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I got the idea for this when i putt my turret on topp of a rhino hull and thought to myself "I could do something with this", so i started boulding and it came out like the pics below.
So i wanted to share it with all of you here.

C&C is welcome

Still some smal stuff to do like painting the hull heavy bolter, drilling the exhausts, markings, adding gear and camo netting. Some thing els maybe?

Turret is tilting a little to the rear.. needs to get fixed

It's a bit plain.

Wow! That's really cool! How did you make that one? Good job man!

It is better looking than the actual Leman Russ. The designers of the GW Imperial tanks clearly has no understanding of how armor on vehicles works, and does not even make the models attractive or cool. Nice big boxy profile with nice flat surfaces. At least your work appears to lower the profile slightly, good job.

Also the model does not need all kinds of "bling" to function. I think the "plainness" of the model adds to its appearance. At most you may need to add a tool box, towing cable etc... and unit designations, otherwise I think you nailed it.

Hialmar wrote: The designers of the GW Imperial tanks clearly has no understanding of how armor on vehicles works,

They may or may not, however, it is not relevant for what they are doing - producing a futuristic gothic fantasy setting. The fact that they make imperial tanks roughly based on the earliest tank designs (when armor wasn't well undertsood) and add in all sorts of extra over the top bits is part of what makes the setting work. Just like the whole inquisition thing, trops wondering round in over decorated brightly colored uniform/armor, lighly armored close combat troops etc etc - the whole of 40k is deliberatly full of anachronisms. Trying to impose some sort of reality onto this stuff is missing what makes the whole background setting what it is - brilliant.

We need a tutorial on how you did this, Please.

Cheese Elemental wrote:It's a bit plain.

I think that's the appeal of it really. Plain and simple. Not too many needless frills.

Also, when I came into this thread I thought I was going to see some Leman Russ painted up with pink bubbles on them. Any chance that will happen?

puree wrote:

Hialmar wrote: The designers of the GW Imperial tanks clearly has no understanding of how armor on vehicles works,

They may or may not, however, it is not relevant for what they are doing - producing a futuristic gothic fantasy setting. The fact that they make imperial tanks roughly based on the earliest tank designs (when armor wasn't well undertsood) and add in all sorts of extra over the top bits is part of what makes the setting work. Just like the whole inquisition thing, trops wondering round in over decorated brightly colored uniform/armor, lighly armored close combat troops etc etc - the whole of 40k is deliberatly full of anachronisms. Trying to impose some sort of reality onto this stuff is missing what makes the whole background setting what it is - brilliant.

What he said. The Russ is almost an iconic image ( least around GW ). Its not ment to look modern or cool. Still I quite like the conversion , and at the end of the day its just a game piece, so as long as you know what it represents the thats ok.

Thanks for the coments!

I will try and do a somewhat tutorial of it as i dont have any WIP pics of it before it got painted in a day or two, but wath i do have is al the measurements of the plasticard i used

@ Typeline: About the pink bubbles.. I cant realy answer that but i will put your motion forward to the al mighty demon prince Mr Bubbalicious! Ruler of the Phoenix lords Chaos renegade legion.

(The tough guy posing on the right with his curent bodyguard)


Sorry but he said no and now he's mad at me for disturbing him... He put me on work detail cleaning his golden thron (His toilet)
If i disobey him he said he will eat me and put me in his golden throne aproximatly 8 houres later.


I will put some more pics upp when i added the towing cable, markings ect

I think it is a great conversion really. Feel proud.

I chuckled a bit when I saw the ventilation plate is only visible when you turn the turret, but it's not really that big a deal.

Its just the angles of the photograph, the ventilation is actually visible from the topp, rear and topp siways.

I to would be sad if it didnt show at all as it was a litle hard to do as its metal and i only have plastic glue.

I agree THAT is a cool ass tank. Who would of thought to mix rhinos with IG weaponry

That tank reminds me of the Medium Tanks from Advance Wars I & II

Best Leman Russ in a long time

vodski wrote:

puree wrote:

Hialmar wrote: The designers of the GW Imperial tanks clearly has no understanding of how armor on vehicles works,

They may or may not, however, it is not relevant for what they are doing - producing a futuristic gothic fantasy setting. The fact that they make imperial tanks roughly based on the earliest tank designs (when armor wasn't well undertsood) and add in all sorts of extra over the top bits is part of what makes the setting work. Just like the whole inquisition thing, trops wondering round in over decorated brightly colored uniform/armor, lighly armored close combat troops etc etc - the whole of 40k is deliberatly full of anachronisms. Trying to impose some sort of reality onto this stuff is missing what makes the whole background setting what it is - brilliant.

What he said. The Russ is almost an iconic image ( least around GW ). Its not ment to look modern or cool. Still I quite like the conversion , and at the end of the day its just a game piece, so as long as you know what it represents the thats ok.

While I do not disagree that the Leman Russ may be an iconic image for GW, a lousy looking model is still a lousy looking model. It does not have to look like a Leopard 2 or an Abrams but making the barrel and hull even close to what the proper dimensions should be even on an anachronistic version of a tank would, in my opinion, improve the look of the tank. I think putting the turret on the Rhino Hull, as the OP did, actually accomplishes this without hurting the look or feel at all.

I also think that if you compare the general look of the Baneblade and its variants with that of the Leman Russ it demonstrates that they recognized the need to improve the design of their Imperial tanks and that tanks should not basically be as tall as they are long and that a Main Battle Tanks main armament should at least extend a bit past the end of the hull. The gun is fine for some early mechanized assault guns but I just think it could easily be improved.

I love the background and the look and feel of 40K in general and most of their models but nobody could convince me that the Leman Russ is a good looking model.

I like what you have done here. I would have made the actual gun thinner, but a tutorial is needed.

Quick suggestion
1. Excellent start but this puppy needs gubbins, junk, clutter, on the sides. Timaya and GW IG has vehicle bits that would be excellent. I'm thinking:
*Bags
*shovels/chains
*spare gas cans or ammo items.
*spare tracks or wheels on the sides/front or mayahps some 'jury rigged sandbags' around portions of the front. Here's some examples



2. You might set up mangetized sponsons or sponsons with pins that would fit on the front portion of the hull, or even to the sides of the turrent M-48 style in case you want to do sponsons in the future.

3. You might also consider putting some oil drums hanging horizontally off the back to break up the rhino profile some more.

what head is that on the bodygaurd?
aside from that nice job but as a few have said it is a bit plain.

Cheese Elemental wrote:It's a bit plain.

Some times simplicity is better than being rediculous.

I like it alot it fits the overal feel to IG very well, gj.

big mek boomsnikk wrote:what head is that on the bodygaurd?
aside from that nice job but as a few have said it is a bit plain.

Zerker head with the bunny ears chopped off.
To the op nice Kustom russ

I like it, it kinda reminds me of those mini-tanks that the Polish and Italians made during WWII.

I quite like the turret, it's a very nice design.

Man thats actualy realy nice, dont suppose you fancy posting up a how to guide?

think that style would fit in nicely with my planned ss panzer guard division im working on.

Here is the promist tutorial, and as i have only built one and didnt take any wip except photos or notes (As i only buil it for fun and dont actualy own any IG stuff or plan on owning)
it will have to do whit finished pics.
I only used the GW plasticard for thiknes. I will refer the thicknes of them to medium, thick ect as i dont know the thicknes of them in mm.

Link to bits pic. (IRL size)
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l131/Zebbe79/Tutorial/DSC00106.jpg?t=1244141358

The turret

1. Build the leman russ turret, remove al the sfuff from the topp of it so the topp surface will be flatt.

2. There are to options for putting the bottom plasticard (thick plasticard for both topp and bottom) bitt on the turret.
Option nr 1 (The hardest) is to cut out a pice frome the plasticard to make the russ turret fitt lice the pic below.
Option nr 2 is to cut the turret ring out of the russ an glue it to the bottom of the turret in the same place.
Thiss will make the turret some mm higher but its a loot easyer to do.

Pic turret bottom

3. For the topp piece make a small cut in the plasticard where i have drawn the lines and bend it slightly untill it cracks.
Next we make stabilizer for the rear part of the turret, take any bit of sprue and cut a bit of and glue it on the rear part
of the bottom piece. The size may vary as to what angle you whant the rear part of the turret to have

3. Glue plasticard bits on the sides (Medium+ thicknes) of the turret and cutt and phile of the excess plastics.

4. Detail to you own desieres.

The hull



1. Putt together the rhino hull except the topp hatches, the front view sceen and the headlights.
Flathen the surface in front of the rear topp hatch (Leave the left hatch empty for now) and remove the stuff att the back of the rear topp hatch.
Putt the headlights further down in the front just above the tracks and put a piece of thick plasticard on top of it and
connect it to the hull to create the new angle that is in the pic.

2. Remove the front exhausts, all the rivets and everything else that sticks out except the bitz that belong to the
front/back wheel and phile it flat. Cut out a medium size piece of plasticard to cover the side of the hull except the
bits of the original rhino hull that can still be seen in the pic.

3. Cut out and put on the side armor plating (Thinnest plasticard) in the order of the numbers assigned to each one and leav a very small gap between them
(you may have to file them a bit). The six small bits on the lower part are 5*2,5mm in size whit the thinest plasticard and i then
cut smal pieces of plastic rod that i flatend on one side (The side you glue on to the other pieces) and cut off a bit at the edges
of them in 90degrees angle.

4. Putt a 44,5*25mm bit of medium plasticard to the front (The bit where you will make your heavy bolter/lascannon front viewing port to you own heart's desire)
Glua a thick pice of plasticard ~9mm to the front flate part of the rhino and then a pice on top of that one so it conects to the hull under
the first piece we putt on earlier (This is to make the hull not look to much like a rhino)


5. Build a little superstructure for the plasticard piece as shown in the pic below to get it to a corect hight and stabilize it, except put the one that is furthest
back a little bit forward as to no get in the way of the rear vetilation. For the vetilation texture you can use anything you whant and glue it underneath the
plasticard. Glue pice nr 8 on top as shown in the pic and make a cut were i have drawn on pice nr 8 and bend it untill it cracs and connect it to the hull.
Make the bottom piece of the turret ring of a bit of plasticard and glue it on as shown in the nr pic
(I used the one from a hull of a russ and you might have to cut pieces of the superstructure away undernetah the turret ring).
Plasticard the sides to the angles you want and cut and file of the excess plasticard as you did on the turret.
Bit nr 9 you dont have tu use and it may vary in size dependent on the angle you have chosen for the topp piece.


6. Putt rivets (i used ~300, 0,88mm), and fill in gaps with plasticard/greenstuff and detail it as you want.

Hope the tutorial is good enough to help you build one on your own, if you have any questions, tutorial is clear enough, need better pics of an area, dont hesitate to ask adn i will do my best to answer. (It may take a little time as im a little buzy sometimes but i will answer)


Automatically Appended Next Post:
@ Frazzled i am putting al that stuff on, bags on the turret, tools on the topp of the hull and tracks on the side of the hull, and im planing to putt cammo netting on there to i have just been i little buzy latley with other stuff.

Will be posting pics of the tank when its al done to

Excelsior!!!!

Interesting. It looks like a SdKfz 182 turret on a Rhino chassis with a Russ barrel?

The turret of the SdKfz 182 was indeed the inspiration to this turret, but it a custom turret built around the orignial turret.

You have a good set of eyes there! Nice find!

Bubbalicious wrote:The turret of the SdKfz 182 was indeed the inspiration to this turret, but it a custom turret built around the orignial turret.

You have a good set of eyes there! Nice find!

Eh, how many tanks have been built by Porche? Ja, Herr Doktor, but how fast does it corner? (Pretty damn fast for it's size, actually. Too bad it had an underpowered engine and a bad transmission)

Very bland and uninspiring. Sorry.

Well, I've got a spare leman russ turret and rhino sitting around, so I may give this a bash.

It's quite elegant in its simplicity.