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Subject: LED-lighted Grey Knight Land Raider

Hey guys! Slowly finishing up my Grey Knights army, next up, a Phobos pattern Land Raider. To make it a challenge for myself, I wanted to get my feet wet with some new things I haven't tried before, so I decided to light it up with LEDs. I plan do do interior lighting and the headlights.
The first problem I had to tackle with lighting up the headlights, was drilling out the headlight bits. Most converted Landraiders I see just drill out a giant hole in the headlight bitz, but I liked the look of the wired mesh in front of the lightsm so I attempted to keep that, by drilling out the lights from the back and using a dremel to make little holes in the front for the light to shine through.
Well.. that didn't work out so good:
As you can see, the grill is so tiny I basically destroyed it in the process. So I had to work on a different solution. With the advent of 3d printing, I thought, heck, why not give that a try? There's a company based in the Netherlands called Shapeways, where you can send a 3d model and they print it out for you for a reasonable price. I've dabbled in 3d modelling in the past, so I had some experience using the tools.
I measured up the original bit with a digital marking gauge to get reasonably accurate dimensions, and recreated the original bit as best I could, but with the headlights 'pre-drilled' to fit a duo of 3mm LEDs:
And send the model to Shapeways to print out a couple in their 'Frosted Ultra Detail' material. As it's somewhat transparent it's hard to take decent pictures of it, but here goes:
Lessons learned for the next bit I create: carve the details deeper! Here's a test fitting:
Still needs some fine sandpaper to smooth it out a little and make it fit better, but all in all I'm quite happy about the result!
As for the rest of the Land Raider, I couldn't just leave that stock either, so here's some other modifications I've done:
I combined the multi-melta gunner out of a PAGK's helmet, left shoulder pad and torso front with the legs, arms, right shoulder pad and rear torso of the techmarine included in the tank kits.
And I added the twin-linked lascannon barrels with the laurel wreaths from the Venerable Dreadnought kit to fancy those up a bit.
Of course some Forge World doors are always nice to spuce up a Land Raider.
I've already got some work done on the interior:
I've left it pretty basic, as in the Grim Darkness of the Land Raider interior, you can't see that much detail anyway, especially when peeking through the front assault ramp. If you're wondering where all the holes are for: the battery compartment is going to be housed behind the engine, so I've made the rear engine panel removable with magnets to be able to exchange empty batteries for fresh ones. The smaller holes are for the wiring.
Now to get everything together, solder/glue all the leds, wiring and switches in place and get it ready for painting the exterior!

Subject: LED-lighted Grey Knight Land Raider

Nice, I'll be keeping an eye on this. Consider me subbed.
Out of interest what did you use to draw the 3D model, was it autocad? Also how much did the 3d printing company rush you for the bits?
The little modifications are a great touch, I always enjoy adding extra bits to customise my models a bit without going for a full blown conversion/kit bash.
I'm also glad to see I'm not the only one who paints the interiors of the vehicles, although you make a considerably better job of it than I do.
Can't wait to see more.
D

Subject: Re:LED-lighted Grey Knight Land Raider

Would it have been possible to make the grill out of florist's wire? It's just something that occurred to me.
The interior looks amazing, I wish I had painted my Land Raider like that! My only criticism so far is that I can still see those mold lines/circles around the engine piece. Is it too late to file those down?
Apart from that, it's a great idea! I've only seen a few Land Raiders with lights before, and none of them have been Grey Knights.

Subject: LED-lighted Grey Knight Land Raider

evildrcheese wrote:Out of interest what did you use to draw the 3D model, was it autocad? Also how much did the 3d printing company rush you for the bits?

I used 3D Studio Max, as that is what I am used to, but Shapeways accepts a variety of formats so you can use pretty much any modelling program out there. As for the price, I made 3 pairs of headlights (have another 'Raider and a spare set) for about 7 euros + shipping made it about € 13,-. As it was my first time trying out Shapeways I only ordered these, but as I'm satisfied with the results I plan on doing my upcoming Razorbacks and Stormraven at the same time to save on shipping.

The little modifications are a great touch, I always enjoy adding extra bits to customise my models a bit without going for a full blown conversion/kit bash.

Same here! I think some of the best conversions are the more subtle ones.

I'm also glad to see I'm not the only one who paints the interiors of the vehicles, although you make a considerably better job of it than I do.

Thanks! Although I don't plan to do every interior as it does take a good while longer to finish it this way, this Land Raider has a little bit of showcase value.
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-Shrike- wrote:Would it have been possible to make the grill out of florist's wire? It's just something that occurred to me.

Possibly, but probably not by me. Seems like it would be hard to get the shape right. I just stuck with what I knew.

The interior looks amazing, I wish I had painted my Land Raider like that! My only criticism so far is that I can still see those mold lines/circles around the engine piece. Is it too late to file those down?

Aye, I tried to remove those, but they are somewhat inset into the plastic. I guess the Land Raider moulds are starting to age. I think the only way to remove those completely would be sanding the whole thing down and using some sort of filler, which I have no experience with. In the end I figured the engine block would have to be moulded/cast too, so I ended up keeping it the way it is.

Subject: LED-lighted Grey Knight Land Raider

Got a little more progress on it done. I've finished up all the wiring and soldering, and installed a nice little gizmo: a reed switch. This is a switch that toggles based on the proximity of a magnetic field. I jury-rigged the Land Raider's door mechanism so that when the door opens, a magnet comes close to it and..
..lights up the interior!
And a picture from the front end. The light looks a little purple on the picture, but it's a blue led.
No I can glue it all together and start on the exterior paint job!
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And also hooked up the highlights! The green reflection is from the camera lens, but you can see the wire mesh in it.

Subject: Re:LED-lighted Grey Knight Land Raider

Hey guys! Finally managed to finish this thing.
First, two WIP pictures I forgot to post:
Picture of the main whole after I airbrushed the base coat, the heraldry and the shading.
Sadly I somewhat ruined the headlights a bit: I tried to use liquid mask to avoid spraying the leds, but it got all goocked up between the wire mesh. By removing it I damaged it a bit, removing some spokes from the wire mesh and filling up the detail of the 'blinker' lights next to the headlights. But as everything was glued together already, I couldn't replace the headlight bits anymore. :( So I had to settle on fixing it with some greenstuff. And in the end I could have easily masked it with some tape. That just teaches you to keep it simple.. Ah well, live and learn, I'll certainly not repeat that mistake on my second Land Raider!
And here it is, all finished up! I quite like how the square lenses turned out, but I still need to practise the round ones and gems a bit more.
The assault ramp opened to show the nice blue glow coming from inside.
And the headlights lid up.
This shot nicely shows the small conversion of the Venerable Dreadnought's lascannon barrels, I quite like these.
Even Grey Knights use bumber stickers.
And the assault ramp's door, showing the tank's name: 'Deux Ex'. I wanted to go for 'Deus Malleus', but that didn't fit.
All in all, I'm quite happy with the result, considering this is my first tank ever, even with the small blemish of the damaged headlights.

Subject: LED-lighted Grey Knight Land Raider

The paint job and the lighting are sweeeeeeeet!

Subject: LED-lighted Grey Knight Land Raider

Look good man.
D