Even Titans Need Hugs

Well, another post in just over a month--I am getting better!

The star of today's posting is a centerpiece model in my Praetorian army and frankly it's inclusion in this blog is entirely overdue.

I am of course referring to my Warhound titan which I have lovingly dubbed "Glory to Sekhmet."   The name continues a theme that I incorporated early on with the super-heavy vehicles in this army all paying homage to the Egyptian warrior goddess.

As is readily apparent, this is not a contemporary Forge World Warhound titan, and instead is the much older Armorcast Warhound which was based upon early artwork for the titan and on the miniature from the Epic scale game Adeptus Titanicus.  Since the Praetorians were released in 1997 on the tail end of 2nd edition 40k, I thought the older titan model was appropriate for the army.  Of course is it much more simplistic than the current Forge World model and lacks even 1/10th of the detail work of a Mars or Lucius pattern Warhound, but what it lacks is detail it makes up for in "old school" charm.  Fun thing about this kit is that the arms are connected by hinged bolts, so the arms actually pivot outward. You can make some funny "arms wide" poses with the model which end up looking like the titan wants a hug.  Plus, the flat open spaces of the hull are perfect for freehand work which Drew at Garden Ninja  skillfully provided.

Between adding chipped and scored paint, 2nd edition style warning stripes as well as murals and army emblems, the titan's normally dull and uninteresting armor was transformed into vibrant eye-candy.

I requested that Drew paint murals on the upper carapace of the titan depicting the titan's battle history.  Since my regular opponent is a Sons of Malice Chaos player, I decided that the titan should have encounters with Chaos.  Of course since it was a titan attached to my beloved Praetorians it's other opponents naturally had to be Orks.  In each mural the titan is represented by Sekhmet herself, the lion-headed goddess of Egyptian myth.  When outlining the details of the murals I drew (horrible) sketches of roughly what I envisioned each mural should look like and Drew filled in the rest with some beautiful artwork.

Here you can see Sekhmet launching firey bolts at an on-coming Ork horde.  In the distance an Ork Squiggoth and Great Gargant brace themselves for the destructive onslaught of the titan's fury.  The style of the mural was intended to be reminiscent of medieval murals which told stories but lacked realism in composition and size of characters, and layout.

On the titan's right carapace the story of battle against the Ruinous Powers can be seen.

On this side the supreme power of the titan's laser blasters are unleashed against the forces of Nurgle.  It is a wonderful scene with the star field interrupted by bolts of lighting as the legions of Nurgle march ponderously to their doom. 

Drew also made a banner for the "Glory of Sekhmet" which is attached to the lower torso.  I requested this because in much of the artwork I have seen of GW's titans there are heraldry banners adorning the great warmachines and I didn't want my own titan to be left out.  Since the hull of the titan displayed the machine's history I opted to have the banner proclaim the titan's name.

 There she is.  The "Glory of Skehmet" stands ready to defend the 77th Praetorian from all manner of nefarious evil.  While I know that the 40k canon places titans under the control of the Adeptus Mechanicus and not in the possession of Space Marine or Imperial Guard forces, I decided to throw the "canon" out and bend the rules in this model's case.  I love how the primary colors of my Guard army make the large Warhound model stand out and since my army is embracing heretical thought with their worship of Sekhmet I thought it only appropriate to go full rebel and make the titan part of the regiment. So, don't hate on me you 40k purists, okay?  These Guardsmen are heretics anyway so let the titan be one too!  Or, I can always fall back on the real-world reasoning of "it's my toy and I'll paint and play with it however I choose to!" ;)

Here are some final shots of the titan to give a sense of scale and some closing comments on the base.

The base is rather simple with the exception of the blown-out Sons of Malice Rhino transport.  Drew and I came up with the idea of the blasted out vehicle on the base and in the interest of thumbing my nose at my friend and main opponent I chose to have the destroyed vehicle painted in his army's colors.  Drew also painted my friend's Sons of Malice army and so he was not only familiar with the army colors but loved the idea of linking the two projects (in fairness my friend's Sons of Malice army also has trophies painted to match a Space Marine army that I own, so this little bit of paint harassment has gone both ways).

Drew did what I imagine is rather simple lighting effects on the turbo laser blaster holes on the Rhino but the effect worked well and is one of my  favorite details on this model.  Look at that metal glow!

And this post wouldn't be complete without some Praetorian shots.  Here are two converted melta troopers probing the downed Rhino for any (unlikely) survivors.

I hope you enjoyed viewing the "Glory of Sekhmet" and as always thank you for reading.  Coming up is an interview that I conducted with Drew from Garden Ninja Studios.  In it he discusses gaming, and more interestingly, the behind the scenes workings of a full time commission paint studio.  I aim to get that posted in the coming week so stay tuned!