Introducing the classic plastic 1988 Warlord Titan Ferrum Dux, part of my growing War Griffons Titan legion.

Ferrum Dux was painted for a game of vintage Adeptus Titanicus (none of that fancy new 8mm stuff) against the forces of Jean-Baptiste & Associates. He joins the Warhound Titan that Jean-Baptiste also strong-armed me into painting, proving I’m nothing more than a monkey dancing to the whims of that man.

The Warlord kit is simple kit of only about a dozen pieces (compared to the modern version’s 144), and has to be assembled in a very fixed pose of striding forward with the left leg. This has the effect of making multiple Warlords (like there’d be in this game) look like a dance troupe. To avoid this I amputated both legs at the knee, and replaced them with a pair of right legs so the ankles and knees would be symmetrical.

The humongous number of weapon options the kit came with have been cannibalised by years of my frivolous conversions, so I had to resort to some trimmed Technolog missile pods for the carapace. For bonus hipster points, the banner pole fitting is a cut down Zoid cannon. I magnetised all these options though so I can switch them out later if the guilt becomes too much. Or I find even rarer indie kits to incorporate.

The carapace banner designs are adapted from the Wayne England illustrations on the War Griffons spread in White Dwarf, as is pretty much the entire Warlord’s colour scheme. However, this time I experimented with introducing the yellow you see a lot of modern War Griffons in. I’d previously thought it would look odd alongside the gold, but it worked a treat. And ultimately, I’m glad I’m getting all these colour experiments done before I commit paint to the 40K scale Armorcast Titans.

This mighty metal plastic warlord is now ready to come crashing down in sheets of flame on the gaming table, as it did right at the start of the long-anticipated game with Jean-Baptiste. You can read Sean’s write up of that disasterous battle here. War Griffons, huh, yeah, what are they good for? Absolutely nothing!

Here’re my Titans fighting against my old tournament Ork army. You can see I have a big thing for big Titans with big banners and lots of big rockets.

Two Titans done, more on their way. I’ve got a second Warhound and a Reaver on the desk at the moment – watch this space.

Ninjabread out!

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 Gryphonics 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 2210^th 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.