The Rhino was built so that it could be redily converted to meet various specialist requirements. many were hastily uparmed during the early days of the Horus Heresy, to cope with the increasing demand for heavy firepower. The Sabre Tank Hunter was the result of one such modification.

Vehicles formed by adding a fixed forward-fireing heavy weapon to a Rhino have become known as Tank Hunters, after their major role during the Heresy. These vehicles also possess heavy frontal armour to protect them from enemy fire. But while there exist Tank Hunters with missle launchers, lascannons and other heavy weapons, the autocannon-armed Sabre is the most common.



The Sabre is the best remembered for the role it played in the latter days of the siege of Sebundapor. The city had been retaken by the Dark Angel Space Marines from a combined force of Chaos Renegades and Ork Freebooters. On the arrival of unexpected Ork reinforcements, however, the Marines found themselves pushed back into the Capital City of Kalinoo, their numbers severly depleted. The Orkish hordes saw their advantage and pressed towards Kalinoo across the famous Black Gorge - a mile wide crack in the earth, separating the advancing hordes from the city itself.

A single Tank Hunter squadron under the command of Marine Captain Ican Mandro took up positions in the Kalinoo heights, overlooking the Gorge's only remaining bridge. The bridge was made from solid adamantium, and had stood since the Dark Age of Technology. All other bridges across the Black Gorge had been destroyed, but this ancient structure had resisted all attempts at demolition.

Mandro allowed the advancing column of Ork vehicles to almost cross the bridge before ordering his gunners to begin shooting.

With deadly accuracy, the Sabre Tank Hunters picked off the lead vehicles, thereby blocking the bridge to the front. Once the column had halted, Mandro ordered his gunners to fire at the vehicles at the other ends of the bridge, so that the Orks were unable to retreat. Once both ends of the line were blocked by destroyed vehicles, those in the middle were trapped, and Mandro's Tank Hunters cooly picked them off one by one.

For his bravery and cool-headedness Mandro was acclaimed as Saviour of the Chapter and Hero of Sebundapor. The bridge still stands today and is known as the Mandro Crossing after this famous incident.

The Sabre Tank Hunter Differs slightly from the standard Rhino. The Sabre Tank Hunter carries no additional troops. It is armed with a single autocannon and a bolt gun, both designed to shoot straight ahead.

Sabres are generally painted in the standard Marine Chapter or Imperial Guard colour schemes, although bright colours on the vehicles are rare as they are usually employed in ambushes and hit-and-run attacks. Blood Angel Sabres, for example, are mainly painted in Codex Grey rather than the Chapter's usual red.

Camouflage schemes are popular, as is the attachment of local vegetation to the vehicle's hull.

Identification symbols on the roof are not common as on the other Imperial vehicles, as it is felt it may compromise the vehicles concealment.





Quoted from pages 45 to 49 of white dwarf #120. Writen by Rick Priestley, Model by Tony Cottrell.

http://renlegunvrs.blogspot.com/


here are some pics of the sabre tank hunter from my army.

Great piece of history found tere.

Could you possibly post up the "how to make it" guide they did (if they did one) so that we can have an idea of what to do for it.

Personally, from a gaming perspective, I'd think that something like a battecannon or a vanquisher would be ebtter suited than an autocann, as you otherwise basically have a predator without a turret.

Great find and much appreciated

The gun looks a bit bigger than an autocannon, that's for sure. Thanks for posting man. May come in useful...

This is the template from WD 120.





Here are the instructions. (note you need an old landraider and a rhino kit to make this tank)

I'd say it were closer to a battle cannon or vanquisher (which would make it more able in tank hunting too!).

hmm I'll have to ask my friend if I can go through his stack of dusty old WD issues to see if there are any more forgotten conversions (there were rather a lot of these articles as I remember).

Please do! I love seeing all the whacky stuff they used to come up with, even though some of it is indoubtedly poor...

Is there anyway you can make those pictures bigger, or provide links so that they can be zoomed in on more? Also some rules'd nice....

What i would propose rules wise is the following.

pts

144.


front armour
14

side armour
11

rear armour
10

BS
4

armed with
hull mounted battlecannon with a coaxial bolter.


may be fitted with any of the vehicle upgrades.


notes
i went armour 14 because it is technically a landraider hull at with rhino sides and rear. hence the rhino side and rear values. I used the VDR rules to get the points cost.


any coments? what do you think?

It only came out at 144pts? That's amazing, everything I put through them comes up more expensive than a Land Raider...

Rules seem fair-ish to me.

30 points for front armour
15 side armour
15 side armour
10 rear armour
10 armoured vehicle fully armoured even to 46 value
10 normal mobility
50 battle cannon bs 4
4 bolter bs 4

144 pts total.

Cool. Don't worry, I wasn't doubting you, just commenting...

no worries. someone might have wanted to see the breakdown anyway.
a vanquisher instead of a battlecannon would only be 5 points more. but would that be too much cheese? i like the idea but dont want to make it too powerful.

Well if the vanquisher cannon is better at taking out tanks, or has a longer range, I would go for it. That's what it's made for...

How would you build it with modern kits?

Theres the Destroyer Tank Hunter available from Forgeworld which might be a good basis for rules/points as it has a similar role and the Leman Russ chassis has similar characteristics to what is being banded around. I don't have the rules but if anyone has the relevant IA they might be able to shed some light on it.

if you wanted to you could probably make it from a vindicator, add a longer barrel and get rid of the dozer blade as well

the destroyer is
170 pts

fa 14 sa 12 ra 10 bs 3

it has a single laser destroyer r 72 s 10 ap 2 ordnance (only if it hits with scatter dice otherwise its a miss)



so it could work but the side armour is too high and there is no co axial boltgun. the decrease in armour works out to -10 pts. the increase in bs would be about +5 pts (just a guess didnt have time to work out the points yet for the destroyer laser) and +1 pt for the boltgun.

so it would appear the destroyer laser is about 77 pts ruffly.

Was woundering why not just use the rules for the vindicator when useing this tank? Don;t get my wrong i love VCR, But for those that may not have them maybe a idea to run with.

'tis true, you either need the Chapter Approved book or be able to translate German to use them...

I found this on Ebay:



It's an interesting take on the Sabre, don't you think?

not bad i like it other than the mantlet at the front. a bit too big for my taste.

though for a sabre the hull should look more like a landraider.

but not bad all in all.