Following the father's day festivities, I managed to finish off the alternate Leman Russ this afternoon:


I also took a quick shot of the Charon alongside a standard Leman Russ. It's a little shorter in height but the overall hull is a bit more bulky than the regular version.


Finally I pulled out all the proxy/custom tanks and did a group shot. I'm planning on doing up another pair of the Griffons as well as at least another two of the Wyvern pattern Chimeras.

I started off with the undercarriage from the leman russ kit, and added on the snall bulkhead piece that is usually used in making a Basilisk to make an offset similar to the Macharius. I glued on the leman russ top hull, and filled in the bottom gap with a piece of plasticard (not pictured).


For the sides, I built up the standard Chimera left and right track sections (after significant searching through the bits boxes to find the appropriate parts), and used my Dremel to sand off the interior hull guides and the hatch combings on the exterior. I cut down the side armor plates a bit with the intention of using them to butt up against the side sponsons.


Once everything was sanded down, I glued the hull to the track units. The Leman Russ hull sits a little higher than the track units in the middle, but I intended to cover the gap with some track guards.


I assembled the tracks and track guards, which managed to cover the gap nicely. I also replaced the standard hull-mounted lascannon with one from the guard heavy weapons teams sprues.


I had a pair of assembled heavy bolter sponsons left over from an older project, which fit on the sides over the sanded-down hatch covers nicely. In the short term I'm planning on using the turret from the standard Leman Russ I have assembled and painted, though I'm thinking I'll eventually pick up a Ryza pattern turret from Forge World (or eBay if I can find one), as it's a little more streamlined and I think it may better suit the model. All in all it was a bit more work sanding and fitting than the recent Griffon proxy tank, but it ended up looking pretty decent. It stands a little shorter in profile than a standard Russ, but it is also a little wider, so I think it balances out in the end. I settled on calling it the Charon pattern, but I'm not 100% sold on the name. I'll have to dig out the Big Book of Mythological Creatures and see if I can find a better name that hasn't already been used...