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If you did a lot of work on the interior of your Rhino, why waste it by gluing the top hatches shut? Here is how to hinge them so they swivel open and closed. I also have a tutorial for making Land Raider doors hinged.

You'll need:

A Space Marine Rhino
Pin vise with 1/64th drill bit
4 pins of the same width
about 10 minutes


OK, so obviously the Rhino in this example is not painted.

1.) Start by drilling out the hinges on the doors with your pin vise. This is the only tricky part, in that you only get one chance at this. You drill from the outside towards the middle. Make sure it's centered, and take your time.



2.) Once done, get your pins out and push them through the hinges. You want them to be at least 3/4th of an inch long. Once though, carefully bend them so they look like staples. Make sure not to snap the hinge off!



3.) Drill out the holes for the hinges in the top deck of the Rhino, as shown. Push the hinges through the holes. This will be easier if you use your wire cutters to trim the pins so that they all slightly different lengths.



4.) Once pushed through, bend the pins so they are facing in the opposite direction. Don't glue them yet.



5.) You're going to need to carefully push the hinges towards the center of the rhino a little, so that the doors line up. Again, go slow and easy on this. If you hulk it, you're going to ruin your work.

6.) When finished, the hinges will look like this.


7.) Once the doors swivel correctly, you will want to use a bit of glue on the undersides to keep them from popping off.

8.) Note that the doors do not go all the way flush with the top deck now - they extend the width of the doors, about 1/8th of an inch. I'm pretty sure if you play with the hole positioning and pin bending, you can make it so they are flush, but I decided I prefer it with the doors slightly above the deck.





That's it! If you decide to do this, I'd love to see your pics.

Nice idea, gives you extra inner detail.

Approval +

Nice work. I would be interested to know how you rigged up the lights in the interior.

That is a tutorial for when I finish painting it

Good Idea! It's probably better for it not to be shut flush, otherwise it's be hard to open (without opening any other hatches).

Great tut. Thanks for showing us how to do this.

Nice tuturial, I'll definitely have to try that out. I'm loving that design too, is that a custom BA-ish thing? If not, sorry, I'm kinda new to this.

Nah, those guys are Blood Ravens, Relic's Space Marine chapter from the Dawn of War video games.

nice tutorial man

Yep, great idea!

I'll use it on my next rhino.

Great tutorial man,Now i have a fully functioning rhino.

... Awesome.
Can't wait to see the lighting tutorial.

i just have to be nosey, but are you putting lighting in that thing too? cos i see wires and a betery, XD

Yes, but it was very minor lighting that wasn't even worth posting - just 2 LED's in the transport compartment. By the time I had gotten to that point, I had done too much pre-assembly to be able to do anything properly.

I then did a more proper lighting job on a subsequent model, which I have finished electrically but not managed to drive myself to complete the painting. Hopefully today.

Love it, now have a reason to paint the interior!

Sweet tutorial pal i will be giving this a go.