Celestial Lions Land Speeder (Part 1)

As an option for my Celestial Lions Kill Team I wanted a Land Speeder in lieu of having just a Tactical Squad. I knew before I began that I wanted to magnetize this vehicle for gun options. I also knew that I didn't want to use the Typhoon launchers as that's the most expensive (in-game) option. This piece would be interchangeable between a standard Land Speeder and a Land Speeder Tornado.

This was actually the prime motivation behind this whole Celestial Lions project and it was the first thing I started on. Back in December, I primed the whole kit while it was still attached to it's frames using Krylon Gold.

Primed sprues.

After just over a month I returned to this model confident that I had a renewed grasp on the Celestial Lions paint scheme. Now this is the original model that came in the 40k 3rd ed starter box.  It is somewhat notorious for being a model that doesn't like to go together without a fight. Having built one of these before, I know that it takes patience, skill, rubberbands and plenty of plastic cement.

Stage one, with magent hole.

At this point I figured out where I wanted the hull mounted magnet to go. I simply eye-balled it and carved out a hole using my X-acto blade. I made the hole big enough for the smaller magnets, that will be on the guns, to fit through where they'll contact the larger magnet superglued within.

Large magnet superglued over small hole.

On to the painting, where I picked out all the areas that needed a black basecoat. Next, I applied Chestnut Ink to all the grooves and recesses on the main hull and the lower assembly.

Test fit. 

Next I had to decide which weapons to use for my load out options. I chose the multimelta from the 2nd edtion era Land Speeder and the heavy flamer from the Space Marine Attack Bike which is also from that time.

Old enough to be relics.

The magnets I am using are seriously strong and in the event that the superglue were ever to fail I would likely not be able fix it again due to the way this kit goes together. So I decided to glue a piece of sprue over and around the magnet for extra security.

Sprue cage over the manget.

With the sprue cage set and the magnets glued, I am happy to show that this appears like it will work perfectly!

Heavy Flamer option.

Multimelta option.

I have another weapon (or two...maybe. the debate continues) that I would like to add to these options, but for now I feel like we can move on with the painting and assembly. And since this post is now long enough, we shall leave those steps for part 2!