Whirlwind conversion thoughts

[Coopervisor]

I was looking at the Praetor armoured assault launcher and was thinking it would made a good Whirlwind design. I was wondering how easy/difficult it might to convert a rhino based whirlwind to have the missile launcher come up out of the rear compartment.

 

The basic idea would be a fixed, ready to fire, position which just has the right dimensions and some gubbins beneath it to look like it could move up and down.

 

Then I thought how about making it even more praetor like, raising and extending the front and adding twin bolters in the position of H bolters on the praetor.

 

I assumed I can't be the only person to come up with the idea, but also not the only person to realise it might be a bit beyond my skills with a knife and plasticard :S

 

Anybody else though about something praetor like, but based on the rhino chassis?

[Olis]

A rhino-chassised praetor? That's a new one on me, brother. It's a good idea but it'd need some sort of hinge mechanism, I'd think, for the launcher.

[Sgt. Tiberus Satio]

To attempt a conversion like that, I don't think a Rhino body would be sufficient. You would practically be building from scratch and adding parts of the rhino, not the other way around. It would be using the extensions of the plasticard (or whatever other devices you want to use) and you would have to design more tracks if not use custom designs.

 

I would like to see this attempted, I am not saying it cannot be done, but a Rhino body to work off of is small in comparison. I think perhaps a IG tank body would be better to go off as design because they come at a rised chassis already, so then you can just add plasticard to put your idea in place. Perhaps add rhino tracks mixed in? things to that nature. The front half should be simple enough because it is just an addition with weapons mounted.

 

 

@Olisredan - He mentioned to have it fixed, not actual mechanical, but I wouldnt mind trying to get it to move...who wouldn't? =P

[Hemal]

I can't see why not based on my knowledge of teh Rhino kit. What you would essentially have is a small compartment at the front, and in place of teh crew unit, you have a rising and pivoting missile launcher. The main problem in a Rhino is that the tracks are quite high up, so the sides would have to be cut down to give a flush deck, if a rotating launcher is simething you are after. Alternatively, the launcher could be fixed apart from pitch, a la Katyusha rockets, with the rhino pivotting around to give the direction of fire.

[Subtle Discord]

This idea is very plausible, (and it would be really interesting to see done) but the execution will dictate just how much work it will take.

 

Build the 'pop-up missile rack' to make use of the existing hatch opening on the Rhino kit, and it would actually not be that hard to do something similar.

 

If you want to have more of the back end 'open up' like the ForgeWorld example given, you'll be looking at much more work.

 

Either conversion will take some effort, but using the existing hatch will be much more straight forward.

[Hemal]

I think if you are envsaging MLRS style launcher you are going to have your work cut out. But it is still eminently feasible - just have to make extra effort to make it look "real"

[Honda]

The other chassis to consider using is a landraider. It's longer so you have more chassis to work with, though I still foresee a pretty interesting project ahead of you.

 

Hmm...just thought of this, but a much easier way of accomplishing this with either chassis would be to create vertical launch containers, like are featured in most modern naval vessels. Then you would just have to figure out how to find the real estate to model the top of the missile canisters.

 

Hmm 2...three landraiders "emulating" this formation would be very SM-ish and certainly a lot cheaper than three FW models. I'm going to have to think on this a bit.

 

Cheers,

[Maligoare]

I really like this idea, and I think Subtle Discord has hit on the most simple method for doing it too.

 

Build the 'pop-up missile rack' to make use of the existing hatch opening on the Rhino kit, and it would actually not be that hard to do something similar.

 

 

Based on that, I made a little mock up to work with the dimensions of the Rhino top hatch in Google Sketch-up. I can put it up on here if anyone's interested. The cardboard version looks rather good, so I think I'll be making a couple of these as soon as I can get hold of a Rhino hull.

[Honda]

I'd be interested in seeing what you came up with.

[alex567]

Hey, Alex here, I dont know if this has been said (just skim read the comments), if you were to cut the rhino followind the sides of the top hatch along to the front where the front piece meets the top, removing the whole top piece along this line, replace this with a piece of plasticard and hinge it at the back (mabe leaving a little room for the hinge point to grip the tank), so the whole top of the rhino (other then the track guards) can lift up, then glue some of the vindicator missle holders to the inside roof, aquire (some how) 2 (or 4) manticore rockets and glue them to the vindicator missle loaders pointing towards the front of the rhino, this could give the idea of a remote controlled autofiring rhino/whirlwind, at most you will probably get two misles in their so it wont be as cool as the praetor, you could then build up some tagetting arrays and mabe a marine with a remote controller (or psp) to control the tank and its firing mechanism either stood on the track guards or in one of the hatches, the back hatch would then be used as a loading system and a protection guard against backlash/heat exhange to the loader, and some real cool weathering could be done to the inside.

 

Ive got a spare rhino but no missles so I dont know if theyll fit.

[Coopervisor]

I really like this idea, and I think Subtle Discord has hit on the most simple method for doing it too.

 

Build the 'pop-up missile rack' to make use of the existing hatch opening on the Rhino kit, and it would actually not be that hard to do something similar.

 

 

Based on that, I made a little mock up to work with the dimensions of the Rhino top hatch in Google Sketch-up. I can put it up on here if anyone's interested. The cardboard version looks rather good, so I think I'll be making a couple of these as soon as I can get hold of a Rhino hull.

 

I'd also be interested in seeing what you came up with. I've been having trouble visualising it beyond an idea at the moment. It just seemed like an interesting variant on a rhino based missile launcher.

[Montuhotep]

Based on that, I made a little mock up to work with the dimensions of the Rhino top hatch in Google Sketch-up. I can put it up on here if anyone's interested. The cardboard version looks rather good, so I think I'll be making a couple of these as soon as I can get hold of a Rhino hull.

Yep, count me in! Been pondering the same, lately, with little success, so would appreciate some help of my own.

[Drucifer]

I think it would be much easier to use one of the old Rhino kits as its possible to cut the crew portion out and also slightly extend them without resorting to hours of cutting, in the old days we would often do this to create custom versions of tanks that had only been hinted at in the fluff as no Forgeworld back then.