Swift

Captain MAGpie's "Swift" Land Speeder Walker

A Games Workshop Land Speeder Walker Conversion

Ok... ill do it. "You have 10 seconds to comply!"

Yeah... that took effort. Although I am fan of Robocop, don't get me wrong, I am a bigger fan of BattleTech, and well, you get the idea. This guy does have a very ED feel though. So I'll play nice.

Anyhow, that being said, the Stormhawk/Raven walker conversion are fairly common and I wanted to see what else could be made into a walker, and the chassis of the Land Speeder was just perfect.

And after I converted my Stormhawk and Sotrmraven walkers with my own scratch-built legs, I had a couple of Dust Tactics Light Panzer Walkers legs lying around. They really are just too small for the larger GW models, but the Land Speeder.... mmmm.

They were still small though. So I left my flamer-kit-bashed mod on.

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

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 (minus the toes) are decorative armour plates, and you can cut those from thinker sheets. I used 1mm and it looked pretty good.

Additionally, print and cut a copy on paper first and make a paper-craft vesion just to test for scaling.

What you will need for: Crazy-Hawk Assault Walker

• 1 x Land Speeder kit from Games Workshop
• 1 set of Dust-Tactics Light Panzer Walker legs (Would link it if I could find a website for them >.<), or equivalent and Heavy Flamers or some other form of extra leggy bitz
• Chin-mount fron a Stormhawk Interceptor kit from Games Workshop kit.
• 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.

Step 3 - Chassis

Ok, for the chassis, go ahead and assemble pretty much most of the Land Speeder. You will not need anything internal, so don't worry about assembling the marines.

Manufacturers Oppinion

 Yeah... pretty much everything I do...

Anyhow, you wont need all of the kit. In fact, you don't need much at all and will have a nice surplus to go into your bits box.

I choose you! All the parts you will need.

You can glue the upper deck as well, or cut it first and then glue. I did both on 2 models, neither was easier or harder. So go ahead and just do whatever suits you best.

Cut before gluing method... And not much different then gluing before cutting method.

Cut the fins at the back off and smooth the gaps.

Once the upper deck is in place though, you will notice that there is a small gap on the passenger side which you need to deal with. Its a tiny bit of styrene card, some putty and sanding. No template, its just that small.

Straighten out the dash.

Step 4 - Driving compartment

Ok, at this point you are ready for the major work. Start building the drivers compartment with the cut template pieces. Should be a matter of cut, glue and sand, but meh, have putty on hand. Never know between cutting... not so straight, differences in materials and measuring tools, and how the warp feels that day, there could be slight differences. 

For the love of scratch-building... right?

Cut and glue the sides.

Main fuselage now complete. Time to add the canopy.

NOW! You may want to just do this part and make a standard land speeder, just one with a canopy. If so, then well, I hope you did not cut of the wings.

 If you did, just glue them back on... After all...

Anyhow, now add the canopy.

Canopy added.

At this point, tidy up the build Fill in all those holes and sand everything nice and smooth and then add the side-armour plate.

I wanted to have an armour feel, so I did not paint the canopy in a canopy type glass colour, but went for a sensor hood.

Step 5 - Under the skirt

To attach the legs, you will need to first attach the pivot point to the chassis.

I selected the space just before the jet exhausts and the front part of the chassis. It was a "valley" area, so I filled it with a small piece of thick styrene and then glued the chin-mount of the Stormraven chin gun to it. This will be my pivot, and the chin-gun-mount will be the hips.

Step 6 - Hips don't lie

The legs I am going to leave up to you as there are a LOT of options with them. 

What I did, as I explained, was scavenge the Dust Tactics models I had. I used their pivot point and plugged those onto the chin-mount. 

Then extended the original legs with Landraider Flamers. 

Then just added random bits to fill gaps and holes.

Yeah, and that really was it.
Not too much to this model.

Step 7 - Weapons

I wanted to use the little rockets that come with the Land Speeder kit. They looked comically small though, so I looked around at what else I had.

I think anything can go. What I ended up with what the extra AA cannons from a Hunter/Stalker kit.

You have... a few seconds to comply!.

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 Speeder Conversion.

Captain MAGpie,
Styrene Addict