Seats 12 Comfortably...

One of my (many) complaints about Games Workshop has been the scale of their models, and how something like a Land Raider couldn't possibly accommodate 10 little Marines, much less 5-8 Terminators, plus all the guts you'd expect a tank like that to have. That coupled with the price caused me to resist buying their overpriced model and thus from fielding a Land raider in any of my armies. Then I happened into my local hobby store and found a fantastic WWI mk I Male kit from Emhar:

Here's what he looks like on the box. When I got my first White Dwarf (issue 115! woo!), this was what Land Raiders looked like: big angry monsters with wraparound treads. That prow even look like it could open up. It doesn't, of course, and converting it to do so would've compromised the structural integrity of this kit, which, in my opinion, is far from being the greatest in the world. However, it's big enough and angry enough to make a fantastic Land Raider:

I bought a set of LR sponsons and hatches dirt cheap from a retailer on eBay, and off we went converting. The side sponsons took a bit of cutting mount the LR lascannons, but the sizes were dead on from the get-go, which made this thing go together in an afternoon. I didn't even lose any articulation on the sponsons. After that, it was just a matter of glueing hatches and radar/missile launcher bits on to taste. The thing looks like a little rolling battleship.

There's my old metal Terminator Captain, having just jumped out the front hatch. I had a bunch of scrolls and eagles left over from my old Leman Russ cloning project (to be seen here later), which went a long way towards Imperial-izing the tank. In hindsight, I wish I'd added a periscope or something for the driver to peer through, but the thing seems to have enough little red-eye sensors on it that I don't mind. One of my biggest gripes about the kit are the rubber treads, which, while wide and tread-y looking enough, were the devil to glue together and secure to the tank. I was doing this on the cheap and didn't want to go looking for 40k treads when a pair came with the kit, but man, if I had to do it again, I would. 

I bought a set of Flagellents on eBay as infantry for my Adeptus Mechanicus army, and it turned out to be the gift that keeps on giving. Those little scrolls, bells, and things are fantastic for detailing, and really dress up practically everything in the GW range. I suppose at some point it's a little too much, but, as with everything, the key is to use juuuuust enough. If that weren't enough, I went back and added some scripting next to the hatches and things, as you do with military vehicles. For some reason, I love the engine section with the slim twin-exhausts:

I suppose if I were going for a truly mk.1 Land Raider look, I would've put the Lascannons in an over-under configuration, but the side-by-side guns just looked cooler.If Forge World were honest, they would've made a true "pre-Heresy" Raider with wraparound treads  and different detailing, rather than just a stock new LR with over-under sponsons. the thing just looks half-assed and a little sad. C'mon FW, you put so much effort into your super-heavies! Speaking of which, next to the (undersized) Rhino, this thing approaches SH size:

Although it's not that much taller. Oh well. I like the Redeemer and Crusader designs enough to want to build another one, but for now I have other things I want to work on...