Fighting Tiger Transports (Part I): Rhinos (Updated 11/2009)
Almost all of my Rhinos are the original models that came out waaaay back in the dark ages of 1st Edition ("Rogue Trader") Warhammer 40,000: I only have one "new" Rhino. In looking at the photos below, you may say to yourself, "There's something wrong with these Rhinos: they're backwards!"  Yes, actually, they are.

I wanted my Rhinos to resemble those amphibious landing craft used by Allied troops in World War II (like in the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan). Notice how the front ends jut up and the back ends slope down. I always get asked why my Marines are driving in reverse, but it's not hard to figure out if you just look at which way the exhaust pipes are pointing.

In keeping with the tiger theme of my army, each Rhino is named "Man-eater," they have lots of stripes, and they're used by my Tigers of Rudra. Each Rhino is assigned to a particular squad, and each vehicles' paint scheme coordinates with the squads they carry: you'll never catch orange-and-black Fighting Tigers coming out of mustard-and-brown tank, and vice versa. 

For each transport, I added tank tracks and various plastic bits for extra armor. Many of the Rhinos have decorative spikes, but no, they aren't devoted to Chaos. Some of the Man-eaters have pintle-mounted storm bolters in addition to the standard storm bolters. Once upon a time, I had equipped some of my Rhinos with hunter-killer missiles, but I've since taken them off to save points.

By the way, the pawprint insignias on some of the Man-eaters are pre-printed, self-adhesive decals I picked up somewhere and painted over in the appropriate colors. 

I painted my first three Rhinos back in the early 1990's, and tried to cover them with stripes. In retrospect, I went overboard, but hey, it was a different time. As I've expanded the army over the years, I've been in a "less-is-more" mindset about tiger stripes, so just as the newer Tactical Marines have fewer stripes, so too do the newer Rhinos that I purchased in 2003. For the newer ones, I only painted stripes on the hatches. It was a lot easier to finish the tanks, and I think they looks much less "cluttered" or busy than the older ones.

In comparing the old and new Rhinos, you can see that I've tried to make them complementary even if they aren't duplicates. The newer Rhinos incorporate elements of the old Rhinos so that they'll look like they belong together on the tabletop. I'm very fond of the old ones (we've been in a lot of battles together) and would never get rid of them, but I like the cleaner look of the newer ones better. 

The last Rhino I have to show you was built, painted, and given to me by my friend Dwayne Powell, who certainly knows his way around a paintbrush. It uses the current Rhino model, and has a slightly different paint scheme (notice all the black) and style of tiger stripes. Dwayne painted it up to be the transport for Raja Khandar Madu, but I've had to move it to the Tactical Squad motor pool to accommodate all the Tigers of Rudra I have. 
 
 

Next page (pg 8): Transports, Part II Previous page (pg 6): Troops, Part II

Related Pages
Painting Fighting Tiger Vehicles
Fighting Tiger Troops
Tactics: Fighting Tiger Troops
 

Last updated November 2009 

Top