Warhound Titan challenge

[Resurrected Hobbyist]

So, life changes come up and I recently had a big one. Namely I was fired from my job. Not going to mix up this thread with a bunch of sob-stories or explination but I have decided to focus on school and finish my degree rather then getting steady work again. So what does this have to do with this forum? Well I have a decent amount of free time on my hands now. Free time means I get bored which is what started as. A boredom project but as I actually started sinking my teeth into it, it became a challenge. The challenge: To see if I could build the entire titan with out using anything pre-made. No bits, no kits, just paper, card stock, card board, glue, foam core and the like.

The template this is based on is the old school made by JSvironfurnace. It's a nice basic design that provides a solid foundation to build up from. I've toyed with the design several times in the past. This is going to be a serious and sincere effort to make it my own this time.


I give you... the toe!

The toe joint is made from 2 sheets of 5mm foam core glued together. I added additional surface details by pulling the template parts into photoshop, making the details into layers and then printing them out on card stock. It's an interesting challenge cutting out 4 levels of details for something like this.

The toe cup is made out of card board from cereal boxes and then additional layers of details have been added with the application of Card stock.


The foot! So yeah, everything that was the toe, times 4. The... erm... palm of the foot? whatever you want to call it. The section the toes all connect to is made of 3 layers of foam core wrapped in an edge of card board, again from cereal boxes. The ankle mount is a single layer of foam board with a layer of card stock around the outer edges.

I ran across a styrafoam ball and I had an idea for using a ping pong ball for the ankle joint. With no better use for the ball, I cut it in half and mounted it on a form for the top of the foot. Looks rather promising. Will probably use ping pong balls in the ankles for the next titan I build.



Here we have the lower leg. Well a good portion of it anyway.


The shin armor is a good example of what I made in photoshop to add to the template. The jagged arrow edging was made by pulling the template page into photoshop, making a new layer on top of the original part and desiging the edging. I then printed 2 copies, 1 for the base to go onto card board and a second to be cut from card stock. The card stock is just the arrow edging while the cardboard is the foundation of the part. Cut 'em out, glue them together as needed.



I added additional bracing for the mounts to the shin armor.



The ankle joint is made from cardboard. I first glued it to the ankle mount, and then applied a layer of card stock over that and joined that to the mount. It's surprisingly solid.

The pistons were a challenge but I think I pulled them off well. What I did is took Q-tips, cut off the cotton heads and then rolled strips of paper around one end to create the piston look. I was then able to cut through the rolled paper to make it mount in a way I needed it to on the foot.



The leg of the Warhound has a series of pistons going between the leg sections. I added the pistons by building an internal mount for the pistons which you can see here.


The foot as it stands... no pun intended.... now.

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

I am sorry that you have lost your job. I am glad that you are not letting this get you down and depress you!
With that being said, I like the challenge that you have decided to undertake with this project. It looks like you are off to a GREAT START!!!
I will be following this project. I am looking forward to seeing how this will turn out!

 

[Resurrected Hobbyist]

I am sorry that you have lost your job. I am glad that you are not letting this get you down and depress you!
With that being said, I like the challenge that you have decided to undertake with this project. It looks like you are off to a GREAT START!!!
I will be following this project. I am looking forward to seeing how this will turn out!

In a lot of ways being fired has turned out to be a blessing. I didn't really appreciate it while I was working there, but I was being abused in my job. My sister came to the rescue and got me some short term work with her company. Working for a company in an industry where I'm not a 20 year vet really kind of opened my eyes to the situations and what I had been dealing with. Hence why I'm focusing on school rather then getting another steady job.

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

It sounds like you are on the right track now. That is good to hear! If I may ask, what is it that you are studying?
KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!!!

 

[Resurrected Hobbyist]

It sounds like you are on the right track now. That is good to hear! If I may ask, what is it that you are studying?
KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!!!

Information Technology with an emphasis in web development.

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

Information Technology with an emphasis in web development.

I wish you all the best of luck with it! I am certain that you will do well!

 

[zathros]

I've never been fired. I saw the writing on the wall, and quit, usually having lined up a job somewhere else first. I was a machinist for so long that when issues came up, they were personality issues****. I enjoyed "killing" jobs. I know some people hate that, but if I have to stand there all day long, I mine as well do something, and that mean working at a steady rate which turned into meant outproducing everyone, not because I wanted too, but there was a general lack of work ethics which pervaded the industry. That being said, it was in essence the same thing, and every job I left offered the opportunity to learn new things, and I always made more money. The old if life gives you lemons, make Lemon Meringue pie. It's great you have loving family to help you. that's the important stuff in life, friends and family. The rest is so you can buy toilet paper, etc.

That's quite some beast you've started there. You;'re off to a great start!



****I used to love the phone calls a month later stating so and so was no longer there, would I consider returning, I never looked back. I never went back. That happened a few time, when in the latter part of my life, there was a realization that they could not get my programs to work on their 4 axis CNC machines. I always used Datum planes. You don't know the datum reference point, good luck.

 

[Resurrected Hobbyist]

I've never been fired. I saw the writing on the wall, and quit, usually having lined up a job somewhere else first. I was a machinist for so long that when issues came up, they were personality issues****. I enjoyed "killing" jobs. I know some people hate that, but if I have to stand there all day long, I mine as well do something, and that mean working at a steady rate which turned into meant outproducing everyone, not because I wanted too, but there was a general lack of work ethics which pervaded the industry. That being said, it was in essence the same thing, and every job I left offered the opportunity to learn new things, and I always made more money. The old if life gives you lemons, make Lemon Meringue pie. It's great you have loving family to help you. that's the important stuff in life, friends and family. The rest is so you can buy toilet paper, etc.

That's quite some beast you've started there. You;'re off to a great start!



****I used to love the phone calls a month later stating so and so was no longer there, would I consider returning, I never looked back. I never went back. That happened a few time, when in the latter part of my life, there was a realization that they could not get my programs to work on their 4 axis CNC machines. I always used Datum planes. You don't know the datum reference point, good luck.

part of the issue I developed with Best Buy was they changed the way my particular position with Geek Squad was handled so I went from having a client advising role to a sales role. And when I say sales role, I mean if you compared my job to a PC sales job the only difference was my uniform and pay rate. The later of which was part of the problem. You know because I'm doing the exact same job as everyone else on the floor, but getting paid 3x as much while being required to do 1/8 of the performance (My sales goal were around $200 an hour while PCs was $1000/hr, Home Theater was $1200/hr and appliances was $1500/hr). But the managers kept shoving it down my throat that I wasn't a member of the sales team, I was Geek Squad. You know the old saying of "If it walks like a duck, eats like a duck, and talks like a duck it's probably a duck" ? Yeah, that was me with sales. I walked like a salesperson, I talked like a sales person, I was tracked like a sales person, I worked like a sales person. "But you're not a sales person!" was always management's response. The really insulting part, I have this pesky work ethic that basically says if I'm still drawing a pay check I should do what it is I'm being paid to do. So I did basically what I considered to be the absolute bare minimum I could stand. Please remember I'm already pissing the majority of the sales team off because I'm making more them for doing 1/8th their job. So that absolute bare minimum... put me in the top 3 for my position for the territory. Which told me, the company doesn't have a handle on what it's doing with this position. Add to that the fact that at my store, the managers wanted to use me as "Emergency back up" meaning use me in whatever department needs a hand whenever it needs a hand. So I had to know about cameras, cam-corders, phones, tablets, drones, washing machines, stoves, microwaves, car radios, CB radios, TVs, projectors, stereo systems, speakers, in-home installation, out-door installation, monitors, computers, cell phones, cell phone plans, cell phone contracts, routers.... again, while I've got the majority of the sales team pissed at me. I think the final straw was when I applied for a different job in the same store and I didn't get it. But it's not what you think. the manager told me I aced the interview, and I demonstrated competence for the job role, and I had done the job before so I knew it back wards and forwards. No, the reason I didn't get the job: he didn't want to loose me on the sales floor. And even when I attempted to talk to management about the situation, I was only talked at. They never talked with me. It was always "You don't know" or "You're missing something". deal with that for the better part of a year and you really just stop caring about the little things, like punching in and out for lunch.


Anyway, now that that little tirade is over, some updates on Houndy here.

Still working on the right leg. It seems part of the challenge of this project is patience. A lot of the processes I'm using are tedious. A good example: The joints in the leg.


They look pretty simple right? Well they sort of are simple, but simple doesn't mean quick. As I said, part of my challenge here is to make the entire Warhound out of the likes of paper, cardboard and foam core. Well that material limitation produces a bit of a challenge in itself. These parts need to be strong enough to support this rest of the model, yet still made out of paper. Well when you 15 and 20 layers of paper, it becomes surprisingly strong. So with that thought in mind, here is what I did:



I started with the parts from the plans, which was two circles. I cut these out of cardboard and then made a central shaft out of three segments of cardboard and mounted it all together in a sort of spool. I then attached strips of paper to the shaft. I glued the paper to the shaft in loose loops to get it more rounded, and then added more layers. I put a layer of glue down between each layer. The final result being the hard barrel sort of piece you saw before.

And this leads to a situation where I always chuckle to myself over:


The need to drill through paper! I drilled holes into the paper and then mounted a pair of tooth picks into the joint. This allowed me to mount the next segment by mounting the tooth picks into a piece of foam core:

 

[zathros]

You can see from the detail you're putting in that this is going to "paint up" incredible. I look forward to seeing that uniforming touch that brings these things to life.

I have some personal friends that work at the local Best Buy. They tell me they use them for whatever they wish, and there's not much they can do about it. They hate their jobs, but the job market in Connecticut is horrible.

A similar thing happened to me at Sikorsky Aircraft. They had to pay me production awards for the jobs where is was reducing the time to make the parts sometimes by %300. They got tired of giving me extra $1000 dollar checks that were supposed to be incentive. They called me into the office and told me I had a new "Job Description", and in essence were rehiring me, but I would not loose any seniority. My job description read something to the effect: "You are responsible for doing all production phases of any part given to you". That meant no more incentives. No more raises. They threw me into a black hole of "caring about my job". The flip side was that I could demand any machine be freed up, I had end mills designed to my specification, and I took work from other departments. I decided I was going to slice and dice the place up. I id that for 3 years, Everyone except the top management hated me. I would be programming CNC machines one day, setting up bridge mills, lathes, and Bridgeport's the other days. EDM'ing broken taps out of high value Titanium rotor parts, and everybody I knew back stabbed the shit out of me. I didn't care though as I only socialized with 2 or 3 of the people there, and they remained my friends.

They ended up moving around 5000 of the jobs there to other parts of the country, and some to other countries. Those people just didn't realize that the 1970's was over, and if you sat around on your ass all day, and used the minimalist approach, you were going to lose your job. I never got laid off, when lay offs came around, and that was when I hit them up, and got, any raises I could. there was a hard core group of people there that I believe made most of the helicopters. From what I've been told, the place is run like a Gulag now. It used to be a great place to work, things changed 5 years after I started there. I have a nice milling machine, compound rotary tables, a nice 9" South End Back Gear Lath, with the milling attachment, Mig and a Miller Econotig Welder. That, plus my electronics equipment allows me to fabricate or fix almost anything I have. I am cheap, but by necessity. I haven't purchased a t.v. in 25 years. I just go the my local Transfer Station and grab what I need our of the electronics pile. I have grabbed incredible computers too, that people throw away because they have a virus! I usually pass those off to friends that need them for their kids, their not powerful enough for the CAD programs I run.

The people at my local Best Buy are a bunch of idiots, except for 2 maybe 4 of them. I know two of them. I love to go there and listen to the spiel, then pick them apart. Best Buy is great for trying stuff out, then buying it online (though their selection is limited). I know they hate that, but you got to do what you got to do.

 

[Resurrected Hobbyist]

The people at my local Best Buy are a bunch of idiots, except for 2 maybe 4 of them. I know two of them. I love to go there and listen to the spiel, then pick them apart. Best Buy is great for trying stuff out, then buying it online (though their selection is limited). I know they hate that, but you got to do what you got to do.

You know they price match right?

 

[zathros]

Yes, but they usually don't have the exact model that I want, which is why their price matching is pretty much the industry standard. They are really nice, in all fairness, the employees, I mean, even if not the brightest bulbs, dim witted people can be really nice, and I return their niceness and effort. I go there and buy what I can, like Cell phone cases, movies (DVD's) when they have blow out sales. I like the curved Panel LG Television, but my pocket doesn't, and I would probably buy a projector because at that price, you can get one helluva nice projector. That's where Best Buy shoots themselves in the foot. The local one only sells super expensive projectors. Think how little space a projector takes, compared to a 60" t.v., and they have the projector room already set up.

About how tall is this bad boy going to be? It looks like it's going to be a big one. Any plans to light it up with LED's?

 

[Resurrected Hobbyist]

Yes, but they usually don't have the exact model that I want, which is why their price matching is pretty much the industry standard.

So... what's the point of show rooming if you're not show rooming what you buy?

About how tall is this bad boy going to be? It looks like it's going to be a big one. Any plans to light it up with LED's?

No plans on LEDs, at least not in this particular build. Like I said, this started as a project of boredom. Not even really sure I'll paint this one. At this point it's a build it because I can kind of situation. If memory serves the plans I'm using builds a titan that varies between 10" and 12.5" tall depending on how you position the legs and waist.

I've done crappy proxy builds with these plans before but this time I'm putting a lot of effort into it to see what I can really get out of it. Plus like I said, the big challenge of not using any pre-formed parts and such and just working with paper, cardboard and foam core.

Buuuuut I had to make a little tiny break in the challenge. I think I'm good with it though. I had to get more exacto blades.

 

[zathros]

The pure fabrication of this is what intrigues me. You see less and less of it these days. Kudos to you on an excellent build thread.

 

[Resurrected Hobbyist]

So I should have done some perusing around here before I started (I also blame you Zathros) as I just now discovered Berco's WIP thread from when he was working to revamp the very template I started from to produce a more detailed Ultramarine Titan. Of course now that I've discovered his updated template I will be compelled to compile my own Chaos themed updated template and load that up. Ah the joys of a hobby where one half of the fan-base is inspired/motivated by the other half.

Anyway, today's update is about pistons. I made all 9 of the pistons for the right foot.

As I explained before I'm using Q-tips for the piston shafts. Just cut off the cotton head to start, then you can glue the strip of paper to that end. For these pistons I've found that a strip of paper, and yes that is paper not card stock, that is 10mm wide by 5 inched long works out the best. I simply cut the strip of paper and then glue one end to the Q-tip body.



I give the glue about 20 minutes to set and then I apply a thin layer of glue to the 'inside' of the paper. That's the side of the paper that will be rolled onto the previous layer. This way it allows to not only glue all the paper in place but also to saturate the entire roll up of paper making it solid. I then work my way slowly around, rolling up the paper until I get this:



Once I get to this stage, I can just cut off the other end and presto. Piston shafts!

 

[Revell-Fan]

This is a really cool and amazing project!

I too am sorry about your job but I know from experience that a new door will open sooner or later. I wish you the best of luck. .)

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

That is a GREAT idea for pistons. I too like to use the paper Q-Tip shafts for many things. thumbsup

 

[Resurrected Hobbyist]

This is a really cool and amazing project!

I too am sorry about your job but I know from experience that a new door will open sooner or later. I wish you the best of luck. .)

In a lot of ways loosing my job has turned out to be a good thing. Firstly it opened my eyes to abuse I was being subjected to. Secondly, my sister came through and got me some temp work in a completely different industry which helped undo a lot of damage from working Retail so long so I'm in a better mental state to go back to school then I was 3 months ago. And going back to school to finish my degree is something I've been trying to do for the last year or so. I have a few contacts with different web development firms so I feel confident once I acquire the skills I'll be able to get my foot in the door.

 

[Resurrected Hobbyist]

So I'm pretty sure I'm just self destructive. or just a streak for self torture. One or the other. Why have I come to this conclusion? Well I wanted to have exposed grating over internal workings. I like the look of it and I think it helps carry the in-accurate nature of Chaos War gear. Normally I would use some window screen grating, but I as I said one of the challenges I put before myself for this project was making everything from scratch. So how did I go about making the grating? Well... like this.



I made a frame using cardboard, then mounted that on a sheet of foam core start at one corner started stringing the thread across, put down another pin to hold the line and then came back the opposite way, and then back again and back and back and back and back and back and back and back and.... well you get the idea. Once I have the thread all tacked down I put 3 copies of the original frame, this time cut out of card stock, down with glue and left this exercise in mental exhaustion to dry for a couple hours.

Once that was dry I mounted it in the upper workings that will go on the back of the main body:


So... a success... mostly. I'm debating weather I'll just cheat and use some wind screen for the grating or if I'll just deal with this as it is. The engine workings under the grating come from the Vulcan mega-bolter that Berco made for his Warhound titan. I just enlarged it to cover the space I needed it to cover. Works rather well I think.

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

OK, that is a GREAT technique. You could have also used scrap from a screen door, but I like this as well!!!
I will have to try this myself.

 

[Resurrected Hobbyist]

OK, that is a GREAT technique. You could have also used scrap from a screen door, but I like this as well!!!
I will have to try this myself.

I think I am going to just use screen mesh rather then this. If you want to give it a shot, something I thought of a little while ago. Use some sort of spray adhesive, or clear coat on the netting before you cut the excess from the frame. My thinking is that using the adhesive/clear coat will help solidify the strands of string to one another so no length of more then 1mm is not attached to something.