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Ben's Workshop: Conversions, Works in Progress,
etc.
Rhino/Razorback MK-III-- Phobos Pattern
First things first-- I got the plans for this scratch-built "conversion" from Clouseau's Corner. If you want to try this yourself, you'll need to go there FIRST. By the way, the conversions on Clouseau's site are nothing short of amazing. It will be worth your while to look around and bookmark his site!
The basic theory behind this project is that the current Rhino and Razorback are far too weedy to be on the same table as the new MK-III Land Raider. Fair warning-- it takes some skill and more than half a brain to do this project. It also takes a dremel tool with a nice grinder, and some modelling putty for filling in any cracks.
Because Craig is a professional, while I am fundamentally lazy, I ended up scrapping the "Let's do it all with foam card!" approach and decided to use some actual Land Raider bitz for my project. The sprue below has a lot of useful bitz on it-- a floorboard, an engine (which I have already converted from four pipes to two, as you can see), a "Razorback" front hull, a pair of doors, and the access panel. Eight bucks. Great sprue. I bought four, since I want to do 2 Rhinos and 2 Razorbacks. I also had some weapons left over from my Crusader-- you'll see them in a bit.
This next pic (below) shows my track assemblies and the outer armor plate. After lots of frustration, mishaps, and starting over while trying to get all the pieces lined up and the same size, I ended up making one set I was happy with, then casting the whole friggin' piece in resin. If you're more patient (or adept) than I am, you can of course follow Craig's plans and cut the pieces out of foam core. Right about the time I realized I was making four of these for my RT army, and I would have to cut the little chunks out of the outer tread on 8 pieces, I decided it was time to learn how to resin cast. Laziness is the mother of invention!
That slight red tint you see on the tracks above is modelling putty for filling in gaps in the track assemblies. This is really, really picky since I know that the treads will cover this-- but since this is for my tournament Grey Knights army, I don't want to have any shabby bits!
The base floorboard is 53mm wide, so I had to adjust all of Craig's measurements to fit this new size. Below you can see the floorboard, center support (black piece), and the Razorback hull.
Once you put together the track assemblies, you can just glue them onto the sides of the floorboard. Every roof section was measured to fit the tracks once they were attached. Once the roof was in place, it was puttied up to hide any gaps, then filed down to bevel the corners. Below is an unfinished Rhino-- it still needs some detailing on the front ramp area.
Above and below you can see what two of my finished Razorbacks look like. The pictures above are the twin-lascannon variant-- built with the leftover lascannon sponson, of course-- and below is the twin heavy bolter variant. Again, the weapon systems just used the leftover weapons from my Crusader.
Below is a quick pic of the Crusader, just to give you an idea of the very simple color scheme I was going with. Looking at the side of the Crusader, this would be a good time to point out the biggest problem with this conversion, and that is DETAIL. You are going to have to work very hard to add enough detail to make these guys look like actual models, especially when they share the table with as fine a model as the new Land Raider. You'll notice in the pictures above that all of mine have side doors with the Chapter symbol (the sword and tome) sculpted into the sides. I just used good ol' greenstuff for this. I also cut down the size of the engines from 4 exhaust pipes to two, and added some various hatches from other tank bitz. I'll also likely add some tarps and banners to these guys before I would consider fielding them in a GT (although they already stand out pretty good at an RT...)
And finally, a comparison pic, showing a standard GW Rhino, next to one of the "Phobos Pattern" Rhinos, followed by the big Crusader.
