[BFG] OSJC latchford's bfg stuff

[osjclatchford]

Lol on those Grand Cruiser remarks. Though I do regret not having one in my collection.

As for cruiser hulls : I really want another AdMech cruiser. But the thingiverse and/or shapeways one just don't do it. There is something wrong with the prows and the hulls aren't as the original ones.
In this case the Zeus line would come close but then I still need a prow.
Vanguard is doing mini-AdMech prows, mayhaps a bigger on will arive one day.  @Malika?

Otherwise I also still need an Eldar craftworld eldar dragonship. Weapon bits I have. For that one ambitious painting project in the back of my head...

As for painting Space Marines: my Novamarines went pretty well. Plus I've seen some other good chapters around as well. Ultramarines may be the easiest due the blue colours.

The defence monitor looks neat.

I totally forgot the FW variant, why did you bring it back?

I've two metal admech prows unpainted I'll never use. Send me a pm with your address and they're yours... Least I can do.

[horizon]

That's really generous of you. Thanks.

[osjclatchford]

a concept i have in mind of using either one of admgr's razor prows or a zeus prow to convert a helian ship... what say you?

[Malika]

Regarding the questions of Vanguard Miniatures' production queue, honestly I have no clue, I only do design work. Sometimes I'm also surprised by what gets released first and what not. I mean, I've submitted the updated fighter designs a while back and they're still in queue.

As for the ships, last I've heard is that Vanguard might want to re do them in resin instead of metal.

@OSJC: Can I share that awesome conversion you've done of my Panthera design on the very unofficial Vanguard Miniatures Instagram fanpage?

As for your new concepts (new prows on the Battlegroup Helios ships), I'm kinda digging it, especially the bottom one.

[horizon]

Ha, I really dislike the lower variant To stubby for the Helios model. The longer variant flows better but even that one could use a bit extra. Maybe because of the really long prows the Helios cruisers have.

[osjclatchford]

@malika, please use my model pic by all means!
I suspect it can be a real pain when designing stuff for a company and trying to get the point across that you have no say on when and if it will even be made. Kinda like writers and publishers I suppose...
Also when you said about ships in resin as opposed to metal, you mean the ordnance? If you meant the Zeus stuff then, yeah I figured they're gonna be resin anyhow...

@horizon&Malika
Lols, I feel just as conflicted as your two opposing views, ha!
But I've just found out that the razor (top) prows from adamgr have been discontinued on shapeways so I've only one of those left anyway and I intend to put that on a Zeus body at one point. I think it will go a long way to blend the visuals of the Zeus and razor prowed ships in my fleet and be a good compromise of both designs, making my fleet as a whole look more consistent. Plus it's a bit different isn't it.
Also intend to do a Zeus light cruiser as a defiant carrier, simply because I've not done one yet and was considering a Gothic style prow on it because why not? I figured it would sit well against my dauntless and firestorms that way... Just doodles I've been working on in the anticipation of getting hold of Zeus stuff from vanguard. I know. Crazy!in my mind I've already bought, converted and figured out the paint jobs...  I need less caffeine...

[Ragsta]

What about Lord Borak's prows, I rather presumed those would work on the Helios ships too? Kinda counting on it actually 

[osjclatchford]

I'm sure they would.
I don't have any.
Although great models I'm not really keen on the spacefleet style and the baby retribution one sure is groovy and all but I just prefer the Voss over gothic anyday...

With the exception of the massive eagle prow on the Zeus light. For some reason I've become a lot less fond of that over time...

[horizon]

The Zeus light does have the same prow as the regular one though. You really think it as to big?

Now I'm scared to look at my ships... what had been heard cannot be unheard...

[osjclatchford]

Don't get me wrong. See this pic;

The middle ship is the normal Zeus light prow. Little slimmer than the main Zeus by about 5/10%. Real nice and actually although a bit smaller still even looks fine on a full cruiser (as used on the above lunar I did a couple of posts back!).
The ship's it's sandwiched between have the other prow I was talking about. Although I did put one on my admech ship to match other zeus' (twas the only spare I had at the time) that's the one Ive grown less fond of over time...
I dunno why tbh. There's nothing really wrong with it. I think it's just s little bit too eagley, yes thats not a word but somehow it just breaks into the ott, too much ostentation barrier... But each to Thier own...
But! You know what, I've got one of these left and now I'm starting to think it might look good on a helian ship... Lols I'm so changeable!

[horizon]

Ah, those prows. I haven't used those. I think I have two in my bitbox.

But I do think with a different paint approach the effect can be camouflaged somewhat. With Vaaish his scheme the top bit still in shiny gold but the lower wings in a (light?) brown colour.

And with some extension between hull and prow they indeed might be a good thing on the Helios vessels.

[Malika]

@malika, really, a thunderhawk... at 14mm? thats a seriously big-assed TH...

I know, the fighters themselves are about 9-10mm long, VGM wanted the Eagle to be a bit beefier so they commissioned the designer to make it a bit bigger.

Vanguard is doing mini-AdMech prows, mayhaps a bigger on will arive one day.  @Malika?

No clue, I was working on some Cybershadow ships, but I'm having a hard time staying motivated to finish them. As for what the other designers are doing, no clue...I'm kinda out of the loop when it comes to that.

@malika, please use my model pic by all means!
I suspect it can be a real pain when designing stuff for a company and trying to get the point across that you have no say on when and if it will even be made. Kinda like writers and publishers I suppose...

It can be annoying from time to time, it's all a bit of give and take. I like to have certain designs in production, but Vanguard might not be that interested in them (mainly some variant fighter designs and some weird terrain), so I kinda have to convince them that they'll sell. It's all a bit of give and take I guess. But even then I have no clue about the time tables. I've designed a whole bunch of ships of them, submitted them about 2 years ago. Still no ETA, especially since they are moving the ship designs to resin production.

Also when you said about ships in resin as opposed to metal, you mean the ordnance? If you meant the Zeus stuff then, yeah I figured they're gonna be resin anyhow...

If I understand Vanguard correctly their plan is to do the ships themselves in resin with bits such as turrets, ordnance, etc in metal. But I've got a feeling that 'bigger' bits such as prows and broadsides will probably be done in resin.

[Malika]

Also...

https://www.instagram.com/p/B_hTvrXnRx_/

[osjclatchford]

that's real nice of you malika, thanks!

as we've been recently musing on the failures of gw's grand cruiser hybrid designs and felt I'd see if I could do better.
the aim was to represent a stop-gap in design elements between the ancient (now chaos) designs and the imperial designs without it looking so much of a shambles with a shoe on the front
to be honest this hybridisation happens almost elusively in fiction, the new designs of real military vessels superseding the old in a rather blunt manner.
hybrid ships are much more likely to exist as a result of having to put newer systems on older vessels to bring them 'up-to-speed' if recommissioning.
but, sci-fi loves to do this stop-gap design thing to keep the nostalgia freaks happy so i figured, how can i do it justice, without having to chow-down on a big-ol slice of humble pie?
one (LONG) rummage in the bitzbox later and this is the result:

the Indominus aster, Enceladus class heavy cruiser.
so the idea is that this is not actually a grand cruiser but simply an old design that just predates the mars class battlecruiser (in fact it has an identical armament), its just an excuse to show what an older design of ship may have looked like.
fluff?

the indominus aster was decommissioned during the new-wave of ship designs that came out of the voss shipyards. however, during the Armageddon conflict, the lunar class that carried its namesake, lasted less than 17 hours in fleet-action against plaguefleet 'hereseriarch', in fact, such losses were reported that many 'mothballed' vessels were hastily recommissioned to fill the voids in battlegroups of many sectors,  as such the enceladous class indominus aster set-sail to the stars to answer the call of war once again...

heres a wip:

spot all the bitz?

While I was at it,  I've also done some basic attempts at the plasma-batteries I mentioned a few posts up (for use on tyrant class vessels to represent the 45cm range batteries) I thought they may look really scale-breaking but now I think it works ok:

will likely end up on that aforementioned zeus cruiser ...

[Malika]

Really loving the grand cruiser designs you're doing here, totally agree that GW kinda failed on their design.