The Warforge Miniature Modelling and Conversion

Swiss Army Rhino

The ubiquitous rhino chassis is the basis for almost half a dozen Space Marine tank variants. Although I have piles of Rhinos around my apartment these days, it still makes good sense in wargear terms to modularize things on such a chassis, so that it can comfortably serve different roles between games. With that in mind, I went about making a multipurpose Rhino that could be a Razorback, Predator, Whirlwind, or... well, Rhino, with just a moment's notice.

First thing you obviously have to do when you're going to have such a multipurpose and used chassis is to put some bells and whistles on it. In this case, headlights suffice:

 

There's a battery tucked safely away in the cabin compartment, as well as a small toggle switch. Both are accessible from the vehicle's underside:

The battery is accessible from the bottom so that, in the unpleasant event I need to replace a battery in the vehicle, I can do so without tearing the whole thing to pieces.

The rear hatch on the rhino has also been flamed-up to fit with the Salamanders aesthetic.

It's worth mentioning that the primary reason the front hatch and side doors on the rhino are bare at the moment is because I'm waiting on Forgeworld to maybe send me the doors and front plate I ordered back in early October. If I'm lucky, they might make it here before 2009!

Moving on, let's talk about the magnetic hardpoints. On the two side doors of the rhino, there's thin magnetic strips for the attachment of doors or sponsons. Beneath the top turret ring, there's also a magnet, which allows me to snap different main armaments down onto the tank.

 

I had to bump the predator turret ring up a bit so that it would still turn properly, as I didn't realize the rear hatch on the tank had to be the other way up for that turret to fit. Still, everything fits together nicely, and everything pivots and swings as appropriate. For example, the chassis configured as a Predator:

Pretty straightforward, right?

I've got a couple plans for this still. I want to add 'scaley' armor in the trim of the rhino chassis so that it fits more with the Salamanders aesthetic, but that should be simple enough. Once I get the plates I need from Forgeworld, I'll be set to paint this thing up.