This is a review of the Sagittarius Conversion Kit from Blood and Skulls Industry. It’s designed to replace the tracks, track guards and upper hull from a plastic Land Raider. I’ve also chosen to add the Oppressor (spiky) tracks, and a pair of Alpha pattern dual-weapon sponsons. Here’s what the tank currently looks like, after assembling all the resin components.
Resin quality
As mentioned in my previous post, the casting quality from Blood and Skulls is excellent. During assembly I found a few small air bubbles on the sides of some track links. There are plenty of spares though, and it’s also easy to position these so any bubbles aren’t visible. Overall, it’s a very good quality kit. Details on the Oppressor tracks is particularly good, with every last finger-piercing spike properly filled out.
Cleanup
There was quite a lot of resin flash on the track sections, but this was simple enough to remove with a sharp knife. The resin is very hard, making details sturdier than Forgeworld resin. However, that means that it doesn’t sand very easily.
There seemed to be a lot of mould release fluid on these, as I had very greasy hands after removing the parts from their packaging. I removed this by spraying all parts with Simple Green, and then scrubbing them under running water. Fairly standard practice for any resin kit, and it’s a good opportunity to inspect the parts closely before you glue them together.
Assembly
I have lots of assembly pics, so I’ll add them after the cut…This is how it begins: two track frames and a pile of track links. It’s worth noting that unlike the instructions shown on the original eBay listing, the frames are a single piece per side of the tank. Each has a single tag to remove, and otherwise fits nicely into place in the plastic track sides.
Here you can see how the frames fit together:
Following the instructions, I left the rear track sections until after I’d glued the tracks onto the hull. The last single link added to each side needed a small amount of trimming to make them fit in place. I suspect the variation is entirely down to small differences in how tightly I spaced each track section while gluing everything together.
Word of warning: don’t leave the hull plate until last! I carefully glued all the plastic components onto one side of the tracks: floor, upper front, engine etc. Then I tried gluing it together so the top could be dropped in place, forgetting that it’s slightly wider than the space between the tracks. Fortunately that was easy to fix: the plastic glue hadn’t fully set, so I could rip the sides apart and re-glue.
Here are some shots of the finished track assembly, so you can see how visible the wheels are from the side of the vehicle:
If anyone’s wondering what the other plastic parts are, here’s a list:
- Twin heavy bolter: two sponson Heavy Bolters from a Space Marine Predator
- HB mount: part of the Tellyporta Blasta from my box of Ork Meganobz
- Horned skull: a banner top from the ‘Ardboyz in the Start Collecting box
- Chainsaws and circular saws: cut down from Meganob Killsaws
- Exhaust stacks: from an Imperial Knight
