Mega-Rhinox #MonsterMarch7
It's March again, which means it's time for Swordmaster's annual Monster March painting challenge.
As
regular readers of this blog may know, I quite enjoy using toy animals
to create large warbeasts for my miniatures. I already created a Squiggoth from a toy hippo and a war tortoise for my swamp goblins. Now I
present to you the Mega-Rhinox, an enormous beast for my ogors of
the Red Maw Tribe.
The model is an Elasmotherium, a prehistoric rhino from the fantastic CollectA range. Although the standard paint job was quite good, I decided to repaint it since I wanted a darker look.
I wanted the beast to be able to carry a few ogors into battle, so I built a howdah from
chopsticks and wooden coffee stirrers. The design of the howdah was inspired by the GW LotR Great Beast of Gorgoroth.
I added a lot of ogre bits from various kits including two crow's nest with gnoblars, one of which was scratch-built. The howdah is not glued on, so the model can be used as a wild animal as well.
The Mega-Rhinox may be the largest model I've ever painted, I had to base it on a round 200mm base which was actually quite difficult to find.
Here you can see it next to my kitbashed Squiggoth:
For the base I went with a snowy tundra theme and used almost an entire pot of Valhallan Blizzard.
In the future I plan to paint a few of my Leadbelchers, as I think the Rhinox would look even better with a crew of six angry ogors wielding cannons.
I still have one more model that I want to finish for Monster March and hopefully you'll be able to see it next week.
Update:
I found some WIP pictures of the project, so you can see how the Rhinox and the howdah looked unpainted. I built the howdah around Christmas 2020, so it took quite some time to get it painted.
Great use of the toy, and scratch building the howdah, all look they were designed for each other.
ReplyDeleteHave you tried Woodland Scenics snow, as you get a lot more for your money ?
Thanks, Dave!
DeleteNo, I've not heard of it before, I'll have to check it out! The GW snow effect is definitely too pricey, so I'm very thankful for your tip!
Truly original creations! I don't know that creatures have ever existed in WHFB on which to mount other units: a brilliant idea that fills a void! Apart from the classic reference to LoTR, the miniatures made by Kev Adams for the game "Leviathan" also come to mind, even if it is not possible to have your miniatures mounted on these beasts either...
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot!
DeleteFunnily enough I purchased a few Leviathan miniatures from Scotia Grendel recently, fantastic models! Hopefully I'll get around to painting one of them soon.
Great work. I really like the use of the toy as a base model.
ReplyDeleteThe howdah looks great, I have to ask, are the ropes sculpted in that position to place it on the rhinox, or are they loose to take the strain when it's attached?
Thanks! For the ropes I used simple strings, so they are loose and carry the weight of the howdah. I drilled some holes into the wood to thread the strings through them, it took some time but worked out great in the end.
DeleteI also added some WIP pictures of the project, so you can have a closer look at how the howdah was built.