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Well, the quarantine is almost lifted, but this kick of actually painting my models has continued. I am now in the 2009 section of my pile.

Storytime: I wanted a land raider but I didn't want to pay the then-princely sum of $40. I was trying to get one for $30, but kept getting sniped. Some dude listed 2 land raiders and a LRC on ebay, so in my frustration, I bid on all 3 at $30.50 each - hoping I would win one of them. Turns out, I won all 3 of them - an annoyance, because I went from not wanting to shell out $40 to now shelling out $92 - which was also rough since I was not making a ton at the time.

In 2020, when Land Raiders are now like $80 each, that's pretty funny.

Anyway, I got these 3 land raiders, of which I only really wanted one. Over time that has morphed into building a pair of magnetized land raiders that can swap between Vanilla / Crusader / Redeemer and a Land Raider Ares. I also picked up a Vindicator at some point for the Ares conversion.

I bought a ton of bits to effect this - lots of Flamestorm Cannons, sponsons, and such. In the interim, I experimented with a lot of stuff - LED headlights, I had gotten Ultramarine doors which I hinged so they opened, and other dumb stuff like that. Then I sort of abandoned the idea.

So, there I was, digging in the pile of shame, looking at those 3 Land Raider boxes. Maybe it's time to check them out. I opened the Vindicator box, and was looking at the bits, along with a tutorial. I was realizing that this seems like sort of a waste of a Vindicator.

I could totes design a conversion kit in Rhino and print it, and save the Vindicator to be a Vindicator. Maybe? Turns out yes.

So, I mocked one up with some help from JBSchroeds on some specific commands:

and did a few test prints on my I3 Mega. I did these in draft mode, so they look very rough, but it was just for sizing.

When I had it scaled and tweaked the way I liked, I printed a production copy on the Anycubic Photon S at .01 - using this Anycubic Eco Green resin. Hideous color, but excellent resin. Fit together almost perfectly.



I did have to do some greenstuff work to blend it in:



Then I gave on blending that part and just covered it up with some styrene sheet:



More very tedious greenstuff work:




Priming and pre-shading:



Masking and painting:



This is where I ran into some issues.

My original idea was that I would just put a flamestorm cannon in a twin-link configuration on each side. Technically not heavy flamers, but heavy flamers look stupid and flamestorm cannons look awesome. So, I test fit several of the flamestorm cannons I had gotten and guess what - they don't fit in a twin-link config. Even cutting some stuff off the sponson didn't make it fit. They are much larger and longer than the chopped down heavy flamers used in a standard Land Raider Ares.

Well, in for a penny, in for a pound, I guess. I mocked up a flamer as below and printed up a bunch:



It's kind of a hybrid between an actual heavy flamer (I kept that weird upside down L all the heavy flamers have) and the general aesthetics of the flamestorm cannon, which again, I like the looks of. I measured carefully.

It also did not fit.

I finally decided to redo the design and I got something like this:




I considered having the big fuel tank with 2 hoses - one to each flamer. That also didn't it, the fuel tank was in the way. I also considered the "outboard" flamer having the tank, and a hose from the inner flamer running to the shared same tank.

That did fit.




Here they are being painted up:




I'm running out of Blood Raven icons for this model. Normally I make a icon out of styrene and greenstuff, then make a moldbox and recast it, but that is 2010 thinking. In 2020, I just made a combo of the icons and the moldbox, all in one.



One complication - you see it's kind of discolored? I've primed it with several thin coats of floor polish + a little brown so I knew when I was good (the floor polish is clear). The 3D printer resin material inhibits curing of the platinum silicone I like, for some reason, so the priming is needed to prevent that from happening. Ask me how I know, sigh.

Anyway, I have made quite a bit more progress on this but that's what I've got for pics right now.



Well, this sneak preview of the other thing I got cooking, also.

The vindicator MOD is coming along great . Flamers turned out well in the end.

That last picture made me chuckle a bit. To me it looked like Godzilla was running along and bugs bunny slammed a metal door in front of him and his face and hands mashed into it . The print is nice, it's just the way it was still posed on the metal plate .

That looks awesome

Keep up the good work!

You've just sold me in getting a DLP printer with this idea:

[/spoiler]
I can't tell you how many times its a pain in the arse to make a mold box sometimes... here... why not print it too!

I finished my Land Raider Ares! This is the first Land Raider I've ever finished and it only took a mere 137 months from start to finish, which i am preeeeeettty proud of.

Here are the finished photos:

Front angle:



Front on. I want to talk about that little bullet splat almost dead center - isn't that perfect? Not a decal, I actually painted that. Weird flex but ok.



LOOK AT IT



Right side. Note all the script is of course decals, because jfc, all of my artistic ability went into that one bullet ricochet.



Front right angle.



Rearview. Oh, that logo on the engine? "It was a gift, brother".



Front overhead:



Left side and top left:



I have 2 more Land Raiders to finish, so I will get back to you guys on those in 2031 and 2042, respectively.

That's a dope job!
A bit of black or wash on the white of these bullets hole for a full flex imo

Great looking 'raider, and a fearsome loadout as well - plus some legit 3D sculpting / printing action Congrats as well on finishing the first of your lifetime's allotment of land raiders! I myself built and primed a chaos land raider in, I want to say, 2008? And it's sat nestled in its army transport since then. Blessed be.

Mate, this is so epic. So good, in fact, that finally got me to stop lurking in order to leave this comment.