Friday 4 January 2013

Reaver Titan WIP 1

Almost as usual, I was browsing around on the wonderfull "From the Warp" blog and was inspired by a post   regarding Titans! (http://fromthewarp.blogspot.dk/2009/04/clash-of-titans.html).


The image is from the original thread (found here http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?99442-Lack0F-amp-EoST-Build-a-Reaver-Titan). These things stand almost 50 cm tall are pure awesome killing machines build by the Adaptus Mechanicus to spread death and destruction among the enemies of the empire. Even though I only have a very small Space Marine army the thought of a gigantic cardboard killer robot is hard to resist...

The wonderful people behind the model are thankfully also CAD wizards and has provided the schematics on how to build a model of your own (direct download here https://www.box.com/shared/eha70afaud). Below is sample of how the model-construction works...





Without too much consideration about time investment or other things I decided to print off a few pages and build a part of the titan to get an idea about the amount of work involved...



After a total of maybe 5-6 hours I managed to create the three-legged foot seen below. Considering my total lack of craftmanship it doesn't look half bad imo. However, working with corrugated cardboard sucks! Although easy and fast to cut the corrugated core makes some cuts very hard to properly glue as the boards are quite hollow. Furthermore, the whole structure feels a bit flimsy and light...

I did however have a great time actually building the stuff! It's a lot like Lego which I've always loved, as you have to follow directions but still have to work out many details yourself. Long story short, with plenty of time on my hands (thanks to Christmas break), I decided to soldier on and see if I cant manage to build the entire thing, over the course of XX months. A sturdier material was however required, so I opted to buy an A0 sheet of 2mm thick solid cardboard. Along with a proper Stanley knife and some glue the project has so far cost me around 160 kr (~ £17).

So, accompanied by various movies and TV-series found on my hard-drive I started over, from the bottom, crafting first one complete foot, then another. Here's a few progress pictures:





After roughly 15 hours spread over at least 3-4 days, the first foot was done.

And after another 15 or so hours (entire Band of Brothers plus at least 3 movies), the other foot is now complete...

I'm still have fun and it's quite relaxing having something to keep my hands busy while watching movies and TV, so I'm now moving onto the legs, properly interrupted by testing my craftsmanship skills on a powerglove and the head. More to follow in the coming weeks, although things might slow down a bit as Lauren will finally be home with me again :D