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This is a bit of an experiment for me, because while I've done lots of modeling over the years, I've never done with with an audience. However, all the cool kids are doing it, so I need to keep up.

The project at hand is building two new Chaos Rhinos for my 2nd ed. 40k Chaos Marine force. Some years ago I began selling off GW kits because not only was it more fun to do kit-bashing, it was also profitable.

The idea here is to create models that aren't quite as standardized as Imperial vehicles, but share a family resemblance. They also need to take up the same footprint on the tabletop.

The raw material for this endeavor is the hull section of a Tamiya 1/35 Merkava kit. I originally purchased this circa 2003 to be a super-heavy IG tank, but afterward got out of 3rd edition and the kit has sat idle ever since. In January, I decided I was going to take the plunge and make something of it.

So what I have here is the hull section, which I sawed into two unequal halves. The next image is alongside an existing Chaos Rhino that is serving as my template.

That existing Rhino was made from a Patton M47 kit I put together when I was in school decades ago. Up to high school, I loved building tanks and aircraft and my foray into kit-bashing was in large part boosted by my decision to pick up all the old stuff from my father's house (with his enthusiastic support, I might add), and break them up into 40k creations.

One of the complications in this project is that the Merkava hull comes to a point - it's not flat on the bottom. This is to deflect the blast of land mines, but it absolutely made life harder for making the bottom the top, so to speak.

Here in Michigan, warm weather is fleeting, so this project sat idle for months until the weather began to turn. I also needed time to work out exactly how this stuff would fit together.

This was my solution: use plastic sheeting to bring the hulls to an equivalent size. to create commonality of design, I used surplus Predator hull fronts and hatch assemblies. The peak on the hull was solved by green stuff.

Note that the gaps for the tracks on the larger piece provide a bit more difficulty. You can see how I had to extend the one hull, but the other definitely is going to need more work on the front end. This photo is from about a week ago.

Now we're reaching the current state of affairs.

Both Rhinos are intact and have their drive assemblies in place. This was actually one of the most challenging elements of the project. Old GW models famously had crappy track assemblies - totally unrealistic.

My early work followed that example, but I wanted to push myself a bit, so what you're seeing are front-sprocket drives with Christie suspension (using the Merkava road wheels to boot). Because I'm stripping kits of various makes, I did not have matching sprocket assemblies, but I figured the Chaos Marines don't, either.

If you look closely, the road wheels are not applied the same way - that's because I have to entirely different rubber tracks to go on them! One is much narrower, and came off of a Sherman, while the other is the actual Merkava track.

In the background, I put one of my vintage Rhinos from back in the day to demonstrate the commonality of scale.

Note that I managed to keep a uniformity of all Chaos vehicles having a rear ramp but also doors opening on the top as well. Each of my ork vehicles is unique, but I feel Chaos has to have common elements.

The models are almost finished. The gap in photos is that I decided I didn't like using my phone camera and using a real camera required a degree of reorganization that created second and third order effects.

That being done, these are the almost complete Chaos Rhinos. The tracks are out of other tank kits, trimmed to fit the running gear. One issue that came up was that the center of gravity shifted, causing both tanks to "lean forward." I fixed this by gluing lead weights to the rear undercarriage.

I still need to so some detail work, a wash and add some decals, but basically the job is done.

By way of contrast I've also got a photo of my Leman Russ Tanks, which were modified rather than scratch built. I'm sure people into WW II will identify the kits used.

The one in the foreground is obviously a Demolisher, and stumbling over it in a hobby shop convinced me that the hull shape was conducive to mounting "sponson" weapons, all of which have a pretty good traverse.

One thing I like is that the running gear actually moves, which is nice.

Okay, one more, featuring the Demolisher and a kit-bashed Basilisk. I use WW II Germans for my Imperial Guard troops, but I also mix in some GW stuff where necessary.

The scales are a little off, but usually the units aren't this closely intermingled.