Got that mystery (was it though?) vehicle done at last.
The delay on this was anfortunate accident in march when a large and unyeildy object fell from a high shelf and bludgeoned the build rather nastily.
since then its been sitting looking sorry for itself and I've put it off in a fit of irritation at the accident.
Damage to the righthand runner and lefthand front exhaust, as well as several damaged track-links has now been repaired/cleaned up and generally goes unnoticed unless pointed out. much of it looking like fair battledamage. the peggy-minge/weathering goes along way to hiding much of this too!
anyway, heres my stormtroopers' venerable and venrated ride:
Those of you old enough to remember the heady days of rogue trader will remember that prior to the creation of the chimera kit, guard armies had access to the rhino as a transport.
Well you know me, love a bit of 80's nostalgia and this is of no exception.
remembering the following artwork from an antiquated White dwarf:
I set about converting a Horus Heresy Legion rhino into a gaurd-issue transport of yester-year, allbeit viewed through todays modern miniture aesthetic!
First up I got myself a Deimos Rhino.
I've coveted these since they were
FW exclusive and now its in plastic, let alone cheaper than the
40k mk2c rhino kit it was a must have item for an old-soak like me.
First up were the grabrails and door handles. A must have as they scream
rt era rhino and its a travesty they were ommitted from the otherwise rather splendid Horus Heresy Deimos kit.
Said siderails were made from plastic rod, heated and bent and then set into drilled holes with polycement to permanently secure them. (not wanting snapped rails on this-un!)
I chose to simply put them in between exhausts, not around them like the original kit did it (and the zinge industries conversion kit does it).
This was partly because I feared snap-off damage over time and also because, although nostalgic, I realised it served absolutely no logical sense for them to be there. The running boards are limited to the width of the exhausts, so the grabrails should be also.
The handles on the doors were created out of bent solder and a couple of plastic tube offcuts and were simply glued on with GP cyannoacrylate.
Next thing on the list to recreate from the old kit were the oftimes snapped-off rear aerials.
These were sourced from the primaris impulsor, being a marine kit, the visual sensibilities matched 100% and the solid chunk of them felt much more secure than anything I could have scratch built to serve the same purpose.
While I was at this I also elected to add some extra comms-equipment in the form of a stubbier aerial and a tiny dish taken off of the comms-backpack from the Kasrkin kit.
A nice way to reference the stormtroopers that ride in it and add a bit more detail that didn't take it over the top or cluttered...
Another mostly overlooked detail was the rear hatch.
The 30k rhino simply uses the same flat hatch from the
40k mk2c rhino. This would simply not do for me.
When I did a similar conversion for my spacesharks I had used an original mk1 rhino plate for this section. Now, obviously I didn't have another of those knocking around and although I could have got out a mortgage and bought one from ebay (or simply knocked one up from plasticard or regular card I suppose), I was filled with a desire to make this out of standard kits available, that way its easily replicatable for anyone else, or myself in the future for that matter!
So I simply used the new Deimos Predator front hull , inverted it and slapped it on the back!
To make sense of the window thats now +/- at floor-level, I covered it with a handle bit cut from the door of a landspeeder (so much for available kits eh?, in my defence this was still available at the time, use a vent from something else nowadays?).
Another thing I fondly remember from the old kit was the pair of stowage boxes. To create a modern analogue for these I used the boxes from the new sentinel kit.
They are a nicely high-detailed alternative that fits the bill and also further cements this as an Imperial-guard rhino.
Now, this kit does not have the windscreen and wipers detail that the
40k one does, so I set about sorting that out by cutting some off the
40k one's front plate and setting them behind the deimos window ports. Unfortunately the plate I had only had one window on it (the other had been trimmed off and used eleswhere) so I made a bluestuff pressmold and made two greenstuff replicates instead.
Other details on the front include the spare track (taken from the mk2c kit) held on with a spare handle from the Goliath kit. This was a reference to the spare track on the old SOB mk1 repressor kit. (remember those?) I had previously used this on my old mk1 rhino conversion for my royston rifles and its a nice detail that allows for some heavy weathering a rust effects. As such, I thought it would add a bit of further visual interest to the front of the vehicle. I didn't do the dice because, one its not a lucky 7s rhino and, two I didn't want to!
Further details are the alternative headlights, made from cut-down missile pods from the landspeeder kit (as I did on my spacesharks
RT inspired rhino). These can be considered optional, the standard ones are fine
TBH but its something I liked so did it.
Now I'll say that I had toyed with the idea of the front ram but I just dont like them and never have. As such (again, like my spaceshark rhino before it) I simply added two tow-lugs from the russ kit instead.
I suppose I should mention that damage on the front of the right runnerboard. I replaced the missing bit with simple plasticard offcut (actually cut from an old tank plate leftover from the bits-box) but rather than attempt to recreate the chequerboard texture I simply modelled it as the hasty repair it was. Fiction mirroring real-life! I painted it in grey rather than green as if the quickly welded on plate never got more than a spray of primer before use and its stayed that way ever since.
No. I did not paint the interior. I figured the internal side doors were enough and thats good enough for me! The top hatch is glued down but the bolter-hatches are free for poseability. Because I painted them seperate anyway so why not!
I'm most happy with the colour gradients and weathering on this-un, especially on the internal beige areas too, they went much better than I thought they would.
Unlike the Griffon I did in the same scheme, I was much more carefull about where I put the successive highlights this time, creating gradients on the panels, which is easier on an astartes vehicle as the plate-design lends itself to this much easier. I also ommited the initial basecoat of rhinoxhide then stipple up from DeathKorpDrab up the greens. Instead starting from a base of DeathKorpsDrab and then stippling up. I felt this would make it greener in appearance and, although heavily weathered, somehow a little less disrespected and neglected, yeah its old and dirty but its loved. As a rhino in guard hands would be, it being so rare.
I also like how the red of the artwork's exhausts has happily manifested as the rusty ones on this model. A happy accident if I'm honest but a good one nonetheless...