Category: warhammer 40k

Blast from the past…

First is was the Land Raider…

Now it’s the turn of the Rhino.

Forge World have made a new version of the Rhino which echoes back the first plastic Rhino kit that Games Workshop made.

The ubiquitous Rhino Armoured Personnel Carrier is a mainstay of the Space Marine Chapters, and has been in continuous use for ten thousand years. Its true origins are more distant still, and ancient records mention the RH1-N-0 Tracked Exploration and Multi-Purpose Defence Vehicle STC accompanying explorator missions during Mankind’s Golden Age. Re-armed and re-purposed for military use, the Rhino has remained a mainstay of the Imperium’s might over the millennia since.

There are many known patterns and designs of this robust vehicle, and the MkIc Deimos Pattern Rhino is among the oldest variants, first issued en-masse to the Astartes Legions of the Great Crusade. This pattern is armed with two turret-mounted bolters, slaved to the target-logis systems of the Rhino’s machine spirit rather than the more common pintle-mounted storm bolter seen on both the earlier MkIb Mars Pattern vehicle and the later MkIIc design that became more common after the Horus Heresy.

The MkIc Deimos Pattern Rhino, designed by Daren Parrwood, is a complete resin and plastic kit, containing a standard Games Workshop Rhino kit as well as sufficient resin conversion components to construct the MkIc Deimos Pattern variant. Priced at £33.

I do quite like the kit and find it amusing that they have based it on the newer plastic kit. It certainly captures the character of the original plastic model but with a lot more detail than we had back then. Obviously a lot more expensive too, the original price of the plastic Rhino was three for £10, so now priced at £33 for one nearly ten times the cost.

It’s come back….

Those of us who have been playing Warhammer 40K since it was first released will recognise this new model from Forge World.

It is of course a resin version of the original original Land Raider that was released back in 1987 following the release of the 1st edition of Warhammer 40,000, Rogue Trader.

The Land Raider is perhaps the most iconic of all Imperial armoured vehicles. Its distinctive silhouette is recognisable to foe and ally alike, announcing the indomitable presence of the Adeptus Astartes, the heroic and super-human Space Marines. Many patterns and designs of this honoured and ancient war machine exist across the myriad worlds of the Imperium, and among the oldest of such designs is the Land Raider Proteus.

Mechanicus tech-savants believe that the Land Raider Proteus is a precursor to the Phobos pattern vehicle now found amongst the armouriums of the Adeptus Astartes. Bulkier and faster than the Phobos, ancient and forgotten data-looms describe the Proteus as a forward assault vehicle, commonly fielded in Explorator missions during the dawning days of Mankind’s fledgling galactic empire.

This full resin kit, designed by Phil Stutcinskas, is packed with some amazing details and two different hull-mounted weapon options to supplement its twin-linked sponson-mounted lascannons. Available for the first time in limited numbers at Games Day UK, the Land Raider Proteus is priced at £80.

Obviously as a complete resin Forge World model it is much more expensive than the current plastic kit and way more than the plastic model did when it came out in 1987!

I never actually ever bought that first Land Raider back then, well I was playing Orks, why would I buy a model for the “beakies”. I’ve always had a nostalgic fondness for the older models, well I did buy the Mark IIb as it reminded me of playing Epic. I have a fair few Epic versions of the original Land Raider as you can see from this picture.

So what about the new Proteus? Well I am quite tempted by the model and if I ever get the Mark IIB finished I might buy one.