Materials:
Plasticard (For Sale sign)
1/4" tubing (copper works best)
Soft plastic pen casing (I use Papermate as Bic has raised areas on the pen )
Thin insulated wire
Cardstock
Small bottle to cut up (I used an old, used up Vallejo paint eye dropper)
Smoke launchers (beg a friend or buy for $2 from a bits place
Top hatch (same... these are just too difficult to scratch build and most people have a bunch they'd be happy to give/ sell for super cheap to you)
Tools:
Hobby knife
Super glue
Cutting mat
Straight metal ruler
Wire snipper
Hand drill (drill bits 1.6 mm works best)
1/8" hole punch
Scotch tape
Whew, quite a list!
First, grab a piece of the Cardstock and cut 2 circles measuring 1" across. Cover any exposed styrofoam with a material of your choosing (I used a Toblerone box and trimmed away the excess). Glue this to the upper area next to the side doors of the Land Raider as seen in the image below.
Using a hobby knife, cut around the wheel rims to round out the sharp edges of Cardstock to conform to the wheels of the Land Raider. To make the tracks, grab a piece of Scotch tape measuring 17"- 18" and lay it so the sticky side is face up. Measure the wheel rims after trimming- you should come up with close to 16". Cutting 28 strips of Plasticard which are 1" by 1/2", space them out evenly on 16" of the tape. With the Scotch tape on the inside, wrap the tracks around the tank rims and ensure the fit is snug. You can see this in the above image.
To create the front bolters (which will count as 1 twin linked bolter), use the following template or purchase/use bits to create your own.
The order to assemble goes as follows- 1 from the bottom right, one from the top right, one from the bottom left, one from the top left, one from the bottom left, one from the top right, and one from the bottom right. In simpler terms you can start with the top left 1, cut two from the bottom left and add to either side. Then add the two from the top right and add to either side. Finally, finish up with the bottom right on either side. Finish it off with a rectangular piece connecting the two bottom right pieces. Sand the edges. Finally, add 3 1/8" Plasticard circles glued together to form the barrel of the gun to the front. Glue them to the front of the tank's hatch like shown below.
To make the rear exhaust, take your small bottle (which should be about 7/8" wide and 1 3/4" long. Cut the top and bottom off and split the bottom in half from top to bottom to form half circles. From the cardstock cut 2 circles which are 7/8" wide to help give the exhaust ports some stability and form the top and bottom of the tanks. Cut those 2 circles in half and glue them to the top and bottom of the half circle bottles. Using your pen casing, cut a piece for each tank 1/2" long and glue to the top's center area. Finally, glue the two tanks to the Land Raider about 1/8" from the top of the back portion.
If you are able to get a hold of spare Las Cannon guns, add those to the side of your tanks side circles. If not, follow these instructions for making your own Las Cannons.
Using the following template, begin the basic design of the Las Cannon. You will need to cut out 3 identical pieces of the largest piece, 2 of the second largest, and 1 of the final two pieces. Assembly is similar to the Bolter, in that the three largest pieces are to be glued together and the next largest glued to either side of those 3 pieces.
Cut 7 1/4" squares from the Plasticard. Cut an area inside that square which is the thickness of the three glued together Plasticard pieces.
This next bit is complex, so I'll simply show you how those 7 pieces will be added to the guns frame. Additionally, add a 1/8" circle to the lower angular area as shown in the image below.
Cut a 1/4" from your pen casing and add it to the area which will be facing the tank. Using your wire clippers, cut 3 2" strips of wire. Next use the 1/8" hole punch and make 3 circles. Drill a hole in each one roughly 1/16". Thread the 3 wires through the holes and spread them out evenly. Attach one side to the underside of the Las Cannon and measure the other side to sit underneath the bottom of the angled area of the gun.
Now take your copper tube (1/4" dia by 1 1/4" long) and attach it 1/16" from the long area. Cut your pen casing to make an angled area measuring 1/2" at the top and 5/15" at the bottom. Slide this onto the barrel to make it a total of 2 5/8" long at the top of the barrel. Cut 3 3/16" by 1/16" squares from the plasticard and glue them to the top and sides of the gun barrel at the back. Add another cut pen casing piece 1/8" wide to the back of the barrel.
Add your smoke launchers above the pocket area at the front of the Land Raider. Take the bottom of the eye dropper bottle you cut off earlier and glue it to the bottom of the top hatch.
Next time- finishing the tank treads and adding rivets/details to your tank.
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