The curious life of a Forgeworld rhino upgrade set

o/

The base of the Praetor in my prior post got me thinking about the Rhino door on which that mini stands: a ‘leftover’ Forgeworld piece. How does that happen anyways?

In the end I think this was one of my better FW purchases.

Like many geeks wanting a prettier rhino, I bought the Imperial Fists’ rhino door upgrade kit for my old Iron Hands army (the demise of which pre-dates this blog, 4th ed 40k i think). I had to buy the Imperial Fists set as at the time, Forgeworld didn’t make any Iron Hands upgrade kits. Wanting to spread the love around, I decided to put the front plate on a predator and the doors onto a rhino. 

I've recycled this pic soooo many times...

The predator served its army (fully painted) till the Iron Hands’ eBay sale, but stayed behind, as did the as-yet unpainted Rhino. The Predator was repainted in the colors of the Dark Hands space marine chapter, an Imperial Fists’ successor and garnered great renown (in my opinion anyways) when it got an honorable mention in an Atlanta Gamesday golden daemon competition's 'open' category (I forget the year). The fact that it did so whilst being a repaint made it all the better!

The Dark Hands didn’t stay around too long, also going the way of eBay (but I will note that the new owner messaged me asking for instructions in hopes of matching the army’s paint scheme which made me quite happy). Once again, the predator stayed behind, and except for a brief stint with the Subjugator’s chapter, it remains in a display case. 

It seems that the Honorable Mention was to be this tank’s downfall, as it was often targeted first for that specific reason alone, as more than one opponent told me…the bastards! 

As for the doors, I decided to add an allied Crimson fists’ squad and rhino to one of my armies, I forget which, but possibly the Dark Hands. Only a few minis were painted (the rhino only partially) before I tired of painting that color scheme (adult ADHD for the win)!

The half-painted Crimson Fists’ rhino’s only notable action was when it was parked in plain sight in one of my grandmother’s dollhouses, yet remained unseen for 4 days! She was not happy when on removing it there were (quote) ‘tank tracks in the carpeting!’

Not this tanks' best view, but no doubt Neverness will recall its demise with glee!

I believe that it was during mid-to-late 5th ed 40k when Da Long Wayz Dezert Groop itself took possession of the rhino and konverted it into a looted wagon with a BOOM gun! Its (somewhat reliably) served with them ever since, though during the ‘konverting’ stage, one door was popped out to be replaced with a plain door bearing an Ork icon, and it landed in purgatory my bitz box where it bounced around for some years. 

Well, at least one of them got an Imperial Fists paint job.

Skip forward to the present (late 7th ed) and I took this last remaining Imperial Fist rhino door and ‘battle-damaged’ the hell out of it for the very short-lived Captain Woo, of Word Bearers’ fame. Woo died before painting, only to be replaced by Praetor T, who now stands upon this last rhino door.

Sorry if this was a bit long-winded, but the recollection that one upgrade kit was split between 3 different models, for three different armies, over the course of 3 different 40k editions amused me, and I thought it needed telling.