The inadequacies of the Leman Russ

Like many 40k hobbyists, I am unhappy with the design of the standard Imperial Guard tank in the game, the Leman Russ.
The main body of the vehicle is small and tall, the arrangement of the guns is impossible (the turret is far too small for the large guns mounted on it, leaving no room for a breach block, loading mechanism, or any recoil motion - compounded by the fact that the tank commander stands directly behind the gun).
While assembling my third LR, a Demolisher, I decided to try something different. Taking a cue from such historical AFVs as the French Char B and American M3 Grant/Lee tanks, I thought I'd place the larger gun in the hull mount, and have the smaller gun in the turret. Since the smaller gun is a Lascannon, with no breech, reloading system, or recoil, it would make sense that the rear of the focusing barrel would simply be attached to power lines connecting it with the Tank's own power plant. Lack of recoil would not shatter the turret ring, and the loading mechanism would not mangle the tank commander's legs.

While test fitting the major sub-assemblies, I thought of reversing the position of the track assemblies. By switching them around, I was able to slightly change the profile of the vehicle so that it is more in line with the Land Raider's aggressive look.



I quickly went back and converted my two previously built Russes to this configuration.

With the coming of 40k Apocalypse, I purchase a 10 tank Leman Russ set, and began construction of an Imperial Guard Armored Company. I built my first tank from the box following the design of my previous conversions.


As I completed it, I found that I was still not entirely satisfied with the design, and decided to make further changes before assembling the other 9 tanks.


The major change was to cut down the length of the hull mounted battle cannon, as well as reducing the size of the hull mount itself. This resulted in a gun that doesn’t pivot , but looks much better (to me).


Another problem that I have not been able to adequately address is turret rotation. If I mount the track sections low enough to be able to rotate the turret fully, the tank is far too tall. I have had to accept the turrets on the models having a limited traverse.

For better images (Blogger seems to want to crop some of these in odd ways) check out : http://s569.photobucket.com/albums/ss135/joedogboy/Hobby%20Stuff/?action=view¤t=RussDemolisherfront.jpg