Building a Titan, a Legio Crucius Warlord Titan build by Dave Taylor Miniatures

Legio Crucius Warlord Titan by Dave Taylor Miniatures

Background 

Dave Taylor has been wowing us for many years with his abilities be those in developing game content, modelling, painting, putting together articles and photo layouts. He has been a stalwart supporter of the NOVA Open Charitable Foundation with donations of time and energy to countless armies.

Mars Pattern Warlord Titan

I've had the pleasure of knowing Dave for a while and what can I say he is a great guy and strong supporter of the community. I took the opportunity to take his Liber Metallica class at AdeptiCon which was fantastic. I'll be implementing what I learned there as soon as I get my act together.

Dave is looking to expand what he can do and provide for the gaming community. To achieve this goal, he has started a new and grand project to build and paint a Mars Pattern Warlord Titan. Dave will be exploring and experimenting with really powerful magnets, airbrushing, and creating/applying custom decals. He will share this process while also experimenting with a number of platforms including YouTube video sessions, Facebook posts, Instagram photos, blog posts, and Google Hangout chats. Some of these are entirely new areas for Dave, so we will be learning along the way. You can join along for the ride and help make this possible by supporting his Patreon campaign which you can read about in the Supporters section below.

The project is expected to take approximately 6 months, so you will get many insights to how someone of the talents of Dave approaches a build of this scale, selections of palette and process for painting large scale and detail. No doubt there will be countless and valuable tips for your own hobby work and with the level of interaction proposed by Dave, there will be plenty of opportunity to discuss everything in detail to increase the benefits for everyone.

So far Dave has posted up two great videos for the project with additional videos to be posted as he goes along. You can see more information about the number of posts and videos which increase as his support increases. I've included the first two video posts below so that you can take a look at some of the content that already exists and have an idea of what will be coming later.

The first video (above) is on the background and start of the project and includes a thorough unboxing of the many boxes included in the Forgeworld shipment. In the second installation, Dave covers the process for separating the resin pieces from the cast blocks including a walk-though of the tool selection, cutting and filing of mold lines. He goes on to handle how to process the pieces and prep them for assembly and painting steps.

Build associates

Fallout Hobbies

Fallout Hobbies - Ron Gamble at Fallout Hobbies has signed onto the build to provide custom decal sheets. I had the chance to spend some time with Ron at NOVA Open this year and picked up a few of his decal sheets. Not only does he have a great stock set of decal sheets, he will help you develop any custom set of decals for your personal or business use. I have a plan in place to have custom pin-up decals created, once I get my wife on board, for use on my air support. Prices are incredibly reasonable, especially for the custom sheets which come in at $35 for the first with the design help and then $15 per sheet thereafter. Definitely check out his site and support him as well. As a bonus if you become one of Dave's regular supporters Dave and Ron may help you design a custom set of decals for your use.

The Artillerist

Full Borer Miniatures - Chris Borer has signed onto this build and will be sculpting up a new crew set to man the Warlord Titan. This will be the second pairing of Chris and Dave and the previous match was for a NOVA Open Charitable Foundation army which brought us The Artillerist. The Artillerist was designed as the Master of Ordinance for the Steel Legion Imperial Guard Army that Dave painted up. I have this miniature and will one day get it painted up, but you can see the quality of this piece. For a fully painted version and more on the history of the piece, check out The Artillerist gallery.


Secret Weapon - I've long been a fan of the work done by Justin and crew at Secret Weapon. I spent a lot of the last AdeptiCon helping out at the Secret Weapon booth. I also took a weathering pigments seminar with Justin, which was really fantastic. Secret Weapon will be providing the base for this Titan Warlord. Need a base for any of your projects, well Secret Weapon has 875 different base options.

Supporters

This is not brought to you by the letter N and the number 5. All support is provided by YOU! and me and the rest of the gaming community.  This is a rather large project and as such will require quite a bit of time and effort and to help defer the costs of all of that, Dave has set-up a Patreon site where you can support the build.

In return for your support, you can get in on some great video blogging on the project and open communication about the project with Dave and the rest of the supporting community. Now this isn't your local PBS or NPR station, so no mugs if you support, but there are some great rewards for your monthly patronage. Here is the information for each level provided you support each month through the end of the campaign.

• $5 - Name painted on the titan and a small decal sheet from Fallout Hobbies
• $10 - Dave will help you create a custom Fallout Hobbies' decal sheet and the previous
• $15 - Invitation to the bi-weekly Google Hangout and the previous
• $20 - One Titan crew member miniature by Chris Borer painted by Dave and the previous

Now, I know you don't think it could get better, but it does. There are also monthly support thresholds built into the project. So if monthly patronage gets to

• $300 - Increase to 3 videos per month and 6 blog posts
• $600 - Increase to 4 videos per month and 8 blog posts
• $1000 - Increase to 6 videos per month, 10 blog posts, and build a shipping crate for the Warlord!

When the wife's away... a convention to play! NOVA Open 2015

NOVA Open 2015 

NOVA Open is a fantastic convention in Arlington Virginia. This is a tournament focused convention for wargamers. There are a series of tournaments for the typical games (Warhammer 40,000, X-Wing, Infinity, Malifaux, etc.). The convention has a charitable foundation associated, so there is a lot of gamers doing good for others. This is a great place to meet and talk with lots of great painters, industry professionals, and fellow gamers.

Seminars

Raffa Picca and me

NOVA Open offers a series of workshops that are a mix of demos and hands-on. These courses are taught by some of the industries best. This year's instructors included Justin McCoy (Secret Weapon), Roman Lappat and Raffaele Picca (Massive Voodoo), Dan Cotroupe (Tectonic Craft Studios), Eric "Terrain Guy" Cacace (11th Company Blog/Podcast), Justin Gibba (Malifaux E2), Chris Michaels (PoweredPlay Gaming), Gutier Lusquinos Rodriguez (Corvus Belli), Caleb Wissenback (CK Studios Painting), and the host of it all Mike Brandt (NOVA Open CEO/Whiskey & 40k). Seminars cover a wide range of areas including terrain building, clay modelling, painting techniques, air brush techniques, object source lighting, and LEDs. The weekend pass is affordable at $40 for the four days, games/tournaments are affordable priced and each seminar runs around $20 on average to cover supplies and instruction. I only attended one of the seminars, Sculpting Conversions, taught by Raffaele Picca. I'll have a separate write-up on that class and my attempts to sculpt some conversions coming soon.

Vendors/Demos

This Is Not A Test Demo Board

A few local vendors come into the hall to support modelers and hobbyists. Grex had representatives who supported a speed airbrush contest, but also had new product demos available. Tectonic Craft Studios had some very nicely done laser cut terrain pieces. I picked up a a bunker that will be reviewed soon, Dan also through in some laser cut base mounts which are pictured. Fallout Hobbies, who recently had a successful Kickstarter campaign, offer a wide range of decal sheets and also offer custom decal design and production at very reasonable prices. A custom sheet is $35 with additional at a reduced cost. These sheets were $15 each or two for $25. Potter Whimsy had a lovely set of hand crafted wood products (bowls, wine stops, mugs) which make for perfect gifts to the spouse who was abandoned on kid duty for the weekend. This Is Not A Test, Star Wars Armada/X-Wing, and Halo were available all weekend. I spent the weekend helping Joe McGuire out with This Is Not A Test demos all weekend. I'll have an additional post about a 4-person This Is Not A Test Demo soon.

Swag

NOVA Open Swag

Gamer Grass sheet

For the lucky 400 who register first (I was number 395), you get a nice little swag back. This year the swag bag was a NOVA Open branded lunch bag that contained a bottle of water, small bag of chips, some Air Heads, a granola bar. Additional NOVA Open swag included a pen, shot glass, tape measure, and coasters. Fallout Hobbies provided a sheet of small flame decals with a coupon to get a free sheet with the purchase of two others. I'll have a review of those coming in the near future as well as my foray into applying decals. Kromlech provided a sprue of bits which included a couple of shoulder pads, an orc head, a bolt pistol, and an Egyptian style head. Gamer grass provided a small set of grass tufts, which will be added to some miniatures very soon. Secret Weapon included a sewer works base with a 15% off coupon. Army painter provided a a quick gaming guide with an insane detail brush. Corvus Belli provided a printed quick start rules booklet for Infinity with a pin. Some tiny rare earth magnets were provided by Amazing magnets. Some other companies provided coupons; Bombshell miniatures (15% off), Greenman Designs ($5 voucher), PoweredPlay Gaming ($5 voucher), Systema Gaming (20% off).

Capital Palette

The main painting competition is the Capital Palette. This is an open style painting competition, so model brand and style are not restrictive. There are a wide range of categories and entries include individual models, busts, units, and dioramas. The instructors (Massive Voodoo and Secret Weapon) provided a number of busts, painted figures, and dioramas for display. Pieces were entered throughout the weekend and voted upon Saturday evening. Each attendee is able to cast one vote for the fan favorite contest.

NOVA Open Charitable Foundation

One of the greatest components to the NOVA Open is the NOVA Open Charitable Foundation. The organizers and gaming community have taken a number of charities to heart and support with raffles for an few armies (Alatoic Eldar, Sons of Orar Space Marines, Flames of War Battalion Piechoty, and Seven Malifaux Warbands). Roman Lappat (Massive Voodoo) provided one individual model (Zeta the Barbarian Babe) and a bust (Forever Young) and Corvus Belli Studios provided the studio model for Maverick from the new USAriadna Army Pack release. A series of silent auctions were also available, which included painted units, individual special models, artistic prints, some fantastic coasters, and some premium instruction video access. All auctions and raffles are support the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Doctors Without Borders, and the Fisher House Foundation. All models for the armies are painted by a consortium of professional painters who donate time to provide amazing pieces.

*UPDATE*  Silent Auction Wins! 

Astra Militarum Cadian Shock Troops

Cadian Sergeants

I completed this post before the results of the silent auction. I had bids for a set of Astra Militarum Sentinels, a set of Cadian Shock Troops, and a Grey Knight Interceptor Squad. Unfortunately, I didn't win the sentinels. I did though win the others. Since I am building my Guard army, I decided to bid on those two components. This set of Cadians is painted at an tabletop level. The color scheme is fine, but there are no painted eyes, some of the details are not painted, and there is a very basic set of washes applied. I am happy to have them and may do some additional touch up work to them, but at the price and for the charity it is all fine.

The Grey Knights have a much better level of detail and though I don't play this army and probably would not, the paint job and look of the squad made them enticing. The level of detail is quite good on the models and they are at a better tabletop levels. The levels of wash is pretty heavy in some places, but the highlighting on the lettered shoulder pads is good and the gold counters with the steel armor well.