A Pack of Warhounds for Adeptus Titanicus

For any who have been following my recent posts, it's fairly easy to see that I've been swept up collecting and painting stuff for the recent release of Adeptus Titanicus. This time out, I have a hunting pack of 'light' Warhound titans (yes, a wonderful contradiction in terms) all done-up and ready to stalk prey on the tabletop.

While the big Warlords and medium Reavers are all fine and good, my favourite titan design remains the Warhound. There is something wonderfully predatory about its hunched stature and digitigrade legs that really appeals to my lizard brain. The Adeptus Titanicus rules help encourage the use pack tactics of the Warhounds by allowing them to activate as a group, 'share' void shields and to concentrate their fire on specific targets. Very evocative of the GW fluff.

But, GW being GW, it has decided to be infuriatingly lackadaisical in its release schedule for follow-on 'engines' for Titanicus (really, follow-on anything for that matter). Tired of waiting for the Warhounds to be made available (and not particularly enthused about the cost), I snooped through my favourite go-to open-source 3D design site, Thingiverse, to see if anyone had posted anything that I could use as proxy. Well, lo-and-behold a VERY talented chap going by the handle of 'Stroganoff' has made available a series of excellent prints for the Warlord, the Warhound and a lot of other handy things. 

They are absolutely brilliant designs, with each having several weapon options and limb variations. Furthermore, he's cleverly provided the Warhound in the alternate 'Lucius' pattern to make it different from the ubiquitous 'Mars' used by both  GW and Forge World.

Completely chuffed, I printed off four kits of which I have three done-up here today.

Each 'kit' only has nine parts (another credit to the overall design), so the assembly is pretty straightforward stuff.

The kit minus the two weapons.

You can see with each of these models that the legs can be positioned into many different action poses. I particularly like the trotting Warhound, with it's one foot suspended in mid-stride. 

I've painted two in the austere grey livery of Legio Cerberus, giving each a different colour accent to help identify them on the tabletop. I've been enjoying seeing the work of others, especially my friend Greg, with them contrasting the colour of the head/cockpit with the body -  so I've given all my Cerberus titans distinctive white cockpits (something for the heretics to zero on, I suppose).  The decals are a mix of designs from the Warlord and Reaver kits.

I wanted to paint the other Warhound as a nasty Legio Mortis engine, so I thought I'd have a bit of fun with the airbrush and give it a decadent candy-apple red paintjob. 

It's a bit over-the-top, but I quite liked how it turned out on the whole, and  besides, we all know red vehicles go faster, right? I've used this same colour scheme for my upcoming Reaver, which I'll post up soon.

For a bit of visual interest, I put in a recessed footprint into the basework of one, and a wrecked hovertank (another 3D print) on another. 

Otherwise, the bases have been done in my usual post-apoc, ash-grey motif, accented with some rubble and a few scorched trees and bushes.

Finally, I have to give a shout out to my good friend Byron, as while I was in the midst of building these models I discovered I had no bases to mount them on. Nevertheless, Byron (who is the proprietor of Northern Lights Terrain) came to the rescue and quickly sent me a set of 80mm MDF bases. Thanks so much Byron!

Well, that's it for today folks. Thanks for dropping in - have a great week everyone!