Topic: Fallen Revenant Titan scenery piece (WIP)

[Tethesis]

If anybody's read my Exodite board topic then you've probably seen what I have in mind already.
http://www.40konline.com/index.php?topic=201711.0

But I didn't have such a clear idea there, so let me show you what I'm thinking about. I plan to make a fallen titan piece of terrain, but of course don't intend to make the whole thing, if I could then I'd probably play with it instead of using it as terrain. So instead I've commissioned some of my bitz that look the closest to an Eldar Titan I could find. Here's what I have:

The head I drilled (dremell) off from an Independence Day alien toy and green stuffed it so it looks a bit more eldar, though it still needs a few more details. The wing I cut of from the shown wooden plank and used a sanding head on my dremell to make it smoother. I was thinking to use the rest of the wooden plank as the terrain's base, so it goes better in line with the rest of my terrain, but I want to use as much of it as possible, so that pretty much fixed it's shape. The dotted red line represent where I'm gonna cut the board. If you measure up the size, you might notice that this titan would be a little bigger than FW's revenant titan, but who cares, not all titans have to be the same size. And a Phantom would be a little bigger and with extra wings, so no Phantom.

Anyway, here's a preview of what I think the terrain piece will look like:

The first level marked with red lines is made out of regular packing polystyrene, but just a little over 3 inches thick, so it saves me time gluing many layers on top of each other. Of course it will be properly shaped as a hill, but sine I have no proper tools for cutting polystyrene, I was thinking of mostly just using my hands and then burn the surface to give it a more natural texture instead of the bulbous surface it would have otherwise. The blue lines represent a space I'm gonna "carve" into the first level to help fit the Titan head and some of the pebbles I'll use as fallen debris and such. The second level is represented by the orange and darker orange lines, so it's actually two pieces, and the titan will fit between them. This second level will also be made with the same polystyrene. Both levels will have enough of a smooth surface so that some models can be placed on it. Everything green would be the actual Titan pieces. The wing will fit between the two second level pieces and go into a slot in the first level. And those two big dark green squares represent the Titan's shoulder boosters, which I wanted to ask you guys if you really think if it would be necessary. Looking at this preview, I'm somewhat convinced I should make something that at least looks like the boosters, otherwise there would be too little of the Titan visible to be able to claim it ever was a complete titan. I'm, hoping that is all I'll have to show of the titan. I have a couple of spare arms from the same ID toy that has some hands that would look decent enough, but the problem is Titans don't have hands, unless we're talking of some of the Titan Knights or the Phantom. Maybe I could put one hand poking out, and say the other arm was a cannon that was recovered by the planet's Exodites to use in their defenses. Well, finally, those black lines represent real pebbles and stones which I'll paint accordingly and glue them so that it looks like the Titan actually crashed into this hill (shot down into it). The head might make a great objective marker, perhaps the Eldar are trying to rescue the souls from the Titan as well as the "driver", if he survived.

So, any feedback before I move forward with this? do I really need the arms? would they fit into the fluff? Is this little of the Titan being shown enough to look good?

[khaine]

Intresting...

The wing looks like a great start, good work with the dremell. 

Before I make any real comment I'm trying to get an idea of what you're aiming for. Is this a Titan that has just crashed or something that's been laying around for a couple of thousand years and parts just been uncovered?

[Tethesis]

Given the theme for the board I was thinking to make it like it's been there a while, so no, it wouldn't have fallen during the same battle any game its being used on. But I don't want to make it too obvious that its been there for a long time in case I want to use it for a mission where it would have fallen recently.

So I guess the answer would be both .

[khaine]

Ok...

do I really need the arms?

Not at all.

would they fit into the fluff?

Depends how you define arms... If you're talking arms with hands no.

Is this little of the Titan being shown enough to look good?

More than enough.

But I don't want to make it too obvious that its been there for a long time in case I want to use it for a mission where it would have fallen recently. So I guess the answer would be both

I don't see any mission that you may want to play that would be impacted by how long the Titan has been there. Rescue the pilot or rescue the Bonesinger who was trying to recover something from a Titan that was destroyed long ago, it's still a rescue mission.

To be honest I'd ditch the whole hill idea and look at some pictures of things that have crashed. The ground is hard, even more so when you're not just talking soil but also rock, anything that hits it is more likely to bounce a couple of times, break up, flip, burst into flames and finally skid to a halt rather than impact with such force that it digs itself 30 feet down through a hill... You're going to be looking at a lot more surface debris than actual ground penetration, from that point as time goes on you can then expect to see the wreckage start to 'sink' as soft ground gives way to the weight or loose top soil gets blown into banks around the parts.

Also try and keep clear of setting things at 90 degree angles, the wing is far less likely to come to rest pointing straight up as titled to one side and leaning against something.

Any kind of multi element scenery you are in effect telling a story of how those elements came together, the more you think about that back story and what would have happened on the run up to what you are modelling the more convincing the end result will be.

[Tethesis]

Good feedback, thanks. But my idea is that after all the bouncing and skidding, the majority of the titan would've gotten lodged into that small hill that was already split in two and acted as a wedge, grabbing hold of the Titan partially wrecking the hill.

Oh, and by "arms" I do mean arms with hands at the end of them, four fingers hands. Buts what I was wondering about that is that Phantom and Revenant Titans aren't the only existing Titans, there were also Titan Knights, whose equipment was quite varied, so there might be some variation of the revenant that does have a kind of titan powerfist I would think. If I just cared about making what I think looks good and fits with my personal idea of the game, then I simply would, but I think its more entertaining that it fits with most player's idea of the fluff.