Ukrainian model maker Denys Tsiokhla has completed a full maniple of massive Warhammer 40k Titans, in 28mm scale, built entirely from paper, card, wire, and assorted scratch-building materials. His papercraft fabrications include a Warlord, Reaver, Warhound, and Warbringer Nemesis Titan, as well as a growing contingent of T’au Empire heavy battle suits.
Wargamer first covered Tsiokhla’s Warhammer 40k scratch-builds in December 2022, when he’d just finished a papercraft Land Raider. Most of his Warhammer Titans were complete at that point, with the Warbringer polished off in January 2023.
You can find many more work in progress photos from his Titan projects in his online gallery. It seems that completing the maniple of Titans saw him abandon the Emperor of Mankind in favor of the Greater Good, because his two mains projects since then have both been from the T’au Empire.
Between January and June 2023, Tsiokhla completed a papercraft Ta’unar Supremacy Armor, the T’au Empire’s answer to a Titan. He says it’s the project he’s most proud of: “it was an old unfinished model, [I] had to remodel some details because they looked terrible”. The legs and triple-barrelled main weapon proved to be particularly difficult.
From June to December he made the (comparatively) tiny Stormsurge – still one of the largest kits in Warhammer 40k.
The quality of Tsiokhla’s papercraft is astonishing. By his own admission, “I think I’m almost at a plateau with building models”; he’s now focused on getting better at painting miniatures.
Tisokhla’s home Ukraine is still under attack from invading Russian forces. In our first report on Tsiokhla’s models, he explained how he had built them by the light of a head-torch as a way to keep his spirits up during long winter nights without power or heating, due to Russian attacks on infrastructure.
“War is horrible”, he says, adding that his “whole life became darker and depressing” during the invasion and partial occupation of Ukraine. As an electrical engineer he has lots of work “rebuilding and protecting the energy system”. He doesn’t have plans, because “any day I could be drafted” into military service. But he retains some optimism: “we will win”.
Warhammer 40k fans who want to play with affordable Titans and don’t feel like building their own from cardboard behemoths should check out our Legions Imperialis review, Games Workshop’s latest small scale game of big battles and tiny models.
For another tale of a passionate hobbyist who’s mad about mechs, check out our interview with Sean Suchanya, the one-man creator of indie mech wargame Eisenfront.