Moar Miniature Madness! : Land Raider Crusader

Quite some time ago, I purchased a Land Raider Crusader/Redeemer Box from my local hobby store, Hobby Forge. At the time they were still located at the old joint in Cova (they're now located in Kelana Jaya - check with me for further information). Due to severe lack of experience, I essentially made a mess out of things.

Initially I intended to make a Deathwing Vehicle (Bone White anyone?). However, due to my modus operandi at the time, which was to paint EACH PORTION SEPARATELY before assembling the bugger with super duper glue. 

Of course this endeavour was doomed to failed. This method worked for smaller pieces but a Land Raider? Forget it. The truth is, I couldn't even complete the assembly. Out of frustration I collected the parts and I put them in back in the box. I started to focus on other parts of my army (eventually coming up with a wacky drop pod army).

Fast forward to now.

After some discussion with the Hobby Forge Maestro, namely Alvin Khaw, I decided to try salvaging the Land Raider for use in a new Warhammer 40,000 army list.

As you can see from the above picture, although assembly was an ass, I still managed to get it together pretty well. Notice three shades above, Screaming Skull, white spray undercoat and uncoated grey plastic. A rojak if you ever seen one.

I'm always pleasantly surprised at how base paint covers everything well, including dodgy workmanship. I'm using GW's latest line of colour primers. In the picture above, obviously the one I'm using is Caliban Green.

Like a kid in kindergarden, all you have to do now is just fill in the blank spaces with colour and try not to colour outside the lines. Also, it helps tremendously to have a paint scheme in mind. Remember to keep it simple. In the case of painting Space Marines of any kind, less is definitely more. As you can see above, you might want to take the trouble to ensure neat lines and clean painting. Trust me, you'll want to do this.

Side view of the Land Raider Crusader with the decals applied. Thanks to Carl Lum for teaching the proper way to do it. Besides the Dark Angels livery of Caliban Green, you can also make a reference to our Chapter with the Dark Angels, 'Broken Sword' logo.

In the above pic, the Agrax wash is clearly seen, making the shiny metallic parts all gritty. I'm getting rather fond of the drybrush highlight with Ceramite White as well as the weathering with Leadbelcher. I'm aware I am far far away from the decent painters around, but drybrushing is the latest technique I've been using lately to achieve certain worn effects. I hope it turned out ok.

Another side view of the Crusader. The applied decals clearly show that this Land Raider is attached to the Third Company of the Dark Angels Chapter, under the leadership of Company Master Balthasar. This information is most likely irrelevant to all except for the nerds in all of us gamers.

All shots here are taken with the in-built camera of the Samsung Note 3.

For those of you who like statistics:

Vital Stats for December: 2 post 9 pics

Vital Stats So Far: 175 posts 6,342 pics

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