I very nearly forgot about the little Rhino in my Ultramarines. Unforgivable. When I say that I actually mean technically four of them if I consider the two I built and painted in 2010/12 for my ‘very’ brief dabble painting Ultramarines for Warhammer 40,000 as opposed to Heresy. Two Mars pattern and two Deimos pattern, they are a great example of what happens when parts of a collection are painted decades apart, using different processes and different paints. Literally none of them are consistent with each other but you know what? I do not mind in the slightest. Collections evolve over time and I have long since reconciled that unless I’m building and painting a force for a particular even all in one go, like I did with the Word Bearers, units will inevitably look different from one another. I’m fine with that.
A few years ago I wouldn’t have been and the temptation to recycle or repaint older miniatures would have been strong. There are two issues with that I’ve learned though, one your collection never really gets a chance to grow if you continuously rework parts of it. Secondly and to my mind far more importantly you don’t get to see how your painting has progressed. The latter I find is really rewarding and outweighs any compulsion to rework units. That being said I did offload a few units which no longer fitted with my list. My flyers and a Razorback went to a friends son who was just beginning to get into the hobby, but it did still leave me with a pair of Land raiders and Rhino’s which ‘could’ be used in heresy games, especially the Proteus.
The unit markings on the two Mars Rhino are more in keeping with 40K and codex astartes rather than the legion, but considering the rest of the force is firmly rooted in 30K stylistically I don’t believe it dilutes the overall aesthetic should I choose to include those. At the end of the day you have to decide what constraints to place on your own army and I know a number of heresy players who for example prefer to use the new Primaris kits rather than heresy specific variants, either with some conversion which I appreciate and some without any at all. Not my personal preference but equally I don’t believe overly restrictive when it comes to growing the hobby, especially if it becomes a form of unhelpful gatekeeping. I can appreciate the work and love that goes into any painted army.
Painting tip
On that topic here’s a trick I use when pre-shading and I’m going to do some of the doors in a contrasting colour, or just don’t want to glue them in place so I can more easily weather edges or apply waterslide decals separately. Mark the doors with a permanent marker on the reverse with side and orientation. For example left/right front/back. Tack them in place then apply the preshade. When you remove them to work on them individually you will know which way around they go to line up both the hatch jaws correctly and align perfectly with the preshade graduation. You will notice I also applied a few strips of tape to seal off the interiors whilst painting the exterior of the tank. That’s because I have already painted the interior and don’t want to spoil it with overspray.
Fun times! I think I must have built and painted over a dozen Rhino by now across a range of legions and these ones probably won’t be my last. In fact I know for a fact they won’t be as I’ve one… no wait two more on the workbench right now for the Imperial Fists and a even more archaic version for the *redacted*. I wonder if I put them all end to end how far they would stretch?
