Imperator refit

[SotonShades]

Inspired by Blackadder and Isotope99, I'm back working on Dalion Dao. I've been saying for a while that I was going to upgrade her from a Warlord to an Imperator and now, with a slight destructive mood, I'm taking the first steps on that particular road!

Before I get too into the nitty gritty of the upgrade, I'll just remind you all what she looked like;



I wish I could say she was standing proud above her prey here, but one of those stompas managed to take off all 9 of her structure points in one round combat, causing an apocolyptic explosion that wiped everything off the table!




A nice comparison shot. Incase you aren't used to seeing models of this scale, from left to right we have Dalion Dao (Warlord/Imperator), a Reaver Titan from Forge World, a Warhound Titan from FW and a converted Brass Scorpion using two GW Defiler kits. Those 5 little dots at the front are a selection of my Space Marine Dreadnoughts!




And after the first layers of painting. This time she was armed with her Titan Close Combat Weapon. What is cooler than a Sword the size of a Baneblade? a sword TWICE the length of a Baneblade!


Now, as I'm sure many of you are aware, there are quite a few differences between a Warlod and an Imperator, apart from the size. The one most people notice is the Cathedral on top of the carapace. For this I'm planning on cutting of the top of the torso (including the weapon mounts) at about the level of the butresses from the arm mounts and having a separate section that can be removed and slotted in/on for games. This will include at least 4 spires with weapon mounts in them (probably a pair of Laser Destroyers, a Vortex/Apocolyptic missile launcher and another weapon... maybe a Volcano Cannon) and a pair of Vulcan Mega Bolters to give her some form of anti-air defence. Stay inside my voids at your peril! I was going to build a large Aquilla built out of the back of the torso/cathedral with the Bolters built into the eyes, while still allowing them to traverse at least 180 degrees from the back to the front, but I'm not sure if I will do that. I might build out a pair of minarets coming out of the side of the cathedral with the botlers in the top, and giving the bolters a 360 degree rotation. I'll see as it comes together.

I also want to change the squat. No, I haven't hidden a space dwarf anywhere on the model, but I'm tired of having to explain why Dalion Dao isn't looking for a ten-storey high toilet... My plan is to break one of the hips and rotate the leg forwards. I'll probably place that foot flat(ish) so it looks like the titan has just taken a step and will be leaning forwards slightly so it's guns are actually pointed at a ground target! I also need to add doors or something to the legs as each foot of the Imperator has a transport capacity of 52! I may even add a firing Battlements and firing points to give her some defence against assaulting enemies! Yes Walkers can overwatch, but not with templates (which all the arm weapons are) and not with carapace weapons with a minimum range to ground targets!

I will also be doing several other bits to make it look a little more slick, to neaten up a few rough edges and the like. She will also need a pretty hefty fix on the paint job (let alone painting the new sections). So next post will be what I've started on.

[SotonShades]

As when I built Dalion Dao in the first place, I'm going to work from the ground up. This way I can make sure she maintains her balance as I add more things higher up. The worst thing would be to build a massive structure for the cathedral, then find I couldn't set the legs out in a way that the titan could actually balance!

So legs? The skeleton actually goes down into the base to increase the stability of the legs, so to change them I had to actually remove them the base. Fortunately that also makes it easier to do all the other alterations I want to do to the legs, and in the process I'll redo the base as well.



Yes, she is mooning you. Yes my room is a tip. Shhh.

One of the things I like about this pic is that you can see the construction of the lower legs, with the skeleton sticking out of the bottom of the plastic bottles that form the bulk of the shape of the legs.



The base has taken a fair battering. I've spent a good while this evening trying to get the glue and sand off with various grades of sand paper. As well taking the actual titan off the base, I've taken the scenery decoration off, which will give me a chance to give it all a proper paint job before re attaching it. I've also taken it off because I'm not 100% certain of exactly where the feet will end up and I wanted to make sure I had the freedom to place the feet how I wanted, not how i had to. I have however kept the Void/Structure points spinners on there as a) they are relatively delicate... I don't fancy ripping them apart unnecessarily and b) they are really, really well stuck down and sealed in with several layers of glue, sand and paints lol



Speaking of the scenery, here is what was. There's also a tree that's hiding at the back there and a few lamp posts. Depending on how the feet get reconfigured, I may add a hill in there as well (because a 48" titan that is going to get a huge cathedral on it's back on a 1" thick base needs more height...) We shall see.

Right, that is it from me for now. Don't expect updates on this too often. It took me three years to build this beast on the first place around doing other projects, and I do not plan on rushing fixing her now. But I will endevour to keep you all updated as and when there is progress. Comments, criticsm, advice etc welcome as always. TTFN

Shades

[White Tiger88]

Thats freaking cool dude, I do feel you should name him "bob the Killer" though

[SotonShades]

Because you can never have too many stupidly large projects on your desk at a time...

Yep, been hacking away at this beasty again! Quite literally in fact; I tried getting one of the hips to come off, but the end result was that one of the legs came off while I was handling it. Then the other did too.



The white plastic tube you can see on the bed is actually the 'thigh bone' of the titan, which has sheared off about an inch or two above the knee joint. I'll need to find a small piece of tube that will slot snuggly inside both parts if I have any hope of making that leg strong enough to support it's own weight, let along the rest of the Titan's.

I still couldn't get the hips to come off though, so I decided to cut them off, leaving a disk, just offset from the armour (polystyrene block.)



This is what's left of the hips. I have cut down the original hip caps to sit flush(ish) on the disks. I also extracted the skeleton tubing and angled joints from what remained of the old hip tubes, with gratuitous use of my craft knife to hack the foam core out so that they could be freed. I wanted to crack on and start re building the hips more, but again I will need some thinner plastic tubing to reattach the hip bones in a way that is strong enough to support the mass of the Titan.

So, I grabbed hold of the torso and got to work;




Just a little off the top madam?

If you look back at the original pics in my first post, you will see just how much has actually been removed. The weapons have been stored away safely until I can build up some towers to place them in, but all the rest of the polystyrene body work has gone in the bin. I did take a lot of the bulky detailed shapes off first very roughly so I didn't have so much to work around when doing the relatively neat cut at the final level I was taking it down to. As you can see, there is the remains of a very sturdy show box which forms the core of the torso. I considered cutting it off down to the same level, but the spine slots into a cup in the top of it, so not cutting it off meant I wouldn't have to cut the spine down as well. It will also keep the strength in the box and give me something to slot the cathedral onto while leaving it removable. The thick cardboard would have also been a -*Redacted by the Imperial Inquisition for the benefit of His citizens' innocence*- to cut through, without doing further damage to the Titan's body work.


So that is where I am so far. Next I will probably work on the legs, adding the doors, gantries and the like. I will probably crack on with rebuilding the hips soon after as well, taking design cues from both Blackadder and isotope99 and their designs. In actuality, the titan is now fairly modular, with very little more needing to be done on the torso itself, so I could make the few repairs I need to do and get on to repainting her. The cathedral will also be a relatively easy module to work on, based entirely on a section that will slot on to the top of the torso, so I could work on that at any point, without too much need to wait for the work on the legs to be done. Of course there is still the base, but that does need to wait for the legs to be re-attached.

That is it from me for now. As always, let me know what you think. I love reading your feedback.

Shades

[Fizzybubela]

Looking forward to the next update. I think it looks good so far. Keep it up!

[Brakkart]

So you're re-building a Warlord/Imperator Titan at the same time as building a Gargant and an Ork Helicarrier? Plus whatever else you have going on right now? I am in awe of your multi-tasking skills Shades! Looking forward to seeing how all of these crazy projects turn out.

[SotonShades]

So you're re-building a Warlord/Imperator Titan at the same time as building a Gargant and an Ork Helicarrier? Plus whatever else you have going on right now? I am in awe of your multi-tasking skills Shades! Looking forward to seeing how all of these crazy projects turn out.

Yep. I'm sure if I showed this to a concerned health professional they would certify me as insane, but at least for now its the good kind of insane lol

[SotonShades]

Long time no post! Pesky tournament armies getting in the way. Then campaigns.. Then full scale pistols... ahem.

So, what progress have I achieved? I maded some templates. That is all.



This one will form a base that will sit on top of the torso, with the whole for the box I mentioned before keeping it reasonably stable. You might notice that I have generally kept it to the shape of the top of the titan, with a few fillets on the corners to help match in to the styling of the rest of the torso. Also, engineering stuff type reasons!




These two are possibly more interesting. The upright one is a basic layout for my cathedral, with a central tower, containing the vortex missile, with an arched forward nave that will house one of the biggest guns. Too the left and right will be smaller towers housing smaller guns along the lines of double barrelled turbo lasers, connected to main tower by cloisters. Similar to Isotope's Imperator, there will be a few small courtyards between the towers. The flat template shows the shape of the floor of the cathedral, which will sit an inch or two above the base plate shown in the previous picture, held aloft by flying buttresses similar to this;



I'd hope it would be obvious, but that is only half of the floor, which will be mirrored for the other side. If you squint at that template you will also see a top-down plan for the cathedral, with the front pointing to the left of the picture. In front of the flanking towers will be a small courtyard as well, which will have low walls around it, allowing ranking officials to survey the battlefield in relative safety.

Those paying attention will be saying "But Shades; that's only 4 guns. An Imperator has 6 on the carapace!" You are absolutely correct; forming a back wall for the cathedral will be a huge aquila, as wide and slightly taller than whole thing. On the tops of each wing, there will be a turret containing a vulcan mega bolter, providing 360 degree anti-air cover.

Unfortunately, that is it for now. I would like to get the cathedral built before an apocalypse game I have coming up, only as a piece of terrain though, so I should be brining you more updates soon.

Shades

[SotonShades]

Happy Sunday everyone. Unless you are me, or like me, and quite ill. In which case I hope you get better soon.

Illness has come with an upside though. Between dashes to the bathroom I have managed to get a bit more work done on Dalion Dao. Well, at least on the central tower for her cathedral.



I figured that the Adeptus Mechanicus wouldn't want regular old square tiles on one of their titans, so I decided to go with a tessellated pattern of triangles, squares and hexagons. Took my far too long to carve out, but I'm very pleased with the final effect. It won't glow like that in the final build, that was just the best way of showing off the pattern.



Just a dry fit for the vortex missile launch tube. More by chance than design it fits almost perfectly with the tiles. I do need to build up some block-work/armour around the base, but that will come in time.



Who's daft idea was it to have flying buttresses? Mine? Bugger...

Ahem. Side wall of the tower, nothing too fancy at the moment. The panel in the middle of the arch is raised about 3mm above the main wall. Everything else is constructed from 6mm extruded polystyrene sheets. The flying buttresses them selves were a pain to do because they were so thin, but I really like the final look and shape. There is a little gap filling to do, but I plan on adding more detail with plasticard on top of this main structure, so I'll worry about that later. For now I am just happy that this sub assembly is sturdy enough.



And finally; the front wall attached as well. I still need to stick the eagle head on, but I will do that as and when the rest of the detailing is done so that it isn't getting in the way.

Right, onwards ever onwards. I have the archway and main wall cut out for the other side, but still need to do three more buttresses, along with the spacing panels. There won't actually be a separate back wall as such, as that will be part of the giant aquilla back wall. The other towers probably will do though as I want them to be slightly further forward.

What do you think?

Shades

[eldargal]

Impressive start, work faster!