets can be used on the ball-style weapon joints of the Warhound and Reaver models. I copied Dallas' approach, and I managed to get the little magnets to work!

This is great as these machines now have different weapons options - choosing weapons in a big part of the fun for the game. As you would expect, different weapon load outs offer different choices in tactics - for example, a Warhound equipped with "mega bolters" (i.e. huge, heavy calibre machineguns) on both weapon mounts will be very useful for bringing down enemy void shields. Or, perhaps a player will prefer to mount twin plasma cannons...not so great at shields, but more than able to deliver a killing blow once the shields of an enemy are down.

Magnets are also the only way I would ever bother with the giant flamethrowers - I'm not sure what value these weapons would really have in a game of "Adeptus Titanicus" - as opposed to a game of "Epic", where they could obliterate entire infantry companies in one pass - but thanks to the magnets, the players can choose to use them or not.

The newly expanded Warhound pack on the shelf with the rest of my loyalist collection...

The expanded Warhound pack of Legio Mortis...

I didn't have quite enough spare weapons to cover every possibility for both sides...the Legio Mortis side is short a laser blaster and a mega bolter, something I'll look into later. For now, it's great to have these new machines joining the ranks. Now if we could just get a game in somehow...

Thanks for reading, and stay safe out there!

Adeptus Titanicus Knights and Legio Krytos Warhounds

It was really inevitable, wasn't it? One Conscript gets into something and seemingly no matter how strong the will to resist, I will get sucked in... but it's all to the good of course because that's our hobby isn't it!!

Anyway, the familiar story plays out again with the latest edition of Games Workshop's Adeptus Titanicus. Released in 2018, the game plays out the giant-robo mayhem of the Horus Heresy, in particular the epic combat between the god-machines of the Collegia Titanica. Conscript Greg was the early adopter in our group, as he is an arch-enthusiast of GW's Epic game and already maintained a Legion or two of "Epic-scale" Titans - have a look at the hashtags on the right-hand side of this page :-)  I'd sold on my own modest collection of Epic Chaos stuff some time ago so didn't really have any skin in the game... or so I thought...

Nevertheless, the thought of an AT project was always kind of percolating... on our trip to the UK earlier this year we visited Warhammer World (as you do) and the AT stuff was of course prominently displayed in the store. The best looking package was the "Battlegroup" consisting of a Warlord, Reaver, and two Warhounds - a snip at a mere hundred English pounds. At the current f/x that was only about $160CAD - a significant saving on the Canadian retail of $200. OK then...

So that stuff sat for a bit on the shelf, then an ad appeared on a local Facebook group for the "Grandmaster Edition" plus all of the books, at a ridiculous discount. So I was all in.

I started off the Titan-building with the two Warhounds. My chosen Legio is Krytos - I wanted to throw in my lot with the Warmaster this time, and Krytos was associated with the Iron Warriors space marine legion so that's a nice fit too.

I ended up magnetising several elements of the models, including all of the weapons and the torso-to-legs joint.

Painting was pretty straightforward. Leadbelcher for the metal bits; Brass Scorpion for the bronze bits; Rakarth Flesh highlighted with Pallid Wych Flesh for the off-white bits; and Vallejo German Uniform for the field-grey bits. The whole was washed with Agrax Earthshade.

Weathering was pretty simple too, just some dusting up the feet and legs with Rakarth Flesh and sponge chipping with a mix of black and Rhinox Hide. Some rust streaks were applied with neat Agrax. The base was painted with Rhinox Hide and drybrushed with Mournfang Brown, Steel Legion Drab, and lastly Rakarth Flesh.

Here's the spare bunch of weapons. Note the messed up cabling on the Gatling... ugh. It turned out that I assembled another weapon set with the Gatlings' cables and the ones left over didn't quite fit them. So I assembled the best I could and cut off the ends of the cables, as they just slide in under the Warhound cowling anyway :-)

I also painted some Knights!

These are Knights of House Caesarean. Again, this Knight house was associated with Legio Krytos and the Iron Warriors space marine legion during the Horus Heresy.

Assembly of the models was straightforward and I didn't bother magnetising them as the kits don't come with spare or alternate weapons - you get three chainfists and a thermal cannon, battlecannon, and Gatling thing - that's it.

I did use the decals included for House Caesarean from the Legio Krytos sheet. The chequered decals are particularly useful!

Painting was also simple. Leadbelcher, XV-88/Averland Sunset, Brass Scorpion, Mechanicus Standard Grey, Nuln Oil wash.

The "House Caesarean" decals as shown on the shoulder plate came in handy as well.

Top view shows the different shoulder armour treatments off to good effect.

So there we go, that's the start of my Adeptus Titanicus project! I still have the Reaver and Warlord from the Battlegroup, plus another Warlord and all the terrain from the Grandmaster box to do, so I'll be at this for awhile. But I really enjoyed painting the Warhounds and am looking forward to doing the Warlords and Reaver.

Painting Challenge Submission 15 - Loyalist Titans for "Adeptus Titanicus"

Imperial Titans, ready to move out in support of some doomed cause in the name of the so-called "Emperor"...

My next submission to Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge was a marked change in terms of painting focus.  I left horses and muskets behind and ripped 30,000 years into the grim darkness of the far future with two titans from GW's rebooted game "Adeptus Titanicus." 

"Let's go for a walk!"

These are both plastic kits from the new line of models GW has released to support the re-booted version of the game.

Reaver class titan.

"Adeptus Titanicus" was re-launched by GW last fall - if you want to know more about that, and see how GW handled the whole thing like the pack of s***-eating gnarled c***s that they are, see here.  I painted a few of the new Titans right after the game came out, but haven't really touched any of the kits since last year. That needed to change, as I was helping to run an "Adeptus Titanicus" demonstration game at an event here in Winnipeg this past weekend. I wanted to add some reinforcements - and also try some of the newer weapons which have been released for the Reaver class Titans.

There are two classes of Titan represented here, both in the colours of Legio Gryphonicus, the "War Griffons", a Titan Legio who fought on the side of the loyalists in the Horus Heresy.

Rear detail on the Reaver model...really nice model.

The Reaver model has, as I said, some of the newer weapon sprues GW released in February of this year.  It is sporting a "volcano cannon" on one arm, a "laser blaster" on the other, and another "laser blaster" up on the carapace mounting - overall, this engine is configured to deliver knock-out kills on enemy engines which have already lost, or nearly lost, their void shields.  Other Titans in the maniple will have to focus on knocking out the void shields of the enemy machines so this one can make some engine-kills.

Detail on the carapace plate.

The "volcano cannon" in particular is very powerful, but tricky to manage, as it puts pressure on the Titan's plasma reactor.  The Reaver has less reactor capacity, so the Princeps commanding this Reaver will need to manage that carefully in a game. 

I also used an alternate head that came with the kit...I liked how this version had so many optical lenses in the "eyes".  With a weapon load-out primed for making "kill shots", it seemed to me this crew would want all the targeting assistance it can get...

The Warhound up close.

View of the engine detail.

View from the turbo-laser side...

The smaller Titan is a "Warhound" class "scout" (ROFL) titan. I mean, this thing is still much larger than even the largest Space Marine super-heavy tank, but it's all relative, right? As the smallest Titan, the Warhound does move ahead of its larger companions, and is much more manoeuvrable, with lighter weapons, and so in this sense it is a "scout".  This particular Warhound is equipped with a "vulcan mega-bolter" and a "turbo-laser" - these weapons on their own don't do much damage to other titans, but the "mega-bolter" is very useful for knocking out void shields.  So if this Warhound can take out some shields, his bigger cousin can deliver a kill shot...

Scale creep anyone? You can see how the old Reaver and Warhound castings stack up to the new model kits - a Space Marine Fellblade super heavy tank is also in the photo to give you an idea of the size of the things.

The newer plastic kits from GW are very nice, and as you can see in the photo, they have re-scaled them to a fairly radical extent compared to the old models once used for this game. Because of this, and the eye-watering prices for the models, "Adeptus Titanicus" will certainly remain a niche game - but the rules are excellent, the game itself is a lot of fun.  If you enjoy the 30k/Horus Heresy setting, you will certainly enjoy the game! Given the way GW manages these sorts of products, I suggest you act now to get the rules and models if you are interested...

"Family photo" - the War Griffon maniple, and allied Knights, together on the display shelf.

I'm excited to have these two engines finished, as I now have a complete "Axiom Battle Line" maniple for the Imperial side of my collection - one Warlord, two Reavers and two Warhounds. There is also a small banner of Knights available to provide some additional support.  Five God-Engines and a Knight banner is plenty to occupy the attention of several players - I would not imagine many "Adeptus Titanicus" games where more than this deploys for one side.

Of course, no project for me is ever truly "finished" - I can always "round out" every collection with a few more items! In this case the Knight banner could use some reinforcements, just to help them live a little longer on the table (a full banner of six Knights can be quite the pest!), and longer term I would like to get one more big-ass Warlord sporting some different weapon load-outs involved, but all of that will wait for a bit, as the rebel side of my Titan collection will need some further attention first...

A Hound For Hope - Warhound Titan for Legio Mortis

Warhound class Titan for GW's re-booted "Adeptus Titanicus" - in service with Legio Mortis. 

More Adeptus Titanicus stuff from the painting table to share.  This is a Warhound Class Titan, painted in the colours and markings of Legio Mortis, a Titan Legion affiliated with the noble Warmaster and his plans to, um, "rebuild the Imperium" from "the ground up".

As the smallest and lightest of the Mechanicum God-Engines, the Warhound is often referred to as a "scout Titan".  Which is hilarious. I mean, the Warhound is still many stories tall, and its weapons can still eliminate entire platoons or vehicle columns in one pass. How is anything that size "scouting" anything else? But in the glorious Imperium of the grimly dark future, it's all relative - the Warhounds are the smallest Titans, and as such, they have a sort of lighter, recon-type role to play.

WIP photo showing the engine coming together during the painting stages...just waiting for the head and the weapons. 

All this "scouting" means speed (I mean, in relative terms). The Warhounds are the quickest and most maneuverable God-Engines in the Adeptus Titanicus game.  The heavier chassis of the Reavers and Warlords will outclass them individually. The Warhounds' void shields will not last as long, and their plasma reactors cannot take as much abuse.

Some very nice, Warmaster-oriented iconography on the hull. 

But the "scout" moniker is misleading, and not just because it is still a very big thing. There are rules which allow the Warhounds to operate in a pack-like fashion.  These rules make them very dangerous to larger and heavier opponents on the table.  This is very, very cool. By operating in groups, using their speed and maneuverability to get into positions which are very difficult for larger, more ponderous opponents to handle, clever Warhound Princeps will score some engine kills for sure. Commanding a group of these on the table is a lot of fun.

A view of the engine, legs etc - outstanding detail on these kits, just lovely. 

This particular Warhound is equipped with a "Vulcan Mega-Bolter" (oh, the hilarious weapon names), very useful for knocking down void shields, although not so useful when it comes to actually harming the enemy engines.  Fortunately, it is also carrying a "Plasma Blast Gun", which can cause some serious damage if it lands a shot past the enemy void shields.

Plasma blast gun, useful for delivering hard-hitting energy blasts to vulnerable targets. 

These multi-part plastic model kits are very nice - each box comes with two Warhounds, and plenty of weapon options, options for different looks to the head, carapace and shoulder plates.  Really fantastic stuff and, as always, causes continued bafflement as to why the twits at GW could not manage to provide more weapon options for their Warlord kits.  But I digress...

The Vulcan Mega-Bolter - not so dangerous to armour, but useful for knocking down/out void shields on enemy engines. 

My new Legio Mortis collection to date, waiting on the shelf of a display case in the basement...getting pretty ominous!

And so we have another God Engine ready to help clear the path for the glorious Warmaster, Horus Lupercal.  My Legio Mortis contingent is almost complete.  But I think, in the interests of game balance, that I should add a bit more oomph to my Loyalist collection as a next step.  I mean, the glorious followers of Horus will need some target practice, after all. So I hope to be sharing some more Loyalist engines with you as the month wears on.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!