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Since Apocalypse give me a good excuse to use them, I decided to build a LR Vanquisher.

I wanted the Vanquisher to look different than the standard LR, other than just the huge cannon.

So I am going to make the tank bigger and more modern looking, or at least more WWII and less WWI.

So far I have decided to make it bigger by stretching the hull back some, and enlarging the turret. Modernizations include an ball mount for the Lascannon, and no sponsons. I think I will replace the sponsons with larger exhaust pipes to cove the holes and make it look less slab sided. I am keeping the comically large cannon, though.



Johan

Solid first post! I like it a lot. I'm not crazy about the rear mounted turret, because it sort of takes away from the aggressive look of the vanquisher. The buffed turret looks nice though. Is there any way you can widen and lower then chasis?

FWIW, I ended up remodeling my Russes more like SU-122 / JagdPanzer IV.

Silverthorne: I thought about chopping and lowering the hull but I figured it would not be worth the trouble, and if I was going to change the LR hull shape I would be better off using a WWII tank kit chassis. However I think a widened Chimera hull would look sweet with a buffed LR trurret on it up front. Kinda like a T-34.

JHDD: I used the assault gun theme for my Basilisks. The are modeled on the Nashorn for that nice emergency design look.

WOW it looking good cant what till its painted good job

I'm going to be honest. It looks silly.

The rear mounted turret, as mentioned before, takes away a lot of the aggressive look and really just seems completely unbalanced. As for the socketed lascannon, it's a good idea, but your execution leaves a lot to be desired, it just seems too large and unbalanced. Perhaps putting the turret back in the front and using a sleeker lascannon barrel (an old or new Cadian lascannon or scratch building one) would let you make a smaller assembly that would seem less awkward.

I, too, am trying to bulk up the Leman Russ turret however. I would suggest removing the cargo boxes on the back of the head first though, then moving the commander cupola. Strictly plausibility speeking, there is no room for a gunner and a loader in that turret the way it is layed out by GW. The IG could use a new vehicle design for all of the chassis, in my opinion.

Oh, in lieu of Nashorn-styled "FW Vanheim" Basilisks, I styled after the Soviet Pion and the modern MARS / MLRS.

Initially I was going to suggest that using a Chimera chasis would look good, but I figured it wasn't what you were going for. Maybe a union of the chimera hull and a predator turret?

Hm. I know this is supposed to be a vanquisher, but the barrel looks too long for my taste. Check out grey_death's post here for a pretty cool sketch he based off of this thread:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/30/206892.page#249585

Ok, after a month of slacking i got the vanquisher mostly finished. I changed the turret some, so its narrower in the front. Also After some thought i decided to try one with a chopped and lowered hull and the turret in the front, if i screwed up it could just become a looted wagon or something. I think it turned out well, and it does look more aggressive. I do think it lacks the Heavy Tank look though.

I like the lower profile of the second vanquisher, although I think the turret looks a little wide for it - that's just IMHO, though.

Generally tank designers don't like to have that gap between the hull and the turret. It creates a shell trap, where incoming rounds can deflect off the armor (which is what the armor is trying to do) and then still strike the tank and penetrate.

The second conversion is far better than the first. No offense, but I don't care for the first one at all. It just doesn't look right to me. With a gun that size and the turret do far back, the recoil from it firing seems like it would just flip the tank over backwards. It might need some wheelie bars! Also, from seeing the top view, the turret looks WAY too big to me.

Good work all the same. Execution is well done, if not a tad over-sized.


Ghidorah

Yeah, I much prefer the second conversion.

That first turrest rankles me.

Yeah, shot traps were a problem with some WWII era tanks, since shots would hit a downward angled part of the turret and bounce the shot right through the top of the hull. I managed to eliminate the shot trap on the second version by incorporating the turret ring into the glasis plate, any downward bounced shot off the turret would hit the front. In the first version does have a trap, but its a small one, since all the turret faces are angled up and the only real trap is for it to hit under the turret and glance up into it. I didn't want the turret to be flush, though cause it would look too modern.