Centurion Vehicles: Rhino

I built this kit right after I finished my Predator. I had mixed a delicious warm green color from raw sienna and phthalocyanine green and wanted to get another model out of it.

I hastily built my Rhino kit which had sat collecting dust and bug turns in a box in my garage for over a decade. I wanted a rhino for my space marine chapter anyway, having seen how effective they can be in a game.

The kit wasn’t hard to put together and since I had just finished the predator, I knew hot to approach the painting. I decided to try a technique I had read about in Finescale Modeler. To break up a camouflage pattern, a modeler and done some “leaf masking.” I didn’t want to make the kit too complicated, but I though it would be fun to try a little bit of it. Using triangles, I masked off a few patches and airbrushed the kit with the same techniques and problems as the Predator.

I wanted the Rhino to have a bit of bite as the new rules will allow. However, this original Rhino kit didn’t have a weapon. I went to my bits box and found my favorite autocannon model. I bought two of these little babies about 15 years ago. I built one for my marines and had planned to make a mold of this one and make several copies (I was into that). You can see a hole in the end of the gun where I attached a wire to hold it in the mold. I actually made a mold of the gun, but I never got any decent casts out of it. Having more resources and less time than I used to, I decided it was time to enlist the gun into real combat.

I painted the gun and drilled a hole in one of the hatches to accommodate the stem. The gun is not glued onto the model and so can turn to face different enemies or be removed if I need an unarmed armored personnel carrier. On the other hatch, I bodged up a pair of remote visual sensors to help drive the vehicle and aim the new gun. These are fixed to the model and ain’t goin’ anywhere.

The final result is a good model. I still love the colors; the warm green complementing sienna and soft black outlines. I don’t think the “leaf pattern” ads anything but curiosity to the model. The gun, however, looks very formidable sets the kit apart.

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