Advice/opinions re: 1/18 scale Mk.1 Rhino

[Evil Eye]

As I mentioned in the papercraft-to-styrene thread, once my Cricut Maker 3 comes in and I get the hang of using it, there's something I want to try doing with it. Something completely insane and highly impractical, but doable and pretty awesome if it works- a 1:18 scale Mk.1 Rhino to accompany JoyToy figures!

 

Now, there's a few things I want out of this thing, and I have plans on how to achieve each of them. To elaborate:

>This is specifically based on the Mk.1, that is the classic RT Rhino- NOT the Deimos. The Deimos is very cool but I specifically want to make the classic late 80s doorstop, albeit with more detail.

>It should be large enough to accomodate standard-sized JT Marines (which I have a few of). Obviously it doesn't need to fit 10 guys in the back, but it should fit a few comfortably in the back, and the top hatches/cupolas should allow a Marine to sit halfway through even if they have to cheat a bit and can't actually climb through the hatch (or rather, so they couldn't climb through the hatch if they weren't inanimate objects...). As such the cupolas may be a tiny bit bigger proportionally to the rest of the vehicle than on the real model, but that's not a massive issue.

>The doors and hatches should all work. I'm not sure if I'll put inner doors on the side hatches; to the best of my knowledge there's never been a canonical depiction of the interior of the Mk.1 Rhino, and the classic kit had no interior detailing at all, so I could handwave it as saying the inner doors were a feature only added on the Mk.2.

>Speaking of the interior, as with the JoyToy vehicles, it will have a fully-detailed and accessible interior, including the driver's compartment.
>I want the tracks and running gear to work- I won't be bothering with actual articulated suspension as at this scale it would be a delicate, fiddly nightmare and add zero appreciable benefit, but rolling tracks make me happy!

 

My main plan is to make the main hull out of styrene, using the Cricut to cut out the templates. I'll probably use 2mm styrene for the thickest parts as this should be just thin enough to pre-score with the Cricut (even if it needs some extra passes with a Tamiya scriber afterwards to get a good snap) whilst still being sturdy enough for the job. The template itself will be made in Blender, using MKojiro's awesome (though now, tragically, difficult to obtain) Rhino STLs scaled up by 300%, if not a bit bigger, and then modelling the template around the parts (there is an addon for Blender that can be used to convert meshes to papercraft templates in a similar manner to UV maps for texturing, which also work for styrene plans- and sewing patterns for that mattter!). More detailed parts- notably the running gear and anything not conducive to being made from styrene- will be designed and 3D printed in my favourite tough resin. In my case Resione TH-BJD, though Tough 74 may be more desirable if you would rather the unpainted parts be grey instead of fleshtone (I'll be painting everything anyway). A mix of brass rod (for long pins) and aluminium wire (for shorter ones) will be used to secure hinges, and rivets will be applied with plastic rod.

 

As you've probably gathered I've got a pretty solid grasp of how to go about this, however I would still like my fellow frater (and sororita?) to give any advice they may have on a few points, along with anything else I may not have considered:

>I'm thinking the final model should be at least 3 times larger than the actual miniature (28mm is roughly 1/56, closer to 1/54 in Warhammer's case with the admittedly spongey scale, heroic proportions etc, and 1/54 scaled up by 300% is 1/18 exactly), that said the original Mk.1 Rhino is quite small, and the "vehicles aren't actually to scale with everything else" thing was especially prevelant in those early days. As such I might need to upscale the thing a bit more than that just to get Marines to be able to fit in at all. Any thoughts re: this?

>The model will be considerably more detailed than the actual miniature it is based on, partially by necessity as it will have an interior and working running gear. Whilst the suspension will not be functional, it will be modelled. Obviously the actual Mk.1 kit has no visible suspension as the tracks and road-wheels are a solid piece along with the side parts; the Mk.2 has some suspension detail, though I'll be damned if I can work out what they're meant to be specifically.  As such, what would be a good style of suspension to use for the wheels? I'm thinking Christie could be fun, and would fit the very interwar vibe a lot of Imperial tech has. Likewise, leaf spring could be good? Again this would be purely cosmetic as the suspension itself would be static, simply holding the rolling wheels.

>Speaking of the running gear, I'm not sure how to approach the tracks and wheels. The wheels I'm thinking will be fairly straightforward, as there's four road-wheels (which will likely be fairly simple, as on many historical armoured vehicles) and the idler and drive sprocket can really look like anything as they're hidden from view, and whilst they need to be functional they will only be seen if access panels are opened. The tracks however are very, very simplistic on the actual model and would need substantial reworking to be functional. My current thought for link design is to ape the early Matilda II tracks, but without the grip/lightening hole design in the tread. This would be fairly faithful to the original design whilst allowing it to actually work and look a bit more convincing. But any other thoughts are also welcome!

>I'm probably not going to bother with the Mk.2 style internal "airlock" doors on the side hatches given they'd be fiddly to assemble and operate (as cool as irising inner hatches would be) but I'm also wondering if the dividing wall between the troop compartment and the driver's space could be deleted? As the Mk.1 is a more primitive, earlier design than the Mk.2 (and, again, no canon depiction of the interior AFAIK) it could easily be handwaved that the Mk.1 just didn't have the fully separated interior.

>Finally there's the issue of the track loop, as again the tracks will be workable and so I'll need to figure this out. I'm pretty sure it's supposed to loop around the entire side-trapezoid, ala WW1 tanks, albeit protected by track guards, as I can't see how the side hatches could work with a more modern layout. Notably the "real" Mk.2 Rhino in Nottingham (itself a modified FV140 if memory serves?) has purely superficial side doors, as the track loop passes right through that space.

 

Anyway- any thoughts on this demented endeavour, and any advice on how to go about it? Reference pictures 100% welcomed (love me some tank pics)!