Medical Rhino 'Mercy Me'

Having busted out my old Demon Hunters army to use as protagonists in my games of Space Hulk, I thought it was about time the army got some reinforcements. In truth, with 3 squads of Stormtroopers and 2 squads of Imperial Guard, it doesn't really need anymore infantry, and as I have always seen them as a 'light' force, I don't want to give them any big tanks or artillery. So, after a little bit of thought, I decided I would make a medical rhino. This would go well with the other 3 rhinos that serve as the main transports for the force, but also be unique.

As it turns out, the humble rhino APC is getting a bit hard to come by. Games Workshop isn't sending it out to shops anymore, though you can still order it straight from them. It is truly the end of an era! This version of the rhino has long been my favourite sci-fi APC. Still, the four I've got are probably enough.

After doing the basic assembly, I raided the bits box for stowage. I figured, as a support vehicle, it is more likely to be carrying extra stuff, so I stuck boxes, a tow-cable, a shovel, and a large tarp on it, as well as a few other random bits just to give it a bit of a unique look.

The biggest challenge was the caduceus, the medical symbol. 40K has their own version of the symbol, without the snakes, but kind of like a winged, sharp-edged double helix. For the first time ever, I tried to print out my own decals using the symbol... and it failed completely. Not sure what I was doing wrong, but after I put them in water, they turned to sludge. So, I gave up and decided to hand paint it. Well, mostly. I decided to do my own version. I started with a skull decal I had, and then painted the symbol around it. It's far from perfect, but I think it came out okay, and it certainly stands out on the table top! 

I was originally going to name it the 'Mercy Wagon' and write that in Latin... then I saw the length of the translation and decided to keep it in English. Then I painted 'Mercy' and realized I'd never fit 'Wagon', so it was re-christened the 'Mercy Me', which I kind of like, even if my hand-painting of the name isn't too good.

The plan is to crew the Mercy Me with 4 doctor figures and 4 guard troopers. I've got one doctor in the Army already (pictured). I also have the Vostroyan doctor figure that I need to paint up.  I'd really like to get one of the old, metal, Sister of Mercy figures, but they are a bit pricey on ebay... so I'm holding off. (If you got one spare, please send me a message!).  Since I want to keep the figures in the army 'all metal', I'm not sure what I'm going to do for the last one. There is the Tanith doctor figure, but I'm not a huge fan of it. There are some much older figures, but I'm not sure how well they would fit with the ones from this era. I'll just have to see. Anyway, it's nice to have a new addition to the army!