Scratch Building Proxy Rhino APCs for pennies!

Since Well before my Chaos Ceros APC designs, it was always my intention to make myself a large vehicle detachment, so it should come as no surprise that I had to add more of such. Only thing was, I misplaced all my Ceros design templates, so I needed to either try and remake them, or start again but use a closer analog to the traditional GW rhino APC.

You should know that I am not one for carefully measuring and calculating anything. Unless I find it unavoidable, I wing it 100% with whatever I make. My way is not perfect but I hate being stifled by anything other than the creative process. But, I caved and tried harder to make the next additions more in line with sizes, shapes and style.

After a long time of trying to find easy templates in a more GW fashion, I ended up using the ones in Wyloc’s video on youtube. I pretty much only used to dimensions from his vid, just to get that Rhino classic aesthetic, so if you read this Wyloch (which I’m sure for certain he has before in the past) I send my thanks! Just that simple shape was enough to get a new set of templates made to churn out a couple at once, one for my Nurgly bois, one for my sons Khorni bois.

However, after doing this, I ended up finding the Ceros templates, so now I have two different sets. I’m thinking after comparing sizes of the Ceros to the traditional Rhino, the Ceros will be closer to a landraider in size, so generally when I get to fielding them, I’ll be using the Ceros pattern as that. (Unless I end up making a set based on the dimensions of one of the landraider designs, which I probably will!)

The new builds, are surprisingly smaller than the Ceros, very chunky in fact, but since many design parts, materials and elements are the same on the Ceros, they easily fit together in style. I do enjoy the flexibility of personalisation with these scratch builds, so much in fact I want to make a cultist one, crewed by my fervent corrupt human worshipers of Nurgle, who kind of resemble an imperial guard unit anyway, so that is coming, plus I have a separate detachment of Chaos Space Marines from the Purge Chapter which I want a dedicated transport for.

I would fucking love to do one more custom Rhino for the Death guard, but to make it into a plague tower of Nurgle, but I’d like to try making my own version of a Death Guard Plague burst crawler. We’ll see, just there are too many cool things I can think of to personalise them into, and once I’m finished with the Nurgle bois, Tzeentch beckons me to use the CP Models Bird like Avian models as Tzangor, and a pimped out glowing Thousand Sons Rhino with Sphynx accents would be a good model to make. Plus, I get to make a big floating tower model that’s bristling with guns and such, would be fun to make. No real reason behind it, I would just like to give it a go!

I do promise that when I make the next Ceros and Rhino, I will give you a full tutorial, with downloadable templates (that way I won’t loose them!) and when I do, they will be available as PDFs on DriveThruRPG and Wargame Vault. I do miss posting the tutorials like I did with Grim’s Dungeons of Doom, I know a lot of people do get a load out of them and I’ve seen plenty out there trying my methods, which is nice to think I’ve inspired some to get trying.

They do take extra effort and time, as you gotta remember to get decent photos of the stages involved, and it can be tricky to remember doing it when I’m in the zone and focused on getting it made!

Still, the process was quick as I knocked up these two in a couple of nights, followed by a couple of other days painting them (reveal in next posts) I am trying to get myself into the habit of spending less time painting minis, I have a tendency of spending far too long on even the most basic troops and terrain, so I allow myself to be a little more sloppy and hope it all comes together in the end, which I think it does mostly.

With the more limited time I have, it is a good compromise, leaving the more careful jobs to character and special models. I don’t paint for competitions, tournaments or praise, I know I’m not a top painter, but slightly above OK will do me fine.

 

Next time, I’ll reveal the finished work, starting with the Death Guard Rhino, take you through how I achieved the various looks and materials used a bit more in detail.

After that we’ll take a look at the Khorne version and analyse, then I’ll do a size comparison with the Ceros vs Rhino (I might be able to get some shots of the Khorne APCs too)

Until next post, Stay Sane, Stay Grinning, and Stay inside coz’ there’s a Nurgle about!!