4/21/24 Capitol Imperialis Progress

1090 printing hours in and we are underway on the main body! About 900 was required for the left and right tracks alone. I finished fusing the pieces together with a wood burner on the second track as well now. Currently I am working on printing the titanic storage deck, and am excited to see this thing start to literally come together.

First off, for those asking what is a Capitol Imperialis, it is a massive command tank first (and only seen in model) in Epic 40k. There are a variety of scales this tank can come in under the Capitol Imperialis classification, and this one is the largest form. It carries 3 Baneblades, 10 battle tanks, 300 infantry, and an Arvus Lighter! There have been some scratch builds for 28mm, but until this wonderful gentleman made his own VERY WELL DONE file it has been largely inaccessible to the gaming community. Some creator liberty had been taken with this design, but it was so well done that I have incorporated it into Alternate 40k Rules as optional wargear. Its datasheet will undergo an audit and be updated once I have this majestic thing in hands (sort of, its 39″ long!) and can better grasp its awesomeness.

I started printing this back in September of ’23 I believe. Here is some of my early progress (and old sneak peak of a Christmas gift I was working on for a surprised new Tau player) for scale. The white on the front piece is air dry clay. I was experimenting with 10% infill for early pieces and the upper layer did not have enough infill support to layer properly. It is not near as bad as it looks, I just needed to patch it up a bit. Won’t be able to tell once paint is on it. I found 15% worked really well for me.

Just trying to capture the immense scale of this model, I finished off a roll of filament by printing an included not Leman Russ file. It is not a bad looking file, but considering it was not why I purchased this file I can’t complain.

Getting further along, this was about halfway through the left track.

The left track as seen here with its final piece being glued on! This thing is so massive I had to use the wall to brace it up. After this picture was taken, I melted all of the seems together with a wood burner. I reached out to the creator of the file with concerns that glue alone would not hold its own under weight, especially if populated with models. He suggested the wood burner. I found that 315 F was good for a careful and slow progress. If outside and it is cool or the wind is blowing, it may require some increase. It is a slow and patient process, so do it in segments and do not rush it! I did find during this assembly I accidently got some curve going. It is very minor, but I was able to correct it with the right track.

For the right track, to keep it straight I started its assembly on its side rather than resting on the track. When you start the print, there is a thin push out from the first layer. This is very minor, but when the build is 39″ long it slowly curves it. On this track I took better care in trimming it and assembling it flat for just over halfway through. From there, I then assembled it track side up to keep it level and keep as much wobble out as possible. Once again I sealed the seems with a wood burner. It gives it a nice slight welded look, but I am getting better at it. Some parts are smooth and impossible to tell where the seem is! It took 3 hours or so for this process on the right track alone. Like I said, a trial of patience. You will notice some rough areas. I intend to clean this up a bit once I am further along with assembly and begin running LEDs through it.

On to the titanic storage deck, I have the floor complete. I still need the ramp adapters added and the walls that hang off the sides of the tracks, but it is still progress! This section will transport 3 Baneblades and part of the battle tank population. A pair of tank elevators and the 2nd deck houses the rest of them from the looks of it. The front (left) will have 2 battle tank ramps that deploy below the prow. A massive ramp on the rear (right) will allow titanic models to deploy. A pair of Infantry elevators will also be running all the way to the top, allowing for games of Kill Team to be played inside of this model if one wishes.

This is really exciting progress. Now that I am finally done with the massive track sections, seeing progress is a lot easier! If you want to keep seeing progress on this as I slowly work through it, subscribe at the bottom of this page! What kind of massive projects are you working on? I would love to hear about them! Drop a friendly post on our FB page, Reddit, or drop a comment here!