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Hey everyone,

With last year's success building a Chaos Reaver titan, and an inexplicable urge to up the stakes this year, I embark on a journey to complete a Warlord Titan this year (I hope). But not just a basic titan, I've set aside some criteria for success that I have high hopes for:

- The shoulder weapons, arms, torso, and head should all be motorized and able to rotate along a horizontal plane

- I want to be able to control these movements from my tablet wirelessly

- There should be a number of preset motions, including "firing" a weapon (aim, flash LEDs, simulate recoil), and an autonomous mode where it just chills on the tabletop and makes minor, random moves by itself

- It's going to be Chaos'd to the max

Here's the announcement from the War Budgies channel:
https://youtu.be/JrM1wCVnwmc

And here's a screenshot of the app I built to run it:


I`ve chewed through most of the basic coding and app creation this past week, in the process of...well, learning basic coding and app creation. I hope to have some working motor skeleton pics and videos up this coming week, til then thanks for reading!

Interesting idea, I'll look forward to following your progress; I'll be especially interested in how heavy duty you're going to go with the gearing and shaft system, those mechanisms are going to be under quite a bit of stress if the rumours of how heavy those guns are are true.

 mrhappyface wrote:
Interesting idea, I'll look forward to following your progress; I'll be especially interested in how heavy duty you're going to go with the gearing and shaft system, those mechanisms are going to be under quite a bit of stress if the rumours of how heavy those guns are are true.

This is a fact. The Reaver’s laser blaster is just over 200grams, but is also nearly solid resin. I plan to drill out a lot of the interior mass, both for LEDs and to lighten the load. Thanks for stopping by

This sounds... very ambitious. Extremely cool though. Hope it works out.

Subbed. Looking forwards to this.

First update is up, here's the basic rundown:

- Learned how to program an Arduino Uno, and wire the right servos to it

- Learned how to build an app with MIT's App Inventor, to successfully control aforementioned servos via Bluetooth

- Built a foamcore and heresy test rig to try out the servo-app connection and make sure the ideas are sound. They are! I think.

Thanks for tuning in. Will be working on LED connections and refining the programming before I dive in and get the resin beast itself in the mail

Brilliant video and proof-of-concept!

Subbed

Wow this is amazing, I'm looking forward to seeing more

Thanks guys, I'm really encouraged by the initial tests. I think LED tests will follow, then the actual titan purchase itself.

Have to brace my wallet for that one

Please ... make it walk!

 War Drone wrote:
Please ... make it walk!

Haha, I wanted to, I really did. Even drafted up some little wheels under the feet so it could just scoot each leg along without lifting the weight.

But it all just seemed like a great way to destroy a $1500 model, so I scrapped it

I did the thing. Wish me luck!

Oh, your poor wallet!

Aouch ! A mighty offering to the powers of ruin !

We're doing science!

The Warlord arrived on Tuesday, and I've spent all my free time since then assembling the torso, wiring up the Arduino chip, and installing the first servo. End result: I have a torso that can now swivel on command from the tablet!

Next stop will be working on the twin servos that drive each arm. Or maybe the shoulders. There are too many options!

That looks waaaay smoother than I expected... kudos!
Though I think it might be a good idea to add a way to recharge the batteries without having to take everything apart... Maybe add a charging port somewhere? Not totally sure about the details, but I think it might be a good idea...?

Woah! That is looking great!

Wanna keep my eye on this

Thanks for the support, everybody! Decided to work on the shoulder-fire guns next, seems the simplest extension of the torso.

@Tyr13, Solid idea, but probably outside my expertise at the moment. This is my first time building a Warlord, working with Arduino, or doing robotics/coding in general (picked a great project to intro myself to it, didn't I). That said, all the parts are easy to change out, and I'll probably be installing modifications for years to come

Don't make excuses ... Make it walk!

 War Drone wrote:
Don't make excuses ... Make it walk!

This !
Oooor, you could build a warlord sized Lord of Skulls with a track chassis. Many can easily be interfaced with Arduino.
(Mostly) kidding though, great work on fitting an configuring all this !

Are you planning to put speakers in it? Not sure if you'd be able to perhaps due to copyright or something, but the Imperator from the DoW Ultimate Apocalypse mod has some awesome sound files that would be great in a project like this.

 Valkyrie wrote:
Are you planning to put speakers in it? Not sure if you'd be able to perhaps due to copyright or something, but the Imperator from the DoW Ultimate Apocalypse mod has some awesome sound files that would be great in a project like this.

Copyright doesn't effect personal use.

KernelTerror wrote:
Oooor, you could build a warlord sized Lord of Skulls with a track chassis. Many can easily be interfaced with Arduino.
(Mostly) kidding though, great work on fitting an configuring all this !

Haha, I am considering trying out the Arduino Nano to make an RC Baneblade for my Renegades and Heretics! But that's whimsical and waaaay down the road

Valkyrie wrote:Are you planning to put speakers in it? Not sure if you'd be able to perhaps due to copyright or something, but the Imperator from the DoW Ultimate Apocalypse mod has some awesome sound files that would be great in a project like this.

I've gotten this suggestion a lot, and if I have room, I absolutely will!

mrhappyface wrote:Copyright doesn't effect personal use.

Point taken, will check out those files


In the meantime, Update 3 is live! The shoulders work, the head is getting there, and I don't mention it in the video but the rotating collars for the arms are at the 3d printer now

Excellent progress! I think you just made my Monday morning

I agree with Valkyrie re. sound system. That would be all kinds of awesome. Never played DoW, so the only Titan SFX I know is that blaring horn in Helsreach (kind of like a UK foghorn on anabolics), which I think would really suit a Chaos Titan ...

My apologies for all the "wish-projection"

[quote=War Drone 758022 10047290 6aca57f2c16e1d5e527a98f94acdcc5c.jpg
My apologies for all the "wish-projection"

Perfect reply!

You have to realise that now, by starting this thread, and letting us all in on it, you are not only building your "own" model, you are also building it vicariously for many of us who lack the tech know-how to do so

I really appreciate you doing this. Feth ... you're making my dreams reality, in a way ...
(I should stop now ... all this gushing is kinda embarrassing )

Hey everyone,

Will be hosting a livestream Q&A over on the War Budgies YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/c/WarBudgies) this Saturday, 7 July, at 2pm CST. For chatting about the Warlord, answering questions, and talking about whatever you guys would like.

Also, will be giving away the Warlord Princeps on Foot from the Mars-Alpha head during the stream, as a thank-you to the community for being super supportive of this project

https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-US/mars-alpha-pattern-warlord-titan-head

Quick update, the livestream went really well, so thanks to everyone who stopped by! We covered a lot of the FAQs, such as the intended paint scheme, bases, some other electronics to store in there, and of course gave away the Warlord Princeps on Foot!

Kit the War Budgie even showed up, and managed to sleep through basically the entire thing.

Replay is up on the channel in case you missed out: