A Tale of Two Land Raiders....

When I'm wrong, and I know it, I'm willing to admit it. 


However, first, thing's first. By way of a commission from my favorite client, I finally got to work on a stock Land Raider. 

Here's Infernus in all his glory. Like all GW kits, assembly is slightly a pain, but overall a pretty solid build. Since the client had a Chaos kit, Infernus got the sexier belted-ammo Storm Bolter, and the flamer bit went to adorn a Land Speeder. 

I was soooo tempted to hinge those side doors, if only to show off the fully painted interior more. Unfortunately, my tiny drill bit broke a while ago, and I haven't gotten around to replacing it, so those doors will remain fused, and relatively spacious interior largely unseen.  One of the things that troubles me the most about this design is the utter lack of a driver's position. If you'll recall my earliest LR effort, the Refutor, based on an M113, the assault hatch runs right by the driver's seat:

Note that while this tank is perfect for power-armored ladies, it's smaller then Infernus, being shorter and having less headroom. Awww. At least it makes a little more design sense, anyway. While we're looking at assault ramps:

Infernus happens to have an actual magnetic lock on his. This is because the damn thing wouldn't shut all the way after assembly. If they'd taken the trouble to make the mechanism out of say, tool steel or something, you'd have a much more robust build. The flimsy plastic mechanism makes me sad. The damn thing just wouldn't shut, so I had to put the mag-locks and little metal plates for them to glom onto in there. This makes Infernus look like a yawning hippo when his doors are open. I'll call it a net win and leave it at that.

I have to say, I thought the LR kit would be smaller than it is. For  GW tank, it's refreshingly large and chunky. Large enough to accommodate 10-16 (or 8 terminators)? Therein lies the comparison. Now we put on our Jeremy Clarkson Top Gear hat, and do a comparison of Infernus side by side with Fortinbras. 

Fortinbras is longer. Much longer, thanks to his tracks and slightly larger (if not as well ventilated) engine section. In case you care, that runs up to that panel with the shovel on it. The crew section starts under the panel with the stowage bag on it and runs forward to his stubby (by comparison) assault ramp. So, there's a bit more crew room, but the driver inside Fortinbras is presumably sitting suspended in a gimbal sort of chair under one of the two hatches. 

While Fortinbras has much better ground clearance,  he also has a bit less headroom. The middle section is about the same width on both tanks, but Fortinbras appears slimmer because his tracks are narrower, and he lacks burly treadle units (something I intend to fix on the plasticard clone). He is a bit taller than Infernus by virtue of his heavy bolter turret being higher up, and thus having a better field of fire. Unlike Infernus, he has to turn slightly to fire his lascannon sponsons directly behind him, and thus can only blast away with one and the heavy bolter. 

Poor ungainly Fortinbras. He is a MK-1a, after all, and that newer MKII has its perks.

Like being driven by someone apparently not actually inside the tank.

And I'm not talking about the Machine Spirit. 

So I suppose I was wrong, and Fortinbras isn't actually large enough to comfortably fit the appropriate number of Astartes in either regular or Terminator armor. They'll fit a bit better, but not comfortably. If, like my Rhino clones, a Fortinbras clone is more burly, eschewing ground clearance for interior room, things might shake out a bit differently. Which do I prefer? That's a toughie. Despite the lack of driver's position (something they even manage to work into the lowly Rhino kit) the GW kit is pretty nice, and something I wouldn't regret spending money on, unlike its flying counterpart. 

Happy Wednesday, people.