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Hey guys I just bought my first land raider. And its the biggest pain in the ass I've build so far. the interior frame is filled with gaps and wont fit together.

This is coming from a person who loves to build drop pods and FW minis.

Seriously who has fun building these things?

Mine wasn't bad at all. A little liquid green stuff and it was good to go. I just wish it would stop getting blown up or stripped of all its hull points on turn 1 every time I go second against Tau or crons.

Clean all the mold lines and dry fit as best you can. It's best to build the hull and then rubber band it for an evening to make sure it sticks tight and true. You could build the other components/prep bits while the hull is setting up.

My last LR was a pain to assemble too! After everything for the main chassis was clipped off the sprue and all mold lines or imperfections lovingly filled, I went to assemble it as a dry fit. This thing came out more warped than an original plastic Land Speeder kit! Seriously, it looked like it was on hydraulics and trying to 3-wheel it lol. So before I put the glue to it I banded it down to my table with tourniquettes and a staple gun(hey, im a redneck so that kind of thing is allowed. Dont judge me lol) so that the tracks were all flat on the
table and both sides were perpendicular to it as well. Put my reading lamp about a foot above it for just a tad
bit of heat and let it sit 10hrs. When i undid the bands it
was perfect.

But yes, sometimes these ABS plastic kits get warped from many many things. The larger and flatter the area, the more likely it will be warped. You just have to coax the bits back into true. Rubberbands work great for this. Though i find sometimes that the bands can put either too much or not enough force depending on how many times you can wrap the band. So i use silicone tourniquetes as they are cheap, tough, and I can tie them as tightly as needed.

Going to steal that rubber band idea, thanks Kbob!

(I have 3 land raiders from 3x SM SF Ultras to build)

Maybe the model they're using is warping.

Both my LRs were fine to assemble and have even stayed together with crappy GW glue. My ravens on the other hand...

The latest Land Raider I did also has some issues.

For me to get the gaps as close as possible, it doesn't sit perfectly flat on the table.

Land raiders are some rough kits to put together. Lots of parts that dont wanna fit together well. Some things to help you out. Buy a C-clamp from wally world or a hardware store or something. Put some pads on it so the teeth dont scratch the model. If you get a big one its great to help straighten out those bent or warped pieces. Also good to hold freshly glued pieces together. Ive had bad luck using lamps but that was probably because the wattage on the bulb was too high and i put it too close. I bought a heat gun from autozone and that works awesome.

Dont use plastic cement or plastic glue. If something dries funny you want to be able to separate the pieces again to fix it. Keep some Liquid Green Stuff on hand to fill in the inevitable gaps. Dont go overboard with it though. Usually most gaps can be fixed with keeping the parts clamped together while the glue is drying.

Buy you some model files and carefully sand the rough edges of the pieces down. The littlest bit sticking out can make a whole section not fit together properly. I made the mistake of using automotive files once and the teeth on those are just too big. They shave way too much too fast.

IDK if those help or not. Just some basic assembly tips.

It's the drop pods I hate, Iv avoided drop pod armies just to avoid building then

Best help i can give for drop pods is dont glue all the fins on until everything else is done. Also use thick super glue that dries slower so you can adjust things as it dries. Because no matter what you do they will shift a little as they dry. Ive tried rubber banding them but that only works if you perfectly band them. Easier to just pay attention and move em back to where they should be as they dry.

I Hated building those (that and other tanks) But it got easier with the application of rubber bands tape, zip ties and pure plastic solvent glue (the pure liquid type that gets into joints via capillary action)

The kit was fine when it was new.
So years ago you just had to deal with the hybrid state of the Crusader ( metal hurricane BS ).

Can't remember any of the dozen LR I have built to be warped.

All I can say is:

DONT MESS UP THE DOOR MECHANISM!!!!!!


also be happy you are no longer the kid that had to live through the metal land raider crusader hurricane bolters + assaultcannon era. those things were hard to assemble.

also see my hinged doors tutorial (sig)

I used rubber bands on my first "new style" land raider when it was first released. I was amazed that I had to SHOW others this neat little "trick" (works for the baneblade, too) - as it's an old modelmaker's trick, that's been used for decades.

I have two Landraiders, both went together with no problems,

The last Land Raider I built (just this last 2 weeks) had some sprues that were warped (i.e. curved). Some pieces needed filing/filling to fit.

Especially the side sponson sprue was extremely warped.

Huh. I built three of the first Mk3 land raiders when they first came out years ago, before the Crusader was even a thing, and they were fine. Easy for a what, fourteen year old (something like that) to put together. Has GW quality really gone down that much?

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Huh. I built three of the first Mk3 land raiders when they first came out years ago, before the Crusader was even a thing, and they were fine. Easy for a what, fourteen year old (something like that) to put together. Has GW quality really gone down that much?

My other Land Raiders are from their release year and just after (so with metal addon bits) and have been stripped/repainted twice so far with no problem.

Just this new one had some bad fitting parts.

As a person who has trouble assembling, I feel your pain. I usually ask my more skilled friends to build my vehicles.

As somebody who has yet to assemble a land raider, and might get one in the future, which is easier to fix warping, plastic GW LR's or FW resin LR's. And which are less prone to warping, GW or FW land raiders?

The problem there is that the FW Land Raider variants use the plastic kit as a foundation. The exception being the Spartan, which is entirely resin.
And I found my Spartan to be almost entirely problem free except for one track alignment issue.

The only land raider issue I have had (out of 4) was buying one that came with two left sides and didn't have a right side. GW fixed that pronto.

One of my Storm Ravens, on the other hand, was seriously warped. I spent a couple hours trying to heat it back into some semblance of normalcy before giving up. Everything I tried just made it worse so I took it to a local GW store and they replaced the model with no questions.

I've also had a few FW models (like DE Tantalus and Reapers) that were seriously warped. However, the problem parts were all resin so it was MUCH easier to get back into shape.

So, to answer Wyzilla's question: if it's warped plastic, don't waste your time just have GW replace it with one that isn't. If you are talking about warped resin, try using hot water and a little patience.

i take it this is a forgeworld kit? I've never had a problem with a plastic gw kit, you can fault gw for a lot but i find the models are at least consistent. Both raiders I've got have been fine.