War Griffons Warhound Titan

[Curis]

At the start of the year me and my mates realised we were all keen on painting Titans, and March of the Titans was born – paint any Titan at any scale by the end of Mars’ month.  I fancied rewinding time to 1989 when Warhound Titans first appeared in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, and painting one in the seminal War Griffons colours.

The original advertisement for Codex Titanicus in White Dwarf 116.

I’ve been the proud owner of a secondhand 40K scale Armorcast Warhound Titan for years now, and it was the perfect excuse to repair and repaint him.  Here it is with the previous owner’s, frankly terrifying paintjob.

The Chaos Titan Sclera Morphiosa ready to stare down opponents.

Several baths in various chemicals melted away the thick paint, revealing the bare naked resin.  I prised away the putty embellishments like the Chaos Star forehead and the odd groin-face, thankful that these were additions made without damaging the original model.  Evenings were spent refilling casting bubbles, reshaping with car body resin, sanding and preparing the kit for a glorious War Griffons paintjob.  I bought greenstuff rollers and brass wire to do some extra greebling, and planned designs for the legio’s banners.

Reconsecrated for Imperial service.

Only now the March deadline was looming.  And I’d never painted a kit this size before – the biggest things I’d painted recently were a couple of small Blood Angels vehicles in 2015, and vehicles are not my strongpoint.  Excitement had turned to dread as the remaining timeframe meant the paintjob would have to be chronically rushed.

Fuuuuuuu…

And so I changed tack.  I paused the 40K scale Titan and painted an Epic scale one in the same scheme.  I could lie to you and say it was a deliberate move to practise the colour scheme and study the challenges of painting its 40K scale counterpart, and the matching weapon options back me up.  But it wasn’t.  It was a cop out.  A tactic to avoid getting bullied by the likes of Asslessman and Rochie who had already finished their March of the Titans offerings.

Introducing Improcerus Compromissum, with Vulcan Mega-Bolter and Turbo-Laser Destructor.

I spent a while squinting at the original Wayne England illustration, trying to work out what the dappled grey pattern on the carapace was.  Was it WW2 German dapple camoflague?  Was it an attempt to emulate the airbrushed textures of H. R. Giger?  Was it depicting a beaten metal texture as opposed to the trimming’s chrome?  Was it the artist trying to give a sense of immense scale?  Twitter consensus was that it was a dapple texture, so I painted and highlighted a series of blobs on the carapace.  I refined the technique as I worked around the Titan – you can see the inside of the Titan’s right leg in the photo above being different to the other areas.

I’m dead chuffed with the freehand Legio Gryphonicus devices on the banner and the calf.

I interpreted the golden yellow areas as actual gold, rather than matt yellow (as Rochie has on his Legio Gryphonicus).  I’m unsure if this was the right decision, and I might switch it to yellow for the Armorcast one.  Yellow is much bolder than gold, and would give the Titan a much more toyriffic vibe that’s completely in keeping with the goofy anthropomorphised animal design.  Let me know what you think in the comments.

Improcerus Compromissum supported by the 2210th Imperial Navy Fighter Wing and Dark Angel Space Marines.

Check out Asslessman’s Warlord here.  And you can check out Rochie’s Warlord here, which is accompanied by a Warhound from the War Gryphons just like mine.

Stay tuned to Ninjabread for the completion of the 40K scale Armorcast counterpart.

[Elbows]

Great work, though I was hoping for a sexy rebuild on that old Armorcast fella! 

[OSHIROmodels]

Very cool 

[Elk101]

Cracking stuff. I always liked those. I especially like the paint job on the carapace.

[Daeothar]

Like you, I've had a second hand Warhound for years. Mine was painted only with basecoats of red with black trim though.

I've been thinking about taking this monster on for years now, but I still haven't decided on the right paintscheme!

I've also always liked the Griffons, but something standing out a bit more would be cool too, after all, it's going to be an absolute centerpiece in any army it joins. A green scheme kind of sits right with me, but whatever it's going to be in the end, it'll be a challenge, because I too have never painted anything of this magnitude before!

I did recently manage to buy an extra Plasmacannon to replace the melta/flamer weapon arm, as I think it'll be a better complement to the Vulcan megabolter it also has. So really, I should get cracking and throw some paint at this guy.

As an aside; I originally had plans to do some carving to the inside of the torso, so I could fit an entire interior in there, with a cockpit and engine compartment, but I don't think I will in the end; too much work for something that will never be seen when in play. I even bought extra's of the original titan princeps and moderators to convert into a sitting pose (aside from them standing for when they're outside). Plus a shedload of parts to tart up the outside as well.

Aw heck; maybe I should do it after all... 

Keep up your work on your Armorcast Warhound though; I want to see how it looks; it'll surely motivate me even further!

[beefcake]

Great PJ on the little guy. I reckon it would look great on the big one... you still have a few days left to do it!