Scratchbuild - The Land Raider MkI part 8.

It is complete. It took me two and a half months and about 150 hours to get this far. Thanks for all the support and the inspiring comments I received all along. This was my first ever attempt at scratch building, so while there are tons of things I'd do differently if I started today I'm quite happy with the result.

While the vehicle is meant to be plain old school Land Raider, I allowed myself a little freedom for further developments; therefore I magnetized quite frequently. The driver options are magnetized (please note that arms, heads etc. are missing as that is my painting method), so are sponsons, the hunter-killer missile/ cosed hatch options and the bush cutter. The antenna with the small flag can be removed too. These not only enable me to elect to make a crusader/redeemer variant later if I so wish, but make transporting the model so much easier.

So that is it folks; I think I stop here and stick to painting for a while, but I'm positive that this may be my first, but not last project.

Stay tuned for the primered pictures soon, and the painting project later this year when I buy an airbrush.

See also:

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 1.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 2.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 3.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 4.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 5.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 6.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 7.

Scratchbuild - The Land Raider MkI part 7.

Tonight I proudly present you the newest addition to the project, the side sponsons. This is how they look like:

The lascannons are made in similar manner as as John from Santa Cruz Warhammer made them on his marvelous Death Guard Land Raider. Perhaps this beauty and Ron's gorgeous Deathwing Land Raider gave me the greatest inspiration during the project. 

Back to the cannons, I cut the upper one to make it longer and added extra plating to the guns. I think they came out quite good.

  

The guns are attached to a mount by a joint. Both the joint and the gun mount is affixed by magnets, so they can move freely though they seem to be quite sturdy at the same time.

Unfortunately this last picture is not very good. Anyway I made a prototype of the gun mount and then I cast it in resin using the plain and simple open mould technique to have exact copies. Please note that the mounts are actually two piece each as the center part is separate. On the mount I used (it cannot be seen unfortunately) a new microdetailing technique, that I believe is my genuine idea. I'm quite happy with it, so I will write you a tutorial later.

I see the end of the tunnel now.

See also:

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 1.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 2.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 3.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 4.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 5.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 6.

Scratchbuild - The Land Raider MkI part 6.

My little one is on track. Literaly :-)

It took me a week to finish the tracks, but now that I'm done, I'm getting close to the finishline. This is how I made it:
First I made the master links from plasticard. I needed two naturally, one for ordinary links an one for the 12th links.

Once they were ready I made a one piece mould as I explained earlier, (ok it is a simplification, I made two, first one for an ordinary single link, and I used the resin casts as ingredients for mould two, that has one single link, one three-link piece and one with an aquila on.) and cast enough for the whole track on both sides.. Around 60 links, unfortunately not 36 links per side. I was sloppy and did not plan properly and therefore on the bottom the 12s don't match, but I don't really care. All right, I may be a perfectionist, but not that much.

Attaching the bits to the chassis was pretty straightforward, as you would imagine, though I had to trick a little to get the perfect fit. Where it was needed - in angles - I applied a bit of green stuff to get the joint correct.

What is left is to make the gun mounts (I will remove the 25mm bases) and some minor detailing, and the finishing touches with GW bits.

See also:

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 1.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 2.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 3.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 4.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 5.

Scratchbuild - The Land Raider MkI part 5

It's been a while, but steady progress has been made. Superdetailing the hull area was VERY time consuming but a lot of fun. Now the scratchbuilding process is almost over: only the tracks are left plus I plan to remake the gun mounts on the sides. So, slowly I'm getting there. Naturally the work will be finished with GW parts like the round hatches, ribbons, symbols, purity seals and other tank accessories that will make a fine addition to the overall picture. I also plan to magnetize the model on key areas, just in case.
And now the pictures:

See also:

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 1.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 2.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 3

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 4

Scratchbuild - The Land Raider MkI part 4

Just a quickie to keep you entertained with the progress:
After finishing the tread bay details (OK, 80-90% GW bits not attached yet, weapons neither) the hull is shaping up slowly. Some pictures:

See also:

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 1.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 2.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 3

Scratchbuild - The Land Raider MkI part 3

Time for an update. The outer sides (not the ones mentioned in the last post but the other two) of the tread bays are shaping up slowly, I reckon I'm at 50%.

And some details:

After I finish the side doors and some more riveting, plus a little more detailing I will move on to the hull. I'm still not sure how I want to deal with the sponsons and the lascannons. One painful question is solved unfortunately; the side doors will be permanently closed. I'm afraid it would be too risky to cut an opening now, should have thought about it earlier. It is a bit lame but I will live with it.

See also:

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 1.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 2.

Scratchbuild - The Land Raider MkI part 2

Hi Folks,
time for a minor update. Detailing this beauty proves rather time consuming, but I'm still quite satisfied with the outcome, if not the progress. I have just finished the inner parts of the tread bays:

 a little more detail:

To tell you the truth I started this phase with a huge mistake, I glued on the outer walls of the tread bay, and I had to find out a complete different approach to the detailing. I was quite angry at the time, but I'm okay with the way it came out. It is not 100% finished, there are minor details missing  depending how I finish the hull.

See also:

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 1

Scratchbuild - The Land Raider MkI part 1

I have always had a soft spot for the old MkIs. Lately it struck me that the Sentinels just cannot live without one. There must be an ancient, venerable MkI serving as the chapter master's personal command vehicle, spit and polish but deadly. Pimped up with superdetail and modern weaponry.
This is the plan, and I almost succeeded, when I was the leader on the latest eBay auction, up until the last 10 seconds when someone sniped me. C'est la guerre, one might say, but I took it as a sign.
Though my last effort with the Mate pattern whirlwind turret was not met with great applause, I enjoyed building it greatly. This is the reason why I decided to put together my own Land Raider. I acquired the necessary plans from here (the BWC-Archive is also a good place to start -join if you are not a member already) and started to work. It was clear from the beginning, that the plans are not  detailed enough for my taste, and truth to be told these early models are not very high detail in the first place. I'll need to spice things up a bit with extra stuff and a bit of kitbashing. I will love it.
First I started working on the tread well and bays:

Cutting 150+ plasticard circles for wheels make your fingers sore, but I'm happy with the results so far

This is the detailed tread bay before attaching the outer wall

Here I am now, after day two, hope you like it. More to come

See also:

Scratchbuild - Whirlwind turret - Mate pattern