Blog ChapterAquila92's Grav-Russ Executioner and other Projects

Heyo! Liam here, and I've been working on the titular project for about 3 years now.

Lore-wise, the Imperial Guard doesn't normally field vehicles that make use of anti-gravity technology, given the logistics required to manufacture and maintain repulsor plating being beyond most Imperial worlds. However, the setting is vast and vague enough that such oddities and more can exist.

Thus, in honour of the Soviet scientist who designed hovertanks back in the 1930s, I'm giving life to the Levkov-Pattern Grav-Russ.
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Starting off, I already had in mind that this would be an Executioner variant - something about plasma cannons on a hovertank made sense to me - so I went out and bought myself a Leman Russ Demolisher kit, which included the necessary parts to build one alternatively. From there, I started working on the hull of the grav-tank-to-be.

THREE YEARS LATER

Oh boy. Yeah, it's been sitting for that long with no progress.

A lot has changed since then however. Games Workshop, as part of their promotion for 8th Edition, introduced the Primaris Repulsor grav-tank for the Space Marines.



Considering what I was trying to go for with the frankenjobbed Leman Russ chassis, I took one look at this and went "I want that hull!"

It was pricey, but well worth it.



Credit where credit is due, I have to hand it to Games Workshop for getting better at making kits that fit well, especially in the case of the Repulsor. I had little issue getting parts to fit, and even the side sponsons I nicked off of a Predator kit were easy to install (albeit with a 2mm-thick plasticard spacer to make the upper braces flush with the side door overhang).




Very little putty was required to clean up any unsightly gaps before I started going to town with the primer. For now, the repulsor plates are being handled separately until I'm done painting the rest of the model, and for that I'll need to first figure out what to do about the PD turrets, sponsons, and the main turret itself.

I've already got it in my head that, aside from the hull-mounted lascannon, this grav-russ executioner is destined to be a flying plasma brick, so I'll need to play around with what I can pull off with the sponsons.

Meanwhile, the main turret is my biggest concern. The repulsor's turret is not able to fit the Executioner's plasma destroyer without extensive reworking, and while the Leman Russ turret is my safest option on that front I don't find it adequately large enough in comparison to the rest of the model. At this point, it's looking like my best option is a slightly modified Baneblade turret.

All in all, it's a big leap forward over the past week compared to the previous three years.
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As this is still a work in progress, I will be using this thread to chronicle further developments on the project, and I'd definitely like to hear what your thoughts are on it, so feel free to leave comments, queries, and suggestions as I continue on with this.

 

With the hull more or less out of the way for now, went ahead with working on the side sponsons, particularly since I already had the parts available to assemble them.

From the predator kit, the heavy bolter and lascannon side sponsons are two-piece assemblies (not including the pivot that secures it to the hull), whereby each half of the sponson - both weapon and housing - is a single piece. I still want plasma cannons however, and so began my little sub-project.
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First order of business was to remove the lascannons, followed by hollowing out a 10mm x 5mm slot, so that the housing can be used for the Leman Russ' sponson weapons.




As much as I wanted to get away with as little work done on the LR sponson weapons as possible, I still had to nick off a few details for it to fit.




And here's the completed assembly.






All that's left is to give them some primer before I go ahead and mount them to the hull.

 

This was a fun little challenge overall, and one that's working quite beautifully I might add. As it stands, the sponsons have quite the clearance from where the repulsor plating will be mounted, and the original door wells are deep enough for them to cover a full 180-degree arc along the side of the hull.

And now to figure out what to do about the damn turrets...

 

Really turned out looking beautiful. Like it.

 

That turned out very well indeed. Looking forward to seeing this project move towards completion. It will be a sight when fully painted up!

 

I've got a few such projects laying around. Among my earliest was a very basic part swap on my first baneblade model, with nothing to say of the unmanned Leman Russ Exterminator turret that is pretty much the turret from an AMT LAV-AT kit with the old metal autocannon barrels affixed to where the missile tubes would be.

I'll get a separate thread up to showcase my completed projects thus far.

 

Fair point. I largely just wanted to showcase the process of this particular project here, but I can oblige to posting a few asides.

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Spoiler: Baneblade, Completed January 2007

A Christmas gift from '06. Three days to build (3-4 hours per day), and 1.5 hours painting (thank God for an airbrush) and now it stands for all to see.

Spoiler: Space Marine Dreadnought, Completed November 2008

Spoiler: Skink Skirmishers, Completed circa. 2009

I have a handful more of these little guys, but these were the ones who managed to hold onto their shields in the carry case at the time of the photo.

Spoiler: Carnosaur, Completed circa. 2009

Yep, the good old metal "Kroq-Gar on Grymloq" model from way back when that I intended to use as a regular old-blood on a carnosaur. The old-blood currently needs superglue repairs.

I'm really thinking of revisiting this one, possibly with a good wash.

 

Nice work so far, and I really like those skinks, they look ghostly!

 

Thanks! My intent for my Lizardmen army at the time was that they hailed from a savannah/brushland region, as a Southlands theme appealed to me. At one point, I even considered tossing in some Tomb Kings parts to suggest that not only were they Southlands-based but also had a lengthy history bordering Nehekhara.

 

Spoiler: Skink Chief, November 2013

 

While the drybrushing is a little off, I love the copper

 

It was a bit of a speed-paint on my part, and painting flesh is not exactly my forte. All the more room for improvement, I guess.

There may come a day when I will strip it down to the metal and start over to do a better job. I'm already thinking I should have started looking at washes a long while ago instead of just sticking to drybrush and drybrush only.

 

Do a complete covering basecoat, then dry brush, then wash.

 

And so begins the process of consolidating the builds I've broadcast over on the other thread.

Spoiler: Carnosaur with dismounted rider

A fun alternative build of the carnosaur model, my aim was threefold: set up the model such that it doubled as a mini-diorama in its own right, be able to swap out the rider with different representational loadouts that can double as saurus oldbloods on foot when fielded on their own, and have a model of Kroq-Gar on foot.



The ring in which the rider's 32mm base sits was cut from 1mm-thick plasticard.

Spoiler: 'Bullgryn' squad

Continuing with the high-tech theme for my Imperial Guard army, in which the thread's titular grav-russ will be a part of, I'd be remiss not to build other models in the theme for the sake of variety. Among them included a squad of "bullgryns" represented by troops in bulky exosuits originally designed for deep sea construction and maintenance (they're from an oceanic hiveworld, after all).



After some humming and hawing, I resolved to use Space Marine Centurions as the base model, doing away with the pauldrons, armoured skirt and greaves, and then mounting the model on the smaller 40mm base (Centurions by default are on 50mm).



As for the heads, I used the berets from what was left of a Tempestus Scions kit on the regular "bullgryns". The female head on the "bone 'ead" sergeant is one of four available in a box of Stormcast Sequitors.



This unit of three are the melee variety with brute maul and bruteshield, in large part because I like the idea of these guys being combat engineers that punch their problems away with industrial equipment. The image of them jumping out the back of a valkyrie or vendetta to do so also sells it for me.

 

Spoiler: 30k/40k Salamanders Army in the making

More recently, I've resolved to not only do my best to work my way through the kits I haven't gotten around to touching yet, I've also gotten started on building up to a 3500pt Salamanders army for an upcoming Horus Heresy tournament I may be attending in June.

Thus my Salamanders army begins with two tactical squads, armed only with bolters and clad in Mk III "Iron" power armour.



To help make room for the kits I'll be purchasing from Forgeworld over the next six months, I also took some time to finish a half-built primaris redemptor dreadnought that I'll likely use when adapting my new Salamanders army for 40k games.

The redemptor dreadnought was an interesting one, largely because I quickly found the model to be quite articulate once you start removing the pegs responsible for the default static pose on the box art. I was also quite liberal in magnetizing this model; all weapons options out of the box are magnetized, including the storm bolters and their fragstorm grenade launcher replacements.

Apart from weapons, the knees, pauldrons, front glacis plating, and left elbow are pressure-fitted at this point due to my wanting to paint the model well, and the torso isn't glued to the hip yet for the same reason. Suffice to say, I'm happy that the model is actually quite stable as featured without resorting to using blue tack.

 

Great looking conversions! I like your idea for the "ogryn" squads being so high tech, it works really well.

And I like your idea of what you have done with Kroq Gar and his carnosaur, are you going to magnetize the Kroq Gar model so that it is sturdy on the base?

 

Thanks! I received quite a few compliments at the local GW on those models as well.

Recently, a guy who was building a genestealer brood in-store was even willing to part with a spare head to play into the Ellen Ripley expy idea I wanted to go for with the sergeant.

I might end up magnetizing him for reassurance, along with the other foot-slogging oldblood models I have. I haven't had much trouble keeping them on the base as is so far just from how snug of a fit I achieved with the plasticard ring around the 32mm base, but then again the model sadly doesn't see much action on the tabletop these days.