[BFG] Battle Fleet Maelstrom

[Brother Argos]

After a long time of no modelling / painting (well over a year) I decided to start work on a new fleet for BFG, as the new release from Forgeworld centres around the Badab Wars I decided to focus my efforts on something interesting from that period. As the Badab wars took place near to the Maelstrom in the Ultima Segmentum and centred around a known conflict I found myself researching the Ultima fleets and thinking about Battlefleet Maelstrom.

Few facts seem to be known about the Ultima Segmentum with regard to Battlefleet Gothic, I could only find one unsubstantiated colour reference and if that was correct it invalidated GW's use of green for their own fleet, so I quickly dismissed it. One solid fact was the information about Kar Duniash the segmentum fortress and its use of the Kar Duniash pattern cruisers, which are sold by GW as their Rogue Trader cruiser. In the initial Rogue Trader fleet rules release it says specifically on page 4: -

Kar Duniash Pattern Cruisers

The Rogue Trader model available from games workshop is based upon a Kar Duniash pattern cruiser, meaning the model is rather versatile and can be used to represent any class of Imperial Navy Cruiser. Our painted example has been equipped to represent a Rogue Trader cruiser, but by replacing the weapons with the appropriate combinations of Imperial broadside batteries it's possible to create a Gothic class, Lunar class, Tyrant class or whatever.

Armed with this knowledge I purchased a couple of Kar Duniash cruisers from GW and set about doing some modelling, I wanted to make some Kar Duniash pattern light cruisers as well. The first step was to duplicate the metal cruiser into something softer to work with, so I recast the body of the cruiser into resin and set about making a smaller prow. In addition I filled the back of the various weapon systems to make the back flush and cast them also, this was to make magnetising the weapon systems easier. As I wished to field some Endeavour, Endurance and Defiant pattern light cruisers I then extended and rebuilt the Lance bay and Fighter bays to the same length as the Light cruiser weapon bays.

You can see my work in progress below, the light cruiser half way through construction is at the front, with all the modified weapon bays ready to be reproduced in resin. The prow of the light cruiser has been cut down to make it scale better with the light cruiser body. The resin bridge section at the back has also been cut back as well. Directly in from the finished weapon bays will let me make a Kar Duniash pattern Endeavour class series of ships.

The middle cruiser body was the test for the magnets as you can see and in the end was cut up for parts as I experimented further with the Light Cruiser.

The Metal cruiser at the back was destined to become my colour scheme test.

Work in Progress Modelling shots

In between waiting for moulds and casting I set about working on a test colour scheme. I wanted to keep the colour palette relatively simple and would be relying on dry brushing (shock, horror, gasp) and washes. I got the basic colour outline laid down quickly using a white undercoat (I wanted the colour vibrancy that a white undercoat brings) and the blue was done with Vallejo Model Color - Medium Blue. Please excuse the poorly taken and over exposed shot from my iphone: -

Working up from that I used GW - Ice Blue with a heavy dry brush to accent all the small detail and then a heavy wash with GW Wash - Asurmen Blue. This left me slightly darker than the colour I wanted, so I ran a VERY light drybrush of Ice Blue which pulled the colour up to where I wanted and re-emphasised the small detail. Once this was done I went and retouched the white prow and eagle and started work on the "lights", in keeping with the "cool" colour scheme I had chosen white for the lights, small dots at key points helped sustain the illusion of scale that any small model requires. I then followed up with GW - Chainmail on the characteristic globes along the dorsal line of the ship and the tips of weapons and landing bays and finally the engines, which then received a further 2-3 carefully applied GW Wash - Badab Black layers.

Lastly I used GW Dwarf Bronze as the base for my Prow Eagle, then followed the edges with GW - Brunished Gold and went over with GW Wash - Devlan mud in the recesses. To make it "Pop" I then highlighted again with the burnished gold. To emphasise the bridge dome I used the gold to do some of the minor metallic work at that end also.

Here are a couple of pictures of the final outcome: -

[Captain Idaho]

Wow, that is original and striking, yet just a subtle change really. Wish I thought of it before I bought my Imperial Fleet (which I'm going to have to dig out) as I would have stolen the idea for my Battlefleet Ultramar!

 

I should have read the GW site more thoroughly eh. ;)

 

Will you get much gaming in with the fleet? I have never played BFG but really want to, and now I am at a new gaming club I intend to get a few games in (one fella at least has an interest).

[Brother Argos]

No one around here plays ... but if you ever fancy meeting up for a game PM me ... I am only in South London. I am sure we can arrange something.

[Captain Idaho]

No one around here plays ... but if you ever fancy meeting up for a game PM me ... I am only in South London. I am sure we can arrange something.

 

Cool, will see what I can do in the near future. But you should really come to the Ultras meets arranged in the Ultramarines forum. We try and make it a full open event. It's generally a gaming free for all ;)

[Brother Argos]

Where are they held ?

[Captain Idaho]

It depends, so far Nottingham (long commute for many of us) and Cambridge. We generally will hold them anywhere someone arranges them though, as many of us like the social side and book a room (I always do) for a weekend of solid gaming.

 

Speak to greatcrusade08 for more details, though I think we were spitballing at the end of this thread here.

[Reyner]

I really like that ship. The colours work very well. I've been meaning to pick up some BFG to make my DIY chapters fleet.

[Brother Argos]

Well the weekend turned out to be busy, I got most of the work on the Kar Duniash pattern Light Cruiser master done, then I assembled another cruiser with minor modifications to make it a Battle Cruiser and finally managed to make a Prow with Torpedo holes in it after numerous failures.

The light cruiser is made of a number of different sub-sections all of which need to be moulded and then cast for production.

• Bridge section, reduced the existing cruiser size bridge area and pulled in the sub domes and created pillars underneath them out of plasticard.
  
• Body, removed and tidied sections of the metal body to fit the new parts better.
  
• Wings, Shortened and cut down to fit to the smaller light cruiser body.
  
• Prow, Socket and plug arrangement to allow different prows (torpedo etc) to be fitted.
  

All of this should allow me to create any of the current light cruiser variants, Endeavour, Endurance, Defiant or Dauntless using magnets if I require.

Here you can see the light cruiser held together by blu-tac and willpower: -

and next to the new Cruiser for contrast.

The light cruiser needs a number of minor changes / additions made, most of it is greenstuff work closing holes and gaps before moulding the parts.

The new Cruiser / Battlecruiser required minor changes, specifically making a turret space on the dorsal line and adding a turret, all that remains is to remove the forward dome on the prow and add a turret there too.

Finally I spent a LONG time working on torpedo tubes for the prow, its not often I show a whole lot of mistakes but I decided to show all the failed attempts. It took ages using a drill set on a low speed to make the distinctive torpedo tubes visible on imperial prow, but I am pleased with the final version which can be seen at the front of the following picture: -

[Hemal]

Looking fantastic Bro A. I would surely be more than happy to play BFG - as long as you are still interested in MoW!!!

[Seahawk]

Nice work. It's kinda like my color scheme, though mine is all drybrushing over black. Enchanted blue, then ice blue. Looking at yours, I might like a wash on my own.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v232/veritas117/ImperialFleet1.jpg

[Brother Argos]

Just grabbed a pic on my iPhone while leaving for work this morning. Almost completed my second cruiser, just got the masts to paint and the dorsal lance turrets to add. I tend to add them last as they get in the way during the rest of the painting/modelling.

Better pictures tonight after the masts are completed!

The light cruisers are waiting on the current mould which is sitting in the pressure vessel at the moment. It has the Torpedo prow, modified Dorsal Lances and a couple of other useful items.

Its quite nice to have a project with a limited scope, I invariably over-reach my available time and take on things like building and casting entire armies (Steel Legion) instead of choosing things I can actually complete.

Its really good to have some friends keeping me focused, thanks Kurgan & Ragnar!

[Gillyfish]

Very nice indeed, I must say (although I have come to expect nothing less!!).

 

One thing that I wonder about is whether the warmth of the gold needs to be balanced out a little more - I find my eyes are drawn directly to the prow, and whilst the gold is repeated elsewhere, I do wonder whether more gold details towards the rear of the ships might not be a goiod idea (although it might look like you have mosques for sensoriums!).

 

This is making me want to dig out and assemble my old fleets!

[Brother Argos]

The gold is doing exactly as I intended.. drawing your eyes to the Prow (the unique feature of the model) .... when the squadron stripes are painted on it will work nicely I hope :P

 

Now go get some models out and paint !!

[Aurelius Rex]

The ships are looking great, Brother Argos, and you seem to be able to paint them really fast too, which is always an important consideration. ;)

 

I have not seen this style of ship before - the Kar Dunaish style, is it? I take it that the prow is a particular feature of this style of ship? It is certainly distinctive, although its lack of a 'border' (for want of a better word) that you would find on the other Imperial cruisers makes me think that the prow looks somehow odd, or unfinished.

 

If this is the characteristic look of the Kar Dunaish style then that is perhaps the point... but it does look somehow 'bare'. The addition of the torpedo tubes did help matters for me, and helped to break up the otherwise large area, as should the squadron markings you mentioned above. :lol:

 

This is however a minor quibble, as overall they are looking great!

[Brother Argos]

Here you go .. the original article from Fanatic Magazine ... still in pre-press state (cut lines etc).

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/argos/BFG/fabimp.pdf

 

The information about the cruiser is on page 4 .. bottom right hand corner.

 

The rule set moved on to become an accepted fleet list approved by the High Admiralty (the rules committee appointed by GW to look after the BFG living rulebook and prepare all errata and FAQ).

 

As you can see from the description in the PDF the Rogue Trader model (found here :- http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/...dId=prod1101889 ) can be used to represent the Kar Duniash pattern of cruisers.

 

I personally suspect they represent a more advanced model of the Imperial Cruisers, they are sleeker, smaller and pack the same punch. In addition they have significant antenna per ship to deal with the much greater range of communications the physically larger Ultima Segmentum requires.

 

It is interesting however, the plain white prow splits most people right down the middle, some love it as clean and sharp, others want more detail to break it up. Odd how something can polarise people so much.

 

I think that with Squadron recognition stripes and torpedoes / nova cannons / rams ... people will find it less .. "Different" ?

[Aurelius Rex]

It may well grow on me. :D It is similar to the marine shoulder pads... the mk V and VI ones just don't look as nice to me as the mk 7 ones with the border, despite me having a fondness for the old RT era beakies in my loft.

 

Those BFG rules you linked had completely passed me by, so thanks for those links to them.

[Captain Idaho]

Dang but I like your paint job there. Are you planning on making a Kar Dunaish style Battle ship? Could be difficult mind, though I'm sure that is just because I have zero modelling/painting skills!

[Brother Argos]

When I have completed the 7 or so ships I initially want (4 cruisers, 3 Light cruisers) ... I might make a battleship

[Brother Argos]

I am looking forward to getting home tonight, the next mould should be finished, it has the torpedo prow, the domed lances and new masts. With these components I should be able to finish off the battle cruiser and remake the body to mean the prow is changeable as required. I have also worked out a way to magnetise the nova cannon / ram as required on the new prows!

With the final components for the cruisers complete I can move on to finishing off the light cruiser, this includes creating multiple prow again, with and without torpedoes. The cut down wings need reinforcing and a socketing arrangement needs to be worked on at the joint into the main body. I also need to work my way around the model using Green Stuff and close up any holes in the joints and make it "mould" safe (reduce undercuts etc). When all of this is done I can start moulding the light cruisers which will have swappable prow (torpedo or not), swappable weapon bays made for a sword class fitting (long and thin), wings and a tidied body.

The new fittings for the weapons can be seen here. ..

[Hemal]

Looking good!

 

What are you going to use for reinforcement? a few spares sculpted on or actually reinforcement within the resin of the moulded pieces?

 

And might I suggest a modified Epic titan weapon for a Nova cannon as a variant for the medium or Grand cruiser prow?

[Brother Argos]

Last night was a good night my new Prow, Domed Lance Turret and Mast mould worked really well.

Here are the new prows, done with different shades of grey resin. As you can see at the back are the new magnetised Nova Cannon and Power Ram, while in the front we have an original prow and a torpedo prow already fitted to the body of the cruiser.

Next up we have the components for the light cruiser almost ready for the moulds. The bridge /dome has been cut down and the two smaller domes moved into the body closer, the underbody section has also been reduced in height to fit better, the wings are cut down (but need building up slightly and a socketing arrangement added) and you can see both the Torpedo Prow (fitted) and the normal Prow, the 2mm dome on top was added using 2mm adhesive gems (you can also see the socket hole at the back of the normal prow). finally there are some fresh out of the mould guns which still need cleaning up!

and assembled

This picture shows the next Cruiser already assembled and waiting to be painted.

Here are the masts and turrets straight out of the moulds, still need tidying up (see its not just Forgeworld that gets flash around their models)

Finally after this Black & White movie presentation I thought we could do with a little colour, here is the finished Battlecruiser with Domed Dorsal Lance Turrets and masts painted. I am really pleased with the result, the domed turrets were cut down Chaos turrets with 1.59mm ball bearings added, they look sleek (being thinner than any other of the plastic turrets) and the domed top fits with the style of the ship nicely.

I just got a deliver this morning of a new resin and silicon rubber from www.tomps.com in preparation for the light cruiser. I have used their silicon rubber before and although it has a short potlife (10 mins) I find it thickens up much quicker than that, so I need to move quickly. Its main advantage is cost, a fairly quick set time

, it handles undercuts well and they do next day delivery!

Tonight will be a green stuff night, finishing off the Light cruiser ready for the weekend.

[Brother Argos]

@ Hemal : I am merely going to use GS and a bit of plasticard to reinforce the wing joint. I was thinking of using the slightly smaller nova cannon and ram from the adeptus mechanicus BFG ships!

[Hemal]

Ok, good stuff. That Battlecruiser is looking exceptional!

[RADU LYKAN]

just want to say good call on using the rogue trader ship as the basis for your fleet. really makes it stand out as something different.

looking forward to the light cruiser, any plans for a kar duniash battleship? :)

[Brother Argos]

Yes if I complete the goal I set for myself ... 4 cruisers ... and 3 light cruisers.

 

Thats stage 1 ... after that .. Kar Duniash escorts and Battleship would be stage 2 ...