I've never really been a tank person in gaming - even on the PC, out of ~500 hours logged in Battlefield 2, less than 5 of those would have been in tanks. My Eldar army begrudgingly had a single falcon in the late 90s; partly as they were a rather annoying thing to paint (at least without an airbrush back then - some cool/quick effects are possible now) and partly as I always preferred extra ground pounders or at least a wraithguard/dreadnought addition before vehicles.
Net result, since 1993 I haven't bought or assembled anything using the iconic rhino hull - no predator, no razorback, not even a rhino itself. My brother had a rogue-trader era marine predator (the one with the square, metal-part gunner turret and the old school round hatches on the sides), which was almost unrecognisable as a marine vehicle after it had been modified with bits to fit a chaos army.
So think of me as a 40k tank virgin with this post.
With plans to finish at least a demi-company, it made the most sense to build a set of 3 tanks - enough to transport 3 squads of tactical marines and if I ever get around to going full-company, at least 3 tanks will have a similar-era paint job and look like they belong together. It was also an opportunity to test out how to magnetise the hell out of everything...
The shopping list (+modular bits to magnetize):
- 1 Baal Predator kit [Rhino +2x sponsons, +turret, +assault cannons, +flame cannon]
- 1 Razorback kit [Rhino +razor turret, +linked bolters, +linked lascannons]
- 1 Rhino kit
TIP for BEGINNERS: in Australia at least, the rhino kit and the razorback kit are the same price. Since the razorback has all the rhino components plus a few extras - there is literally no reason to purchase a rhino box unless you don't want extra bits in your box. At least one idiot (ie, me) didn't check the box contents carefully enough at the time - I assumed extra parts would mean extra cost...
Within these, that meant magnetising:
- 6x rhino side hatches + 2x predator sponson doors (so any 1 tank can become a predator)
- 3x rhino top hatches +1 each of the predator & razorback lids (same one but flipped over)
- 3x rear hatches. Just because. May as well show off the interior.
- Assault cannons & flame cannon (plus their ammo) to allow swapping
Also added a larger magnet on the underside of the plastic for the top part of the hull so that extras (spotlight, smoke launchers, etc) can be added temporarily - or removed to allow the predator turret to rotate without knocking these off.
While not magnetised, the left-side drivers hatches won't be glued on either - these seem to sit fine, and can be swapped between the blank or with-bolter versions.
As usual, I seem to get a bit carried away with construction and don't take enough WIP photos during assembly, even compared to the few that I take when painting.
Magnet examples:
The top hatches are generally going to sit with gravity anyway, but to give them a little more stick, I put a narrow strip of plasticard on the underside of the top hull with a 3mm magnet in the corner.
Hatches themselves have a matching magnet in the equivalent corner. The tiny plasticard square helps gives just a little more contact between the magnets.
Rear hatch: these were a little more complicated, hence the mention... these would have been easier to stick a strip of plasticard on the inside edge after gluing the hull together, but as I wanted to airbrush the interior before assembly, I went with a more complicated solution. The top of hull gets a strip of sprue, filed on one side into a 'V' shape so the angle matches the back hatch. Plasticard strip is cut so it fits between the side/track assemblies. Magnet then goes on/into this.
Matching magnet added to the door - this one sits flush with the door surface and any paint flaking off (which all magnets seem to do...) will look like weathering. Hopefully.
Test fit of the hull before painting - the plasticard strip sits neatly between the sides.
Predator turret: definitely should have taken more photos of this during construction, but will be able to see most of the effort in the final painted version anyway.
Both the assault cannons and flame cannon from the Baal predator have a little diamond shaped block on the back of them, which fit into the weapon housing for the turret. By sticking a magnet on these blocks, and then on a piece of plasticard in the housing - the assault & flame loadouts can be swapped out later.
Note for beginners: the top of the mount (the piece with the angel wings below) has two little tabs on the side that lock your chosen weapon into the turret when glued together. In order to allow for switching, I've cut these off so the shell ejectors on the assault cannot aren't locked into the turret. Bit hard to describe these now that they have been cut off, but the little square of plastic in the middle of the photo is the piece removed.
So... still a few more elements of magnetisation to show off, but will writeup the interior painting and flag a couple of the extra option work when the tanks are (eventually) painted up in full.
The kits have been a lot of fun so far - they definitely go together easier than some of the WWII aircraft I've put together and the range of options/internal details are excellent.
Looking forward to seeing these with some paint on them now.
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