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Manniquins come in male and female forms, I am inclined to make the titans 'female' a larger chest better stores the reactor, and it will have a more lithe appearance. The standard manniquin size is 12" the same as a Forgeworld Revenant. I could use balse stiffened with plasticard for the wing, various models kits for the jets (using devilfish jets with greenstuff 'disguise' if pressed). Plasticard, milliput and greenstuff everywhere and drumsticks for the weapons. Heater shields would make good knee and elbow pads.

However I have never tried anything on this scale before, hence my need for pre-conceptualising discussions. I would like help and advice from Dakkas master modellers, of which there are a fair few here.

I think it can be done.

Some initial questions.

1. How should I sculpt the head? Progressive layers of balsa covered in milliput, sculpted straight from clay or plasticene or does anyone suggest a nice bit I could use? Such as a suitably scaled greek warrior helmet.

2. Any ideas on sourcing for the jetpacks.

3. Any ideas on making the main weapons, I am thinking on the lines of chair back ribbing or drumsticks, but both may be too big. Maybe they would do for a Phantom instead.

4. Anyone got a Revenant and willing to offer dimensions for the wings and weapons. I dont intend to mimic the Forgeworld kit, but would want comperable scale.

All comments and suggestions welcome. if I build this I will blog it, a manniquin of Forgeworld revenant titan size only costs £3-£10 depending on the website, I will try to construct a template once I have a successful build, which could take several attemptsd, after all the core of the model is easily replaced if/when I muck it up.

Thankyou for your help in advance.

For the curved surfaces I strongly recommend you take a look at various modern and historic plastic aircraft model kits. Many of the curved surfaces you'd want could be found from those sources.

If you're in a larger city try finding a RC airplane store. They usually have individual pieces from aircraft kits in plastic baggies that you can hold and examine. Bring in your wooden doll and a picture of the titan and start comparing parts.

Another useful source is Japanese anime and mecha kits. Don't go too overboard with those, however, since they're easily recognizable and can ruin the effect.

Re: the weapons

Check arts and craft stores. Find cheap paintbrushes and fountain pens. Check the kids section. Sometimes big cheap plastic paintbrushes for kids have long handles with deep contours. You never know what you might find that can be re-commissioned as a titan weapon.

Check out your local major toy store as well. You can probably find the base of the head on a cheap action figure, and tons of curved surfaces and other doodads as well.

This link will help you out A LOT. http://gargantklub.proboards15.com/v45index.cgi?board=Conversions4&action=display&thread=137

This guy scratch built a pretty nice Eldar titan.

One Idea I have is to use Fantasy Great Sheilds as knee pads/ cod piece/ hip armor. There are tons of them around, just ask.

I had the same idea about the artists mannequin. I am in the process of building it now. I relocated the legs further up on the torso. It really makes a difference in the overall look. I am using the side turbines from an Apache helicopter model for the "jet pack". I am having troudle finding realistic Sonic Lances in that larger scale, I will probably just scratch build them from tubing and plasticard. Good luck with yours though.

cuda1179 wrote:This link will help you out A LOT. http://gargantklub.proboards15.com/v45index.cgi?board=Conversions4&action=display&thread=137

Thanks, it helped indirectly. One look at the titan, which was admittedly nice, and I am sure using the mannequin is the right idea. the amount of work it will save by not having to build up every part of the titan, let alone avoiding the need to make castings so that the two sides are symeterical.

I also have something special for the head, and intend to use a siongle sheet of balsa as the core of the wings, I think it will look better as one piece cut to the same curved shape as the forgeworld kit rather than constructed out of several plasticard 'blades'.

Heavygear wrote:I had the same idea about the artists mannequin. I am in the process of building it now. I relocated the legs further up on the torso. It really makes a difference in the overall look. I am using the side turbines from an Apache helicopter model for the "jet pack". I am having troudle finding realistic Sonic Lances in that larger scale, I will probably just scratch build them from tubing and plasticard. Good luck with yours though.

Could you blog this please, or take pictures.

I think the sonic lances should be fairly easy. Rather than mimic the forgeworld kit style instead mimic vibrocannon. Take a piece of metal tubing that yoyu think fits best, and slip over haberdashers rings (a bit like curtain ruings but much smaller). Glue the rings at regular intervals, paint the whole atrray brass/bronze and then attach a suitable firing aperture at the end.. Then add the 'curved metal bit' and attach it underside to the two outermost rings on either end of the array.




In fact some questions:

1. How many of the mannequins joints have you sealed? Is your model going to have two rigid legs or balanced on one with the other posable.

2. Have you sealed the waist joint?

3. Have you added the main weapons above (replacing) or below the wrist?

4. Have you repalced or just built up around the mannequins head?

5. Is your mannequin male or female form.

I like your idea for the sonic lances. I had not considered that. I will try and post some pics.

In answer to your questions.

1. How many of the mannequins joints have you sealed? Is your model going to have two rigid legs or balanced on one with the other posable.

I have essentially sealed all arm and leg joints by filling in the slots with green stuff to give the appearance of a smooth ball joint. For simplicity sake I am going to keep the rod at the base of the model and pose the titan as if in mid leap/flight , rather than having to reinforce one of the legs. I had considered a kneeling firing position but liked the idea of the titan ascending gracefully while blasting away at its enemies.

2. Have you sealed the waist joint?

I like the poseable waist and neck so I do not intend to seal them. The joint is stiff enough to hold position without flopping around.

3. Have you added the main weapons above (replacing) or below the wrist?

I cut the hands at the wrist , essentially where it becomes a ball joint and slipped 1/2 inch plastic tubing over the end of each forearm and then stepped it down to 1/4 inch tubing.The larger bore weapon looks more like the guns on the Armorcast Phantom Titan. I will look for some bits to give them a lance appearence. By cutting instead of just removing the hands you are able to keep tension on the elbow spring and keep the movement at that joint. I left the elbow joints unsealed and hid the ball joint slot by glueing a high elf shield onto the arm to created an elbow "pad" or plate.

4. Have you repalced or just built up around the mannequins head?

I considered this for some time. I am not gifted in sculpting with green stuff so I basically cheated. It would be easy enough to carve a spartan style peekout of the wooden head and use plasticard to achieve the face guards. In the end laziness on my part won out and I cut a wing similiar to the back sail from plasticard which I will attach to back fo the head. I will be using this titan as backup for a harlequinn troupe, so I wanted to give it a mohawk appearence as opposed to guardian style helm. On the face I again kept it very simple and taking from the wraithlord and shadowseer I cut the handle off of a large plastic spoon and affixed it to the head to form a smooth faceplate. Not very original or difficult to acheive, but again, I went for simplicity.

5. Is your mannequin male or female form.

My mannequin is male. I like the idea of making a female titan though. It makes it different from the forgeworld model and adds flavor. Very anime.

Heavygear wrote:

I cut the hands at the wrist , essentially where it becomes a ball joint and slipped 1/2 inch plastic tubing over the end of each forearm and then stepped it down to 1/4 inch tubing.The larger bore weapon looks more like the guns on the Armorcast Phantom Titan. I will look for some bits to give them a lance appearence. By cutting instead of just removing the hands you are able to keep tension on the elbow spring and keep the movement at that joint. I left the elbow joints unsealed and hid the ball joint slot by glueing a high elf shield onto the arm to created an elbow "pad" or plate.

I am having problems vusualising what you mean here. Are your weapons plug in at the wrist following along the line of the lower arm, or cut at an angle?

Heavygear wrote:
I cut the handle off of a large plastic spoon and affixed it to the head to form a smooth faceplate. Not very original or difficult to acheive, but again, I went for simplicity.

I didnt think of plastic spoons. Not how I would do a head, but thanks for the tip. Now I know where I will get my shoulder pads and hip armour from.

I want to make a cockpit with a large bubble canopy. Therre is a model aircraft shop not far from where I live, and there are plenty of canopies there, its a matter of getting on the right size. In fact the idea of a visible pilot is what drew me to make the titan to begin with. I am also dreaming of using a much larger mannequin with a much larger canopy, with three Phantom crew within, but at present that is just a dream.

Heavygear wrote:
My mannequin is male. I like the idea of making a female titan though. It makes it different from the forgeworld model and adds flavor. Very anime.

Looking at the mannequins the female form has a deeper chest but no identifiable breasts, a bit like 'she' is wearing a wooden jumper. This gives room for the reactor core, a deep (but narrower) shoulder to mount the reaper launchers on and the holofield wing. It should also help because of the shape of the head, which will also be very deep compared to a human head shape.
furthermore if the waist is buiklt up the body is generallt more streamlined and less blocky.
Like you I am thinking of repositioning the legs, mainly because the female mannequins I have seen have a built in miniskirt for some reason. I intend to remove the legs, cut the flat bottom of the shirt into a V around where the hip joint is. Thus as a silhouette the top half will be female the bottom half male, all in all it should make a fairly convincing elven shape. Thats the theory anyway.


Should I make any larger titans I might just use male form and remove the center section of the waist. Phantoms have short bodies. Female form is not needed as the male 16" and 20" mannequins have deep enough shoulder and chest area.