Horus Heresy: Deimos Pattern Rhino review

The plastic Deimos Pattern Rhino next to a Primaris-sized Dark Angel.

The second edition of the Horus Heresy was just released, and with it is the promise of GW releasing plastic versions of many of the Forge World Space Marine vehicles, removing many of the assembly woes of their resin counterparts. The first of these releases, alongside the boxed game, was the Deimos pattern Rhino. I always liked the Deimos design, due to its similarities to the original plastic rhino kit, but never bought one because it was a resin hybrid kit, building on top of an already dated plastic rhino (released in 2002). With this new plastic version of the Deimos, I jumped at the opportunity to get one, and in turn see if they were able to improve the basic plastic rhino from 2002!

The box.

The Deimos rhino comes with 3 sprues. Two make the core tank, with the third being an accessory sprue.

Although the Deimos rhino could have just added an upgrade sprue to the 2002 plastic rhino kit, GW used it as an opportunity to completely update the kit. Even just looking at the sprues, you can tell the Deimos pattern benefited from GW's improved technology and digital sculpting, something that is made more obvious during assembly. The new rhino has substantially higher tolerances, with the pieces fitting together tightly, without wobbling. This is a dramatic improvement that makes gluing the components together easier, without risk of the tank not sitting level after assembly. The older rhino, and particularly the Land Raider, allowed you to glue the main halves to the tank bottom, only to realize later that the tank would not sit level, or other pieces would have major gaps. While I used clamps at times to assemble the Deimos, they are not necessary, with each piece fitting together without worry that subsequent pieces will not fit properly. Many of the pieces are cut differently from the 2002 kit, hiding mold lines or making the pieces go together without having to hold pieces in place awkwardly for glue to set.

The Deimos rhino looks much like the resin hybrid from Forge World, but is now all in plastic!

The model has been completely redone in plastic, resulting in better piece fit and easier assembly.

Although I assembled the rhino without upgrades, the kit comes with a huge variety of them, including a host of pintle-mounted weapons (heavy bolter, havoc missile launcher, multi-melta, and various combi-bolters).

The kit isn't perfect, as the tracks still have to be assembled in pieces and have extensive mold lines going down the middle of each. This was to be expected, however, and thankfully they go together easily and would be difficult to put on backwards (which was not the case with some GW tank kits). Additionally, the smokestacks/power generators go together in halves, making the noticeable seam lines that are hard to remove without using modeling putty.

Like the 2002 rhino, the inside of the tank is detailed.

The Deimos rhino next to a Forge World Arvus Lighter.

All in all, I was really impressed with the Deimos pattern Rhino. I was able to assemble the entire model without any issues or mistakes, which I cannot say was the case for the 2002 rhino. The new design goes together easily, hiding some of the mold lines and having less seams that you have to fill in with molding putty. I can say confidently that I would never buy the 2002 rhino again, in favor of the Deimos version. Looking to the future, I am excited to paint the model to go along with my Dark Angels at some point!

- Eric Wier