Fortis Binary pattern Leman Russ, Part 2

     If you decided that you don't want to add side sponsons you are actually finished with the conversion, only thing left to do is add the Chimera side pieces and tracks on as normal and to complete the tank with all the rest of the various Chimera and Leman Russ parts. However if you have decided that you do wish to have side sponsons on your Fortis Binary pattern Leman Russ I will do my best to explain how to do so.

     As mentioned earlier in part 1, the older and newer Chimera kits comes with completely different pieces for the side track parts. It is better to simply show you the difference. As you can see the newer kits the out side piece is molded into one piece, where as the older kit was made up of three different pieces. I used the fact that the older kit was made like this to my advantage since it will be easier to trim away the small raised rectangle than to have to completely remove the case cover.

Step 1 | Step 2

Step 2: adding side sponsons.

     We will start with the main set of parts that needs to be modified, the two outer side pieces and the two side covers.

     The side pieces has a rasied rectangle that the hatch cover would attach to, this is where we are going to be putting our side sponsons so we need to shave this rectangle down flush with the surrounding area. You can use sandpaper, a dremel, or a Xacto knife. I used the small Xacto chisel blade to shave this down, take your time with this and you don't want to go too deep into the plastic just flush with the surface, be careful not to damage any of the surrounding details.

     The next thing we need to do is modify the side covers so the side sponsons will have room to attach and have enough clearance. Take either your hobby knife or razor saw and cut at the seam as shown in the pictures. Clean the cut areas with sandpaper and set aside for now.

     At this time go ahead and assemble your side sponsons as normal following the instructions from Games Workshop. Once completed you will notice that the side covers are too think to allow full range of travel for the sponsons weapons. We will need to thin the covers down to gain clearance for the weapons.

     I cut mine so that they were just under 1/8" thick, use your sponson assembly as a guide to ensure you are going to have enough clearance to have full range of motion from the weapon rotating in the sponson. An easy way to uniform cuts on your covers is to lay your blade on something that is as thick as you want your covers to be and have the covers faced down when you draw your blade across the sides.

      Once your scored your lines, take a fresh knife blade and follow the scored lines, work around the pieces until you cut the excess free from the covers.

     Now to test fit the side sponsons and the covers to our outer side pieces. You may want to remove the rivets that interfere with the top edge of the sponson to close the gap they cause between the sponsons and the side pieces. This goes for the top front rivet that will cause a gap between the sponsons and the side covers.

     That completes the tutorial, finish the tank by applying the rest of the parts as normal following the insturctions. Add your wheels that act as spacers and attach the track pieces. I skipped several of the wheels to use them later for other projects, I used bits of sprue to help glue the tracks to the tank.

     I have enjoyed creating this tutorial for everyone that had showed interest in the model that I made. Hopefully I have inspired some as much as I have been while seeing others creations.

Step 1 | Step 2