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...such as the Rhino or the other vehicles of that style? I was thinking of trying to do it since I have some extra torso fronts and heads and shoulder pads and thought to give it a try. But thought to ask for advice before I actually go for it. I can imagine that it isn't as simple as it first seems to be.

If you're going to do that, I'd recommend going all the way and putting lights in your driver's section. Otherwise, nobody is going to be able to see your awesome conversion.

To be honest though, the thought never occurred to me. I'm not sure why, since it's a great idea really.

I was thinking about the light too, hence part of the reason for the advice. I imagine I can find small little lights at radio shack or one of the specialty electronic stores and a small enough battery pack, and then just mount it inside the back of the rhino or cut out the hatch into the cab and put it right there and then use the hatch as a hide wall for it.

To be honest I would think twice about adding drivers/gunners to space marine vehicles as they are woefully out of scale but if you are thinking about it you might want to look at some of the cheaper led christmas lights that come with their own battery pack, we've got two sets in our office that take two AA batteries each and you would then have tonnes of spare led's once you trim the sting back to the right amount of lights for your conversions, I have also seen this kind of christmas decoration put to fantastic use in scenery, I would probably mount the battery holder in the bottom of the crew/cargo/transport section and cut a hole in the bottom to access the power switch maybe cut out the entire bottom section to allow for battery replacement?

mullet_steve wrote:To be honest I would think twice about adding drivers/gunners to space marine vehicles as they are woefully out of scale but if you are thinking about it you might want to look at some of the cheaper led christmas lights that come with their own battery pack, we've got two sets in our office that take two AA batteries each and you would then have tonnes of spare led's once you trim the sting back to the right amount of lights for your conversions, I have also seen this kind of christmas decoration put to fantastic use in scenery, I would probably mount the battery holder in the bottom of the crew/cargo/transport section and cut a hole in the bottom to access the power switch maybe cut out the entire bottom section to allow for battery replacement?

40k vehicles are so out of scale it would look weird. +1 to you sir.

Cypher871 did a really nice job with this and a dreadnought:



Click through above to see the whole gallery

I agree that scale is whacked between vehicles and foot troops. If you're going to do this consider trying older miniatures that do not have the current "heroic" scale, they may fit the scale of the current vehicle better.

Regarding that Dread... that is so sick and so awesome and I am totally going to try that myself after I finish the 12 other projects that I have going currently. Wow. That's really cool. I'm completely inspired. Another Dreadnought for the Death Guard! Nurgle be praised!

use LEDs and a AA battery, but you will also need a potentiometer (10 ohm maybe) to keep from turning your LED's into grenades...then your just turn the pot until you get the LED to the brightness you want, and your good to go...

Why does that Dread look upside down?

because some of the bits are I think??

I've never done it myself but I've seen it in a IG army. The guy just took some plexiglass and plastic (like playing card holders) cut them to how he needed and walla.

And the LEDs work great, most modeling shops that sell xmas villages and such will have them.

The dread looks cool. Nice you can see the SM.

I like this idea. I've always wanted to make functional lights on my tanks but I've never thought of a driver in a lighted cab.

This kind of thing (lit cab with crew) can look awesome if done well. I don't think a Rhino is the right vehicle for it, though, what with the tiny windows and cramped interior. You'll just have to build yourself a titan! Then you'll have room enough to make yourself a nice little cockpit diorama.

oadie wrote:This kind of thing (lit cab with crew) can look awesome if done well. I don't think a Rhino is the right vehicle for it, though, what with the tiny windows and cramped interior. You'll just have to build yourself a titan! Then you'll have room enough to make yourself a nice little cockpit diorama.

Not all of us want to build a Titan, either for the room or the cost. And the Rhino was tossed out as much for example sake as for anything else.

wow, that is a level of detail that could likely go unrewarded, the slots in the rhino are incredibly small. Even examining the model closely, unless you told me there was a driver in there, I wouldnt think twice to look at it. Best of luck though

jordanis wrote:use LEDs and a AA battery, but you will also need a potentiometer (10 ohm maybe) to keep from turning your LED's into grenades...then your just turn the pot until you get the LED to the brightness you want, and your good to go...

Pots will work nicely, but for a more compact and (probably) less expensive option, a resistor between the led and battery will stop the leds exploding. Here's a rather handy LED resistor calculator.