This is the story of how this Deimos Pattern Rhino got painted.
The Rhino is the most widely used armoured personnel carrier in the Imperium. Based on ancient STC technology, the fundamental design is robust, reliable, and easy to maintain, with an adaptive power plant that can run off a wide variety of fuels, making it perfect for the wide-ranging armies of the Great Crusade – and the wars of the Horus Heresy. As such, the Rhino chassis serves as a basis for many other war machines, and these transports are produced in their thousands – several distinct patterns are in common use throughout the galaxy, with the heavily-armed Deimos being the most widespread amongst the Space Marine Legions.
I was pleased to see one of the new Horus Heresy releases announced at Warhammer Fest was the Plastic Deimos Pattern Rhino. So when it was available for pre-order I clicked through and ordered the kit from my local FLGS. You can see the workbench for that Rhino here.
I was lucky enough to get a second Rhino for a Christmas present.
I am aiming to paint this Rhino in the same way as I painted my first one.
Looking at the sprues (on the GW site) there are a lot of parts, a lot more parts than when the original plastic Rhino kit came out in the 1980s.
The model has many more parts and is a more detailed kit than the original plastic Rhino kit that came out in the 1980s. It does go together quite easily, though I found some parts challenging, especially the hull roof.
In the end I got some G clamps out to hold the hull roof in place and glued it into place with superglue rather than plastic cement.
As with my other Rhino I left off the tracks and will paint them separately, before affixing them to the model.
I did think about adding a gunner cupola to the model, but in the end went with a simple version of the Rhino.
Another view.
I did think about adding the prow to the model, but in the end I went with towing hooks as with my other model.
I gave the model an undercoat of Citadel White Scar.
As with my first Deimos-pattern Rhino I am painting it yellow. I had intended to spray the underneath of the model with Citadel Zandri Dust in preparation for painting the the whole model yellow. However I ran out of paint…
So this model was just given a coat of yellow paint. Games Workshop don’t do a yellow spray and I don’t have an airbrush. I did use a paint comparison site to find a close alternative to Yriel Yellow. The Daemonic Yellow spray from Army Painter seemed like a good choice, and my local FLGS had one in stock, which I bought in the summer. I gave the model a couple of light coats of Daemonic Yellow.
For the tracks, still on the sprue, I gave them a spray of Citadel Mechanicus Standard Grey.
I painted the cupola bolter, and the exhausts, with Leadbelcher.
This Rhino has a single cupola bolter, with my first Deimos Pattern Rhino I gave it two cupola bolters. The rear view of the Rhino.
I did a heavy drybrush of the tracks with Gorthor Brown, having initially given them a basecoat of a spray of Mechanicus Standard Grey.
It was then onto shading the model. I am using the same process I used with my other Deimos Pattern Rhino. I used some Citadel Reikland Fleshshade Shade.
I did a heavier wash than the previous Rhino.
This did mean the Shade pooled in certain areas. I am hoping that this will be covered up when I do the deeper drybrushing next.
I also shaded the tracks, this I did with Agrax Earthshade Shade. Once this was dry I drybrushed them with some Leadbelcher.
For the next stage I used some Citadel Layer Yriel Yellow. I took a large brush and gave the model, what I would call, a heavy drybrush. I put paint on the brush, and then used some kitchen towel to remove most of the paint, and then using a heavy stippling process added paint to the model.
The plan was that this would take the flat surfaces of the model back to a flatter base colour.
Some of the areas where the shade pooled will probably need some more work.
I then added some more Citadel Layer Yriel Yellow to the model.
I then gave the model a lighter drybrush of Citadel Layer Dorn Yellow.
I had painted the tracks on the sprue. These were removed from the sprue and using superglue I attached the tracks to the Rhino.
You have to be careful when attaching these, as they are specific to each side of the Rhino, but they do attach to the Rhino quite easily.
For the front headlights I used Citadel Layer Dorn Yellow. For the other lights in the headlights I used Citadel Base Mephiston Red.
I then did the protective grilles with an UNI black pen, rather than use paint on them.
I now need to add some more weathering.
I then do need to add some transfers.
Here is this Rhino with my first Deimos Pattern Rhino.
Here is the Rhino on my desert terrain.
More soon…