Monday, December 23, 2013

Venatrix Nocturna - She Walks!


On Friday I posted a teaser pic of a Warhound Titan. This little beastie is the Venatrix Nocturna, and she's the titan my friend Dave Pauwels will be bringing along the to Adeptus Titanicus game at AdeptiCon next year. Dave is an absolutely brilliant painter (as his many awards will attest), but he'll also admit he's quite slow. Therefore, to avoid missing out on the game, he asked me to assemble her for him.


About two years ago, I assembled and painted a Reaver Titan, so some of the pain of that ordeal had worn off. I jumped into this task in a fairly positive way; soaking and washing all the many, many parts.
I read through the FW instructions several times and, after cleaning up all the parts (trimming off almost three pounds worth of resin pour channels and "tabs"), I started building her from the feet up.

In these photos you can see a deconstruction, as Dave will be painting the interior. I had to make sure there was plenty of accessibility to all the fiddly details inside. Dave also wanted some flexibility with his weaponry (who wouldn't?), so I've added very strong rare-earth magnets to each upper arm, allowing for a fairly straightforward swap of weapons as required.

Anyway, I'll let most of the photos do the talking : )



Above you can see the washers embedded in the guns. These are more than enough for the magnets to grab onto : )



For easy of packing/transport once Dave has painted the model and attached the front of the torso to the rear of the torso, I added another magnet to the rear torso and a washer to the column above the waist.





It seems the Warhound comes with four shin plates, allowing you to make it quite Imperial (with two big eagle pads) or less so (as I expect Dave will be doing with this traitorous beast!


There's even a sheet of etched metal for the grille looking down into the reactor section.



And finally, instead of gluing in the resin cabling to the weapons (and destroying that flexibility), I replaced them with small lengths of network cable. These are glued into the body, and can slip into the sockets at the back of the weapons Dave sees fit to load her out with.

I hope you've enjoyed these photos. I'll have some more of my new Reaver build and paint coming in the New Year. I'm working on a Loyalist Titan for the very same game!

If you have any questions about the build, just ask.

Cheers (and Merry Christmas!)
Dave

13 comments:

  1. CAT V cable in 40k is rated up to 20,000,000 watts.

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    1. Dang it, I knew I should've bought the thicker one! ; )

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  2. Very cool! Beautiful build, it's got a great sense of motion to it!

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    1. Thanks Mordian 7th, I did enjoy the twisting pose. Without the base it's front heavy, which adds to the idea that its next step is imminent.

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  3. Wow, someone actually using the inferno cannon (and doesn't use the plasma weapon)!

    That aside, this is an awesome build of an amazing model. I bought a pre-built Warhound almost a year ago and have always wanted to build a second myself. It's just such an incredible model!

    Does your friend have a plan for which legion she hails from? Where can I follow the painting progress?

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    1. I think my friend has a turbo laser on order, to swap with the Inferno Cannon for our Adeptus Titanicus game. I also know he has chosen a Legio, but I can't remember which it is at the moment, sorry. Once he starts sending me photos of the painting I'll post them here or link to them if he puts them up online : )

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  4. I played Adeptus Titanicus before I got into 40K proper. What a games system.
    Am seriously envious of your mate getting to play it at this scale.

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    1. We'll be using a variation of the update that Gav Thorpe wrote in 2000 (I think), that brought things up to speed for Epic 40,00. Should be interesting.

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  5. Great build and good use of the larger neodymium magnets. I'll have to keep the cable tip up my sleeve for the future!

    Merry X-Mas!

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    1. Thanks Eye. I think the cabling works a little better on the Reaver (more distance between the torso and guns), but it was pretty good here too.

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  6. I have a question. I am also building a Warhound Titan and I am having trouble with magnetizing the legs with the torso.

    What size of magnets did you use to connect the legs and torso? And how do you keep them in place? Cyano glue does not seem to be enough. But maybe my magnets are too strong...

    Incidently, could you tell me how you magnetized the arms?

    Cheers!

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    1. Hey Dave, as Brusie asked above - please share the torso magnet details :)

      Cheers - Consto!

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