"What does everybody want....?!"

Afternoon all,

Before we start, stop your internal dialogue...it's an Al Snow quote.

Here we are with another Titan update... a small one this time. Construction is drawing near to its end, but there are still some complicated parts yet to fabricate. In today's update, you get to see the head and cockpit section. This piece is getting primed seperately, so unfortunately you're going to have to wait a little bit to see it attached to the torse.

What's your best side? Good.... 'cause the titan has nothing but best sides, he's like Chuck Norris.

One last thing... for those who haven't been following closely (and shame shame shame on you), the ETSY store is now up and running with an ever increasing number of my miniatures for sale. Make sure you check it out. Through etsy you can also request custom work (miniatures, terrain, tables etc) from the bad-ass duo of Benjamin Johns and Nathan Moniz... !

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Wolftribe?ref=seller_info

till the next post,
Cheers,

B

P.S - Hopefully next week I'll have at least one of the weapons arms done....

Things are coming together

Friends and followers (is "followers" too megalomaniac?),

Before we get down to seeing progress on the Titan, there is some new business to discuss. Just yesterday I started a new Facebook page for Wolftribe Creations (http://www.facebook.com/#!/WolftribeCreations)! WC is now the business side of my hobby and the FB page is full of examples of my work! WC provides custom painting for miniatures, conversion and scratch building services, and terrain fabrication for all role playing and tabletop gaming systems. So if you or any of your friends have a dream project, a ton of miniatures you've just never gotten around to tinkering with, need some cool terrain to bring your game to life, or just want a special center piece for your game or army, jump over to the Wolftribe Creations FB to check out my work or contact me about custom jobs. Also, check back often for news about the upcoming ETSY store!

now on to the fun...

My diabolical quest to scratch build a Warhound Titan continues! Time for some WIP (work in progress) pictures!

There's just something about a pair of hips...
If any of you have been following this consistantly, I've been building this bad-boy from from the ground up (literally). Since both legs were finished, the next natural section to build was the hips/waist. The center (lighter) section and the square abutments were built in the same fashion as nearly every other section of the titan. They were cut out from cardboard and folded into shape. The round sections at both ends are the same 3/4" wooden dowel that formed the joints in the legs.

Here is one of the gun mounts (the left side as you look at the titan)...

this is the center hull section. What you're actually seeing here is the underside. The Octagonal section will actually be glued onto the waist section seen about after the titan is primed and painted.

In this picture we see half of the upper body of the titan (no arms yet... thos are for next week...). From left to right we see the right should and right gun mount, the main hull body, and the main hull raised section.

Here's a completed shoulder....

Completed shoulder and completed main hull

What I am personally looking forward to are putting in all of the little fun bits, like couplings and cables. This - in all likelihood - will be the most time consuming part of the build.

Woohoo! Look at those legs!!!

Here's the assembled main upper body section sitting on the completed legs!

The straight on view

Everyone has a best side, this is the titan's

and finally the rearview

Alright everyone, it's time for me to go shovel my car out and get back to organizing the Wolftribe FB page and setting up the store. Till next time...

Cheers,

Ben

A titan-ic update!

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your eyes for a few minutes...

After some frantic weeks of school work, the stress of life's little issues, and most recently a two-day bout with the plague, I have finally found a few minutes to create an update post on my latest diabolic creation.

First, let's take a step back in time for all of those who appreciate the recap bump that is featured before all of your favorite television programs...

Fabrication, stage 1:
In stage one (building the feet), three seperate templates were used to trace the basic shapes (foot pad, toe joint, and toe pad) onto some light card stock (ie. broken down cereal boxes). I then used basic scissors and an X-acto blade to cut out the shapes and scour lines for folding. By using minimal adhesive points, the strenght of the material allows it to bear the weight of the structure without putting undue stress on the weak points (ie, the places where you glue). Super glue was then used to attach the toe joint to the foot and then the toes to the toe joints.


here are both feet completed with completed ankle joints. For scale purposes, that is a 16" wooden clock base (availible at Michael's, A.C. Moore, Home Depot etc).

Fabrication Stage 2:
In stage two, I got to move away from the cardboard for a little while and got to work a little on the fine details. Here we see the most complicated aspect of any titan... the pistons. All of the pistons you see below are made from 1/4" and 3/16" inch sytrene tubing (availible from the good folks at www.Hobbylinc.com... huge variety of tubing, dowel and sheet styrene at great prices).Both halves of the toe pistons were cut to 3/4", sized and sanded to fit their location before gluing. The longer leg pistons were sized to 1.25" before being cut and fit appropriately.

(As this is my first time building something on this scale... there is going to be quite a lot of gap filling that will need to be done, particularly where some of the pistons meet a flat surface. Suffice it to say, this is a learning process... )

Here's a closer view of the front foot pistons before the placement of the leg armor:

Here are both feet built up to the middle leg with pistons. The joints are built from 3/4" wooden dowel, cut to 1" in length, wrapped in .025" sheet styrene and superglued into place.

While working with the pistons, I also got the change to add some fine details that needed to be installed before all the various parts were brought together. For a little dramatic mechanical effect, I added some medium gauge bass guitar string to the side of the pistons that stretch from the bottom of the middle leg to the top of the lower leg. I am definitely happy with the effect and am trying to decide on where else i can use it... of course, as all hobbyists are aware, it's fine line between 'cool effect' and 'over done' effect....

Finally, here are the legs built up to the upper leg with the shin armor plates (currently unattached). If you look closely, you can get a better glimpse of how the joints were constructed...

Well, that's all for now... tune in next time to see the hips/waist section and the completed lower body!

Cheer,

Ben

Strange things are a-foot on the hobby bench...

Hey everyone,

You know, sometimes life throws you a curve ball and you find yourself on your ass in the batter's box being laughed at by the hometown crowd. When you feel like you're left with nothing left, you've got to pour yourself into to the things you love.

Today, we get to see my most current hobby project:

... you guessed it... I'm scratch building a warhound titan from the ground up (and that's 14" clock base). These feet took me about an hour to cut and another hour and one half to fabricate. They're looking good if I don't say so myself...

If there's anyone out there interested, I'm willing to post the templates I'm using as I go along. Post a comment to this post and I'll get that process moving! Tonight and over the course of the weekend I am hoping to get at least the lower legs and knees together. If I'm really motivated, you might even be seeing this bad boy from foot to hip by Monday.

Anyone who has ever built one of the fine Forge World titan knows that one of the most difficult building (but aesthetically rewarding) aspects of the kit are the dreaded pistons. This home built god-machine is going to be no different. I have an order of plastic tubing (1/8, 3/16, 1/4, 5/16 and 3/8") on order from the good folks at www.hobbylinc.com (a great online company with a huge variety of traditional model kits and supplies of all stripes) and can't wait to get down to fabricating!

Finally... I'm taking suggestions for names for titan mk.I. The current working designation is The Dirge of Perdition. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, drop me a comment!

Until the next post,

Cheers,

Ben.

Blood for the Blood God

Alright kids,

Here we are again today with another hobby blog update. Today we're going to look at my most current ongoing project, my World Eater chaos Space Marines! This army is being built according to Codex: Blood Angels and will be, in theory, a rapid assault force built around dreadnaughts, assault squads, and drop pods. These guys are my favorite of the traitor legions (followed by the Iron Warriors at a clsoe second) and are a project I hope to one day expand enough to throw down in an Apocolypse game. Wouldn't that be grand?

As many of you are already aware, the best camera I have availible to me is built into my phone... so getting quality photos right now is a bit of an affair. That being said, here are some of the better shots I was able to capture of my force commander and a single member of his honor squad.

First up is my primary HQ, the wonderful Lord Zhufor availible from Forge World (http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/KHORNE-WORLD-EATERS-TERMINATOR-LORD-ZHUFOR.html)...

Rounding it off today is a member of his honor squad. This guy sees me combining Games Workshop's classic Berserker kit with the impressive Forge World impressive World Eaters Conversion Set and throwing in a bucket of blood for good measure (http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/_WORLD-EATERS-CONVERSION-SET.html).

Well, that's all for today. Keep the eye out for more in the coming days.

Cheers,

Ben

New day, old photos

Hey all,

To continue with the theme, I'm posting some more old photos of my work as I work on getting photos of my newer projects. Unfortunately as the best camera I have is in my cell phone, it's a slow trial-and-error process.

As many of you may have noticed (and as I have often espoused) my favorite things to paint come from Games Workshop's various 'chaos' lines. This is very, very true. Contrary to popular opinion however, I enjoy painting a wide variety of models from a variety of different companies. As such, today's first blog post (I'm planning two today) features some of my favorite Privateer Press painting moments. Enjoy!

First up is one of the first commission pieces I ever did. It's a Troll Blood "Dire Troll" I did for a wonderful bloke named Blake. This predates my career with Games Workshop by a few years.... so that puts it back a little...

Next up is another Troll Blood model. It's been so long that I - unfortunately- don't remember the exact name of the model... but I like it anyway ;)

Third up is another Privateer Press figure, a Cryx warcaster by the name of Skarre 'the pirate queen'

Rounding off the Privateer Press tour today is another warcaster from Privateer Press and one of my favorite models from that line...

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! That's right, our journey back in time is not yet finished! Here's a mumak I painted for the old Games Workshop hobby center in Danvers, MA! It was one of the first projects assigned to me in that shop and is another model that has a special little place in my heart.

and finally... because I can't resist living up to my stereotype... here's a Marauder hero I painted in up with my friend Jake Hanson in mind. For those who are unaware, Jake is an actual blood descendent of Erik 'the Blood Axe' who is featured in more than one Norse saga. Talk about inspiration ...

Thanks for checking the blog out today! I'm looking to get some picture of my World Eaters up tonight, so keep the eye out! Till then...

Cheers!

Name: Benjamin Johns

Location: Parts unknown

New Year's Resolution: restart the hobby blog

Press statement:

To my valued fans,

I know my presence on blogspot has been nonexistant over the last 10 months, but times they are a'changin'. As a New Year's Resolution I am planning to exert more effort on my hobby and my hobby blog, so expect to see more action here over the course of the next week weeks. As with before, I'm going to be posting some snaps of my older work while I work on getting shots of my more recent work. That being said, let's get on with the show...

Today's theme is Chaos...

Let's start out with a little dandy I painted up for the Glen Burnie Bunker (R.I.P) before GD Baltimore 2009...

This is one of the better Games Day models I can remember and it was a blast to paint. It still holds a little special place in my heart.

Next up is one of my favorite Forge World models of all time. Orginally a renegade psyker, this one currently fulfills the role of a Lore of Death Sorcerer in my Warriors of Chaos Army. He also sits atop my Chaos Warshrine (hopefully I'll be able to post some pics of that in the next few days!)...

Next up are some of Marauder horsemen. These are some of my favorite sculpts in the line... which explains my four units! Unfortunately, there are only three of them here as the standard and other flanker were still being painted at the time these pictures were taken. Again, hopefully I'll be able to throw one up in the next few days.


flanking marauder 1:

The musician:

the champion:

Finally, the artillery everyone loves to hate, the Hellcannon. I painted this one up sometime in the middle of 2011. I wanted to see how it would look without the giant skull bitz... I was pleasantly surprised with results. Said bitz were used in the conversion of Battlefleet Gothic Despoiler battleship (another picture for another day ;).

That's all for now. Expect more in the next few days!

Ben