Still needs detailing, then the tracks finishing and painting. Oh and weapons reattaching might be beneficial. Coming along though and hoping to get it finished this year!

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As mentioned, the engine is based around the original one, then several sections of tube are used to create exhausts inspired by the FW preheresy kit.

Started gap filling with greenstuff. Need to file it down and do another round. I think then it's almost ready for priming, just a few small details to add (eyes on the wolves symbols for one).

Really want to get this painted now, which isn't something I say often.

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Doors also need hinges at the bottom. I'll be replicating the original style from this model rather than the new streamlined ones. The "teeth" things are the top are just hacked from sprue. Need a little more filing to even up one side.

Started the engine. You'll notice it's just a rejig of the original engine. I've removed the weedy exhaust piped and put the side vents top and bottom. This then gives me room to fit two big ass exhausts up each side in the modern stylee. Hoping the finished thing will look good, whilst making use of as much of the original. Which is really the point of the entire tank.

Finally I've boshed up a storm bolter on top, which rotates nicely vertically on its mount. Oooo.

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Both sponsons are now on, I'm happy with the under and over arrangement of the lascannons. I've styled them on the forgeworld preheresy land raider conversion as I thought it fit with the whole project. Not based on them directly though. The edging and rivets are drawn from the front and rear of the sides, trying to echo the same style across the new parts. I'm not yet happy with the way the lascannons look, I'm going to try and dress the insides slightly, since when they're rotated out by 45 degrees the insides look a bit pish. Also going to edge top and bottom around the lascannon openings, since at the moment it's just a narrow piece of plasticard.

However the actual lascannons on official land raiders aren't really integrated into the design, since they're all remote operated, so I'm not hugely concerned.

Started the design for the engine tonight, but it went a bit wrong so nothing to show. Pics when I have them.

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Started detailing the top and front. The egress ramp is done baring some small detailing around the bottom edge (some sort of hinge affair I think) and possibly a couple of rivets.

The top plate now has a raised area at the back which ties in with the raised corners of the old LR roof. Onto this I've put the razorback top plate. And on that is the old hatch and ring from the land raider, which I think is a nice old school hint. In true bodge-it style, the hatch is anchored in place by two ten pence pieces. These allow it to rotate.

I've started the lascannons for the first sponson, need to test it out before I can build the second. Not a lot to show there. Also just rigged up the storm bolter pintle mount, which will be fastened in place at a later date.

Next stop.. sponson city baby!

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The gun cradle part is what took most of the time, the three sides and bottom of that took ages. Especially when you consider there are the two angle plates in the corner and a lot of stuff behind the scenes holding it together. But it now takes a razorback turret which can rotate, so we're good.

The separate piece in the middle will be detailed to look like the top half of an egress ramp. The bottom part will be the same width, and almost vertical. I do have to interesting pieces to cut down each side, going around the detail of the wheel supports. Fun.

Good news is it's squared up a lot since I put on the top hull. That's the trouble with chopping things up like this, it's a sod to get them back together again. The track units are still a bit skew-whiff, but I think with the tracks on a lot of that will be hidden.

For a change I'm going to do this right, get it all built, detailed and painted before attaching the tracks. Should make the last part more exciting too, since I tend to get the model complete, then not be able to work up the energy to paint it. Determined to take this through to fruition, damnit!

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Still working on the fluff, but I’m fancying a sort of psuedo pre-heresy army. I’ve not finished the Horus Heresy books yet, so I’m not quite sure at what point this starts, but at some point before the heresy a company from one of the legions which would turn (I’m favouring Luna Wolves for obvious reasons) went into the warp for a routine journey, as these things are wont, got lost a missed a few hundred years of real time. So now they’re trying to head home to Terra to find out what’s happening, and since their navigator is unable to communicate with the astronimicon, they’re doing it the hard way. Of course they’re branded traitors but still under the aprehension they’re the loyalists and the galaxy has gone nuts. Like I say, needs work.

Anywho, so plan is a land raider which started out pre-heresy, but has been modified in their long journey home due to lack of supplies and having to scavenge what’s available. It also gave me a good excuse to have a dig at an old school land raider to bring it up to date.

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After it was broken I had to decide what to do. First I removed the tracks. As much as I love the big old chunky things, they just don't work with the new style I'm trying to inject into old models. So I chopped them all off, and got rid of the wheels too. I'm planning to run tracks around the edge, in a similar style to the current ones. I bought two boxes of tiger tracks which will look the part I think. Should be a nice cross of old school and modern.

I also stretched it by chopping the sides and adding in 45mm. Fairly arbitrary number, but it will make it roughly the same size as a new raider when done. The patched parts are fairly rough at the moment, but most won't show and those that will will be tidied later.

I'm just about to start the weapons, which will be more like the forgeworld pre-heresy raider than either the GW models.

For the hull I'm not going to replicate either old or new, but something in between. I'm keeping the front plate from the old one, but instead of the vertical box thing below it I'm going to put in an access ramp. Hope this will work nicely.

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