Assembling a Land Raider (upside down)

[Inquisitor Kravin]

I'm considering adding Land Raiders to my "Logan Wing" army. The problem I have is that whilst I recognise the Land Raider as an iconic 40k design I just don't like the model because the design doesn't make sense to me.

 

It presents a huge target profile as it's basically a great big tracked box with huge slab sides. It does have to accommodate transport capacity but comparison with a rhino shows that it is still way bigger than necessary. It is possibly because of its considerable height that the designer did not then add further height with a turret.

 

It most resembles a World War 1 era British tank. These tanks were big for a reason. They were designed to traverse extremely difficult terrain that was broken by trenches and craters. The key feature was their long track horns that provide a large "climbing face" that meant that as the vehicle began to tip forward into a trench the climbing face made contact with the far side enabling the tank to drive up and out of trouble.

 

The Land Raider ignores the principles of a low hull to minimise target profile but only has a small climbing face at the front of its tracks. Bizarrely it has a larger one at the rear - is it intended to reverse over obstacles? Is that why it has AV14 at the rear - because it reverses into battle?! I was pondering this conundrum when an idea hit me and I rotated my codex 180 degrees. Looked at upside down the Land Raider seemed to suddenly become more aggressive and intimidating. With the huge climbing face it made sense that this vehicle didn't have access to a dozer blade because it didn't need one. It could just drive up and over anything in its path!

 

I've never assembled a Land Raider before. Can anyone who has give me their opinion on the feasibility of swapping the left and right track assemblies so that they go upside down (or perhaps easier visualise is assembling the central hull compartment upside down between the track assemblies and the flipping the finished model upside down)?

 

If it's not clear what I'm imagining let me know and I'll try doing some concept sketches.

[Kinzel]

Yeah I get what you're saying and I had a similar train of thought when I was rebuilding my Raider. I was thinking I'd just switch front and back though not flip it upside down. Might be a lot easier for you.

 

Problems I ran into were that the engine was now too big to sit nicely at the (front) and the hatch was far too small and insignificant looking with these towering tracks at the new (back).

Another minor problem is the H shaped roof piece will need to be cut in half (well the middle piece removed to move it back) to give enough space for the turret and hatch.

 

In the end I went back to the standard design but modified it heavily instead with completely new hatch+ramp, turret and engine assemblies. (I've always hated how my spiky terminators couldn't actually fit through the regular hatch) ^_^

[Inquisitor Kravin]

Thanks Kinzel. Great to know somebody else had a similar idea. Turning the track units around front to back was my back up plan. At least that way I know that I'll have the right amount of track links as it keeps the length of exposed track the same. Either way I'd have to cut the H-shaped top plate in three. I was looking at the sprue pics earlier and judging the feasibility of this.

 

A couple of years ago I made a vindicator with double tracks on each side which required building new track guards to cover the gap created between the top and the side of the hull so I know that such work with plasticard is tricky but possible.

 

The knock on effects I had been wondering about were the front hatch which may need enlarging or moving and whether the engine would end up sticking out in a strange way. I think that I'll have to wait until I have the kit in front of me and then see how brave I'm feeling. The alternative is scratch build or kit bash if I can find a 1/48th scale WW1 tank.