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Working on a hip-fire RL

Getting though the next 20 or so Tactical Marines sill put me well over the hill. Then I just have vehicles, a command squad, and a dozen or so Terminators -and this army is complete!

Getting nearer to the end of this project every day.
I decided to buy a FW Rhino to add to my unique collection of tanks. That, plus $10 in spare parts from Ebay, and a homemade rear door = Buy 1 get 1 half-off Rhinos.
After I paint the Tanks, I have about fifteen more marines, a small command squad, and few Terminators to go. Anything else Space-Marine is probably going to go into a small Iron Hands army, so I can use some of my funkier conversions.

This is my first shot at doing some weathering/battle-damage.
Any feedback or tips would be greatly appreciated.

This is the final result -after the satin varnish.
The sealer made the dust effect look a lot darker (and wetter) than I'd planed, but I like the way it enriches the blues & yellows, so I'll have to compromise with mud instead of dust.

Great job on both rhinos, clean and clear and ready for battle.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Great job on both rhinos, clean and clear and ready for battle.

Thanks man!

I've got one more finished, and two nearly complete. They'll have to wait to be sealed -the humidity is at 90% for next couple of days.

5 down -4 more to go!
I used the rest of the track from the old tanks on the FW kit, and it was just barely enough left to cover it. Looks pretty good, and gave me some Ideas for similar Land Raider tracks.

That's all the Rhino's done. Now I'll probably move on to painting the last handful of troop units, and organizing squads -or assembling Dreadnaughts. I haven't decided.

I stumbled upon a thread here on Dakka that was about the unrealistically low and flat ground clearance of the tracks on the LR. The more I looked at it, the more it bugged me, so -with 3 extra pieces of track (each side) and a few lengths of half-round- I gave it a little boost.

Nice motor pool. I like the boost on the LR’s traks, it does look a lot more realistic.

 Nevelon wrote:
Nice motor pool. I like the boost on the LR’s traks, it does look a lot more realistic.

Hey thanks for stopping by!
I've been keeping an eye on your WIP blog. makes me want to pick up some Wraithlords. Very cool stuff.

Next up, I have one more LR to customize.
I was thinking of an open track, something like a mix between the pictures below:

Damn fine work on those Rhinos!

--Brian

 Briancj wrote:
Damn fine work on those Rhinos!

--Brian

Thanks Brian!

Getting a bit nervous now, Those old Rhinos are pretty easy to come by (especially since I could use badly damaged pieces), now I'm working with an $80 kit that doesn't resell quite so cheap.

Here's what I have so far:

Here's what I have so far.
Might have to pick it up tomorrow. This gluing fifty of the exact same piece is getting old.

Loving this. I'm a sucker for some 2nd ed nostalgia, and the ingenuity of the conversions, not to mention the cracking paint jobs- colour me subbed!

Of course,l for true 2nd ed, shouldn't you paint your bases goblin green? ;-)

 Skinflint Games wrote:
Loving this. I'm a sucker for some 2nd ed nostalgia, and the ingenuity of the conversions, not to mention the cracking paint jobs- colour me subbed!

Thank you kindly -and welcome aboard!

 Skinflint Games wrote:
Of course,l for true 2nd ed, shouldn't you paint your bases goblin green? ;-)

Yeah I know a couple of people who still do this out of habit.
I'm doing this sand/rock mix, because it'll match the sand-box game table I'm building. Water effect bottom + heaps of sand on top = infinitely modular game table!

Making slow -but steady- progress.

Great stuff smurfmaster.

Old school is still the best school of GW in my eyes.

Cheers,

CB

Captain Brown wrote:
Great stuff smurfmaster.

Old school is still the best school of GW in my eyes.

Cheers,

CB

Thanks Capt - Couldn't agree more! Can't wait to paint some of these old metal units.


I've finished the base of the track, and I think I've got a pretty good idea how to proceed with the details.
Whata you guys think?

Looking good, but you've clearly doomed yourself.

--Brian

 Briancj wrote:
... you've clearly doomed yourself.

Man. You're not kidding. Two days at work, and two days off to work on this, and what I have so far are the hinge-plates & most of the hinges.
I'll have to get some sleep and try to finish the rivets tomorrow.

yikes.

Also good job but yikes.

Looking good, but that’s an insane amount of track bashing you’ve taken on!

I also wanted to say that it’s really impressive how your painting has improved markedly since the earlier pages. Your flotilla of Rhinos look particularly good!

gobert wrote:
I also wanted to say that it’s really impressive how your painting has improved markedly since the earlier pages.

Thank you for noticing
At some point I reevaluated what I was doing, and decided to start binge watching tip videos. I still can't highlight properly, but I'm learning a few other tricks to creating contrast.

Here's the (more or less) finished track-

*4 Paper thin styrene strips for the track belt

*6 (old) rhino 'roadwheels'

*28 small half-rounds for the inner track teeth

*42 large half-rounds for the suspension/'roadwheels'

*101 medium half-rounds and...

*101 small round stock for hinges

*101 small, paper thin rectangles for hinge plates

*144 (1.5 mm thick) rectangle sections for the track and support

*228 half-spheres for rivets

-bringing this project to a total to: 755 individual pieces. Making this the most tedious conversion to date.

Since I'm missing the bottom door plate, I figured it'd be a good opportunity to change the profile of the front to something more like this:

Using a little poster tack putty to dry fit the front end.
It seems like it still needs something to fill out the space around the dozer blade, but I think this is a good base to start with.
Let me know if you have any ideas, Dakkaites.

One more dry-fitting shot before I glue anything down
Still feel it's missing something...
...maybe it'll look better when it's squared away and bolts are added.

Feedback is -as always- earnestly welcomed.