Alas, poor Rhino

How many ways can you mis-construct a Rhino? I think the guy who made this considered the instructions to be a threat to his creativity...

I guess I can't complain too much because I picked this one up on Ebay for a few quid, but the list includes doors and hatches fitted inside out, sprue left attached to parts so the hull roof didn't fit, tracks put on wrongly, and one track unit fitted at about 10° to the hull. I thought about turning it into a terrain piece, but eventually decided to try to rescue it.

Given the amount of chopping I had to do (including a quarter of the hull floor to bring the sides back square), I decided I might as well go a step further and convert it to a Mk I Rhino, complete with round side doors and a flat front with twin panels. So here is the 'after bringing back to square but before changing the doors' picture - more to follow over the next couple of days.

And a little later in the day... 

I have removed and replaced the upper doors with a plain version, similar to that on the first Rhino kit, complete with handles from plastic rod. I am considering whether to build a 'climbing frame' in the style of the original.

I have also made blanking plates for the hull sides; they're just propped in place at the moment. I visited WHSmiths for a pair of compasses this afternoon, so I can cut round doors as well. I am considering whether it's worth making just one plate with doors and hinges, and then casting several from resin. If anyone is interested, let me know and we could share costs.

South London Warlords

Pimping my own site - how low can I stoop?

I have started up a blog for the South London Warlords, a wargames club based in Dulwich.


I will be trying to get an update in place every week from the new year, and more frequently in the immediate run up to and aftermath of Salute, our annual show at the ExCeL Centre. The 2011 show is on Saturday 16th April from 10:00 - 17:00.

The dreadnought we all forgot

Okay, maybe we didn't forget it, maybe we just took a look and thought 'why?'

Anyway, I was putting together my rifleman dread (standard routine - Aegis Line autocannons, missile launcher and twin-linked lascannon arms) and I cut the lascannon mount too short. You have to cut the lascannon barrels off on the outside of the recuperator section rather than flush with the armour otherwise the autocannon barrels don't stick out the same distance as the ones you fit on the missile luncher arm. Luckily I have plenty of spare dreadnought arms.

That left me with a useless armoured shoulder, and I was about to throw it when I remembered the twin-linked heavy flamer option! The weapons were easy to source (there's a heavy flamer in every dreadnought kit) but it still looked a bit sparse. Then I found the heavy flamer in the sentinel kit, which is quite a bit longer... and Bob's your uncle. A little clipping, a small piece of plastic card, and 'jobs a goodun'

Okay, it's 'triplet-linked' rather than 'twin-linked', but the extra bulk makes it look better. I can't see that I'll ever use it, but at least I have the missing variant in the armoury now.

Comments very welcome...

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