Fighting Tiger Heavy Support (Part II)
I hadn’t planned on adding any more Heavy Support units to my army, but I just couldn’t resist having a Land Raider Crusader. Not only do they look cool, but they also operate in exactly the way I feel a Space Marine tank should. That is, rush right up in the enemy’s face, let rip with an obscene amount of firepower, then discharge a squad of Marines to polish off the survivors of the initial onslaught. 

Modeling “White Tiger II”
The Land Raider Crusader model kit comes with all kinds of cool little features: doors open and close and guns swivel freely. Sounds good, but those of you who have already assembled any of the new Land Raiders or Crusaders know how much hassle that can be. The sliding doors on the side frequently stick (open or shut), and putting together the front ramp mechanism is a bear. Worst of all, the Hurricane bolter assemblies have an annoying tendency to swivel either all the way forward or all the way back: you can almost never get them to stay in a certain position to “fire” at the target they’re supposedly aimed at. 

Having seen my friend Patrick Eibel struggle to get these features to work properly on his Land Raider, I wasn’t about to indulge in all that. Like all my other models, “White Tiger II” has hatches sealed shut and weapons glued in place. Not only was this approach easier and faster than trying to do it “the right way,” but it also results in a sturdier model: moving parts are cool, but anything that moves is more likely to break. Not to mention that with the doors on, I didn’t feel obligated to paint the interior. I’m a busy guy, you know….

For a couple of reasons, I also made sure to mount the Hurricane bolters up front, in the closer side port. First, it just makes sense to me that troops disembarking from the side of the vehicle (and this goes for the regular Land Raider, too) would do so behind the battery of guns and not in front of them. I can’t imagine that any Marine, even one in Terminator armor, would want to hop out in front of a bunch of guns during a battle. All real-life warriors fear “friendly fire” almost as much (if not more) than enemy fire.

Second, placing the guns up front gives the bolters a smidge more range—and I’m all for getting as many guns as possible in range. Third, it’s not detrimental to disembarking—the whole transported squad can disembark by the front ramp, so no worries there. 

“White Tiger II” has a few vehicle options. Extra armor comes standard, so no need to buy (or model) that. Smoke launchers and a searchlight are a must. Although I didn’t want to, I added a pintle-mounted storm bolter (I’ll tell you why I did in a minute). And that was that: no hunter-killer missile and no dozer blade. The multi-melta does a fine job of tankbusting, and I don’t intend to move “White Tiger II” at anything less than top speed, so a dozer blade wouldn’t do much good. 

Painting “White Tiger II”
I already have one Land Raider in my army, an old, “Rogue Trader” era version, dubbed “The White Tiger” (below). Because I have one Land Raider and one Crusader, I started thinking of them as a pair. The new, cutting-edge Land Raider Crusader would complement the old, traditional Land Raider. Hence the name (“White Tiger II”) and the colors (Skull White and Bestial Brown). 

Why not just paint “White Tiger II” in white and black, like its namesake? The design of the Land Raider Crusader is similar to, but not identical with, the old, original “Rogue Trader” Land Raider. Thus, I thought it best to paint the Crusader similar to, but not identical with, the original tank. 

The role I envision “White Tiger II” performing most often is transporting Terminators into battle. My Tactical Terminators (below left) are painted mustard yellow and brown; my Assault Terminators (below right) are painted white and black. By painting “White Tiger II” in white and brown, I have a transport that will visually coordinate with whichever Termie squad it transports: the stripes match the brown of the Tactical Termies; the rest of it matches the white of the Assault Termies. 

Looking back on some of the vehicles I’ve done, I feel like I painted too many stripes on them. In my opinion, these models look fine up close—say, in your hand—but from a distance—for example, a few feet away on the tabletop—they look too “busy.” So with “White Tiger II” I was determined to use lots of big stripes and ease up on the amount I painted. I made sure to leave plenty of “white space,” and I think this vehicle looks better than, say, “Maneater I” (see below).

Just for gits and shiggles, I also kept track of how many stripes I painted on “White Tiger II”: 140.

What’s wrong with these pictures?
If you look closely at the accompanying photos, you’ll see two odd things about “White Tiger II.”

First, I’ve added a pintle-mounted storm bolter—nothing too strange about that, except that I don’t think it’s necessary: the Crusader kicks out a tremendous amount of firepower anyway, and a storm bolter is just overkill. So why bother putting one on? Because I had to move the multi-melta that used to be in its place.

When I first put the model together, I wanted to have the Techmarine figure firing the multi-melta. But like other model builders, I had problems with the multi-melta falling off that spindly little mount that it’s supposed to sit on. After trying several times to keep it glued on, I gave up and moved it to a more stable location: right on top of one of the hatches. Now nothing short of a good solid whack will knock that gun off. 

But having moved it, I then had to do something with the Techmarine that I had already painted and glued into place, so I gave him the storm bolter, which fits quite snugly on the mount originally meant for the multi-melta. 

If you look at “White Tiger II” from the top, you might think it looks a little strange or asymmetrical with both heavy weapons—the multi-melta and the assault cannon—on the same side of the tank. I too think it looks strange, but if it comes to choosing between durability and aesthetics in a model, I always choose durability. I’d rather have something that survives trips to events and the inevitable wear-and-tear of gaming rather than something that looks really pretty but has to be handled delicately or constantly repaired.

Anyway, I usually don't pay the points for the storm bolter, meaning it's just decoration. 

The second odd thing you might notice is that I left off the frag assault launchers that are supposed to be on the front. Having painted those Imperial Eagles on the tracks, it seemed a shame to cover them up—so the smoke launchers on the top will have to pull “double duty” and fire frag grenades too. Leaving them off helps make my Crusader distinctive from all the others out there and has no effect in game terms. 

 

Next page (pg 12): The entire army Previous page (pg 10): Heavy Support, Part I

Related Pages
Fighting Tiger Heavy Support
Tactics: White Tiger II
 

Like what you've seen? Then vote for the Jungle in the "Top 100 40K Sites"

© Copyright Kenton Kilgore, August 2001 

Top