Project Mighty Morphin Power Land Raider - Multi-melta turret complete

Hello guys,

Just a few more progress shots of my magnetised Land Raider. While I am waiting for the Forge World parts I have continued working on the rest of the Land Raider.



I decided some time ago I was going to use the Forge World Multi-melta Razorback turret (I ordered it nearly a year ago – man I am slow) instead of the standard pintle mount multi-melta that the Land Raider kit comes with. I have just never been a fan of the tanks only anti-armour weapon being a pintle mount…it just doesn’t make sense to me.

It was very easy to fit and just needed a bit of a clean up around the rear hatch and a whole heap of drilling out with a dremel. I made a small template on paper of the turret base and traced around this template with a permanent marker. From there, I drilled a heap of holes about every mm apart on the inside of the traced area. This made it very easy to cut the remaining plastic out of the hull.

Unfortunately the turret hole does go over where the top plate glues to he inner track guards, so be careful with your drill bits if you have a go at this yourself as it would be easy to snap them off when you get to that side as the plastic is about three times as thick. Once the bulk of the plastic has been removed you just need to clean it up with the scalpel and some files.

Easy peasy. Overall I am very happy with the style of multi-melta turret. What do you think?



I also encountered another problem when gluing on the top plate of the hull.

I didn’t glue in the engine block as I want this for some scenery and I have glued the assault ramp together so I don’t need the interior detailing. However, when I glued the two side hulls to the font/bottom hull plates I use a stack of rubber bands and the like to hold it all together. Unfortunately this made the space where the top hull plate glues to the hull a bit too narrow.

I could make the hull fit and when I eventually got it on it was bent slightly along the middle. Anyway, I filed the sides of the top plate and the outer track guards on the side hulls to get it to fit better and disaster was averted. Whew… I was actually quite stressed that I completely balls it up.

While I am waiting on the Forge World Extra Armour kit to be sent I will finish off the Redeemer Flamestorm cannon sponsons and have them magnetised.

Forge World Rocks!!

Hi guys,

Just a quick one. I got a response from one of the fine fellows over at Forge World tonight and they said that they will be sending me a replacement kit in the mail.

They agree it looks like the Extra Armour kit shrunk more than it should have as part of the cooling process of the resin.

Yet again, the crew at Forge World had been a pleasure to deal with in resolving any hiccups. One of the best out there for their customer service. :)



As soon as I get my hands on the new set expect to see some more updates.

Cheers!

Proto-type for Thunder-Lizard Cavalry Ordered

Well I picked up one of the Gamezone Predators to have a go at doing a Crimson Fist 'Thunderwolf'. Here is the one I picked up from the CMoN Website.



$20USD + $9 postage to Oz, much better than the $12EUR + $42 postage !!! from direct. WTF?

Anyway, I saw this also on CMoN that I thought I would share as well (you will have to click on it or look at the link).



You can have a look at the thread on this one the following link:

http://coolminiornot.com/70962

Musings: Thunderwolf Cavalry Alternatives

Hi Guys,

While I wait on a response from Forgeworld on my Landraider woes I have been thinking of other options for my marine army. I guess I am just in a mega build type of mood at the moment rather than paint mode. Anyway, I like the idea of being able to use my Crimson Fists as a 'counts as' any marine army as long as those 'special' units from other codexs are clearly WYSIWYG. For example, Death Company and Thunderwolf Cav are very specific units and should have their own specific special figures. I know some people will cry cheese etc…but to be honest; I pay enough for this hobby and cannot warrant re-purchasing core choices such as dreadnoughts, rhinos, razorbacks, landraiders, landspeeders, bolt gun armed marines, etc etc to basically have a different colour scheme. I guess I am of that school of thought of marines as a 5 in 1 codex. Anyway…moving on *steps of soap box*

I have been thinking of doing some Thunderwolf cav up in my Crimson Fist colours; but blue marines on wolves or that abomination of the Canis Wolfborn model make me die a little bit inside.
That got me thinking about using other mounts. I have seen a one of the guys on the blogs (3+ Save I think) using the Chaos Knights as which looked really sweet but I didn’t want to go that path if I can help it.

What I had in mind were Raptors!! I really enjoyed painting up the lizard scale cloak my Crimson Fist version of Vulkan, so I thought it has to be lizards of some kind.

Initially I was thinking of using the plastic cold-ones from Warhammer Fantasy which left the options of Dark Elves or Lizardmen. The lizardmen ones just look plain goofy to me.



The cold-ones look like they must get on board the short bus to go to school… so they are out. Now the Dark Elves.



Now these guys look mean. The only problem is the scale. I saw another fellow do a conversion on them and although they looked great, they looked like big armoured men riding into battle on a tiny pony.

The Lizardmen also had the carnisaur and I saw an awesome conversion with this on coolminiornot…but at $85 a pop it’s just not an option when I would like to have at least 10 of these guys.




So in a hunt around last night I found another mob: Gamezone Miniatures. Now they have a range of Dark elves riding massive cold ones. They are metal but I am pretty sure I can work with them and it’s a good excuse to get the greenstuff skills up. They cost about $12 Euros a pop so I was thinking of buying one for the hell of it and to give it a go. If nothing else, if it works out I can enter it in the next conversion comp. :)

Have a look at the guys below and let me know what you think. Do you think they could make convincing ‘counts as’ Thunderwolf Cav?





I reckon they look fearsome enough and the size looks much better but again, I need to see them in the flesh and actually mount a marine on one to be sure; but going by the standard cavalry base they are mounted on they look to be at least twice the size of the GW cold one options.

Project Mighty-Morphin Power Landraider - Hit a 'small' snag...

Hi guys,


I seem to have hit a bit of a problem with the Forgeworld Extra Armour kit. After straightening all the pieces out and cleaning up most of kit I was dry fitting the large side armour pieces (after shaving off some rivets and what not so it would sit flush) and I uncovered a bit of a problem.

You see, I was kinda doing my head in why the sponson mount wasn't fitting very well. I shaved the insides, tried inserting the sponson while the whole piece was still hot and nothing was working. Next I tried one of the Forgeworld Fist doors...still no luck. A normal land raider door even seemed too big. Now I thought this was odd.

Anyway, as I was planning on being able to use the Landraider as a Terminus Landraider as well (the 5 Lascannon mount one) I grabbed one of my Predator side sponsons to see if they would fit and then I noticed the little cut outs that allow for that style of sponson were too small. Well...this is a problem.

Upon closer inspection (I will save you the photos) it appears that the two large side armour plates of the extra armour kit are a fraction too small.

I will send an email off to Forgeworld in the morning and I am hoping they can help (or better yet...replace them).

Has anyone else ever had major problems with this kit? I was really hoping to have this part done but it looks like it wont be happening for a while.

Project Mighty-Morphin Power Landraider - Inner Hull Magnets Complete

Hi Guys,

Well my plans of airbrushing went to the void again this weekend. It was just too damn cold on the weekend and it looked like it was going to rain so I didn’t want to deal with the humidity as well. So I just whacked on some DVDs and sat down to build some kits while being all rugged up and hanging out with my cats. The painting had to wait again.

I finished off another razorback/rhino conversion (pictures to follow another day) that I wish I did for all my other razorbacks. A few cross beams inside the hull made from spare sprue, a few drilled holes and some strategically placed magnets and I have given myself some more options. Oh well, the benefits of hindsight huh?

Anyway, before I place another order off for some more toys before the impending GW Price rise hits I thought I would start working on my Landraider. I want to be able to use it (and all my land raiders) is a number of configurations. I purchased the Landraider Crusader/Redeemer kit some time ago and the extra Crusader/Redeemer sprue off the GW Site. I also purchased a Crimson Fist Forgeworld door set and the Forgeworld extra armour kit for this beast to fully pimp it out.

Now, I wanted to be able to swap between the redeemer and the crusader and I also wanted to be able to mount the side sponsons in different locations. Personally I love the looks of the sponson mounts to be at the rear but that is plain dumb with the flamestorm cannons since it would barely be able to shoot past its hull and need to be mounted to the front. Anway, without further ado… here is my progress so far.

I decided to place some plasticard in between the two side hull sections to be able to mount the magnets in the centre of each sponson mount. To give this piece the most amount of strength and physical contact to glue; I opted for a single large piece of plasticard with a few little nicks in the top and bottom to allow the small lugs on the kit for the normal inner doors.




Once this piece was glued to the inner side hull I glued the outer hull on and kept it all together with a ton of rubber bands.


Now, the only thing I didn’t really plan on was the distance between the hull magnets (if they are placed on the inside of the plasticard plate) and the sponson magnets. I don’t think there will be enough pull if the magnets are on the inside by the time the extra armour is placed on the hull and the magnet on the sponson. Oh well… I will see how I go; but I decided to place the magnets on the outer side of the plasticard. If they manage to come loose I will have to greenstuff them in a bit better but I have yet to have problems with the superglue giving out.


After the glue set for the magnets I placed on the tracks and the rear engine block and called it a night. I am hoping to attack it again today after work and will start working on the Forgeworld extra armour kit. Unfortunately, mine is pretty warped and will need some work to fit properly and I can’t seem to fit the sponsons through the openings either at this point when I was working on a bit last night. I think a fair bit of shaving on the inside may need to happen, but I am hoping I can make it work a bit better once they have been reshaped a bit from some hot water.

I will keep you posted.

Stronos Razorbacks - WiP

Hi guys,

Just a short one to show my WiP version of the Stronos Razorbacks with the Lascannon & Twin-Linked Plasma Guns. There are a number of versions out there but this is the style I have opted for.

I cut one of lascannons right back past 'the coil' and tidy up the whole area. The plasma guns are also trimmed right down to suit.



Once I have the rhinos airbrushed (well...once I sort out the mix I need to use) these babies are next in line to be painted.

Just as a little side item to note. I haven't got the 2nd hatches on the hulls as I needed to order some parts due to using up the wrong part on my Dakka Predators. (oops!)