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So I have wanted a titan for a while, I guess I really would like to have a few. It would probably be appropriate to go for a warhound titan, but I think there is a reasonable chance there may be a plastic kit for those someday in the hopefully not too distant future. Anyway, I couldn't get motivated to move forward because of that. The catalyst that actually started this project was completely unforeseen. I built three dreadnought droppods and I was left with the remnants of two droppod kits including these:


Anyway, it occurred to me that if I put some toes on these they would be about the size of a Reaver Titan foot. I kept bouncing that thought around for a while. This idea worked out well because I like the FW Reaver but I don't love it, like one thing I don't like is how do they reload that missile launcher? I laid out some plans and realized there is a lot of potential here. I used to be a submariner on a nuclear sub, I am currently an engineer, and I am a big fan of Star Wars/Star Trek so I started pouring all that inspiration into my design. So anyway here it is:


To solve the missile launcher reloading problem, I had to layout the whole interior which naturally lead to the fact that I need to do a fully detailed interior.


The Command Deck is going to be Star Trek Enterprise Bridge the missile Deck will be laid out similar to a submarine torpedo room. The platforms on top of the shoulders will be convertible to landing/launch platforms and the port and starboard transport areas will have doors allowing a squad to move onto the platforms (like an SM assault or devestator squad)

So if you haven't already figured it out this is going to be a long P&M blog. Obviously, it has already grown past the normal reaver size, but not quite Warlord sized yet. It is looking to be 18-21 inches tall. I am thinking of this as a command reaver where it is driven from the head but on the command deck there is a team and a commander supervising the overall battle. I may make it modular so that I can slap an extra carapace weapon on and call it a warlord.

So any advice/comment is greatly appreciated. Assuming that I am actually able to detail the interiors I will probably try to light the model but I am not sure how involved that would be. Also any ideas on what to use for detailing are appreciated as well. I can construct the basic form pretty easily but making it realistic inside will be tricky. I am constructing models in Sketchup with the hope of putting everything together in a building guide once I am finished.

Enjoy.

Cool idea, those sketches have piqued my interest too.

Can't wait to see more.

I was in the Navy, you couldn't figure out how they did an ammo onload?

But seriously, good luck, I like big scratch builds like this. A few scratch builders have found my guide useful (in my signature), it's for the FW Warhound though, I won't be starting on my Reaver untill later this year.

Good luck sir, I'm very impressed with the level of interior detail you're planning on this one. I used the drop pod base as the torso base on my titan, but didn't even think about using it for the feet. Will definitely be checking out this project.

So it's gonna be almost 5 inches taller than the forgeworld Reaver? Nice. Now show us some pics!

Well the obvious place to start is from the ground up. I constructed 10 toes that will be hinged into the bottom half of the droppod base. In the center a small piece of 1 1/4" diameter PVC will form the bottom of the ankle joint. All of the toes and the ankle joint will be capable of moving so that the model can be freely posed.

Here are all the pieces ready for assembly:


Here they are placed in the correct position:


Here is the scale picture:

Obviously if you are a dreadnought you want to know where the Reaver is putting its next step.

The next step will be to build up the base so that the toes can hinge into it and it looks a bit bulkier

If you are into casting, the toes would be a great place to save a lot of repetitive effort. As it is I will have to build each of them up with detail from styrene. It isn't a problem to do one toe but everything is multiplied by 10... lots of cuts, lots of glue.

jabbakahut wrote:I was in the Navy, you couldn't figure out how they did an ammo onload?

Do you think they hover a Valkyrie over the Reaver and some sap hangs out the door shoving missiles into the launcher between battles? I am just going to make some missile storage racks and then some sort of oversized servo arm loader to shove more missiles in the breach.

Oh you want it to reload while in combat, interesting idea with the crane. How did you actually make the toes? I've always wanted to get into casting, it would make so many scratch builds so much easier.

jabba - they are basically a small styrene(plasticard) box. other than the side it is just a bunch of straight cuts. They aren't too hard but they are just boxes, they have to be detailed, I am still trying to decide what to put on the front flat face.

Missile launcher? Do you mean the gatling blaster or the triple barreled one?

freaky angel wrote:Missile launcher? Do you mean the gatling blaster or the triple barreled one?

above the head

Thanks for clearing that up Can't wait to see the rest

Very cool, I never thought of using the drop pod plates as feet this looks very promising, keep it up

OK, here is the pretty much finished foot:


So one of the big tricks here was to mount the edge of a PVC cylinder to a pentagonal styrene pyramid. I tried filing it down but quickly realized there was no hope in getting a clean joint with no large gaps. I broke out the hot glue gun to fill the gap and give a little plyability to the joint. It seems to work pretty well. Green stuff would probably work just as well.

The hinge structures are hollow styrene structures. The mounts for the regular drop pod hinges are still used but I made small brass pins so that the joints will still be able to move. The toes have almost 90 degrees of movement.

Here is another view:


1.5 down about 18" left to go....

So the next part is to buildup the ankle joint. Ball and socket joint is in order. Here is the preview:

Hmm..
If you want an idea for the missles reloading, perhaps something like a internal belt feed like on the Vulcan cannon connected from the back of the launcher to an internal magazine.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7658028@N06/471345014/

A belt fed missile launcher? Interesting looking, but makes no sense.

Anyone have any advice on where to get the extra Missiles that come in the whirlwind kit. Battlewagon bits sells the whole whirlwind sprue for $15... a bit much just to get the missile.

Also I am looking for 1/8"-1/2" transparent acrylic rod in either green, blue or maybe orange for the plasma reactor. I found a few places that sell it but there are large minimums for each color. I would like a little bit of each color. Is there anyone that sells a small multicolor pack or small amounts of specific colors?

I should have some updates on the legs soon.

I have no idea where to get either of those things. But that is a nice foot you have there.

ptlangley wrote:Anyone have any advice on where to get the extra Missiles that come in the whirlwind kit. Battlewagon bits sells the whole whirlwind sprue for $15... a bit much just to get the missile.

Also I am looking for 1/8"-1/2" transparent acrylic rod in either green, blue or maybe orange for the plasma reactor. I found a few places that sell it but there are large minimums for each color. I would like a little bit of each color. Is there anyone that sells a small multicolor pack or small amounts of specific colors?

I should have some updates on the legs soon.

Try calling some of the vendors and ask for some samples. As long as you aren't asking for a large quantity, or large lengths, you should be able to get them.

Also, this looks to be very cool.

Well it looks more or less like the model:



Here is a shot of the innards:


Just a bunch of nylon hardware threaded through the bottom of the foot.

And here is a better look at it in cross section.


The spring keeps pressure between the curved PVC end cap and a PVC cylinder inside the ankle.

The pistons are just nested styrene tubes.

This is a superimposed image showing the full motion of the ankle ball joint:


Combined with the styrene tubes and jointed toes there is a decent range of motion:


Next up is the legs. I think I may see if I can move this over to the P&M tutorials, maybe I can use it in the big tutorial contest.

Pure goodnes.

Tutorial contest? Do tell mroe about that!

Malika2 wrote:Tutorial contest? Do tell mroe about that!

I guess you never visit the Dakka main page?

I smell a falling titan. Nice job, the custom joints are cool and even cooler since they can actually move and what-not. Very very cool

Sorry if it was listed above, but what did you make the pistons from? Is it two sizes of plasticard straws/rod?

If so, where do you get it, I have no decent hobby shop nearby and need some plasticard!

looks awesome, this could be the nest scratch reaver yet.

I'm looking forward to the interior detail.

Mmmmyeah, twist that boot, titan boy!

I really like it. It is both ambitious and crazy.

MWG sells colored tube in multiple sizes, I believe.

ptlangley wrote:Anyone have any advice on where to get the extra Missiles that come in the whirlwind kit. Battlewagon bits sells the whole whirlwind sprue for $15... a bit much just to get the missile.

Also I am looking for 1/8"-1/2" transparent acrylic rod in either green, blue or maybe orange for the plasma reactor. I found a few places that sell it but there are large minimums for each color. I would like a little bit of each color. Is there anyone that sells a small multicolor pack or small amounts of specific colors?

I should have some updates on the legs soon.

Have a look at armorcasts page, they sell resin rockets and missiles, including hamster rockets!

When I scratched a thawk I bought a box of various missles and rockets from a model airplane store.