Project: Reaver Titan (5) -&- The Reclamation of Galimimus IV

Project Reaver Part 5: Body assembly complete
All that remains now are the weapons and decorative bits such as pistons and plates... oh, and painting of course

With the torso added I can see for the first time the full size of this beast

Towering over the kitchen bench!

Size comparison: 40k Forgeworld Reaver beside vintage Epic Citadel Reaver

Size Comparison: The little epic Reaver is smaller than the footprint of the 40k version!

The Reclamation of Galimimus IV
Last night my garage hosted a 4000 point Apocalypse battle which saw Marc (Orks) and Justin (Chaos Marines) vs Matthew (Deathwing) and Troy (me! Imperial Guard).

As host I set the table up with a ruined Imperial city on one edge and an abandoned Feral Ork village on the other. In the center was the last remaining forest of Galimimus IV (once a world covered in woodland)... a tiny clump of trees.

{Click on images for larger versions}

Setup: The empty Imperial city (West table edge)

Setup: The empty Feral Ork village (East table edge)

Deployment: Matthew claims the Feral Ork village with his Imperial Guard auxiliaries.

Marc and Justin continuously choose to deploy zero units each turn, allowing Matthew and I to put models on the table wherever we like. Our suspicion that they have both chosen Flank March assets seems to be confirmed.

At the start of our third turn we are forced to deploy whatever we have left in reserve. We reveal that we have both chosen Flank March and place the Reaver and Baneblade wherever we like... but our enemies have yet to reach their third turn and so still have nothing on the table!

The forces of Disorder finally deploy onto the table in turn three, as suspected they too have both chosen Flank March! A Stompa appears beside my Reaver close enough to ignore the void shields and manages to remove a structure point and damage the titan's drive. Marc's other Stompa appears on the other side of the table and peels a few void shields off my Reaver, allowing Justin's Chaos Reaver to continue applying fire. I make an accounting error whilst adjusting my remaining structure points and attempt to correct the mistake but Justin is having none of it an insists the damage is correct. Sensing an argument growing I yield and wear my mistake - in future we will not be using dice to record shields/damage!

My heavily damaged Reaver concentrates on Justin's Chaos Reaver, managing to do some damage and wreck its drive. Again there is dice/damage confusion but we push on.

One of my Vendettas zooms across the table to ping the Chaos Reaver from point-blank range, close enough to ignore the void shields although no damage is caused. It is however ready to land and help contest the nearby objective. Meanwhile the Deathwing continue to quietly claim and hold objectives while the Reavers and Stompas blast away at each other. My Reaver takes a destroyer hit while his void shields are down and loses his last structure point. Matthew's Baneblade also goes up in a mushroom cloud.

Vendettas take a few shots at big targets and prepare to land near objectives to unload passengers.

The game ends next turn with Matthew and I on every objective while Marc and Justin are contesting two.

Deathwing/Guard: Four Objectives (Victory)
Orks/Chaos: Zero Objectives

Notes: As mentioned above we must stop using dice to indicate damage effects, remaining shields and remaining structure points as this is causing confusion and arguments. I will be making sets of tokens which clearly indicate "Structure" and "Shield" with values. Also, explicitly stated damage effects will also be required. Gone are the days of "just put a dice on it" - fishing out the correct token may be slower than putting a dice down but the clarity gained will be worth the wait...
Notes: Reviewing the rulebook, we cannot take the same Strategic Asset twice on the same team - so no more double Flank Marches!

Project: Reaver Titan (4)

Part 4: Leg construction.
There are a million points of articulation on the Reaver's legs - making it quite tricky to hold all the bits in position long enough to get some glue on!

Dry build, laying the major leg bits out on the bench so I can get an idea of how big it is - and how it will fit onto the base.

Left leg as seen from rear. I decided to keep this leg fairly straight with only a little bend at the knee.

Leg construction almost complete, view from the front. There are FIFTY bits all glued together in this shot (with still more leg bits to come before this stage is complete) ...and of course my fingers are covered in glue!

I placed a blob of spak-filler within the pelvis to help keep the legs in place, although there are pistons which reinforce the joint I wanted a little extra support while adjusting position. Spak-filler was also applied under the left foot so that it had a solid point of contact with the knobbly base (rather than being perched up on the tips of rocks it now rests flatly on a little plateau which cannot be seen - adding a LOT of stability). The right foot sits flatly on the roof of the wrecked Chaos Rhino so only a little glue is needed - although I may drill and pin this in the future if it comes loose.

Spak-filler was also used to plug up gaps in the craters so they will hold a little more Water Effect when added much later in the project. I found the gaps simply by filling the craters up with water and watching where it ran out... :)

Project: Reaver Titan (3)

Project Reaver III: The Washening
How did you spend your Saturday night? I stayed in and scrubbed all the resin parts of my Reaver Titan... there are many many more bits than expected, even after going through them when the big box first arrived. Scrubbing every one of the components with a toothbrush has given me an intimate understanding of the kit!

The largest piece of flash is found on the rear of the Turbo-laser (resting on my pinky finger in this shot). This badboy is going to need to be cut off with the unfortunately named Bone Saw hobby tool.

Upon initial inspection I was concerned by the confusing block of flash attached to the Laser Destructor's capacitor. Consulting the construction guide the distinction between flash and pipe can be determined.

In the sink; all the many leg bits

The upper leg bits suggest Victorian/Steampunk gun turrets when resting out of context

The Moderatus Princeps does not seemed pleased with his soaking. He is accompanied by the superbly detailed Tech Priest and various optional decorative bits.

Shoulders, Armour plates and Internals; including the rather disturbing installed servitors
(there's another one in the roof under the carapace weapon mount)

Scrubbing the carapace. The murkiness of the water convinces me all this scrubbing is doing something good.


As promised in an earlier post; the size comparison of Reaver head to Rhino tank - almost the same!

My reward for an hour or so slaving over the kitchen sink; a restorative dram of Highland Park *grin*. Sadly this finished the bottle - although gave the perfect excuse for opening my waiting bottle of Glenmorangie.

Project: Reaver Titan (2)

Part Two: Preparing the base

I chose the Warhammer 40,000 Battlescape to use as a base for the Reaver Titan because I like the crashed/wrecked Rhino. Opening the box I was a little dismayed to see that the tree stumps and broken branches were moulded onto the base although an hour or two with my rotary tool saw the details grinded away. Of course now I have lots of holes that need to be filled in - or which can be used to pin the mighty Reaver's feet to the base for stability. Actually, I'm not sure the base is going to be wide enough so I may need to add more real estate.

It's hard to see (because it's a ruin anyway!) but there are many holes left from grinding the tree details away.

Workbench update

Otherwise I've been tinkering with my Dreadnoughts. I've customised three 'Assault on Black Reach' Dreadnoughts to give a little more detail by adding various bits from the bits box. Two of them even have clipped lengths of sprue to extend their exhaust stacks.

Two others are a kitbash of Ironclad and Venerable components (with a few Forgeworld bits) to make Furioso Dreadnoughts, the last of which is waiting for his legs to arrive from eBay.

(Apologies for the tiny picture)

Project: Reaver Titan (1)

Part One: Opening the Box

As many of you know I was promised a Reaver Titan for Christmas by my lovely wife Emily (well, we went halves in the cost).

Yesterday it arrived... and only now do I realise how huge this project is going to be!

Unboxing the beast. The package is large, weighty and filled to the brim with bits.

The head is large! When I get a chance I'll place it beside a Rhino.

I suspect this is going to take a long time to finish, but with fingers crossed I'm hoping I can get it done within a month so I can drag it down to the Apocalypse event at Cancon being run by an old friend from back-in-the-day. Crikey.