The Most Overlooked And Underappreciated Tank?
I’m a fan of Rhino’s. There, I said it. And not that I play much, or at all really, but I think they are underutilized in 40K. I just feel like I don’t see them in army showcases, or even in too many army lists either. Maybe it’s because people can’t justify the points cost or perhaps they don’t think these troop movers are worth it. I don’t know. But history has proven that infantry-heavy armies need a good armored carrier. Because foot soldiers cannot always just trudge their way across the battlefield. There could be devastating hazards, snipers with the high-ground, or the army may just have a deadline that would be impossible to keep on foot. Yeah, these are all perfect scenarios that would benefit from a good armored personnel carrier in my opinion.
Because Even A Nun With A Gun Needs A Lift
The Adepta Sororitas Rhino is just like the Astartes version. But the Sisters version is just so much more appealing to look at. Much like the troop carrying Immolator, or the heavy weapons carrying Castigators or Exorcists, the Rhino is decked out with markings of the Adeptus Ministorum and the Sororitas Orders. Though they are not quite the moving cathedrals that the Immolators and Exorcists are.
Painting my Order of the Bloody Rose Rhino was pretty cut and dry. It’s red with white accents. Those two colors generally don’t work well together while painting. So there were a lot of touch-ups. But it wasn’t as infuriating as painting my White Scars(the all white with red). Something in hindsight that I realized, was that I should have painted the back door of the tank black. It doesn’t look bad all red. But I think a black hatch at the back would have been a good accent color. Maybe later.
I used 3D printed bits for the Bloody Rose symbol and purity seals. As I have said many times before, I do not like transfers. I really like how red Bloody Rose tanks are. They really stand out on a table.
All Sisters tank kits come with a lot of decorative bits, and the Rhino kit is no different. There is a whole sprue of goodies. But I didn’t want to go too crazy with mine. There is a fine line between fanaticism and, dare I say it, chaos. The Sisters toe that line daily, in my opinion. Another reason I love their whole concept.
Because Not Every White Scars Marine Has a Bike
The White Scars are known for the Lightning Assault. The blistering bike based rushes that leave swaths of dead on a battlefield. But they also have foot troops. And while the Jet Bikes and more conventional bike-mounts rush ahead of the action, and the Drop Pods fall from the sky, there are still other infantry units that need a way to get into the thick of things semi-quickly. The Rhino, while not a bucking mechanical steed, that is speed-incarnate, can provide that much needed lift.
I have wanted to build a White Scars army for longer almost as long as I have been in the hobby. And I finally started in 2019. Though admittedly, I have never fielded any White Scars on a table, be it 30K or 40K. Some day I will have a grand army in the service of the true Khan, Jaghatai. So with that said, I cannot speak to the validity of using a Rhino with the White Scars. But they just make sense in my mind. Particularly in 40K. In 30K you can take Bikers as troop choices. Something you cannot do in 40K. At least when last I checked. So tossing squads of foot troops in a bunch of Rhinos, drop pods, and Land Raiders seems quite called-for.
I took a very painful approach to painting this model. Because I like pain and am a masochist. I used contrast paint. These paints had just released and I was playing with them for my 30K Scars Tac Squadron. So I decided to paint up a transport for them using the same paint method. Because, A: they obviously need a ride, and B: the paint schemes had to match. It was kind of a nightmare. Contrast does not work well over large flat surfaces. It is made for the small nooks and crannies of a character or rank and file soldier.
When the paint dried on the Rhino, it left streaks like you would see after using the supposed streak-free Windex on a living room window. I did all i could to hide them. This called for way more layers than I am willing to admit, and then using a dry-brush over all that to kind of mask it a bit. The dry-brushing made the white portions look almost snowy. Which I kind of like. But if I build more, I will not be following this method again.
I added the V roman numeral using 3D printed bits bought online. The side hatches are Forge World legion specific bits.
Extra: My Chaos Connection
My first complete army is the Iron Warriors. An army that I started shortly after they were Chapter Approved in Index Astartes way back in, like, 2001(Incidentally, the same book that the White Scars were Chapter Approved). When I started to revamp my IW, following an over decade and a half long hiatus from the hobby altogether, I picked up some Rhino’s. I saw this as a necessity.
My first attempt at an Iron Warriors Rhino happened back in 2001. And it… was… Awful. I was going to have my titan stepping on this thing, but that would bring down the vibe of my Warhound. So I keep it around as a reminder of where I came from in this hobby world.
Seriously, look at this beautiful disaster.
Looking to redeem myself, all these years later, I decided to approach my chaos marines from the beginning with a different mindset. Rather than making them seem overly-chaos, I wanted them to be more akin to their 30K counterparts. Maybe around the time that they turned traitor. In other words, not totally daemonic and SPIKEY BITS FOREVER!!
It was around this time that GW released the Iron Warriors base paint, and I was loving life. It is one of my favorite metallics to this day. A nice dark metal. The hazard stripes were airbrushed on using masking tape, and the Iron Warriors markings are, like the above models, 3D printed bits purchased online. The gunner also has 3D printed bits for his shoulder pads.
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Robert
All of these are true except for one:
Robert is: a Hobbyist, a Music Lover, an RPG Gamer, a Mustard Lover, Chaotic Neutral, a Japanese Speaker, a Veteran, an Otaku, a Table Tennis Player, an Anime Fan, an Aviation Professional, a New York Rangers Fan, a Chaos Lover With Loyalist Tendencies.