Thursday 10 August 2017

Nurgle Rhino APC [Completed]

During this long and fairly arduous weathering project, what essentially kept me going was that it afforded me the chance to expand my painting/modelling skill set. Sadly, it has been a while since I felt any enthusiasm painting W40K stuff. On the bright side what I've left in my collection are Orks and Chaos armies so that means plenty of weathering practice opportunities. So here's the completed Nurgle Rhino transport or armoured personnel carrier (APC) in all its weathered glory. 

Nurgle Rhino Armoured Personnel Carrier [Completed]

While the Nurgle Rhino might not be a masterpiece, I've learned a lot from completing it. Sometimes it's necessary to call a project done before you can start analyzing how things could've been done better. Parts of the APC definitely has an unfinished look to it. For example the open hatch on the upper hull (the searchlight wasn't a good fit ... more on that later), the two tiny headlights on the upper left/right corners of the front hull, and the general lack of Nurgle pus and gore all over the vehicle. All of which had good reasons, chief among them is that it was time to move on and let go.  

Weathering effects on the Nurgle Rhino include chipped paint ...
... rust stains, streaks and pools; rusted metal parts as well as some dirt/dust deposits

Weathering on this project was more of a traditional military armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) wear-and-tear style rather than the W40K sci-fi blood-and-gore. That explains the lack of pus and gore usually associated with Nurgle vehicles. On a personal note, I felt that if I were to include pus and gore into the weathering process the whole thing might've been a bit much akin to adding sugar to a regular Coke drink. Not your regular hobby-related analogy but I'm sure you catch my drift.

Weathering style was a more traditional AFV wear-and-tear rather than W40K Sci-Fi blood-and-gore
My favourite weathering effect was the rust streaks-chipped paint combo
The umber-like rusted tracks and metal parts provided a welcome contrast to the greyish-green hull

In addition, there are two small headlights on the upper left and right corners of the front hull which remain in greyish-green tones except for the rusted metal-wire-cage encasing them. I had left them in similar hues to the hull as is the case for some real-life tanks with a monochromatic colour palette i.e. the headlights/searchlight painted in similar hues to the hull. A real world example of this would be the Russian T-90A Main Battle Tank (please click here for a scale model representation).  

In the end, I never bothered with any blood-and-gore effects around Lucy's head
Could the Nurgle Rhino have used more weathering? Debatable but I was happy with the results as is

If you've been following my past posts you might be wondering what happened to the searchlight. Well, as you can see from the photos below, the searchlight had two strikes against it which caused me to leave it out in the final completed shots above. One, the searchlight was just too big and felt wrong in terms of scale size. And two, the bright yellow lights I painted in seemed out of sorts with the rest of the colour scheme. Both are sore points and enough to tip the scale against including it.

Nurgle Rhino Armoured Personnel Carrier with a searchlight added to its upper hull
Personally I found the searchlight to be too big in terms of scale ...
...  and its bright yellow hue makes the Rhino look goofy which is why I prefer to leave it out in a display

Going forward, I'll be working on two scale model kit projects at the same time while hopefully finishing a long neglected Game of Thrones proxy miniature painting project. The former involves Bandai Star Wars Snowspeeder (painted up as a Wedge Antilles/Wes Janson version) alternating with an old Tamiya AFV model kit i.e. a Russian T-55A Medium Tank. Meanwhile, the latter will involve finishing a proxy for Bronn the sellsword using a Nocturna Models miniature. But for now though, I'll just wallow in the satisfaction of being able to finish the Nurgle Rhino. Just for this week anyway.

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24 comments:

  1. I like it. It looks functional but neglected. I was all 40k excited again and then i tucked into finishing my 6th boxed set o_O I'm burning out with batch painting before i even touch the new stuff!!!
    Sigh...

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    Replies
    1. I hear you. But it helps me to ratchet up enthusiasm for what otherwise would be hard-to-complete projects by looking forward to learning and executing new painting techniques.

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  2. Replies
    1. Thank you Michał ... the Rhino is certainly a classic and a reasonably fun piece to use weathering techniques on.

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  3. Really nice work overall, and very well done. :)

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    Replies
    1. Many thanks pulpcitizen ... much appreciated :)

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  4. Fantastic work ! Great decayed look !
    Greetings

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  5. An outstanding piece of work, bravo Sir.

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  6. It is absolutely wonderful. Rusty and derelict looking, but not cheesily overdone. Magnificent work. Nurgle can be proud. Next time you get the flu or whatever, don't worry -it's just Nurgle's way to say 'thank you' :P

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    Replies
    1. Ha ha ... let's hope Nurlge hates it. :) And thank you Suber for those kind words.

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  7. I really like your approach and result due to the fact you stepped back and aimed for something more realistic.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, it's hard to step back for Nurgle. But since the project was more of a traditional AFV weathering practice session, it was the logical thing to do.

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  8. Looks superb and it has been a pleasure watching it come together piece by piece.

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    1. Thank you Simon, especially for your patience in following and commenting on this long drawn out project.

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  9. Terrific. Looks as though it's been in the field for a while.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Finch ... the rust streaks contributes most to the effect me thinks.

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  10. Just perfect my friend, just perfect!

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  11. Nice work as usual! I think you captured the proper icky nasty feel all good nurgle vehicles should have!

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  12. As a guy who has painted lots of Nurgle stuff, I know that it is very easy to get carried away with slime, dirt, blood, tentacles, etc. You have not succumbed to that though- it is clearly a Nurgle Rhino without being too "in your face" about it. It looks fantastic.

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