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So, Christmas presents have been unwrapped, and I find myself the proud owner of a Forge World Mars Pattern Warhound Titan. However, now comes the mamoth task of assembling, priming and painting the bloody thing.

I know that the first thing I need to do is to wash the pieces in warm soapy water to get the mold release off, but what other tips and tricks of the trade to dakka's amazing modellers have for me? The model is still in its box, and will likely stay that way for the next few weeks thanks to finals. Probably a good thing too. I don't want to do something stupid and screw up and ruin my new beautiful model. Thanks dakka, and merry Christmas!

From my own personal trials and tribulations I find soapy water often not enough to remove mould release agent. Try a few soaks, or maybe even a dip in simple green overnight.

As for assembling it? Its not that hard, but you essentially need a dremel tool. If you don't have one...get one

I assembled a Mars warhound a couple years back and it was still a long process, mind you not difficult, just long.

Lots of test fitting to make sure things fit.

Like others said..alot of test fitting..and once thats ready alot of painting prior to assembly..the whole centre can be painted prior to putting them together as well as the servitor sponsons for the weapons..magnetize all the leg plates as well for ease...I used some greenstuff to keep it all nice and together especially the leg pistons and large body pieces...I noticed that the larger portions of the main body were concave so glue doesn't cut it..but with the dremel i ground out a few furrows in each piece and then used some green stuff and a small slide clamp to pull em together...the furrows give a nice grab for the gs and the pieces will not pop off....had a great time putting mine together..all said and told I worked on it for 6 weeks little by little..it turned out awesome....be patient and have alot of fun doing it!! Gratz on an awesome gift!

The legs will be the hardest part. Unless you're making a base for it, your main priority when posing the legs will be stability rather than aesthetic qualities. Once you get the center of gravity right, the rest should be pretty easy if you've had previous resin experienve. The main rule is not to rush this: It will probably take a few months (well that's how long mine took) and rushing it so you can take it to the next game in time is a bad idea.

Good luck with it

From what I've heard the 3 top bits of advice would be:

-When you think it's clean, wash it again. The mold release likes to hang around, especially in the crevices. Even if it doesn't feel slippery in your hands, that doesn't mean paint will stick.

-Lay everything out, check against the parts list, then check against the diagram. Lots of fiddly bits that can go missing, lots of ways to gloss over gubbins.

-Test fit, test fit, test fit!

Clean thoroughly and bring plenty of patience with you, not to mention a crapload of spare time and missed weekends.

But be warned though, the final product might blow you away.

Think NOW about a base to display/play it - drilling pinning holes etc will be easier now while it's in bits.

I wasn't planning on putting it on a base, so I'll likely be doing a bit of drilling and pinning to keep things in place it seems.

So, a dremel will be a good buy it seems, along with a lot of sandpaper and other stuff....I mean, even opening it and just looking at some of the bigger pieces I've realized that there is a LOT of extraneous resin hanging around, and I doubt going after that stuff with a knife is the best way to take care of it. Well, after finals I've got a 3 week period of not doing anything, so let's see how much work on this monstrosity I can get done in that time frame.

Thanks for the info so far dakka! This should be a fun build!

Please Rethink a base not only does it give stability on the table but you can pose it better use the 10" apoc template for a template to draw around. Wash all the parts before you think to assemble anything. Cut off all the sprue channels from all of the parts look for misaligned mold lines and repair them. When all the prep work is done all the repairs done filling pinholes ect. Prime the parts with primer let the paint dry turn over prime the other side let dry. paint all parts before you assemble it, your sanity will thank you. Do not cut any of the pistons until you are ready to assemble that part. Glue it with ether epoxy or superglue good luck.