Blood and Skulls Industries Sagittarius Kit - Wrap that Land Raider in tracky goodness!

Rejoice modellers!  Well, okay, I know I did today when I opened my mailbox and found my package from Blood and Skulls Industries.  I am working on an Ultramarine army for contract, and needed a couple of twin assault cannon turrets for some Razorbacks.

I did an unboxing and assembly video on those here.

Further, tucked away in said shipping container was one of Blood and Skulls brandy new Sagittarius Conversion Kits, with Oppressor tracks.

For this, I shot an unboxing video, as well as shot an assembly video for a single side.

I wanted to get a step by step assembly article written on these as well, so people would can have a visual reference when assembling.

Okay, a bit about this kit.  It is a collaboration between Tom, the owner of Blood and Skulls, and a guy named Maarten.  Maarten (that is the Dutch spelling) designed the kit in CAD, and Tom went to work making the parts and casting the kits. It works and can be selected with all three versions of the 080 tracks - Oppressor, Liberator, and Krusher. According to Blood and Skulls, the Liberator is his most popular Sagitarius Kit, with almost 40 sold since it's release at the middle of last month. This kit is HOT HOT HOT!

Putting It Together

I started off, working on the other half of the Land Raider kit.  It is easier to assembly the sides with tracks first, and then do the final assembly.  Less to handle, and with the Oppressor tracks, less chances of poking your fingers. There are some other assembly tutorials out there that say to attach the guide wheel assemblies first, then assemble the hull halves, but I did not find this to be a problem. 

This is the guide wheel assembly pic from the eBay listing.  I did not glue them all together, but instead, did a dry fit and glue in place directly to the hull. The kit has separate parts for each side, so a dry fit before glue is a MUST.



The tolerances on the kit are also pretty tight as well.  When doing the final assembly, I had to make sure to press down hard to get the piece to "Click" into place.



I used the track assembly guide from the kit to put the tracks on, once the guide wheels were dry.

I started with the top and front sections, and worked my way around to the rear of the hull.

I had 0 fitment issues on this side, but the first side, I had to do some mad filing on the joint in the back.  I think, however that is my fault (in a rush to assemble the kit) than any fault in the kit.  Had I taken the extra couple of minutes to file the track starts and ends like I did for this side, it would not have been an issue.





So, as you can see, this kit made the boring, ho hum Land Raider into a crushy, bladey, vehicle of death.  And, as with all of Blood and Skulls track kits, there were extra links left over, and so I stuck them to the front of the assault ramp because Chaos, that's why.



I really enjoyed this kit.  Inn a conversation with Tom, he stated that he was concerned about clearance issues with the assault ramp opening assembly.  I normally glue my Land Raiders shut, so this wasn't an issue, but when I get the Krusher kit in for the Death Guard Land Raider, I will test that out for him.

The last thing, before assembling the tank is the rear section. No need to cut down the top plate from the LR, although you could if you wanted.  This piece fits better than the GW front Hull section, isn't warped like Forge World resin, and goes on fast and easy.  Just remember, if you are assembling the side hulls before the main body - DON't FORGET THIS PIECE.  I did, and thank the paint gods I used plastic glue on the plastic parts, otherwise, this thing would have been a drop top!

  

Now to convince Blood and Skulls to do some armor banding and some Chaosy bits to adorn this bad boy.  The Thousand Sons have a new ride, and need it suitably detailed before crawling into it.


Hope everyone enjoys!