Rhino Redux

So, as I mentioned last week, I’m at San Diego Comic Con right now.  If you care about such things, you can follow me on Twitter for random updates.  If you’re actually here with me, I’m doing a bunch of panels and signings on Thursday, plus I have another signing at 2:00 Friday in the Random House booth.  Stop by at some point and say hello.

What I wanted to do now, though, in the interest of keeping things relevant, is point you back to the very beginning of this geeky blog. As many of you probably know, Space Marines have a bunch of new formations and squadrons.  Including all the free Rhinos and Razorbacks you can field thanks to the Company Support rule.  You could also take a squadron of Whirlwinds.  All of which is great if you happen to have a bunch of extra Rhinos sitting around. 

And as it happens... know what one of my first projects was here at In The Grim Cheapness of the Future...?  I made a bunch of Rhinos and Rhino-hull based vehicles.  Yes, they’re the older “classic” Rhinos.  They’re also ridiculously quick and easy to make.  And pretty much free.  It’s possible to make three or four of these in a weekend.  Maybe even five or six if you’ve got some practice at this.

Plus, since then, I’ve done a lot more with rivets.  I’ve also talked about ways to make purity seals and aquillas and a bunch of other things you could use for detail. If you happen to have some spare parts sitting around, they’ll look even better.

You can make a very solid, completely acceptable Rhino for pennies.  It’d be possible to make an elaborate command vehicle for next to nothing.  Once they’re painted. most people probably won’t be able to tell without getting right up close.

Personally, I’m probably going to make one more Whirlwind so my White Scars can have a full squad of three.

So, please, go back and check it out. And if you happen to be at San Diego Comic Con this week, please find me and say "hullo."

The Rhino Fleet

Sorry for the extended absence. A bunch of real world stuff that would only bore you to tears. I'll make up for it with a very picture-heavy post.

So, a while back I showed how you could make a simple, bare-bones Rhino with the card templates available at The Golden Bolter Society and at the BWC Yahoo Group. There's a few variations, but this is the simple Mk. 1 variant. With minimal practice, you can get to the point that one of these basic hulls will take about an hour's work.

My first attempt to do anything with the hull was a Christmas present. My friend Gillian has an Emperor's Children army, and there are few armies that don't benefit from adding a demolisher cannon. So my first Rhino hull became a Vindicator. There's even a PDF in the Golden Bolter files of the old White Dwarf article that shows how to custom-build such a vehicle (which had no model at the time). The main barrel is just two pieces of plastic tubing (exactly like I did for the Malcador) mounted on a plastic Rhino hull section. The exhaust pipes were going to be hidden behind side armor plates, so I just made them from bits of old sprue topped with Chaos gargoyles. I should've put a 40mm square base on top, too, which would've given it a more "heavy" look.

Helpful Hint-- Most of the time with Paperhammer stuff I’m using plain old white glue. When you’re gluing plastic to cardstock, though, you have to use superglue. And you have to use a lot because it’s going to soak into the cardboard. On the plus side, the cardboard gets a lot more rigid and durable. On the downside, it’s a bit of trial and error until you get the amounts just right. I generally use about half again as much superglue as I’d normally use. Keep a toothpick handy, too, in case you need to guide drops of glue away from delicate or detailed areas

The side armor is triple-thick card. I cut it, glued it, and pressed it under book to get a solid piece. The rivets are just discs from the 1/8" hole punch. In retrospect I would've done two things differently. I would've angled the sides to match up with the lines of the Rhino. I also would've made the top layer of card three sections. This would've made it look a lot more like the old "classic" ablative armor. I don't think anyone would question this as "extra armor," though.

So, for the first real attempt, it's a fairly passable Chaos Vindicator. If you've got three or four cereal boxes and some of the leftover Rhino bitz already, you could put together three solid Heavy Support choices for either a Chaos or loyalist siege army in just one evening.

What else can you do with a Rhino hull, though? Or a fleet of Rhino hulls...?

Well, first off, with a little more work, you can cut out some extra details and give yourself a phenomenal Rhino, one nobody (well, no rational person) could possibly argue against having on the battlefield. If you've actually got a pile of Rhino bitz kicking around, you can make it almost indistinguishable from an actual Games Workshop model. This one is all paper except for the hatches, tail lights, and the weapons (which are just dreadnaught storm bolters with the skull-icon shaved off so you can't tell they're upside down).

Helpful Hint-- The exhaust pipes took a little extra work, but I think they’re worth it. I marked out four even dots on the center panel, then used the 1/16” hole punch. Also, when you assemble them, push the support tabs at the top and bottom all the way down into the pipe. They’ll still work, and this way you don’t have any odd bulges where to many layers of cardstock overlap. Then glue the top and bottom in place. Finally, use the 1/8” hole punch to make two discs, double them up, and stick them on top as the nozzle/mouth of the exhaust pipe.

Yes, between the time I built the Vindicator and started working on this fleet, I broke down and bought the 1/16” hole punch I'd wanted (see the Amazon ad to the right). It opens wide, so you can place a hole right where you want it. I highly recommend one if you’re thinking of doing a bunch of this paperhammer stuff. Why shall become apparent.

What next? Well, hidden away in the Golden Bolter files is yet another PDF, this one showing how to make a Whirlwind turret from stuff you've probably got around the home. Most notably, the "silos" are a 40mm Fantasy monster base cut in half. I used some spare plastic card that I had to build the turret around the two half-bases (although I could’ve done it with cardstock, too), then used two sizes of plastic tubing to make what should pass for a simple hydraulic mount.

Helpful Hint--I attached the thinner sections of tubing to the whirlwind turret first. I used those to figure out the exact placement of the wider sections and glued those to the hull. The tubes are never glued to each other, so I can remove the turret either for a “weapon destroyed” result or just to make it easier to store and transport the model.

Note that this time I did the side armor in a more classic style, just like I said I should've done up above. I took the same square armor and then cut the corners down to match the shape and angle of the hull. This time I used the 1/16th hole punch for what I had in mind from the start; to make smaller rivets. They add a fantastic level of detail. Which also means I should make another one for Gillian...

Helpful Hint-- I love this 1/16th hole punch (wish I’d had it for the Malcador), but there’s one thing worth keeping in mind with the rivets. You’re making a piece that’s not much wider than it is thick, so the cardboard tends to “flake” a bit. It’s not unusual for a rivet to peel apart into two or three sections of paper, only one of which is glued to the model. It happens I’d say it happens to about one out of five. Make extra rivets, use a little extra white glue so it soaks through, and be patient.

Add on a few details from the Marine vehicle sprue and... voila! It's also a pretty close match for another scratch-built Whirlwind I made for my White Scars a few years back. And the only thing more fun than a Whirlwind is a pair of Whirlwinds, yes? So this one will be joining the Khan.

So, anyway, what to do with the next few hulls? Well, I had the bare bones of an Iron Hands force at one point that had gotten broken up and distributed to other armies. The plastic Rhinos went to my Thousand Sons, but it left me with a bunch of the old metal components for some Razorbacks. I ended up with a bunch of plastic components, too, which is why you’re seeing random elements painted black in some of these pictures.

Another shameful admission. I've always toyed with the idea of an Ultramarines army. Yes, they're Smurfs and they hog all the good fluff. Still, the very ornate, Romanesque look has a definite appeal to it. Especially when my other two loyalist Marine armies area bunch of Mongol hordesman on bikes and... well, questionably loyal (the Relictors). So it was about this time I started thinking about an all-paper (or mostly paper) vehicle Ultramarines army. You may see more and more of it in the months to come.

The two Razorbacks went together just like the basic Rhino, except for the back hatch. It took a bit of card-shaving to get the metal plate to sit just right, but once it was done these were both very passable vehicles. I have the parts for a third turret, and that one might get ablative armor on the side, too.

And that's a couple different things I've been doing with some spare parts and cardstock Rhino hulls. There's still a Predator template I want to try (with and without side sponsons), so I may have to revisit this in a few weeks or so.

By the way, there were a few requests over at the Bell of Lost Souls for a Sisters of Battle Repressor. It’s not my kind of thing, but I noticed someone recently stumbled across a pretty decent template for it. I’ve also heard a rumor you need to print it at about 95% to make it come out right. I probably won't be building one myself (SoB being one of maybe three 40K armies I've just never had any interest in) but if anyone wants to give it a try, I've got a few ideas on ways to make the template a little more solid (and easier to build). Drop a comment here and I’ll explain how. If enough people ask for it I might even be tempted to throw it together, post the how-to, and then raffle it off or something.

Next time, if all goes well... everyone's favorite green Xenos.

The Mk I Land Raider -- Part Two

So, last time I got the bulk of the model done. Now it's time to do all the detail work, which will probably take just as long. A bit longer, actually.

For starters, Part 5 of the templates has a nice design for an Imperial eagle to decorate the front assault hatch. Tons of detail, absolutely fantastic. Alas, I'd already decided that this "outdated" Land Raider would be going to Chaos, and I'd decided a little before this that it would end up in my World Eaters army, because Berserkers can always use something big and very anti-tank backing them up. So, that Imperial eagle was going to become a Khornate skull.

This took a bit of work. I had to play with the design to make it fit in the space (taking the slots into account) and still be recognizable. Once I had that, it was a bit of work to keep track of some parts, since this wouldn't be a single element. Once I had everything in place and glued, I set it between wax paper--checked again to make sure it was all in the right place--and set a few books on it.

I went through the same thing on the side hatches. The templates have half-eagles for them, I went with half-Khornate skulls. Which looked pretty good, all things considered.

Worth a note about the side assembly (Part 6 of 6), where the hatches and lascannon mounts are. You can glimpse them in some of the earlier photos because I was very stupid and tried assembling them too soon. Before you even think of putting the edges, make sure these are done. Cut out the frame for the door, glue the rectangular backing in place. Then put on the other details (like your half-skull hatches), and the edges, and those interior zigzags I mentioned last time for sturdiness.

Because only an idiot would do that all out of order. Yep. Only an idiot.

Moving on...

I built and glued on the front piece (seen on Part 4 of 6). I have no idea what it's supposed to be. The grill? Maybe part of the mechanism for the assault ramp? No idea. But it was in the reference pictures and now it's on the model.

There were two matching pieces that were supposed to go on either side of this mystery element, but they didn't fit that well. I think it was from a combination of two things. One is a two dimensional model being rendered on three dimensional cardboard. That tiny 1/32 of an inch starts to add up after numerous folds and layering, especially on this scale. The other is my own operator errors, so to speak. A score that's a miniscule amount off one way, a fold that goes too far the other. Combine these two issues and it's not surprising things don't line up sometimes, especially small, intricate things. In the end, I decided to skip the side elements and instead added two diagonal strips to imply the pistons/ struts on the actual model.

At this point I decided to glue the two tread assemblies to the main hull. I used pins and my sharpest knife to mark the position on the template directly onto the cardboard. Then I peeled off the template to make sure it was card grabbing card, not card grabbing paper loosely glued to card. Once again, my book collection helped with keeping things pressed together.

The top panel of the model probably caused me the most headaches and the most work. On the actual Mk. I Land Raider there's only one roof hatch, and there's... well, some kind of bolt weapon there on a pintle. The template for the top panel (on Part 5 of 6) page is marked for three hatches, like the Mk. II has. They're kind of crowded and all sit one on top of another. I knew I wanted an actual twin-linked heavy bolter up there. I also wanted one of the newer tank hatches so I could maybe have a Berserker howling out of the top.

I decided to use all three, but the "corner" one would just be a flat hatch from the classic Rhino that wouldn't move. The other front would be the heavy bolter, left free so it could swing. The rear would be the tank hatch, raised slightly with another layer of cardboard and also left free so I could trade it out with closed hatches, HK missiles, pintle mounted combi-bolters, or whichever.

Alas the cardboard was thinner than the edges of these bits, so I had to double up the cardboard and cut perfect circles through it and raise it even more while keeping it reinforced so it didn't sag in the middle. Nobody likes a saggy Land Raider. I worked on this piece for ages and it was one of the last things I glued in place.

The model comes with templates and instructions to make card weapons on Part 5. Thing is, like anyone who's been playing 40K for a while, I've got a pile of extra bitz and weapons. I also knew the weapons would be the thing that draws the eye immediately, so making them look top-notch would raise the whole model a bit. So I decided to go with "real" weapons rather than card ones.

I wanted the heavy bolter to look old-fashioned, so I ended up using one of the metal ones from the classic Razorback set. A bit of double-layered card let me connect them, and then I mounted them on one of the classic Rhino domed hatches. As I mentioned above, I left the whole assembly free so I could rotate the heavy bolters or remove them for battle damage.

The lascannons were a challenge, one I played with for a while. After a lot of thought and a few simple tests, I realized it was going to be too much work to make them movable. A rough decision, but it also gave me a lot more options as far as building them went. I dug through all my assorted tank parts and here's what I came up with.

I took the plastic lascannons from the Razorback set and clipped off the cables. Next I took a lascannon from the Imperial Guard heavy weapons sprue and trimmed off the pin that would usually mount it to the tripod. Then I fitted them together bottom to bottom. It took a bit of shaving here and there to get a fairly solid fit that kept the barrels parallel and even. Two round Warhammer Fantasy shields gave me a mounting point, and also added stability to the whole structure. On the opposite side (the "outside" of the weapon) I used one of the small plates from the first Chaos vehicle sprue. This made the whole assembly rock solid and unified the piece by hiding the join of the two lascannons.

Since I was using plastic lascannons, I decided to use 25mm bases as the weapons mounts on the sides. I placed them over the cardboard mount and glued the hell out of them. They're superglued to the cardboard and I think there's even a ball of green stuff underneath the base.

So, sides are on. Front logo is on. Next I'll attach the treads, the weapons, and final spiky Chaos bits before I prime it.

The Mk I Land Raider -- Part One

So, last time I posted here I'd shown that Paperhammer could let me make a very inexpensive, very good replica of a classic Rhino. Which is great, because as I said then, you can do quite a bit with a bunch of cheap Rhino hulls. I wanted to try something bigger, though. There are so many of these templates, and some of them... well, if they worked out well they'd open up a whole range of possibilities.

What caught my eye was the old Mk.1 Land Raider. I've heard it affectionately called "the Big Wheel," because it's just a huge set of twin treads on a very small hull. It had my attention for two reasons. One, I own several Chaos armies (six or seven, last time I counted) and it made sense that most of them would have older-model Land Raiders, just like with the Rhinos. Two is... well I just like it. I find the Mk.1 to be kind of intimidating in an over-the-top sort of way.

You can find the template for this model at either The Golden Bolter Society or the BWC Archive, filed under Space Marines. It's only six sheets, but there are no instructions. The file does include a few final photos of the model, so if you're good at assembling the shapes in your mind you can work out a lot of it. You could also print up a spare set of templates and just cut them out of the paper with no cardstock and do a dry run fitting things together.

Or you can follow along as I figured it out and benefit from my mistakes.

Helpful Hint-- The very first sheet, Part 01 of 06, needs to be printed twice. This took me a little while to figure out as I was "assembling" the model in my head. Part 01 of 06 is the core of each side and makes a single base for each tread. Barring accidents, this is the only sheet you'll need duplicates of.

I decided to start with the treads. They're nice, big, and because there's two of them you can go back and forth, working on one while the other dries. This is especially nice because they have a lot of layers. I also decided to build the main hull during this wave of construction. It's the three big pieces on Part 04 of 06, and it's a simple piece to glue together.

So to begin, I needed Part 01 (two copies), Part 02, and Part 04. Two cereal boxes were gutted for enough scrap cardboard. Just like with the Rhino, I used a glue stick and an old credit card to get everything applied. I also cut most of these templates out with scissors because they were so big and easy to work with. It's just a matter of taking your time.

The first real problem was lining things up. It's all layers, but I have to peel off the paper that marks where each successive layer goes. What I ended up doing was putting the paired shapes/ facings from Part 01 down so they were mirroring each other. Now I peel the paper templates off A, and use B as a guide of where to place the wheels. Once A was done, I could peel the paper off B and use A as the guide. So I did this back and forth method as I moved up through the layers.

Helpful Hint-- A great time-saver on this is not going overboard with the many wheels that get "glimpsed" behind armor plates and beneath treads. On the first set of treads I cut out every wheel from Part 01 and Part 02 and took the time to make sure they were as close to round as possible. Then it struck me--they don't need to be round. The wheels can be bullet-shaped (more or less) because most of each one is going to be hidden. Plus this gives more stability between layers, making this truly three-ply card and not two layers with a gap between them. The only ones you need to cut out all the way are four smaller ones from Part 02 that are used as "hubs" on the inside of the completed tread.

As each layer was done I'd fold it inside a piece of wax paper over the facing (in case of drips), check to make sure they were still lined up correctly, and then set a few books on top of them. For white glue and cardboard, with the extra pressure, this works better than superglue.

Once I had the wheels and armor done for all four faces, I started assembling the treads. Again, I took my time and glued one section at a time, clamping them as I went and giving them about ten minutes to dry. I also only glued one facing at a time to make sure it was as solid.

This was also when I started putting the hull together. Unlike the treads, I decided to so both facings at the same time. The indented back worried me, so I wanted to be sure I could make that as solid and sturdy as possible.

Helpful Hint-- I can't say enough good things about clothespins (known in the film industry as C-47s or bullets). The good wooden ones with metal springs are the ones you want, because you can reverse the spring and flip the slats. This makes the rounded end the part you squeeze and gives you a long, flat surface as your clamp. They're great for reaching into places and squeezing down that one loose tab. I use them sometimes on regular models, too (like the old plastic land speeders).

It was about this time I decided I wanted to do something else to make this cardstock model a bit more solid. On each tread, before I glued the second facing on, I cut a long strip of cardboard (from the sides of the cereal box) that was just as wide as the tread was deep. I folded this four or five times to make a bunch of zigzags and dropped it inside the tread. This gave the tread "inner walls" and made it a lot stronger. I wish I'd thought to do that with the first test Rhino, but I'm going to do it from here on in.

Once the zigzags were places, I very carefully lined up the other facings and glued them. I put a piece of wax paper over them, checked again to make sure they were still lined up, and set three or four books on top of them. Yep, the zigzags made them so strong they could hold up about two pounds worth of hardcover books. I left these for about half an hour or more. I wanted to make sure they dried as flat as possible so I'd have good angles on it.

So, that's both sets of treads done plus the main hull. It sounds like a lot, but really that's the easy part. Next, I've got to do all the detail. Including the weapons. And a cool idea I've got for assault hatch.

The Paper Rhino

About a year ago I discovered the joy of Paperhammer. I'd understood the idea before that, but hadn't realized there was a whole mini-cult of people who enjoyed making elaborate (and sometimes not that elaborate) templates for a variety of Warhammer 40,000 vehicles and units. There are templates for old and new versions of many tanks, and even a fair degree of ForgeWorld stuff. There's a fellow named Jeff Vaughn who's done an absolutely amazing set of diagrams for a Warhound Titan.

We'll be getting to those eventually, don't worry...

Anyone who's even slightly interested in Paperhammer should probably swing over to The Golden Bolter Society, where they've got a great archive of templates. I'd also recommend just doing the 60-odd Meg big batch download and get everything. Easier to deal with, plus a few of the individual links were having problems at one point. There's also the BWC Archive group at Yahoo.

I decided to take my first steps into Paperhammer with a Mk.I Rhino. One reason was a bit of nostalgia--it was the first 40K vehicle I ever owned, so there was something nice and symbolic in starting with it here. It's also a pretty easy template to follow. There's a lot of detail elements on this template, but the core form is a mere five pieces. Hull, two sides, two tread bases. Simple and straightforward.

Plus, I think it's pretty tough to argue the Rhino is one of the most versatile vehicles in the game, from a modeling point of view. There are four separate armies that can use them (five if you count Orks using them as looted vehicles). The Rhino's also the base for another six tanks (Razorback, Whirlwind, Vindicator, Predator, Immolator, and the Exorcist). If you've got access to free (or extremely cheap) Rhinos, you've got a lot going for you. Even if they're the older ones.

So, an empty raisin bran box gave up its existence for these five parts. I applied them to the cardboard with a cheap glue stick from the 99Cents Store (four for a buck, really). It's so cheap, in fact, the templates tend to peel off once you're done cutting, which is a plus. I also use an old credit card as a squeegee to get them on the cardboard as smooth as possible, with no wrinkles or odd bubbles.

As I said, the Rhino's an easy template to follow, and the unknown creator (please speak up and grab credit) even included tabs for gluing. On this very first attempt, I used a straight edge for every single line and let stuff dry extra-long, but even so it only took a little over an hour to do all of this.

Helpful Hint--You can save a bunch of time by just cutting these things out with a halfway-decent pair of scissors. If the tab edges aren't perfectly straight... so what? They're going to be glued inside your model where no one can see them. Save the time-consuming straight edge and blade for scoring the long, straight folds that are going to matter.

It's probably worth noting that I didn't put on any of the wheel or tread details that are supposed to cover the two tread bases. I toyed with it, but they didn't seem worth the effort considering these elements are almost completely hidden by the hull. What I finally did was cut out four of the "wheels" that were included in the template, cut them in half, and then trim them down to fit. So if you wanted to do that, it would boost the five-part rhino up to nine (or thirteen, if you get nitpicky about the halves).

When you put it side-by-side with this handy Thousand Sons Rhino, you can see they're almost spot-on identical as far as proportions go. With the addition of just a few little details (most of which are probably already in your bitz collection if you ever had a few Mk.1 Rhinos) and a coat of paint, they'll be almost indistinguishable from a plastic kit. Final price... barely $2, unless you want to count price of the raisin bran. Then it's closer to $3.50.

That's just the first taste of Paperhammer, which is going to be a recurring theme here. In a few weeks I'm going to show a few different pictures of what I ended up doing with this particular Rhino and a few more I built. I'd like to get them dressed up and painted a bit first, though, so you can see how they'll fit into different armies.

Next time I'm going to tackle something a little bigger and more complex. And spiky, if you're into that sort of thing.