Tuesday 4 February 2014

Retro Tanks

Well with yesterday's Stormraven completed I found myself contemplating the need for a new modelling project to fill what little spare time I have available. 

As I surveyed my shelves of miniatures I noticed that my authentic Rogue Trader Salamanders (see earlier posts) were lacking a bit of armoured firepower compared to both my battle sisters and my crimson fists. In light of this I decided to embark on a project that I've been considering for quite a while... Salvaging and renovating a Rogue Trader Land Raider and Predator.

I won these two items on eBay a few years back and have been considering getting around to them for a while. The predator is in moderate condition, already assembled (poorly) but free from paint; though there are the tell tale glue marks of a young and overly enthusiastic previous owner.

The Land Raider however is in a far worse state. It has been previously assembled very poorly, with glue marks and polystyrene cement fingerprints every where. Bits have snapped off (the standard weak spots on this beast.... Lascannons; aerial; etc), and some parts are badly damaged...additionally this poor tank has received a liberal coating of white base paint which my instincts tell me might be "smelly primer"....


I have decided to rectify what I can.... Green stuff and spare bits of sprue are surprisingly useful materiel here.  The predator can probably be saved with a little TLC, but the Raider will need some more intense loving. Despite my misgivings I will leave the white primer in situ as I fear dettol could destroy this venerable old tank!!! (For those eagle eyed observers out there that is indeed the 1989 40K Compendium in the background; I was using it for reference when trying to work out what went where on the Land Raider).

A few hours later and the tank is assembled. You know this kit has really opened my eyes as to the level of rose tinted glasses I possess when remembering the good old days of GW! 

This thing was an absolute bitch to assemble and I mean a real bitch! Granted the previous owner had made my task more difficult with their hamfisted attempts at construction, but this model would have been hard to construct anyway as compared to my more modern kits nothing fits together quite so seemlessly.

Not many conversions here; I've stuck a marine commander in the turret (liberated from an old jet bike model) and replaced the missing plastic aerial with a suitably sized pin... I'll probably add a hand painted banner to this!

Overall this model has already used a tube of glue and a lot of green stuff... 

Anyway.... This is where I am tonight. Hopefully once all the glue and green stuff have set then I will be able to move onto the painting phase!! Normally I like my rogue trader models to look fairly pristine, but given the state of the models I think that I will have to give these vehicles a more battle worn look (like my Crimson Fists) so as to hide the worst of the pre-existing damage.....

2 comments:

  1. Hmm, a hell of a work, but I'd say it is totally worth of! Looking forward to see it painted!

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  2. Worth the effort, looks amazing.

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