Death Company Land Raider Finished

I am happy to say I recently finished up a model that has been sitting on my project shelf for over a year.   I built up and painted my tournament prize from last years Ard Boyz prelims, a second Land Raider for my Blood Angels.   Most of my hobby work for 6th edition so far has focused on my Death Company marines and Chaplain.   So it felt appropriate to build up a sweet ride that could get them into assault position.  With this model, I tried taking my modelling and painting skills up a notch.   For my first time, I used my air brush to apply faded paint areas, stippling brushes for chipped paint damage, and weathering powder to muddy up the tracks.   I also magnetized the sponsons to run different Land Raider variants.   Overall, I am happy with how it came out.   Pics after the break.

I knew I wanted to run variants for my second Land raider so I picked up the Terminus Ultra and Crusader/Redeemer sprues.  I also ordered the Blood Angels LR doors to truly pimp it out.

I have magnetized sponsons like this before.   I basically cut a metal rectangle and bridged the areas with extra cut sprue pieces.   This allowed me to not worry about the polarity on the magnets.   The Lascannons on the Terminus Ultra forced me to have them inboard more than I wanted.  But I was able to offset the gap with extra magnets on the sponsons themselves.

I risked using a new airbrush black paint for the base coat.   I was worried at first it would be too shiny because it went on so wet looking.   However, it dried to a nice flat color that was compatible with GW Chaos Black.   I used an envelop to shade the lower areas and leave some grey primer exposed near the tracks.

Since Forge World only makes Death Company Mk2B doors (which don't fit the LR Mk4), I needed to find a way to get the signature red 'X' painted on.   I traced the area around the door and cut out some 'X' stencils to airbrush the red paint on.   The first attempt wasn't great.   The surface area isn't flat and there was some paint bleed through.    Next I just painted the whole door red and reverse stenciled the black around it.

The side doors and front hatch came out better than expected.   I started painting the details up.

Some grey edge highlighting and washes were used to get that pro painted look.

Next up, I tried weathering powder for the first time.   Thanks to Chad at Gamer's Sanctuary for letting me try them out.   I basically followed this four part instruction video for layering the different colors and sealing it on.   This was a messy step but I like the effect.    Also at this time I mixed some boltgun metal with mithril and did some stippling.   Thanks to Mike and Bill for the tips on how to do this.

The end result is one model that I am very happy with.   Here's some outdoor photos to show off the detailing.

I magnetized the options to run a Crusader or a Terminus Ultra Land Raider.    I found a really creative place on the tracks for the front grenade launchers to attach too.   With the metal strips I used, any sponson can be placed in any hull socket.

Probably the best variant still, the Crusader is probably going to see the most table time.

A Terminus Ultra Land Raider in Death Company colors doesn't make much sense, but I thought it looks cool.    Here it is ready for some Apocalypse action.

That's it.   So what do you all think about Land Raiders?   Are they relevant in 6th edition? or a relic of editions past?   Next week I will try and post some sample lists I am trying out.   

Thanks for viewing!