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Merry Christmas Ramos!

Merry Christmas! Hope it's a great time for your family and gets your batteries recharged for AdMech / Titan stuff in 2016!

Merry Christmas fella

Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas! Amped about the Warlord happening!

Also, in a pinch, Listerine is actually booze...

Christmas is come and gone, and its back to business!

Warlord PART 2: Bearing Arms

With the parts washed and dried overnight, I cleared the tables and put the parts into two plastic tupperware containers. The first was the smaller parts. The pistons, the lascannons, the pipes. You wont want those knocking around with the larger bits! The second box was everything else. The feet, the legs, armor, etc.

TIP: Youre gonna want to have a good bit of room on your desk to build this model. Not only does the kit have tons of parts, but the subassemblies will take up a considerable chunk of space. (More on this in Part 3)

The instruction book for the kit is spectacular- Full color and plenty of detail shots. Most views have markings where they recommend gluing, and any gates and areas of casting support are called out for ease of removal. Its very much like the instruction book for the new Knight Warden kit in these regards.



Even though there are a few hundred pieces, everything is clearly identifiable, and they give you a nice checklist on the first page. Took me maybe half an hour to double check the parts list. Everything’s here!



On to assembly!

As with any other resin kits, clip of the gates and pouring channels and sand/file down the remaining nubs. I recommend using a razor saw to cut the larger channels. Sprue cutters dont handle it well, and knives certainly wont cut it.

As far as glue, Im using JB Weld. Its some of the toughest epoxy I know of. Once it sets, it ends up being tougher than the resin around it! I’ve never had anything come apart after being JB Welded...

I started with the Volcano Cannon to get a feel of the kit as a whole. Assembly is simple on these, You have 3 primary parts of the gun, then a number of smaller detail parts and armor plates. Below is a scale shot of the basic assembly with my arm and a Tau Ethereal. Its BIG!



TIP: Leave the armor panels off! (The instruction book even recommends you do so) This’ll make painting the parts WAY easier!

TIP #2: Rough up the contact points before applying glue. I just scored the surfaces with my knife. This gives the epoxy more real estate to grab on to, resulting in a stronger bond.

After letting the gun cure overnight (I found that it was best to stand it straight up on its fat end), I put on the pipes and other detail gubbins. The pipes were the only thing that really needed hot water bending- everything else fit pretty nicely.

The bracing pipes on the barrel needed a little bit of bending, but a single pin in the tip (the thinnest part) and a little masking tape let it set perfectly.


Plenty more to go on this model yet, but thats for another time... Till then, happy painting!

Just so massive!

Going to be difficult to get smooth finish on these larger areas, not used to painting such huge plates. Maybe practice on the family car first? LOL

Slightly late but still seasons greetings and best wishes sir.

Oh man, this is just cool! that's either a big gun or you have a form of dwarfism?

Those warlord arms are insane!!

AWESOME. Please continue with the step by step. It's nice to be able to see how the kit goes together. It's kinda like were somehow involved even though its just pics.

@Cam: You know, thats a good Idea. Im already using the car for some spare parts for the Warlord (theyre small, but I can make it work), so practicing painting on it shouldnt be too out of the way! Best Idea!

@nerd: AH! MY SECRET!
I was trying to hide it, but its actually no bigger than a Rhino... And the farseer is from Epic.

I live in a dollhouse


@SL: Will do! Might get a little slower soon-ish- It'll take longer and longer the more I have done, just because of the size of the pieces and intricacy of assembly. WM sourced the head from WHW, so we should be seeing the rest of the parts come in soon
Stay tuned!

===================================================

Warlord Part 3: RESIN BAWXES

Alright. So after warming up on the gun, I think its time to tackle the most complex part of the Warlord build: The main body!

Im not kidding here. This section alone has 10 very large parts that fit together in a very specific way to make a box. Every part locates to each other and any mistakes you make here will be amplified in the final project. If you take only one piece of advice from this series, let it be this one:


DRY FIT THESE PARTS FIRST!!!

I can’t stress this enough. Make sure everything fits before committing to glue. After that step, especially with JB Weld, there’s no going back. With all of the thinking and adjustments I had to make during assembly, it was nearly 4 hours before I started to glue.


Anyways! With everything dry fitted, we should be looking at something like this:



At this point, note any areas that might need gap filled or any peculiar warped areas. This will help you decide on the best course of attack. Most of the smaller bending issues can be solved during gluing with clamps.

My recommendation is to build this assembly in two stages. First, lets take the base plate and the four lower walls. They all locate to each other and will provide a sturdy foundation for the rest of the torso.

Before gluing, I took the opportunity to put a few small pins into the base plate in order to better locate the walls during gluing. This also adds a bit more structural stability after gluing.



A clamp or two will help you get the walls assembled more or less square to each other. This is particularly useful if a part is just a little bit off kilter (on mine the front right segment of wall didnt want to stay put without a clamp).

Now let this cure overnight, and tomorrow we’ll tackle the rest of the torso.

Very cool! I like how building a warlord titan starts to share a lot of steps with building cabinets

Plus, good deal on living in a doll house, you must save a lot on property taxes. Of course you probably don't save much on furniture... doll house stuff is damned near as expensive as the real thing!

Dayum! That thing is huge! I'm content with watching you work on this thing, as I don't think I would want to try to tackle one of these myself at the moment even if I could afford one!

Love the fact that you need actual home improvement tools to assemble a titaninstead of hobby tools

MOAR!

Awesome.. This will be a good way to catalog your progress and process.

Keep it coming...

Good grief, I dislike assembling complex resin models. I just sit and stare at their warped and gated visage and think...

Thanks guys! Hope the pace works for you. Some updates (like today's) dont have too much meat on them, but hopefully the info is still useful

@Wehr: Im pretty sure you could use this thing AS a cabinet! Plenty of room inside, as you can see below. All it would take is a little engineering for the hinges!

@Theo: Yeah its nuts how big this guy is... I had to really dig in the garage to find clamps big enough. All we had in the house were a couple of teeny little C-Clamps xD

@wyfox: See, Im on the total opposite of that. I LOVE the insane complexity. Always a new challenge with warped bits

======================

Warlord Part 4: MOAR RESIN BAWXES!!!

The foundation is cured, so lets not waste any time and get right to it!

The upper sidewalls and top carapace go on just as you’d expect. Again, clamps are recommended to get the sides to set right. Unlike the foundation, however, these are much easier to clamp. There are nice flat areas at the front and back where clamps will sit perfectly.

I should mention at this point that I have been using a few thin strips of corrugated cardboard between the clamp jaws and the resin. The thinking behind this should be pretty obvious- Protects the resin! After all, no sense in marring the surface of your 3000$ model, right?

After letting the epoxy cure overnight, you’ll be left with one very large, very heavy, very solid box of resin! This is your torso:





Next up, Lots of detail bits!

Till then, take care and Happy New Year!

Looks great! I'm kind of shocked and also pleased that you used JB Weld in this build. That stuff's amazing! But so messy, I've never been able to use it for small hobby projects... but then again, this is no small hobby project

In college, we literally glued a friend's bumper back on his car with JB Weld (he'd gotten a warning to get it back on within 30 days, and as should be expected, we were all totally broke ). We used two bolts to hold it in place to be able to apply it, but the JB Weld is what truly held it on. I think he drove it that way until getting rid of the car!

All that to say, very good idea and I'd love to hear how you keep it from becoming a mess / getting on other faces / components you don't want it to when applying it.

Yeah, JB Weld is some fantastic gak.

Note: I see a distinct lack of gundam in the background of these pictures

One assumes you'll have to paint this in sections ( once all the individual sections are pre-assembled ).

A bit of Heresy using a Tau figure for a Imperial God Machine though! I'm sure the inquisition will be in contact soon!

 Alfndrate wrote:
I see a distinct lack of gundam in the background of these pictures

That's a positive! Made in Britan (More like China?) and assembled in Amerika! However in the spirit of the global community you could have the Gundam trampled underfoot. Just a suggestion.

Wow! A titanic new year indeed! Looks fabulous, but I still have the fear of fw resin after the storm eagle fiasco

May you all have a prosperous and joy filled new year.

RiTides: Chopsticks! Thats what my secret is. It really helps to have a thin and sturdy applicator to put this stuff on. The pointed end of a chopstick is ideal, and theyre so cheap and replaceable, I dont have to worry about tossing them once they get covered in JB Weld.
Plus, there are TONS of nice flat areas on the Warlord to hide extra supporting epoxy.

From what I've seen and heard of JB, I totally believe your story. Its incredible how powerful this stuff is!!

@Alf: They all seem to be hiding since I brought out the Warlord... I cant imagine why...
But yeah Im still working on the RX- Just a case of the Holidays filling a lot of my painting time! Will definitely be getting more work on them soon.

@SL: Ohhhhh hehehe... Yeah... The Ethereal just happened to be the first 40k scaled mini I happened to grab, and hes sort of taken up residence on the shelf nearest to my modeling bench.

As to painting, Ill absolutely be painting this guy in sections. First and foremost are the armor plates. Ill be leaving those off until the last possible minute so I can get good airbrushing on them. The other major subassemblies will be the guns (working on making the arm weapons swappable), the head, and possibly the torso and legs as separate pieces. That latter bit is up in the air as of yet... Depending on how I end up painting the metal areas, they might end up getting glued together.
What I optimally want to do is use a metallic powder ala Blackadder's Warlord build. Seems to get a nice realistic buffed metal look that just doesnt happen with paint. Paint alone is hard to shade and get looking the right way.

And expect some scale shots with the Gundams once this guy gets on his feet!!

@graven: The more expensive and "rarer" kits seem to have fewer issues... I havent noticed much in the way of casting defects on this. Other than a few minor bubbles, its been astonishingly immaculate! It -was- caked in mold release, though, so that might have something to do with things. Some pieces have a slippery surface still even after 2 soaks!!

===================================


No Warlord pics today, what with New Years and all. Instead, I thought I might do a little retrospective like Gits did on his blog. I've never taken the time to do one, and it seems that its high time I look back.

So lets take a peek back at 2015...

The year opened up with the wrap-up of RiTides' Dropzone Shaltari. Still some of my favorite little minis I've done. Loved the colors I got on them, and together the army looks incredible.


This year I really have to get a demo in at Adepticon!!

After that I knocked out some Emperor's Children decked out in purple.


February saw Orks and Ultras...




... as well as me building a trio of computers for my family... Still going strong, too!



MArch saw the rise of SEDUCIA!!!!


Er... I mean Adepticon! Where I finally entered a professional painting contest with a Giant:


I also painted a painboy for RiTides in WaaghDakka


And some Skaven!



In April, I finished off some Khador for my own army,


... and got a massive box from Gitsplitta.


And so started the Days of Endless Knights...
It was crazy but at this point I had 6 knights to paint!! I of course decided to hold off painting them for some god-knows reason... I blame paint fumes.

And Warmachine!




Mantis Warriors infiltrated the blog in May... Fitting for the spring season!




I also painted up some Sisters and Infinity in May and June!



June started with me getting a new camera (so now my photos wouldnt suck as much!) and saw the first of the Knights painted...


And some Assassins!


And in July we had some more Warmachine and the rest of the Knights...


Now in Delicious RED flavor!



Then it was on to one of the larger projects of the year... PROJECT DEATHROLL!



This took some serious time... From the end of July to the start of September! Though its certainly one of the most unique armies I've done

September also saw me doing a bit more work for On The Lamb- A Dark Dragon!


And some commission work for a SW client- Snow themed assassins! Adventures in Camo...



Went back to do some more Orks for a client in Germany... LOVE THIS KIT!


Then later that month (and unrelated to the previous event) I was shocked to receive a crate of Death in the mail!


Months later and this is still one of my favorite games ever... Still dont have anything painted in it though!

In October, the weather started to turn chilly. Suppose it was for the best that the family pool chose this moment to explode! Me (finally) getting my driver's license had nothing to do with it!

I also finished up some Chaos Bikers.


Started DEATHROLL Part Deux, and also painted up some doggies for Gits' Halloween army!



Finished Deathroll 2 by the end of November... FROGGIES!



And lastly, in December I made the jump to Gundam kits and painted up this chap:


And of course... The Titan started

======================

In 2015 this thread has seen seen:
More than 170 models painted!!! (REALLY!? Thats not even including DzC... those were 2014!)
33+ Pages
990+ Posts
2 Cameras!
4 computers!
>5 GB of photos (wip and otherwise!)
The continued insane babbling of a madman

======================

Happy New Year, everyone!!
Thanks for being here and following along on my march to madness. Hopefully we'll see some even greater projects in the new year!


And thus begins 2016... whew...

Very nice stuff there, Ramos! I think if you do as good a job on your new Titan as you have on all that other stuff it will look unbelievably cool!

One hell of a year there Ramos and some seriosuly beautiful paintwork along the way. Great job

Man, did I really have just 2 models this year? I feel like there were more.

Wonderful work Ramos. Very impressive to see it all laid out in one go!

Great collection of work Ramos, hoping you have a prosperous New Year.

Awesome recap, and man, that is a lot of really great work!!