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Is there only one way to model the sponsons and side doors on land raiders, i.e. doors towards the front, and sponsons behind? Is it legal to put the sponsons in front? It seems the crusader variant would benefit from the hurricane bolters gaining a couple of inches range, and the door layout would make debarking more flexible and harder to block exit points. One photo on the crusader box shows a Black Templar crusader with sponsons forward. Are there any drawbacks I'm not thinking of?

Being called a beardy git?

Fact is, GW imagery has shown it created BOTH ways.
I ALWAYS put mine in the front and NEVER in the back. Not for the extra inch, either...

Think about it from a troops' perspective... You have ONE door per side where troops come out from and one place where a huge freaking Freem-Cannon is mounted. Would you want the tank to spill its' cargo (you) in FRONT OF the Freem-Cannon of Doom or behind it? I'd rather be behind it than have it shoot through my skull.

Mounting the weapons in the back never has and never WILL make any sense to me.

Eric

Amen Eric!

First time I built an LRC (and it'll be the LAST, I swear it!), I put the guns behind the doors, unconsciously following the picture on the front...the layout had never registered in my head, and I never noticed it.

Then I looked and realized my "mistake," thinking just what MM just said: "Oh CRAP! I've ruined it! Now all the marines are gonna come rushing out of the side hatches, only to be accidentally mown down by their own supporting fire! Dang it, now everyone's gonna laugh every time they see this stupid thing."

...then I saw, really saw, for the first time, that that's exactly how it's laid out on the box. And I thought to myself "what an idiotic layout! What were those guys thinking?"

Oh well...

Yeah,
the front for the guns makes more sense in every way.

Same reason I never understood why they put the MM where it goes. If you shoot forward, by the time it's passed the front of the crusader, it's already lost a third of it's range...

The Land Raider has 4 places to glue sponsons and i believe its only youre choice wich of them to use.
As stc variant the LR is flexible in armament.But it is also a bulky transport,his firing angles restricted to 180 for
sponsons and a full 360 for Turret.Any extra weapon like the multimelta has no real good place to mount.
Maybe a useful missile launcher that uses selfseeking warheads would fit better than the MM.

front sponsons is basically the way to go from a gaming perspective too. in addition to the extra range, you avoid a scenario where you give your opponent a cover save because you disembarked from side doors then fired through your own troops