Tag: rhino

Designing the Land Raider Proteus and Deimos Rhino

The original Rogue Trader plastic Land Raider boxed set is a true classic, treasured by many veteran gamers, and the process of updating it to create the Proteus Land Raiders has been a suitably reverent one. To give you an insight into how we designed the various ‘old style’ Space Marine kits we’ve been working on recently, Tony Cottrell, Phil Stutcinskas and Daren Parrwood have recorded a video looking into the development of the Land Raider Proteus model.

I like how the video shows you the different sizes of the different Land Raider models now available.

I did buy the original plastic Rhino and thought (at the time) what a clever plastic model kit it was. No idea where they are now, probably languishing in the bottom of a box somewhere in the garage.

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.

Land Raider on Campaign

Land Raider from a display game at GamesDay 2009.
Land Raider from a display game at GamesDay 2009

This weathered, dirty Land Raider from a demonstrate game at GamesDay 2009, looks like it is has been fighting long and hard. Lots of crew equipment and “tank riders” as they once more move into another battle of their fighting campaign.

Likewise a Rhino from the same table.