Reaver Battle Titan in 40K-Scale!

<This post describes a submission to the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, but there is some added content especially for this blog's readers>

Here it is - a 3D-printed 40K-scale Reaver Battle Titan. I've always wanted a Reaver in 40K-scale and now I have one!

Here is the story behind it. A couple months ago I was browsing Warhammer classifieds on kijiji (free ad website, like Craigslist) and stumbled on a guy who was advertising 3D-printed proxy Titans. I'm talking Warlords, Reavers, and Warhounds. Anyway we got together and I saw that the models were decent quality, so I got him to print me one along with some extra weapons (actually I got two, and you might see the other later in the Challenge...?) 

The model required assembly of course, but not nearly as much assembly as a resin one from Forgeworld. Still fiddly in places but I would compare it to the difficulty level of the new tiny Reaver Titans from the Adeptus Titanicus (2018) game. Of course I magnetized the weapons with 3/8" neodymium magnets, which mostly worked OK.

I painted the God-machine as Legio Krytos - a Titan legio affiliated with the Iron Warriors space marine legion, which swore its fealty to the Warmaster Horus in the Horus Heresy. Krytos was the legio in whose colours I painted my AT18 titans as well.

Colours used: Vallejo German Uniform, Rakarth Flesh basecoat with Pallid Wych Flesh on the off-white bits, Leadbelcher on the metal parts, Brass Scorpion for the brass trim, Steel Legion Drab highlighted with Rakarth for the scrolls, the whole washed with Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade. I added some light dirt streaks with my new AK "Streaking Dirt" pencil and sponge chips with German Camo Black Brown. Dust was drybrushed on the feet with Rakarth.

Part of the coolness of Titans (and other ridiculously large war machines) is that they are all individually named. I chose "Dark Apostle" as the name of this Reaver, and that translates into "Warhammer Latin" as "Apostolus Tenebris". At least that's my best guess, anyway. The Krytos insignia on the shield is from the AT18 Legio Krytos decal sheet.

The model is actually pretty nicely detailed. Assembly was straightforward - mostly using superglue but some of the structural elements were secured with JB Kwik-Weld two-part epoxy.

How about this detail on the pistons on the backs of the legs!

Here's a good view of the Melta-Cannon arm weapon. This is actually pretty heavy (it has separate barrels inside the shroud) and the magnets I used to secure it could stand to be a bit stronger (those are on order). 

I used some decals from the Imperial Knights sheet to detail the weapon.

Speaking of Knight decals, I'd wanted to use the Aquila decals from the sheet on the pauldrons, but they were way too small. So I had to freehand the aquila onto the pauldron. The small cogged skull is from the AT18 Krytos decal sheet though.

The other weapon is a very awesome looking laser blaster. I painted this to match the laser blasters on my AT18 Reavers.

More decal detail on the laser blaster.

I just HAD to put a "VIN plate" on the Titan as well.

And no Reaver Titan is complete without a massive power fist!! It was a little trickier to fit this one - I had to cut apart a spare arm piece to make a magnetized extension for the fist.

It's a big fist!!

Penetrating stare from the Reaver head. Such a cool look, but sadly there is no internal detailing here.

Group shot with my old Armorcast Legio Metalica Reaver. The new 3D printed model absolutely dwarfs it. You can see the Princeps and Moderati on the buildings in front of it. The scale of this Titan is massive.

Here's where the scale really shows. At front left is an Iron Warriors standard bearer and at right is an AT18 Reaver. The 3D printed Reaver is a little over 16" tall.

BONUS CONTENT:

To thank you for continuing through this lengthy post, here are some bonus work-in-progress pictures:

Here's a stack of parts after priming the sub-assemblies. 3D printed resin is a funny material, the parts I got leaked some oily stuff for some time after I got it, and the matte black primer left the parts rather sticky. However this was addressed with a coat of Krylon Matt Spray on the primered parts which solved the issue.

Here's the primed lower body and Apocalypse missile launcher.

Partially assembled. The model was largely painted in sub-assemblies - I left the leg plates, knee pads, shoulder pauldrons, carapace, head to be painted separately.

The print didn't really leave a logical way to connect the torso to the lower half of the model, So I had to improvise... yes, that's a cardboard McDonalds straw. Finally found a good use for one - they're certainly no good for drinking through. There was a bit of faffing involved here too. Although the prints were hollow, there's still a ton of supports inside them, so these had to be carefully drilled through to leave space for the post.

Here's the model partly painted. Even the weapons benefitted from being painted before final assembly. 

I really enjoyed painting this model and I love the way it turned out. It's pretty unlikely to ever be used in a game (although there are game stats for it in GW's new Liber Mechanicum supplement for the Age of Darkness rules!) - a Reaver is worth a base 1,500 points all by itself. Maybe a Warhound would be a better game investment...?

Yeah, definitely a Warhound!    

Painting Challenge Entry: AT18 Legio Gryphonicus Reaver Titan

I've been a bit remiss in posting here as I've been madly painting in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. As the Challenge has ended, now it's time to play some catch-up and repost a few models here on our home blog. This is the Legio Gryphonicus Reaver Titan I painted for the "Altar of the Snowlord" - the final room of the Chambers of Challenge.

Here we see the Reaver equipped with Laser Blaster and Volcano Cannon arm weapons and a carapace-mounted Turbo Laser Destructor.

But wait - there's more! I painted all of the weapon options for the Reaver and magnetized them for easy swapping - here the God-machine is seen equipped with a Gatling Blaster, power fist, and carapace-mounted Apocalypse Missile Launcher. And a different head, to boot.

A close up look at the Reaver's heraldry on its shoulder pauldrons.

...and on the knee armour. Notice anything funny going on here?

A rear view. The Reaver was painted as follows: metal bits, Leadbelcher and Brass Scorpion; grey bits, Mechanicus Standard Grey with lighter grey dapple camo; yellow bits, Averland Sunset over XV-88 base. Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade washes, and sponge chipping with Rhinox Hide and craft black paint. Groundwork is Rhinox Hide - Mournfang Brown - Steel Legion Drab - Rakarth Flesh. 

Here's another weapon combo - Melta Cannon and Chainfist. It tickles!!

What a cracking model.

Here's the Reaver with its extra bits.

And broken down into its component parts, all magnetised of course. 

I really need to finish this model within the Challenge window as a lot was riding on it - Conscript Mike painted up a 3D-printed Legio Gryphonicus Warhound and offered it as my prize should I complete all of the rooms in the Challenge, so how could I resist that! Anyway as noted above I'll be paging back through some of my Challenge entries and posting them here - it could take awhile though!

New Reaver Titan - WITH Magnets!

Reaver titan model, together with weapon assortment - plastic model (with some resin weapons) from GW/Forge World.

Reinforcements for Adeptus Titanicus continue to march forth from the pandemic painting forges. This is a Reaver class battle titan painted in the colours of Legio Mortis, along with a full assortment of weapons. The titan model itself and nearly all of the weapons are multi-part plastic kits from GW - a couple of the weapon choices for the carapace points are resin bits from Forge World.

A "classic" loadout - lasers on the left, gatling cannon on the right, and a big "Apocalypse" missile launcher up top.

The Reaver is a "medium" class (!) battle titan - "medium" insofar as it is bigger and slower than the "scout" class Warhound titans, but still smaller and faster than the massive Warlord class titans. The Reaver is a frontline battle titan, with scary heavy weapons that can level entire city blocks in one blast, and commonly found among all of the Titan Legions in the Adeptus Titanicus game. Good times!

Laser blaster option for the carapace.

Another carapace option - Vulcan Mega Bolter.

Perhaps the whackiest carapace option - the "Warp Missile Rack".

GW's plastic models for the revamped "Adeptus Titanicus" game are just wonderful, beautiful kits. But not all of them were designed with small magnets in mind - some were - but the Reavers were not, or at least not completely. I don't think there was any sinister motive there...the Reaver's design has a rounded joint in the "shoulder" and in the mounts for the arm weapons themselves. The folks who created the plastic model kits for the Reavers were true to this design - the carapace weapon mount has a feature that easily fits a small magnet, but the arm weapons do not. So you cannot magnetize the weapons mounts for the arms and swap out the weapons - not without a bit of hobby engineering.

A particularly "angry" configuration? Two close combat weapons? Not sure this would work out in the game, but I know there are members of the group who would want to try :)

I chickened out at the prospect of magnetizing the first Reaver titans that I built for my collection. My Legio Mortis Reavers had all of the weapons, even the carapace mounts, glued down. The Reavers for my Legio Gryphonicus collection have the arm weapons glued down, although I did magnetize the weapon mounts on the carapace. That gave players some choice, but not much.

The "Volcano Cannon" on the right arm - good times!

The "Melta Cannon".

But my friends have inspired me to try to build a Reaver with all weapon points magnetized. To build up my courage, I practised first on some Warhounds. That worked for me - yay! I then opened up a new Reaver model, got out the magnets and...it worked! Here we are, a new God-engine for the rebel forces hoping to topple the unjust tyranny of the so-called "Emperor".

"Let's go for a walk!"

Growing collection of spare weapons for the different titans...

I am pretty pumped to have a Reaver model that can mount a whole variety of weapons. And it can share arm weapons with the Nemesis Warbringer Titan I painted earlier this spring, so the variety works all around.

Updated "family photo" for my Legio Mortis detachment....

You can see from the photos throughout this post there is a fine assortment of terrifying weapons for any Princeps to choose from, including the bonkers "close combat" weapons, which are hilarious and great fun. You might be ten stories tall...but there are STILL some things that MUST be punched...or sawed! That is one aspect of the crazy 30k/40k setting that I never get tired of...I know some players in our group like to play particularly aggressive in these games, so I'm glad we'll have more options for them to enjoy.

A big "thank you" to Dallas for helping with photos/planning for how to get the magnets to work properly on the Reaver chassis! Now I need to get a similar one prepared for the loyalist faction...hope all are safe and well out there!

Legio Krytos Reaver Titan #2

Well, Titan escalation continues to... escalate, building towards the just-announced New Year's Day game. The exact lineup hasn't yet been determined, but is expected to pitch Greg's Legio Gryphonicus and Legio Mortis (on opposite sides of course) against Mike F's Legio Ignatum and my Legio Krytos. So of course it was important to get another Titan painted!

The Reaver is definitely my favourite Titan design. I just love the beetle-backed look of these monstrous war machines. This one was built straight from the kit, mainly because I have a ton of extra weapon arms and carapace weapons from the other Reaver I built. This one also is equipped with copious amounts of magnets to take advantage.

One thing I did screw up on this build (which was discovered too late) was the legs - I assembled them backwards!! Ugh.

The paint scheme is standard Krytos of course - Vallejo German Uniform and GW Pallid Wych Flesh.

What a cool looking machine eh!!

Sorry for the blurry pic - wanted to get one of the alternate head, from the Reaver weapon sprue. I couldn't decide which one to use, so I magnetized them so I can use both. 

Slightly better pic of the head here. I weathered this model "to the extreme" including leaving a couple of panels (crotch and right leg) in "primer"... simulating emergency repairs made on campaign.

Once again the excellent Legio Krytos decal sheet was utilized. Unfortunately, there's a distinct lack of Imperial eagles on the AT18 sheets, so I pilfered a half-eagle for the left pauldron from a 40K decal sheet.

So with the completion of this Reaver, we've got a full Axion Battleline Maniple - Warlord, two Reavers, two Warhounds. I do have another Warlord kit to build, but first I'm going to paint the Civitas Imperialis buildings that came with the Grand Master edition of the ruleset. I've got 'em assembled now and it looks like they'll be a relative snap to paint.