Warhammer is all about the tanks. Big ones, small ones, some the size of your head. But believe it or not, there was a time when not a single tank or vehicle was available.
That all changed in 1988 with the arrival of the Rhino APC. A true workhorse vehicle within the Warhammer 40,000 mythos, this Armoured Assault Vehicle has had more than 10,000 years of service in the armies of the Imperium – and over a decade in your armies out in the real world.
The majority of Warhammer 40,000’s initial releases had all been cast metal models, both individual miniatures and smaller kits like Land Speeders and support guns. When it became clear that Rogue Trader was a huge hit, the Warhammer Studio decided that it was time to make some tanks. The practicality of making something the size of a Warhammer tank in metal – not to mention its weight on the gaming table meant another solution would be needed – and so 40k’s first plastic tank, rolled out of production and onto battlefields everywhere.
As the first large plastic kit, this was a true revolution in Warhammer design. It’s one of the most popular tanks we’ve ever made, laying the groundwork for dozens of variants and for all the other vehicle kits that were yet to come. The limitations of plastic technology at the time meant that the kit was longitudinally symmetrical, with many repeated elements – it came on two sets of two identical sprues. Even with this necessary economy, what resulted was a thing of brutalist beauty that still sets the tone for Imperial vehicles today.
In those early days, almost everyone could take Rhinos – the Space Marines could take them (initially in squadrons of up to 10!), as could the Imperial Army (the old name for the Astra Militarum in the 80s) and the Squats. So too could Eldar Harlequins* and Space Orks, who were allowed to drive around in captured Rhinos as long as you painted them in the right colours! Just as well, because when the box (RTB12) first went on sale, it contained a squadron of three of them…
There was even a range of metal Space Marines sculpted as Rhino crew, who could hang off the back, scan the horizon with binoculars or blaze away with bolt guns from open hatches and cupolas.
In the White Dwarf article that launched the kit (issue 103), another key fragment of Warhammer 40,000 lore was expanded upon: the Standard Template Construct. Even then, Rhinos were seen as a versatile mainstay – an STC factory could fabricate them from almost anything a colony had lying around, from compressed plant matter to plywood!
The RTB12 Rhino kit would remain in production until 2002 – lasting through three editions of the game and birthing variants such as the Predator, the Razorback, the Vindicator, the Whirlwind, and the Immolator – before it was replaced by the newer MkIIc model. The original Rhino design never truly went away: Forge World produced a resin Deimos-pattern Rhino, as the original chassis was christened, and the Deimos pattern is now back in action on the battlefields of the Horus Heresy.
* White Dwarf issue 106, fact fans.