Titan at the Palace walls
Recommendations: 33
About the Project
Warhammer's Siege of Terra books are nearing the end, so I made a massive diorama to commemorate that! It's a traitor Warmaster Iconoclast Heavy Battle Titan being swarmed by loyalist Imperial Knights and Valkyries, and they're fighting right outside the Imperial Palace Walls! In this project, I'll detail my entire build process, share lots of photos, and show you why a titan on a hill is a lot less scary than one smashing into a wall.
Related Game: The Horus Heresy
Related Company: Games Workshop
Related Genre: Science Fiction
This Project is Completed
Building the kits and mashing them together.
Building the kits and working out how they’re going to combine together in the diorama.
The kits I’m using are these ones:
Adeptus Titanicus
Warmaster Iconoclast Heavy Battle Titan
Aeronautica Imperialis
It’s pretty cool that Aeronautica is on the same scale as Titanicus, as it opened up the option of having combat aircraft in the diorama. Don’t get me wrong, mech versus mech is super-cool, but mech versus mech versus fighter jet is even cooler.
The kits went together really easily, and the titan is one of the best, most involved building experiences I’ve had, second only to Gundam Real Grade. There are 102 building steps and there are tonnes of articulation options.
Everything built and stuck together
After using about half a pack of blu-tack to hold everything together until I was happy with the pose, I finally bit the bullet and got the glue out.
It can be daunting to glue kits as expensive as this into a final pose for a diorama, but I try to remember that plastic glue can always be debonded with more plastic glue (Tamiya extra thin is great for this), and super glue can be frozen until it’s brittle. So the final pose doesn’t have to be the absolute final pose.
I also started to make the hill that I had planned to be my plinth, but I ultimately ended up not using it. It just felt too rural and out of place, especially with a battle-scarred titan stomping across it! It’s made from packing foam that I sealed with Windsor and Newton modeling paste.
So, as an alternative setting, I made a section of the palace wall with the same type of packing foam and added plastic bits and pieces to make it all seem in scale.
Base coats and decals done.
Stage 1 of painting is complete.
The Titan comes from Legio Vulturum, the Knights are from House Raven, and the Valkyrie is from the 103rd Armada Imperialis Tactical Wing.
Titan:
- Vallejo Game Color Bone White
- Citadel Contrast Black Templar
- Vallejo Metal Color Steel
- Vallejo Metal Color Silver
Knights:
- AK Interactive Intense Deep Red
- Scale Color Black
- AK Interactive Intense Deep Yellow
- Vallejo Metal Color Steel
Valkyries:
- Tamiya XF-51 Khaki Drab
- AK Interactive Intense Deep Yellow
- Vallejo Metal Color Steel
- Vallejo Metal Color Silver
The decals are pulled from multiple Warhammer kits, from Blood Bowl to Horus Heresy. Some are even layered to create a new symbol or effect.
I’ve also included an image of the grassy hill, just so you can see it painted up and with trees.
Painted, weathered and constructed, and the video is live!
My weathering process is pretty hard to track. I have a tendency to start with a few core weathering paints, in this case:
- AK Interactive Engine Oil
- AK Interactive Engine Grime
- AK Interactive Moss Deposits
- Ammo by Mig Streaking Grime
But after a while, I look at my workbench and I can see dozens of pigments, acrylic liquid pigments, enamels, oils, and filters that I’m dipping in and out of. Just to show you how this ends up looking, I’ve included an image of my desk once I completed the diorama.
I attached all of the diorama elements to the base with Bostik multipurpose glue. It puts me in mind of a pre-mixed two-part epoxy and I’m a huge fan.
