Out of all four Warhound Titans I painted in Solaria colours, “Canis Hastam” was probably my favourite. Who doesn’t love tiny Rhinos?

I think it was also a mix of the pose striding around the building, the markings on the carapace and the inferno gun loadout. The latter is not a popular choice but just happened (by pure chance) to create some memorable in game moments at the Incom Gaming heresy event I attended, in no small measure down to some amusing ‘table/mission specific’ effects that were in play, one being an industrial zone which added +1 dice and +1 strength to any weapons with the ‘Firestorm’ trait. Suffice to say up until everything went ‘catastrophic’ meltdown things were looking good for “Canis Hastam” on that table! There were so many fun moments, the stuff that Titanicus as a game so often generates I don’t think I can change the loadout now. Well, not the Inferno Gun anyway, it’s become part of the engines history now.

Plastic Warhound Titan in Solaria colours
Plastic Warhound Titan in Solaria colours
Plastic Warhound Titan in Solaria colours

Basing material as on other engines was built up using a range of materials, including but not limited to cork (for bulking out), mixture of putty and different grades of talus (gravel), base texture effect paints like Vallejo basing paste, Games Workshop cracked earth effects, plastic kits from the Epic 40,000 era of games and of course how could I not include a few of the original 90’s ‘Space Marine’ tanks and Astartes figures in VIIth legion colours to stick with the ‘siege of terra’ defenders theme. Back in the previous editions of Epic I tended to steer away from painting Imperial Fists, never really go to grips with the palette. However since doing some of them more recently for ‘Horus Heresy’ Age of Darkness ruleset I’ve grown to appreciate them a bit better. Who knows, maybe should Epic ever make another return I might expand these few into a playable force.

Weathering effects

Across all of the engines I applied the same weathering effects for consistency, and this was in a number of stages or layers.

  1. Overall filter of burnt umber water-soluble oil paint. Heavily thinned. Sealed with a satin varnish.
  2. Dust and grime in the recesses of the lower armour trim edges, especially legs and feet. This was thinned pigments to match the pigments used on the bases and applied with a brush.
  3. Streaking grime of water-colour wax pencils (my current replacement for oils) along upper armour panels and large surfaces with the streaks following the flow of the armour.
  4. oil stains to piston sleeves and moving parts applied sparingly. AK Interactive engine oil mineral paint.
  5. Streaks and stains on banners using thinned earth tone GW contrast paints. Note: These were also extensively used for the burnishing effects of heat on the Volkite and Melta weapons.

So that brings my squadron of Warhounds to completion and the majority of engines in the maniple. There is however one more …

I will cover the maniples anchoring presence and princeps senioris, the Warlord battle-class engine “Imperatores Venandi” in the next post. Until then have a great week!