Abstract For the description of the rotational properties of rare-earth nuclei, the feasibility of angular momentum projections after a variational calculation of the intrinsic band wave function is explored, similar to what has been attempted for sd shell nuclei. As an illustrative example we present here some results for 152 Sm in the pairing-plus-quadrupole force model. These projection results are then compared with the corresponding ones in the more conventional semiclassical approaches and with experimental data. It is found that our results for the rotational energies are similar to the cranking model predictions.