Plans for a very very very big tank

Many many years ago there was a game named Space Marine, better known to us today as Epic.

In that game the Imperial Guard had lots of tanks. Most of them are still with us today, but a few have mostly been forgotten (often for good reasons. They were ugly!).

But the true tank's tank, the one every tank wanted to be when they grew up, was known as the Leviathan.

These were supposed to be mobile command centres for the Imperial Guard, and are one of only two Praetorian-class command vehicles existing in the fluff.

They were also the largest vehicles allowed to the Imperial Guard, bearing in mind that Titans properly belong to the Titan Legions, and are not actually part of the Guard.

The Leviathan is an imposing thing, armed to the teeth with all sorts of blasty goodness, and capable of transporting men and tanks to war. (why transport another vehicle? why to increase their operational distance of course. might as well ask why there are aircraft carriers, silly.)

Such a tank would be huge, about double Baneblade length and twice as wide, judging by the Epic model.

In 40K scale, a Leviathan would be about 15 inches or so long. It would make a helluva sight on a game table.

The other tank, the Capitol Imperialis, would probably be the size of a bicycle on a gaming table, so the less said about that the better.

Anyway, I was thinking that the only way I would ever build myself a Leviathan, was if I were to cobble it together out of existing GW kits. I mean seriously, detailing all that flat surface area would make me go mad. I don't even want to think about how many rivets I'd need to cut. Existing kits would already have surface detail, saving me tons of time.

I mean it's a showpiece, but I don't want to kill myself doing it up. Plus, making it out of GW kits means that the final model will be structurally sound, at least the way I'm planning to go about it.

So here's the plan. I paint every last Imperial Guard model I own, before I allow myself to start on this monster. No guilt about incomplete stuff sitting around then. Bonus!

In the meantime here's a shopping list of parts I will need:
1 Shadowsword kit 54 pounds
1 Baneblade kit 54 pounds
1 set of extra Baneblade sponsons 15 pounds
3 Imperial Bastions 48.6 pounds
1 Shrine of the Aquila 18 pounds

Total: 189.6 pounds, or $379.20, based on 1:2 exchange rate.

Mad? Definitely. Fun? Definitely.

Gaming value? Who cares? It looks cool.

Plus it can always double as terrain. =p