Specialist Arms Forum
Specialist Games General Discussion => Modeling & painting => Topic started by: Armiger84 on April 22, 2013, 02:46:27 AM
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Hi folks, long-time lurker here (and I mean long-time), but I'm starting to get back into modelling again finally, and as Battlefleet Gothic's been my longest, strongest love among GW's games, that's where I'm starting in dusting off my collection and making some headway on my backlog of projects.
To start with, I absolutely loved "The Book of Nemesis" when I finally discovered it (a few years after it came out), and really liked the idea of adding some light cruisers to my chaos fleet... but the Blasphemer-class battleship really had my eye. I liked the idea of the fast battleship from the first time I came across the Invincible-class BB in a GW article (which may be one of the next things I work on), it was just nice to see the chaos fleet get something new with all the love lavished on new cruisers for the Imperials by the community.
At any rate, I didn't find "Nemesis" until I was in college, and by then the high school gaming group I played so much BFG with (we played probably two or three games of BFG for every one of 3rd Edition 40K, I swear), and I had neither the supplies nor the confidence in my scratchbuilding skills at the time to undertake the construction of such a ship.
Well, it's been (more than a) few years since college, and my painting and building skills have improved since then... and with some time on my hands finally after the past few years, I'm getting back into the hobby again.
So, by way of introduction to the Specialist Games forum, I present my first serious attempt at scratchbuilding a Blasphemer BB.
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So I'm going off of the image provided in the Nemesis entry, and knowing that I'm going to be sinking a lot of trial and error into this, I've committed two imperial and two chaos cruiser sprues to this project. This is what I started with:
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/84C8A1E5.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/84C8A1E5.jpg.html)
First observation: I lopped off the lower chaos cruiser hull way too close to the prow, which brought the second cruiser sprue into play within minutes of starting the project. I also went back over that imperial hull a few times to trim more detail off, as will become apparent in other pictures.
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/15A1B49A.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/15A1B49A.jpg.html)
After sectioning up the first chaos hull, I trimmed everything flush on the underside; it's going to be floating over the engines and reactors section of the imperial cruiser later. What this picture doesn't yet show (you'll see later) is that I also opted to widen the two chaos engine vents to fit two single imperial engine nacelles where they were located (taken from the top two sections of the imperial engine cluster once I realized they were going to be buried under the chaos hull section).
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/98224448.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/98224448.jpg.html)
The next quick realization was that, well, I needed to lengthen the dorsal chaos cruiser hull. My solution was to add a pair of supports along the inside to keep the hull's angles perfect. Then I completely destroyed the ventral hull of one chaos cruiser kit to get myself 4 more individual upper hull sections, two of which I then attached to my framework. I used a ruler to level them relative to the forward hull section, and made sure they lined up properly. Wasn't as hard as it sounds, and the plasticard strips gave me the perfect base to later attach a trapezoidal section of card to to brace and reinforce the whole frame.
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/44095CBD.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/44095CBD.jpg.html)
This is what I ended up with, a partially-finished dorsal hull for the BB. I mounted the aft pair of gun decks so I could better true up the later sections (more on this in a bit).
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/75D84D00.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/75D84D00.jpg.html)
Here's where I am now. I trimmed down the lower prow to mount a pair of chaos cruiser lance turrets under the prow armor to represent the 4 L/F/R lances. I usually take off the upper prow guns and mount a single lance turret beneath for my Murder & Hades cruisers, but for this I'm leaving the little guns on, in the style of most chaos GCs and BBs which feel like they have way too many guns modeled on for their actual firepower output ;)
I brought the prow down to the ventral gun decks by using the imperial ventral fin. It's wider than you think, and plugs in just fine there actually. I'll need to bulk it just slightly with plasticard though, as the gun decks end a little too abruptly for my taste and need to taper slightly more on the prow. I also need to design four spacers to fit between the dorsal gun batteries ([stern][guns][spacer][guns][spacer][prow]), and I plan on decorating at least one pair with chaos symbols or legion markings. I need to build a lot more detail onto the dorsal spine, although I have the primary and secondary bridges ready to go, and I need to build up the ventral fin to match the book image too. I'm not going to bother trying to lop more off of a second imperial cruiser kit to put on there; I have enough styrene in various sizes and shapes from Plastruct that I shouldn't have any trouble making it nice and gribbly. I also want to try my hand at adding more engine nacelles onto the stern. 7 vents don't really feel like enough for a BB that can move 30cm in a turn under cruising power. I also have some gap-filling to do, and some extra detail to add, but I'm going to save the greenstuffing work for tomorrow probably, it's late enough and I still have to clean up around here.
My big design debate right now centers on how I'm going to connect the dorsal hull to the stern around the bridge area. I made a point of keeping the chaos cruiser sections level with each other across the hull, rather than dropping the rear section a little lower like the Nemesis image appears to show it. This'll allow me to wrap the upper deck all the way around to the stern if I want to. The original image just shows armor plating, but I'm not sure I want to go that route. I'm considering adding a pair of chaos hangar bay sections for a few reasons. First of all, they'll give me visual launching decks for planetary assaults (the rules don't have hangars, but I feel like if this is going to be a chaos marine ship like I want it to be, it needs to have embarkation decks. Just figure they have so few stormbirds and thunderhawks left that they don't dare risk them in void war and save them only for planetary assault). Also, they'll thicken out the ship around the bridge, and without them it's beginning to feel a little wasp-waisted, which doesn't look right. Along with that, I have a problem in that my dorsal gun decks are now much wider than the section of the chaos cruiser they need to meet flush with, and test-fitting chaos hangars has demonstrated a good trompe l'oeil effect, helping me actually narrow the dorsal hull back down enough to meet the stern safely without appearing to narrow it.
As a final pic, here's the hull so far alongside a Retribution-class BB for size comparison. I think my design is big enough to feel like a BB, but sleek enough to believably be an 8-hit BB with a propensity to erupt in flaming self-destruction.
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/9CF5E15E.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/9CF5E15E.jpg.html)
P.S. This is my first post, and my first time really messing with Photobucket for that matter. I realize my pics might be massively oversized, and there's a ton of them since I made a lot of progress today. If I need to shrink things down or swap out my links, please let me know and I'll get on that immediately.
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Pretty sweet, the connection between the Imperial hull and the Chaos extension there looks like it could use some bulking out but it sounds like youve got that firmly in hand.
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Good post!
If you keep that pace you might be ready in time to enter GothiComp 2013.
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Sweet! Please make a little guide out of this.
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@AndrewChristlieb:
You'll get a chance to see my solution to the problem in a moment. It's been most of my work on this ship for the evening.
@Horizon:
That was sort of the plan, believe it or not... ;)
@afterimagedan:
I'll probably go back over my original post a little later and see if I can turn my stream of consciousness explanation into more of a step-by-step of how I got there. It'll be interesting, most of that was trial and error and experimentation.
Speaking of trial and error and experimentation...
I managed to get a little greenstuff applied before I headed off to work this morning. Thankfully nothing moved so things had set pretty well by the time I got home. I need to go back over with some sandpaper later to finish smoothing things, but, well, you'll see where I am now. One step forward, two steps back. I found a solution to my aft hull, but I had to snap off the dorsal decking and move things around. I also had to do a lot of cutting. Here's what the superstructure looks like now with yet more detail removed to fit the upper hull sections:
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/AAE1EC2D.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/AAE1EC2D.jpg.html)
Pretty much anything that might possibly get in the way of armor plating or styrene sheeting has come off around the nub where the imperial bridge attaches. To go along with that, here's the underside of the aft armor plating. I'm now glad I sacrificed two chaos cruiser kits for this. I completely sectioned the second aft chaos hull to take the curved side pieces off, and I inverted them and linked them to the stern with a pair of hangar bays. With enough sweeping curves, I can hide the way I'm pinching and then expanding the plating without it looking too bad, and without me having to completely scratchbuild the entire aft armor (which, if this doesn't work out, is an option, but... yeah).
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/BBA500C4.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/BBA500C4.jpg.html)
The two big things to pay attention to here is how much of the side armor I had to cut away from those armor panels. I basically stripped out everything all the way to the detailwork (it was a lot of hacking on the inside of those panels) so that they'll fit over the bulge where the imperial cruiser widens out. I also dropped the stern a little lower to fill in the gap between it and the engine cluster, and I put those two buried engine nacelles where the chaos cruiser engine vents were located. I had to widen the engine vents slightly but it went pretty quickly.
Here's two shots of where we are now. Nothing on the top deck's glued down yet, mostly because I've tried fitting it a few times and I really need to get the front portion with the gun decks solidly bonded before I try to attach the aft portion to it. I took out my plasticard spacer at the back of the gun decks because it was superfluous and actually pushed things out of position. Without it, I can true up the rear armor straight to the gun decks, which has me happy. I've got the bridge pieces in their partially-finished state floating over it so you can get a feel of what the final product will look like.
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/B1672ED1.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/B1672ED1.jpg.html)
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/DA2F715C.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/DA2F715C.jpg.html)
I realize that even with the design changes I made, the transition from the gun decks to the aft armor plating still isn't perfect, and it feels kinda jagged. I like the idea, but not as obvious as it currently is. I'm considering ways to mask that with antennae coming off the sides, although I'll have to fit them around the hangars for that matter. What I have now is a long, wicked dagger, and that's a lot of what I'm looking for.
Tonight I'm going to glue down the front section (thank the False Emperor I didn't use plastic cement with all the revisions I had to make tonight), and I'll carefully fit the aft armor to it tomorrow once that's set. Tomorrow's project will be to start working on the spacer armor to go between the gun decks, and to finish filling in the dorsal armor between the plates beneath the bridge.
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I think that backside looks a lot better, way bulkier compared to the other one. The edges not matching are just a matter of fiddling with it, i think you have your fast battleship. Well done sir.
Blind-
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Quick update, because we're headed out to dinner real soon, but I got some styrene work done last night and after work today. I got the four armor spacers in for the upper gun decks, and built up the central spine in three stepped layers. The square protrustions over that central spacer are meant for the gunnery/secondary bridge, and I put in another antenna port where the gun decks meet the aft armor.
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/86826923.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/86826923.jpg.html)
What's left:
1) I need to put the trim on the armor spacers. It's going to match the design on the stern armor. The prow armor spacers are going to mount a pair of flat disks for me to paint on Legion heraldry (any guesses who I'm gifting this beast to?). I'm also probably going to continue the trapezoidal sections from the gun decks along the armor plates too.
2) I need to use greenstuff to fill in that final hull gap in the stern, beneath where the bridge is going. Shouldn't take too long, and it can be flat given all the detail that'll be going over it.
3) I need to finish assembling the primary bridge (it's 80% done), and attach antennas/sensors, etc. I may also try sculpting the Legion heraldry on in greenstuff too.
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You know, I'm really starting to question my sanity here...
Tonight's project: finish the other three of these:
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/D8236D03.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/D8236D03.jpg.html)
Greenstuff work's been put off until I finish installing the flank armor plates so I can fill gaps on them while I'm at it. For reference, those are hand-cut .5mm strips of styrene I'm using for the framing work. I'm probably frying brain cells with all the super glue fumes I'm trying not to breathe in. Beginning to really appreciate the advantages of CAD software when building miniatures.
I scrapped the idea of mounting medallions on a pair of the armor plates to paint heraldry onto. My options are either too large to display any of the detailwork I'm currently applying, or too small for me to be able to paint anything realistic on. Instead, I'm now looking at the prow and considering putting a figurehead on the dorsal side, possibly replacing some of those tiny turrets if need be.
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Well, I got the news, and checked the site myself. Not happy to hear what's happening to the Specialist Games lines, and I can only say that I wish I'd started rebuilding my fleets sooner.
(On that note, if anyone has a Repulsive-class or two that they're willing to part with, I'll probably be putting up a post in the trade section soonish)
Over the weekend I managed to add the row of 5 antennae to the bottom of the battleship. For this I cut up three of those T-shaped chaos antenna arrays for their pairs of long arms; gave the lower antenna ridge a little body and depth. other than that I finished up most of the greenstuff work. I still need to apply some liquid greenstuff to the scratchbuilt gun deck armor panels, and build the figurehead. I'm thinking of going Night Lords, but I'm a little apprehensive about trying to sculpt a pair of bat wings. The finishing touch will be adding some horizontal antennae aft of the bridge, and then it'll be time to put some paint on her.
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/74A90F63.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/74A90F63.jpg.html)
Oh, I also installed a magnetic adapter I picked up from Rattlehead Games (http://www.rattleheadgames.com/catalog/WithHostileIntent-MagneticAdapterSystemProducts.html (http://www.rattleheadgames.com/catalog/WithHostileIntent-MagneticAdapterSystemProducts.html) in case you're curious). They weren't hard to install on a plastic cruiser, although I did have to widen the hole on the cruiser to accept the mounting plug on the ship-side adapter. I know it looks a little wonky on the plastic flying stand, but it's all going to be painted black soon anyhow, and I'm hoping it'll disappear visually at that point anyway. I can't possibly count the times I've snapped flight stems, so I'm trying something a little different this time around, starting with my larger capital ships. The hope is that by storing the ship separately from the base in an army case I'll be able to keep the ship more secure and I'll be less likely to break ship parts or the flying stem.
If you want, I can give some close-up shots of the adapter array, and/or put together a minor review on the adapters. The assembly of the receiver end has me a little antsy, but it'll hold a plastic vessel no problem whatsoever. A little concerned about a full pewter battleship though, so I'll try it out next on a Battle Barge kit I have waiting in the wings and review the adapter set at that point.
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That ship looks amazing man well done, now get some paint on it!
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Question: the smaller lines of plasticard that make the pieces in between the weapon batteries; are those precut? If so, what size?
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@ blindhorizon
Thanks! Almost there. There's a few more things I want to tidy up before I paint her... and work moved to heavy overtime this week, so progress might be slow.
@afterimagedan
No, they're not, well, sorta. Years and years back I picked up a sheet of styrene 5" x 10" x .5mm thick I think it was originally, that had lightly scored lines on one side every .5mm. I've been using it for fine trim detail for a while now, I just run metal ruler & a scalpel along the scoring to cut off the width I need and then section it down further. I should probably just pick up some squared .5mm x .5mm rods from Plastruct (and some .5mm x 1mm for true scaled marine shoulder pad trim, but that's another story...), but I'm working through what I have for now. Glueing those into place was a pain and they're not perfect, but expedience won out over perfectionism after about half an hour of trying to line stuff up.
Here's a more in-depth explanation, and I'll try to add a few photos later if I have the time to replicate what I did:
Chaos Armor Spacers:
1cm x 1cm x 1mm square plastic plate
About 8 cm of .5mm x .5mm squared plastic rod/strip
1) Glue the squared plate into place before adding detail to it. I encourage you to glue down the aft gun decks first, then a spacer square, then a gun deck, then the last spacer. If you need to resize anything, shrinking the foremost armor plate won't look weird.
2) Start the trim by attaching the side pieces (the ones that abut the gun batteries) first. I moved the rod into position, glued it down, then after it dried cut it to fit flush with the square plate.
3) add the strip that abuts the ship's spine, then the outer edge. I test-fitted them a few times before attaching. Done at this stage, you can either set the rod flush with the ship's spine or have it match the gun batteries' lines, whichever you prefer.
4) I added a .5mm x .5mm x 1cm strip under the edge of the armor plate to bring it down to the depth of the chaos cruiser gun & lance battery plates, and centered a vertical dividing strip on the armor plate at this stage too.
5) once those secured, I cut down the interior detail bracing pieces. This was, for me, NOT an exact science at this stage, which I sort of regret. 3-4mm feels about right for the "trunk" piece of each "Y" shape, and for the upper brace. I encourage you to experiment and not to take those numbers as gospel.
6) Once everything's secured, I green-stuffed any gaps and put a THIN layer over the outer edge of the plate, smother with a clay shaper, and I'll probably sand them very lightly tonight to make sure they're flat.
Hope that helps walk you through the process if you're thinking about replicating it! I'll try to add some photos later when I get the chance.
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Every time I go to post something in the "What's still available in the GW storefront" threads, I end up writing a longer and longer call to arms speech. You guys don't need that (at least not in that space). We're all here because we enjoy these games regardless of whether or not GW is supporting them. Heck, I just got back into BFG and Epic Armageddon after years of my collection languishing in storage, and I'm not throwing in the towel now.
In the long term, I plan on building a chaos fleet to eclipse my original chaos fleet (although I never lost that one, it's just... well, I've come a long way in terms of painting since then, and unfortunately I gloss-coated those guys when I finished them, not sure I can strip that), and I've got a dream Imperial fleet combining a few different themes to finish too... and working on the Blasphemer I realize that with more patience and practice, I could probably turn out a decent alternative hull for a chaos cruiser that could carry the theme without treading too sharply on GW's IP toes (here's hoping).
Yeah, I realize this is a big post with no new battleship pictures, but in my defense it's half past midnight here on the east coast and I only got home 4 hours ago so... tomorrow. I promise. I'm just not looking forward to the intensive knife-work I have planned to fit antennas onto the port & starboard aft armor. Probably something I shouldn't try doing on the 5 crummy hours of sleep I got last night...
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coll can' wait to see stuff
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So I learned a few things tonight:
1) Liquid Green Stuff has a shelf life!
2) My Liquid Green Stuff's shelf life has expired!
3) Trying to cut thickened LiqGS with water... gets you slightly thickened green paint!
I managed to do some of the minor filling work I needed to do on my scratchbuilt armor plates with my moistened LiqGS. I may have to rely on thick metallic paints to help finish the job, that or place yet another order with GW this week... I think they've got enough of my money for the moment though. I also got my side antennas mounted, now she's a real Chaos Battleship!
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/D0F07F29.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/D0F07F29.jpg.html)
It's not a one-to-one copy, but I didn't plan on it being a perfect reproduction anyway ; )
I still need to add a little more styrene detail to that central spine, I'm not 100% happy with it at the moment, feels too empty. I might try rebuilding those paired feathered raised ridges the chaos cruiser's dorsal spine has, and put them between that rear vertical antenna mounting and the bridge. That's a project for tomorrow night though.
Speaking of ongoing projects, I'm starting work on my figurehead!
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/724C1A1C.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/724C1A1C.jpg.html)
These are really rough, but I"m just getting started here. When they dry tomorrow, I'll take a knife to them and see if I can sharpen the details a little more, and maybe build up the wings' spines a bit more with more green stuff too. If it doesn't pan out, I'll get another pair going, and see if I can't make them smaller. When I'm done, I want to mount a winged skull where the imperial cruiser bridge has its dome to break up the distinctive imperial lines of the ship's bridge a little, and to proclaim in no uncertain terms that this is an VIII Legion vessel!
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So yeah, my efforts over the past few days have taught me that I can't sculpt bat wings to save my life. Thankfully, TheWarStore has a bunch of Reaper miniatures with bat-winged helms, so my solution is on its way as I type this.
So since the battleship is back-burnered for a little bit, I figured I'd show you what I've been working on this evening instead of making dinner. We're going to need some more hardpoint weapons systems for chaos ships (imperial ones too) soon, among other things, as there's no real telling how long the plastic kits will hold out. I wanted to say something sooner about what I was planning on next, but typing out huge grandiose plans is one thing, deeds are another.
So, acta, non verba:
So, in case you're wondering, here's the measurements for the chaos gun decks:
Length: 13.5-14m
Width: 9mm
Depth: 1-1.5mm
The gun deck plates range from about 1mm deep + surface detail, to really thick ones like the lance plates which are more like 1.5mm+.
So, armed with that knowledge, I gridded out a bunch of test plates and proceeded to cut them out of 1mm thick styrene. I'm pretty sure you don't need a picture of this, so I'll skip this step. Note though: This whole process is MOST DEFINITELY measure twice, cut once, and be patient! Also, use a fresh scalpel blade. The second you start dulling it or feeling resistance, swap to a new one if you're cutting styrene on this scale, believe me. Old ones are good for sculpting in green-stuff though. And remember, since you're playing with tiny stuff (you'll see in a moment), cut slowly and know where your fingers are relative to the blade at all times. </mother>
So... here's where I got to before I remembered to snap another photo:
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/A1F61F5A.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/A1F61F5A.jpg.html)
Couple things in this shot. In the background you can see my first trial run at building a gun deck with raised trim. Expect to see more than a few different possible base plates for gun batteries as I figure out what works. In the foreground, I'm planning a section to go beneath the trailing edge of the gun battery plate to sculpt targeting arrays or some such onto. Very early-stage on that, but I need to get some food soon, so that's a project for later. You'll also notice a curious little square with a pair of half-circles mounted on it. The square's 1mm thick, the half-circles .5mm thick, and there's a few more of them right next to it...
...So I learned a few things from building this little guy:
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/27A7FC76.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/27A7FC76.jpg.html)
It might very well be too big for a battery gun, but that's ok! Plenty of other possible uses for a macro-cannon of this scale. This shot has it mounted on a small disk for use as a rotary turret. That wasn't what I really intended it for, but hey, it might work. THIS is what I was initially planning on using it for:
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/F5943E56.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/F5943E56.jpg.html)
So what do you think? My initial thought was 3 in the back row, 2 in a front row, and use them as a weapons battery broadside. Based on the current chaos cruiser hull, it's (1) most definitely too big, and (2) not really in keeping with the chaos aesthetic. That said, I can definitely shrink the concept down even smaller, I have plenty of smaller plastic dowel for starters, and my hole punches go small enough that I can replicate it at what might be a more appropriate scale. That said, if I went smaller I could probably get more like 6 & 5 on a side, or even go to three rows.
Alternatively, I could just use it as a gun turret. This is just a first attempt, and I've got plenty more coming. What do you guys think?
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looks great, I imagine the same description for gun batteries in the BFG book, that they where different sizes weapons and whatnot all firing salvos of different sizes and payloads. It looks great, will keep watching the tutorials
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Well, watching the Boston Cannons play the Hamilton Nationals was painful. They're not the MLL team I've been following the past two years. Ah well. Just meant I spent a lot of time playing with tiny pieces of styrene tonight. Also, where'd the past three hours go? Seriously.
So...
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/929A35D5.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/929A35D5.jpg.html)
In this picture you have my MACRO macro cannon, a slightly smaller one where I tried to suggest it had an external recoil dampener, and a double-barreled turret that could either be a smaller shell-thrower or a laser weapon of some sort. It's funny. They look so tiny on the penny... and then I put them on the side of a chaos cruiser...
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/3B5BF198.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/3B5BF198.jpg.html)
So I guess I need to explain a little. I now understand why GW opted for the checkerboard pattern of tiny turrets on the chaos cruiser battery plates. The chaos design, a tilted dorsal plate with weapons sticking out of it designed to represent flank batteries, is pretty difficult to build for. I need to design a weapons system that can believably cover a 90* flank arc, while having a decent amount of elevation to cover targets in three dimensions. Ultimately, this pretty much requires some sort of turret design, even on what's meant to be a broadside battery. I always thought it was odd that the Imperial ships represented a strength 6 30cm broadside with 4 massive cannons (although I love them; they're easy to paint and wonderfully visually over-the-top). What I was trying to do today was see if I could realistically design a broadside battery for a chaos ship that would have that kind of realism-stretching, massive scale for a broadside. The problem with that idea is that 4-5 massive turrets on the sloped flank of a chaos cruiser looks much more ludicrous than 4 massive snub-barreled cannons sticking out of the side of an Imperial cruiser, mostly because the Imperial cruiser is laid out vertically. As a consequence of the chaos cruiser's flatter, wider profile, macro cannon just don't really look right, but massed batteries of tiny turrets do. I've got some wonderful, massive fixed broadside turrets here, they're just not quite right for the chaos hull's shape... It won't be hard to design something that's much flatter with a whole bunch of little turrets on it... I just didn't really want to copy the existing chaos batteries so closely, you know what I mean?
Also, if you're wondering how to get clean, perfectly vertical cuts on tiny pieces of styrene for your own modelling projects? I suggest two items:
1) A pipe-cutter:
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/90B5E010.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/90B5E010.jpg.html)
Available at even a city hardware store, this little thing's meant for carefully cutting through copper pipes. It handles styrene dowels wonderfully easily (just slot in at desired length, screw the cutter down until you get resistance, rotate the styrene dowel, increase the pressure, rotate, etc. until you cut through). I think I paid like $5-10 for this in TrueValue.
2) A serious single-edged razor cutting tool.
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/E65F18AB.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/E65F18AB.jpg.html)
When you absolutely need a thin strip of styrene to the right length with a specifically angled cut, this thing'll get it for you every time. It was totally worth the $30 I spent on it in a craft store. I could have trued up that double-barreled turret on my own with an exacto, but it would have taken three times as long and a little swearing. I'll spend the money for the time and convenience on this one.
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If this is finished, you should condens this thread into a nice article. Warp Rift will be happy to host it.
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nice job, looks really good
just out of curiosity, is the retribution metal or resin?
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@connahr
It took me a few to figure out what you were referencing. That's an old metal Retribution kit, I've had it base-coated white for a few years now, awaiting its full paint scheme (which, incidentally, is a good thing, since I've decided to change my original plan for my Imperials). So yeah, backlog, but in the meantime, she's serving well for size reference.
I'll have more in the log soon, was just very busy the last two weeks and then out of town until today. That said, the Blasphemer's into its last finishing touches before I throw paint on her, and I have my next project to seriously get rolling on.
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Well, I said I'd finish her when I finally had some time.
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/DA9A3E6E.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/DA9A3E6E.jpg.html)
The dorsal spine was too featureless, so I broke out some more thin styrene and added some ribbing (no, don't make the joke, all you Slaaneshi admirals) to fill in the space a little between the bridge and the forward gunnery command center.
I also caved and cut up an old Reaper mini to get myself bat wings for the legion badge. They're not perfectly symmetrical, but they're much better than anything I could manage, so I'll call it a win and move on. You'll notice a little greenstuff at the back of the skull; I had to shave it down a bit to site it over the stubs of the wings, which worked fine because I was going to have to use some putty to cover the join anyway.
Here she is in all her glory, prior to painting. With luck, I'll get that going this weekend!
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/DF301642.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/DF301642.jpg.html)
You can sorta see the extra detail I added between the fire control center and the bridge; it'll be more obvious once I get paint on it. And here's a frontal shot:
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/071DA5C5.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/071DA5C5.jpg.html)
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Wow 8) just great work!
err wait... no terrible terrible. Please send it to my place for proper disposal. ,;)
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Looks great, looking forward to seeing it painted.
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Very inspiring!
I'll happily take that piece of scrap metal in the background off your hands... ;)
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/071DA5C5.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/071DA5C5.jpg.html)
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This thing looks awesome, great conversion work! Very nasty looking ship, firepower-wise.
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Well, the Blasphemer's coming along. I've made it to a semi-final paint touch-up phase, after which I'll probably be washing her again (what was a good blue base layer at night turned out to be a little too bright by day, and detailwork hasn't toned that down like I'd hoped it would), and I needed a change of pace. So I decided to play with one of my Vengeance hulls, the one I'm turning into an Iron Warriors Retaliator.
What the heck went wrong with this model? I must have missed the memo somewhere about this thing coming together absolutely horribly. I swear I spent about an hour cleaning the flash off of the parts. I probably had enough spare metal from that to cast an Iconoclast destroyer. I've picked up three decent cuts from playing with the hobby knife on this one, and I already feel like I've given her more of my own blood than the model kit deserves.
So, I'd always planned on replacing the prows on my Vengeance hulls. I just never liked the design, even from what I could see in the Armada book (which was only side-on profiles). So, imagine how much more resolved I was after I opened up that kit and got a good look at it.
Here's where I was after half an hour of tinkering around with scratchbuilding an alternative prow. I got my length about right (1.5 in.), but it's way too wide, something I figured out when I decided to test-fit it to the upper hull. Oh well, back to the drawing board. I'll get back to that tomorrow, or maybe later this weekend if I get back to painting.
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/74ec419f-a614-41c9-b422-5e63ede37880.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/74ec419f-a614-41c9-b422-5e63ede37880.jpg.html)
(Also, I finally figured out how to resize images in Photobucket! About time, Arm. Anyhow, things will actually be reasonably sized for future posts! Imagine that!)
My plan is to build a prow that's a proper mid-step between the chaos prows and imperial prows. It's going to be relatively wide and relatively shallow, which as a bonus will give me plenty of room to put iconography on it, and leave me space for the BFG:R alternative prow systems (torpedoes; improved sensors). My next attempt is going to be either narrower to match the width of the Repulsive's prow (and in that case I might just mount it flush with the gun decks behind it), or I'm going to have it curve forward to the arrowhead portion like the standard Chaos cruiser. I might try to see about building a basic prow shape and then getting it duplicated so I can make a pair of torpedo tube versions, one with Imperial iconography and one with Chaos iconography, since it wouldn't be hard to putty over torpedo tubes for a standard prow, and then drill in holes for mounting antenna masts for a sensors version... Just a thought.
Also, about that grand cruiser hull...
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/025e675e-1fa1-441a-ba68-ad2fb4574eac.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/025e675e-1fa1-441a-ba68-ad2fb4574eac.jpg.html)
At the risk of ragging on the original designer too much, she's way too wasp-waisted, and the transition from the narrow neck to the bulbous prow is much too abrupt too. Basically, all the problems I ran into on the Blasphemer build are present here. I can understand why though. If you're going to make these in metal, you have to keep the cost down somehow, and voids cost less than thick sections of solid metal. I'm considering filling in that gap between the aft armor and the gun decks with something, even if it's just denser gribbly hull sections to make it feel chunkier, and yeah, prow's definitely changing.
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/a6511b66-5cf6-40c8-99ae-ce5cdbde7579.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/a6511b66-5cf6-40c8-99ae-ce5cdbde7579.jpg.html)
Even if I wasn't planning on replacing the prow before, once I saw how this fit together, I probably would have found myself committed to making the change anyway. I already have about 2 in. worth of paperclip reinforcing the joins between the gun decks and the aft/engineering compartments, and there's no way I'd be attaching this prow without at least 1-2 more pin lengths and a whole lot of putty. I'm kinda bummed. I really wanted this to be a better model than it turned out to be in person.
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Kind of get what you mean about it being ugly, but isn't that kind of the point of a Vengeance - that it is an old not quite obsolete type of cruiser? I ordered one (hopefully get it) for those fluff reasons. Nonetheless I look forward to seeing what you end up doing with this one!
On a separate note that clean up really doesn't sound fun!!
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Am enjoying your build...
Thoughts on the "raggedness" of the transition from Blasphemer rear hull to gun decks.
For your next ship ;) , if you swapped positions of the launch bay and the deck segment in front of it, things might blend better. It would put the LB next to the gun deck though. If you were to narrow the deck sections between the gun decks by half (to a single element) that would provide space to add a deck element between the LB and the rear gun deck.
If my plastic cruisers ever show up I will give it a try.
Tim
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/D0F07F29.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/D0F07F29.jpg.html)
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Well, it's been a little while since I've added to the thread, so I figured I'd update it on what I've completed in the past few weeks in between numerous road trips and otherwise. Ignore the barely-painted base & the fact that I can't seem to properly position a starfield (t-shirt) to black out the photo area properly:
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/th_E52A8DE4.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/E52A8DE4.jpg.html)
And here's a top-down with all of the lightning bolt patterns visible. Freehanding them was fun (once in a light blue, not that you can see it really, and again over that with white. I may try to thin some of them down a bit more, but I'm not the one with surgeon's hands in this household, so...)
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/th_630A3345.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/630A3345.jpg.html)
This post is also important because I've finally discovered the thumbnail option in Photobucket! I will no longer be publishing single posts that occupy 2-3 screens!
I'm not quite done yet. I need to get that base painted (going to scrub off my foolish attempt at hand-painting it and base-coat spray it tomorrow when a bunch of my epic stuff goes under the primer can), still have some touch-ups to do... and I'm trying to find the link, but there's someone whose Chaos fleet I was looking at yesterday who very carefully and artfully added damage scars to his vessels (given the wide, flat surfaces on a Chaos cruiser it displays nicely), and I'm considering very, very carefully applying some battle damage to the ship to try to represent a few thousand years of combat and extremely limited drydock time. Since I want the ship's story to have been that she started as a full 12-hit battleship but damage and neglect has rendered her much more fragile over time (to fit the Blasphemer rules), I'm thinking it might not be a bad idea.
Also, I know she's pretty bright, certainly in the photos, but if I hadn't gone back and highlighted the metals and reds after my washes, she'd just have been a dull, colorless lump on the table. Now she looks loud up close but looks good at gaming/table distance, and I'll take that split, personally.
Edit: Credit where credit's due. Zenithfleet's on WargamerAU is my inspiration for adding some lasting battle damage. Finally remembered his name. Now if only I could find the right thread to link to...
Edit 2: Here we go: http://www.wargamerau.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=143481
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Wow, that looks awesome! I would love to see it in action.
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This thing is a monster very well executed!
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Very well-done conversion! And a good paintjob as well. :D
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Lovely, great work!
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Yes, very inspiring.
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Wow that thing is a beast! Perfect flagship for a Legion! So what's next?
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Thanks guys : )
Funny you should ask that, Jimmy...
I'm still on the fence over whether I'm going to go back over the Nostramo's Lament and add some battle scars and damage. I don't plan on doing that to all my ships, so I'm wondering if it'll stand out too much. I'm still debating over whether or not to dull the metallics back down a little more too.
SO, something to work on in the meantime!
My order from Plastruct came in today! Basically, they're a competitor to Evergreen, with a wonderfully quaintly user-unfriendly online store and a shipping system that might not have been upgraded since 1992... BUT if you're based in the US, their catalog (download it, go through that first before making an order so you know exactly which codes you're looking for, saves you a lot of time) is quite comprehensive, and shipping, CA to Boston, took... 3 business days? Can't complain. I'm linking my loot as a thumbnail since it's not all that exciting. Everything to the left is plastic strip running from .5x.5mm square to 1x2mm rectangular for trim work, and everything to the right is large square rod for building those wonderfully distinctive Imperial macro batteries in a variety of sizes.
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/th_b4ef8a05-eb0c-4fd0-82d6-b8966db75622.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/b4ef8a05-eb0c-4fd0-82d6-b8966db75622.jpg.html)
So, "real work"! Below you'll find my WIP Vengeance prow alternative. I based her off of the Repulsive's prow with some modifications. She's .75 inches wide at her base, .5 inches wide at the top, and .25 inches deep. I built out a framework on Monday, filled her in with putty on Tuesday, and then with a hobby knife I trimmed the excess out and sanded it down to get my dagger shape when I got home tonight (the alternative was to repeat my hour of playing with obscure angles and plasticard lengths from Monday, which honestly, was not getting me anywhere. At all.) So far tonight, I've started adding the trim (so you can actually see her lines), and shaped the spine that I'll be using as a guide on the top to get that acute sloping Chaos prow effect.
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/fe41db27-d8bf-45ea-b116-7180e5c163e2.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/fe41db27-d8bf-45ea-b116-7180e5c163e2.jpg.html)
The next photo will show you what it looks like at this stage, plugged into the Retaliator's prow slot. I plan to bring the prow up from the upper trim in a pair of shallow angles, which will reach that upper metal bit and stop, and in this ship's case, I plan on using some more plastic strip to drape the arms of a massive chaos star over that area a la BFG core rulebook artwork. the long sloping prow sections I will in this case finish smoothing and then drill to fit numerous antennae into in order to represent the +1 Ld sensor probe upgrade (although I may not use it in every game).
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/e75e8c7b-9b15-4de5-baab-6ad70d1e20a8.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/e75e8c7b-9b15-4de5-baab-6ad70d1e20a8.jpg.html)
This is mainly a proof of concept build. If it works, well, I have a few more hulls to do something similar with, although I think I might try for a differently-shaped prow for my Imperial Vengeance hulls.
Next steps:
1) build up the upper surface of the prow to a pointed edge;
2) start on the superstructure beneath the prow (bring it down similar to the Vengeance and Repulsive prows, add a couple of close defense turrets, bring the keel slightly forward onto it)
3) upper deck trim work (Chaos star), drill and mount antennae and sensor probes, add some gribbly squares and bits similar to Imperial ship prows to help hybridize the design
4) fill in that square gap between the prow and the hull, add some plating, and gribbly it up so it looks legit
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Looks good so far!
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Yeah, I've been moving slowly on this. My current difficulty is getting a good, clean, shallow set of angles for the upper part of the prow design. This has proven harder than I thought. My first attempt with thicker modelling putty was too difficult to cut/shave down, and I ended up gouging too much out of it while attempting to remove the excess. For round two, I'm building it up, trimming and sanding, building up, etc. gradually with green stuff to better control the process.
Here's where I am so far:
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/e0ab471e-85af-455f-9855-5b9008e3d5aa.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/e0ab471e-85af-455f-9855-5b9008e3d5aa.jpg.html)
In retrospect, I should have held off on adding the trim there between the two angled sections until I had the upper portion of the prow trued up, but I'm working around that for now. A few more layers and adjustments, and I'll have it where I want it all, and be able to add the final plastic trim bits. After that, I'll be building out the portion of the keel that meets beneath the prow, add a few close defense turrets to the underside, and add the part that fills in the keyhole between the Vengeance hull's upper and lower portions where they meet the prow. After that, it'll be a matter of seeing if I can get a few of these cast up for my Imperial and Chaos Vengeances, and then add faction-specific decoration (and torpedo tubes, prow sensors, etc. as needed) to those for their respective ships.
As a side project, since I had some leftover greenstuff, I'm playing around with a Voss-pattern cruiser prow for another project.
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/fd6ae778-9418-41fc-9516-302ffd68ffc7.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/fd6ae778-9418-41fc-9516-302ffd68ffc7.jpg.html)
This will eventually replace the standard "gothic" prow on a Mars-pattern hull. I plan on using her as the flagship for a small Armageddon-list Imperial patrol fleet, and while I love the eagles the original designer built onto these pieces (visible in the background), I wanted to put an aquila over the bridge to mark this as a command vessel, and that got me to thinking. As a consequence, the St. Macharius will have a winged lion's head (Macharius' personal heraldry was a lion) instead of an eagle head as a means of honoring the hero of the Imperium. I plan on doing a winged angel swap too for an Armageddon-class in honor of St. Jowen as well, but one step at a time. For the feline head, I cut up a plastic Knights Panther helm I had lying around in the bits box, and I'm working on building up the mane sufficiently to suit the cat. Once that's done, swap in a pair of forward-facing rounded ears, and the figurehead swap will be all done.
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Impressive work
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Some more progress to post. It may not look like a lot, but I've reached a good place on the Vengeance hull prow. My liquid greenstuff finally came in, and I was able to smooth out my rough cuts from back when I first shaped this. I've got the prow socketed to fit around the tongue part from the hull. I might add 1-2 more sets of bracings to the tapering sides of the prow, but I'm going to wait on that and similar finishing touches until I have the lower portion built. Speaking of which, that's next! (I might even have this finished sometime this summer!)
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/7e9a05d5-dcc6-4f5b-8dcb-8d8e7c022efc.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/7e9a05d5-dcc6-4f5b-8dcb-8d8e7c022efc.jpg.html)
And remember that lionshead prow I was working previously? Well, I got some interest in a game or two of BFG for a specialist games event I'm attending this weekend, so that means it's time to finish enough of my Imperial fleet so it can square off against my existing Chaos ships for some demo games...
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/905621e2-de14-4a59-a364-a2866b53f642.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/905621e2-de14-4a59-a364-a2866b53f642.jpg.html)
Say hello to Adamant Squadron. I originally painted these guys back in college and I'd always meant to make them part of an Armageddon Sector list, but it wasn't until recently that I managed to get my hands on the perfect conversion bits to make that a reality. After a little bit of careful sawing, I mounted and painted these Voss-styled prows for my existing cruisers. They need an ink wash (especially the gold and the silver), and I need to black-line the gaps in the prow armor, plus I'm considering knocking together some tiny turrets to mount on top of the prows for the Tyrant & Gothic (these guys might do double duty for a Bakka list), but at least they're table-ready for Saturday. From left to right you have the Lord Nevsky, the Sanctus Macharius Victor, and the Aloysius Helmawr IX. I plan to add another Tyrant and a pair of Armageddons to this, along with eventually a few Voss-pattern light cruisers in the future (escorts are next on the project list for Saturday) to round out the fleet (oh, and there's an Apocalypse, but she needs a little bit of touching-up; travel and storage wasn't as kind to her as I'd like).
The link should give you a close-up of the lionshead for the St. Macharius. I plan on similarly modifying the prows of my Armageddons with gothic angels (Sts. Sebastian Thor & Jowen respectively), but that's for next week. I plan on referring to my eventual squadron of nova cannon-toting CBs as "The Holy Rollers."
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/th_309A75CB.jpg) (http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Beorhtbeow/media/Works%20in%20Progress/309A75CB.jpg.html)
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Good work - keep it coming. :-)
I enjoy watching your work, even if I don't comment. ;-)
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@Wizz: Thanks, I appreciate it, even as a small mention : )
Aaaand, in under the wire! I managed to finish converting my Voss-pattern Imperial fleet in time for tomorrow's Specialist Games event at Time Machine in Manchester, CT, and just barely. I had four of these cruisers fully painted from... erm... a decade ago? >_> This week's project was carefully sawing off and replacing their prows with those Voss-styled alternatives, painting, and touch-ups. If you're wondering, the high-flying Tyrant and the Armageddon with the laurel-wreathed skull figurehead were the two I finished to the old fleet's standard, along with the Falchions. I didn't get the other three Falchions I have planned painted up, but I'll only need these three for my lists tomorrow, so I'll call it a job well done.
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Finished%20Products/207792A5.jpg)
From left to right, that's the Aloysius Helmawr IX (Tyrant), the St. Drusus (Armageddon), the Lord Nevsky (Gothic), the Sanctus Macharius Victor (Mars, task force command vessel), the A. von Wallenstein (Tyrant), and the St. Jowen (Armageddon), with Pugnus Squadron mixed in amongst the larger vessels. I'm working off the Armageddon Sector list, and when I can finish repairing the Ferox Ultor (Apocalypse), who didn't survive storage as well as the cruisers did. I also hope to add some of the Voss Trio light cruiser hulls to the fleet sometime in the near future, but that might take a little work. I might also add a Dictator, I'm not sure yet. Here's a close-up of the three Saints, the task force's battlecruisers advancing in tight formation:
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Finished%20Products/2A39481B.jpg)
Note: nobody's painted to the Nostramo's Lament's standard, they're more to my tabletop-acceptable level. When I have more time, I'll probably be giving them all a brown ink wash, some more highlighting, and I might swap out the bright silver for a darker gunmetal color. When I have the time, the line cruisers will get tiny turrets mounted on top of the prow where the battle cruisers have sensor masts, mostly because I might also use these ships to represent a Bakka fleet from time to time too. I'm also considering chopping off their port and starboard stabilizer fins just after the sensor probe arrays, and replacing them with big vertically-mounted rectangular armor plates, like the limited production GW Endeavor/Endurance/Defiant light cruiser hulls came with. It would even further distinguish these cruisers from anything I build for a Bastion Fleets list, but it would require a lot of careful surgery on a bunch of already-painted ships, so I'm not quite committing to it just yet...
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great looking fleet
and good luck with your event
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Indeed, very nice!!
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Relatively minor update. It's been a busy couple of weeks and I haven't been able to get much done, but an ebay winning arrived in the mail yesterday, and I spent a little time today playing around with it. I picked up a second-hand Desolator that, well, was definitely second-hand. I'm still removing whatever glue the person used (either they used a ton of superglue, or some strange yellowed resin glue that, well, either way they applied liberally. Reminds me of some of my first models...), and I'll need to replace quite a few pieces (was missing a couple of gun turrets, the keel stabilizer fin, and a good portion of the bridge), but I have parts to either replace or scratch-build to fix it.
At any rate, the condition made it easier to decide to convert it into a Desecrator (trust me, I didn't take a picture of the gun decks before I covered them over, but nothing short of acetone was ever going to comprehensively loosen/remove the extra glue). So since I'm using the plastic lance deck mountings and not exposing the recessed turret mounts, I need to believably demonstrate that each turret is worth a str 2 lance shot. In the picture below you have my first couple of modified turret ideas. Bottom left is the standard Desolator turret. Top left is part of an Imperial antenna. Top right is a triple-barreled turret styled somewhat like the plastic chaos cruiser turret but, well, thicker, and bottom right is a two-barreled option (I might shorten the barrel length, getting it to feel right is taking some work).
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q292/Beorhtbeow/Works%20in%20Progress/94eebc3b-f8ab-4edb-a349-2cbb9ee29091.jpg)
At any rate, which do you think looks better? This is really a first pass at attempting to replace the turrets on the deck using existing pieces and conversion bits. If I really have to, I'll build all of the turrets from scratch to get what I'm looking for, but I'm not entirely sure I'm up for the headache of making a dozen or so matching turrets to use for battleship-grade heavy lance arrays (I plan on using these for other BBs if I get something that works well).
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A pair or triple array of ordinary pins might work nicely? Need to be cut to size obviously, but they're far tougher than anything I've used so far. They're too thick for small guns, but a battleship grade armament sounds about right! Might even be able to keep the heads on them to simulate the gun mantlet. (I'm using them to replace all my antenna arrays so far; far more durable!)