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Hi guys,

So despite having 3 Space Marine armies on the go, and having been in the hobby for more than 25 years I have never actually had the pleasure of building a Space Marine Land raider before (unless you count the original Rogue Trader one).

However this weekend I attempted a Land Raider Crusader for the first time.

I did all the things you are supposed to do, read through the instructions several times, dry fitted etc.

It all went very well, didn't have any problems until I attempted to fit the top plate of the hull.

I was sure that the track and hull sections were assembled correctly, and everything looked fine but I just could not get that top plate to fit.

Unfortunately I got so frustrated with the bloomin thing that I managed to get it to fit for the most part and went ahead and glued it in place but now I am having problems.

It simply won't glue in places, I have tried using clamps, and changing from liquid poly to super glue to no avail.

Because I have used liquid poly cement it is going to be almost impossible to correct it unfortunately so this is mainly to ask people if they have had similar problems in the past and whether or not they have any advice for future reference?

A colleague suggested that I should have cut a mil or two off the engine plate that sticks up slightly from the hull (if you know what I mean), the one that can be seen from the passenger compartment with the mechanicus logo on it. Would that have helped?

Also there are areas on the top plate that are quite clearly meant to align on the side of the hull when in palce, but on mine they really don't....

Have I just made a right pig's ear of it or has anybody else had problems with this bit?

You are not alone! The land raider top plate has given me sleepless nights trying to work out where the problem lies. And I found it. It turns out that where the pegs join the holes of the two side parts, they go further in than they should do, so when you come to fit the top it won't fit! I discovered this as I was about to fit the top parts on three land raiders. none of them fit. The only solution I could come up with is to use fine sand paper on the outside edges of the top plate(be sure to check regular to see if it fits). In the end I got a really tight fight and still had bits which were impossible to glue so I used model filler. On reflection I maybe should have used greenstuff.
Carving up the top of the engine plate does not make any difference, trust me my Space Wolf LR knows all about this. Its all to do with the top and side joins that are the problem. The only suggestion I can make is to fit the top plate before you put on the the side bits but even then you might have a connection problem with the side bits but at least the top plate might fit!(doubt it...). My Space Wolf land raider suffered from the top plate sunk 'inside' the two outer sides by a big margin, my other LRs had the same problem but not as bad as this one. All I did was get a file and filed the edges down a bit to the point where I could use model filler to sort it out a bit. Still looks crap though.
Welcome to the Pig's ear Land Raider squadron. We are legion.

GW has a long history of parts warping if they are thin. The worst culprit or exemplar, is the land speeder. I built three of them, two old-pattern, and one new-pattern. The new ones go together like a dream, but the old ones are a niightmare. I think you can still get the old pattern ones in the ravenwing box.

The land raider and the rhino are two other instances of this degenerate, deviant, vile, putrid, heretical, hateful warping of the hull. The rhino doesn't have it as bad, but it still suffers from it. The land raider though.... an abject nightmare.

That being said, I can't see from your thread if Slipstream has identified the problem, or if I have. I am inclined to bet it may be a combination of the two.

Another thing I have done, is avoided filling out the inside of the land-raider. for 1, I can hop the side sponsons off and store them inside the hull, along with the front turret, for two, the engine part can come in handy for terrain elsewhere, and 3, nobody ever sees into my landraider, so, i don't care.

if you still have your Box,Call GW..tell them of the issue with the top plate (Every land raider of mine has done same thing, I now dry fit everything ..building it as a snap together first)) Tell them of how it warps/will not fit what so ever into place correctly. they WILL replace the landraider for you. I can say 100% GW has excellent customer service.

The only times I've had trouble with a Land Raider's upper hull fitting (these were ebay projects someone else built) it was because the inner bulkhead or the engine panel weren't fitted right. It's usually the inner bulkhead piece that, if out of place, will stick up too far and prevent the top fitting.
Dry fit everything before gluing it and work out how it goes.
Of course you may actually have a warped piece of plastic too, and if you do make them replace it.
I have an unbuilt Land Raider kit... will see if I can take some useful pics stay tuned

Sorry, found that I didn't have all the pieces in that kit

Yep, Slipstream is correct on the problem. The guide holes and pegs for the track sections are sized incorrectly. When you glue the outer and inner hull parts togetherm making the peg and hole sit flush they are too narrow.
had this problem on my first LR and ended up having to sand the sides of the treads down quite a bit.
Your ONLY solution is to sand the outer edges of the top plate down so it fits into place.
When I build LRs now I always drop a couple of large tread sections in place to act as a 'gap gage.' Once the glue sets I remove the tread sections until after the paininting is complete, then glue them in.

I..I've never been happier to be a tyranid.
I've always envied tanks... Now I know you guys suffer too.

My landraider and rhino went together really nicely.