Land Raider Ares, part 3

I got the hang of this during a couple of episodes of Ashes To Ashes.  Oh, wonderful British police drama in the eighties style with just a LITTLE bit of science fiction thrown in.  Try Life On Mars first, just not the American version. Bleugh. Notice a theme with the titles?

I assembled the main body of the Land Raider and held it together with rubber bands.  I could have used three hands for this exercise. Holding together several parts while wrapping rubber bands around them was like trying to stuff three cats in a sack at once! It afforded me the opportunity to trim the front plate from the Vindicator sprue appropriately, and to dry fit as I go.

After seeing the various photos deposited around the web, and after reading the assembly blog that used to be on the Games Workshop website, I was confident that I would be able to trim and fit this plate quite well.  I placed it on the front of the body and marked where I needed to cut.  I was generous with this so that I could trim with a knife as necessary.  I had an unfortunate accident as I was marking the cut lines with my hobby blade and sent the blade through the top of my knuckle.  Wasn't just an ordinary knick either - this was a talking wound!  Kinda made my job difficult for a couple of days, but there's no good kitbash without a little injury or two.

I made the cuts with a hobby saw and filed flat and smooth, working as needed until the plate fit snugly and straight in place.  The next thing was to work on whittling down what was required to make the plate fit in a way that looked like it was engineered like that.  I didn't want to glue the cannon in place until I was happy with the placement of the plate.  I had to cut down the areas that take the upper door hinges on a regular Land Raider.  I had to cut back the parks of the body that the doors would rest against, just so that things tuck in nicely.

 

After I got the plate positioned correctly, I measured up where the lower door would have to meet, and I cut it across and filed it straight.  Again, testing for fit - I had great joy - it was working! 

Then I assembled the demolisher cannon, and I used some plasticard to cover gaps in the back.  The part of the front plate that normally on the Rhino chassis would wrap around the cupola worked well around the area for the TL Assault Cannon, but I couldn't insert and remove the weapon - as you would in the case of a Weapon Destroyed result.  I really should have magnetised the main barrel of the Demolisher cannon because you and I both know that the first Weapon Destroyed result will be on the Demolisher. So I trimmed it back in an appropriate manner. Small pieces of plasticard gave that area some support and finish. 

 

So here we have it.  The body glued together, demolisher cannon in place and rubber bands securing everything until the glue dried. I just placed that piece of track to ensure the gaps were correct. 

 Next up is the attachment of the siege shield to the body.  Or at least working out where the supports go.