Believe it or not, this project started out as a Christmas present to two of my friends but then grew on me. Unfortunately besides growing on me..... the project also grew. I started it back in very late November but since it was a Christmas present I didnt want to reveal it on forums where my friends read... that would ruin the surprise. Please bear with me while I catch up to where I am now with pictures and details. BTW I posted this project on a few different forums so you may see it elsewhere.
From Apocalypse we've seen a lot of super heavy vehicles for many different factions; some redone and some new ones. While Im an
Imperial Guard player with an a surplus of super heavy vehicles (among others...), I look over at the Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines and I dont really see any. I mean yes they can take the Baneblade and dress it up to look like a SM or CSM vehicle but IMHO it just really doesnt "fit" in the army alongside a Land Raider. Now Ill admit to you from the beginning that I know squat (no pun intended) about the SM or CSM regarding vehicles but I wanted to give them something special that they could use in a super heavy vehicle capacity on the battlefield.
Taking this concept, I looked at what they had already; the Land Raider. The Land Raider is an awesome vehicle and combines awesome firepower with trooper protection and delivery in the same vehicle. So why not take that concept but a bit further. First, lets start with two Land Raiders. Now lets chop off the front of one Land Raider and the back end of another and marry the two sections. Now we have a double length Land Raider which sort of looks a little weird so lets go ahead and fix that.
Next lets make our elongated Land Raider wider so it doesnt look like a driving coffin. Ok so now we have a wider longer Land Raider but its really doesnt look quite right yet. The tracks really dont look right. Now doubling the width of the tracks doesnt them really doesnt look right either (at least in my mind); it looks like a brick driving around. Ah but what if take a regular unstretched Land Raider side and put it centered and in tandem with the already extended tracks..... something like this.
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I think were on the right track here (pun intended)...time to get some parts. Conveniently the Land Raider Spearhead deal works perfect for two Land Raider Exterminuss (name for now anyway, suggestions are welcome!). The first Land Raider Exterminus will be bumped up to a Land Raider Exterminus Crusader taking advantage of all the extra parts and bits. My other friend is a huge Thousand Sons fan so his Land Raider Exterminus will be of the Chaos variety. In fact Im going to call his project
Ahrimans Chariot.
In addition to the kits, I also purchased some additional bits from Forgeworld to put some nice detail on it as well:
Land Raider Reinforced Armor
Land Raider Prometheus Command Tank Conversion Kit
Imperial Eagle Land Raider Doors
Terminator Land Raider Doors
Thousand Sons Land Raider Doors (x2)
As a substitute for the Helios Land Raider Kit, I choose to buy the Space Marine Whirlwind Sprue instead because the missile launchers on that kit look much more impressive.
Ok so the table is set and the pieces are in play. Look for an update in the next couple of days! The bad news is that because of my schedule, Ill only be able to work on this on Saturdays (
we have Gatekeepers to build the other days....) As always, comments and suggestions are always welcome!