Thunderlord Land Raider Turret

Captain MAGpie's "Thunderlord" Land Raider Turret

A Games Workshop Land Raider Alternative

Say hello to my... to all my palls.

Land Raider, Lander Raider, whyfor art though so... flat?
Well, the answer is actually transport. In order for it to fit under the Thunderhawk, it had to conform to a certain size.

However, I am Captain Burd-Brain Converter, and what do I care about logic! Ha!

So how to make it, not flat? Well, add a gun and build walls around it.

In this tutorial, I will build the Turret. The pike nose can be found here (Captain MAGpie's IS Pattern Pike Nosed Land Raider).

Ok, lets get into the build.

The tutorial

1) What you will need for: the template

• The Template (below)
• Cardboard
• Printer (Or a ruler and a lot of time)
• Fine-Point marker

Thunderlord Turret

I recommend printing the template on cardboard, scaling it so that the yellow reference block is 25mm (1 inch) when printed out, then cutting the shapes out with a pair of scissors and transferring the shapes to your plasticard with a fine-point marker.

To make life easier, cut all the green sections from 0.5mm Plasticard. The blue sections are mostly decorative armour plates and you can cut those from thinker sheets, and customise them to your like. I used 1mm and it looked pretty good. However, take note that in the turret, some of these thicker plated are to create a support structure for the turret itself and are not decor.

Additionally, print and cut a test turret from paper first, and make a paper-craft version just to test for scaling. There is a lot of cutting in this build, so making a fitting or printer scaling mistake will be frustrating. Also, you may "scale" it to your liking at this point, making it either bigger or smaller.

What you will need for: "Cyclone" Stalker Turret

• 1 x Land Raider kit from Games Workshop
• 0.5mm flat Styrene Plasticard Sheet
• 1mm flat Styrene plasticard sheet
• Putty such as Green Stuff or Milliput (Optional, but I advise using this. So much easier to hide bloopers)
• A VERY sharp hobby knife
• A fine-point marker
• Metal Ruler
• Glue (I'll level with you. Use an extra thin solvent type glue here. It just makes life so much simpler. I use Tamiya Extra Thin, and believe me, you will have a hard time convincing me to use anything else. I almost feel that I should be wearing welding goggles when I use this stuff with ABS/Styrene.)
• Sharp Cutters
• Files and sanding paper (Fine)
• Patience and a first aid kit

Step 1 - Template

Print the template onto cardboard and cut it out with scissors or a knife.

Step 2 - Transfer and cut

Transfer the shapes to your plasticard using a fine-point marker, and cut them out using a knife. This is probably the hardest part of this build and requires the most attention.

Important! Remember to gut the green parts from 0.5mm sheet and the blue parts from 1mm or thicker.

The build, once cut, is fairly simple. So once everything is cut, the hard part is over!

Runes or glyph?

Step 3 - Housing

As with pretty much all the turrets, the whole build is pretty simple. It really is just a matter of getting everything in the right place. Where to start, is with the base plate, and front two angled plates. Once they are in place, you have a guide for the rest.

Its a very simple build. I kid you not.

Step 4 - Roof

Once the sides are done, glue it to the floor and start on the roof section.

Again, a simple matter of placing everything down in the right place and applying glue.

Step 5 - Rear compartment

The rear box is next, and again, its a simple matter of just assembling the box.

Its a 3-D puzzle, with glue and knives.

Attach the separator plate. Its optional, but adds some detail to the turret.

Separator is 1mm card, and is there just to create some depth in the shapes.

B1 not pictured, as its the floor and at the bottom.

Step 6 - Commander Seat

Again, just start at one end and glue the pieces into place all around. Lay it down top-side, so that you have a nice level ring. Granted, this means you did actually cut straight...

Mmmm... this does look like a Goth accessory...

Step 7 - Finish up and accessorise

I added a hatch on the left side, and the open hatch on the right.

Step 8 - Armour (Optional)

You are now ready to add the armour plates if you choose to go with it. I do recommend it. Looks pretty good. And for rivets, well, I got a tutorial for that here (Captain MAGpie's most riveting post yet!).

Step 9 - Armament

At this point, I could not decide what to do for a main weapon for this guy. And that was dandy, as I did design it modular. So now, using the gun mantle shapes and sizes as a base for the design (Parts T4, T5, and T6 on the template), I came up with a couple of mantle designs and went a little crazy...

Most voted! And yeah, it does look good I agree.

Oh yeah, PS: its designed to house the predator weapons snugly.

MWHA HA HA HAHA HA HA HA! Over 9000!

Mmmmm, possibly. 

Big gunz makes us happy!

Step 10 - Mounting it

At this point, you will need that Land Raider to mount this thing on. I have a variant here (Captain MAGpie's "IS" Patter Pike Nosed Land Raider) that you can use the roof plate of, or go for a design of your own. 

  And now for the THUNDERLORD and Brother Coffee, mounted on an IS pattern Chassis!

Hope you enjoyed it. And as always, I would LOVE to see you take on the template. Post up picks or links to your Land Raider Conversion.

Captain MAGpie,
Styrene Addict