Mark 1 Plague Marine Rhino

While I was repairing and re-arming my old Plague Marine army I discovered that I had quite a few Plague Marine Models form 2nd and 3rd Edition Warhammer 40k. As regulars to this site will know, I started playing Warhammer 40k about 6 months before they introduced 4th edition, and a lot of the old minis were still in regular use then. However the Rhino had recently been replaced with the model we know and love today. So I had never actually seen an old one in person.

Big size difference between the old (left) and the new (Right)

So I got it in my head a few years ago that I would set up a squad of entirely old-school plague marines, and grabbed myself an old Mark 1 Rhino. Since my sister Sarah and I have started playing again, I found myself wanting some more rhinos and this seemed like a fun and easy project to start.

With this being an old model of some rarity, I didn't want o mess up the exterior with all the usual Nurgle-Flare. So instead I chose to go for a Rhino in the beginning stages of corruption. It's metal is caked with an unyielding rust, and a strange dark fluid seeps from each crack.

My only real edition to the super structure was the seal of Nurgle on the top door doors, which I split in half to give the impression that it could open. It was pretty common to have your heavy weapons models firing from the open-topped vehicle back in the day... But I am not sure if Rhino's work like that any more to be honest. I mainly use them to move my lumbering Plague Marines from point to point these days.

This was by far the oldest Warhammer model I had painted, and I must say that they have come a long way. While the model was easy to assemble, it's lack of detail, and overwhelmingly smooth-sided surfaces, made it difficult for me to decide how to approach it.

Its small size also makes unsuitable for the newer plague marine models that Games Workshop is producing. It will simply look out of place and too small if escorting a brand new squad of Plague marines. It might work for the still in use Chaos Space Marine models, but even then it is a little small.

For me, it works excellently with my old-school squad and I wouldn't mount them in anything else!


Written by: Andrew Gregory