Rhinos are starting to come together. Interior weathering has been finished up and the hulls have been glued together just about ready for priming and base coating.
Going through the assembly process definitely highlighted some wasted effort - there are a few interior surfaces that you really, really can't see unless you put a miniature camera inside the tank. Good lessons for any future construction :-)
Weathering for the interior was a little rough/large - intention was to make this a bit heavy so it would be visible from further away (or at least outside the tank). Standard brush dabbing with black, then ironbreaker splotches over the top of this.
Little extra wear on the edges of the side door hatches as well as the tread patterns on the rear hatch.
Flicking/drybrush of the floor was focused more on 2 'lines' where feet would be placed for marines sitting on the side chairs. I picture the dudes exiting in 2 columns side by side.
Assembly board laid out... I'd glued the floor into 1 side on 2 of the tanks before doing the weathering, which was clearly a mistake. Made it much harder to get a brush in for the final stages. Then again, it's not like you can see those areas easily anyway...
The decals have had some matt varnish brushed across - along with a layer of micro-sol, these have pretty much taken on the 'painted on' textbook finish.
Hulls coming together - one last minute addition was to put some oversize magnets underneath the top hull surfaces (visible in lower left corner of shot below). These will act as anchor points for smoke launchers, spotlight etc and allow them to be interchangeable later on. Stupidly - I only decided to do this after putting the first hull partly together, so one of the tanks won't have these.
Final prep before bringing the airbrush out - front panels installed (the Baal predator one on the right will double as a 'command' rhino) with the chalice logo. Tamiya masking tape (and a tiny line of blu tac around the rear hatch) will keep the interior safe from overspray. The tray at the back has all the assorted... bits. 3 rhino tops, 2 turret slots, 6 side doors, 5 driver hatches 2 predator sponsons, 1 Baal turret and multiple loadouts.
I think doing these as a squad was the right idea, but need to make sure the enormity of painting like 25 pieces doesn't feel like too big a burst for batch painting.
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