Contrador, missing link from Imperial battleship to Space Marine battle barge?

[timdp]

Is the Contrador battle barge from Extermination the missing link between the transition from Imperial battleship to Space Marine battle barge?

I think there is an imperial battleship hiding under that Contrador battle barge...

Rear fins: Similar in configuration to a Retribution Battleship. No evidence of Space Marine BB style engines hanging down below the hull, so the engines have to be hidden behind the fins, presumably in a battleship configuration.

Battleship style "wings" and side hull: There are battleship style wings attached to the bottom of the hull just forward of the fins. They are a little further back than a battleship's wings. The side of the hull above the wings is very similar to the side hull of a battleship. I assume that the three black holes are launch bays.

Battleship prow: Behind the battle barge side fins at the prow, you can see the faint profile of a battleship prow with torpedo tubes. Given the battleship prow and HUGE gun mounted on it, there appears to be be no room for launch bays in the prow, hence the launch bays further back in the hull.

Weapons configuration: The monster bombardment cannon weapons bays are sized and set up more like battleship bays than battle barge weapons.

[Gothmog Lord of Balrogs]

Close, it could be, though it REALLY brings the Artist's knowledge of BFG into question when the Bombardment cannon of the Contrador is as large as his "constant scale" cobra... oh, and is missing from the Iron Blood

[timdp]

Close, it could be, though it REALLY brings the Artist's knowledge of BFG into question when the Bombardment cannon of the Contrador is as large as his "constant scale" cobra... oh, and is missing from the Iron Blood

Mr. "constant scale Cobra" needs to be about 50% larger to be in scale with the other ships.


From my post:
"Weapons configuration: The monster bombardment cannon weapons bays are sized and set up more like battleship bays than battle barge weapons."

For some reason I always think the side guns on the battle barges should be bombardment cannons too, so my statement above is technically in error.

That said, shouldn't the Space Marine BB side weapons be bombardment cannons? They are much larger than normal weapons battery cannons (5 of them in the space of 8 normal weapons battery cannons). The side cannons on the Contrador and Iron Blood are much larger than even the side cannons on the Space Marine BB. How can they NOT be bombardment cannons? This would resolve the Iron Blood's lack of bombardment cannons as well.

[timdp]

Found another bit of text in Extermination just above the ship list. I guess the bit in bold clarifies that  M41 style battle barges did exist during the Heresy.

"Battleships or Battle Barges
Battleships are the principal/capital class of warship in the Armada Imperialis
Range 8-12 km in length, though some were constructed far larger.
Battle Barges are any variant or retrofit of Battleship class hulls modified and optimized for use by the Legiones Astartes specifically for Space Marine planetary assault and ship-to-ship boarding actions.
Purpose-built Battle Barges have also been constructed, particularly in the Great Crusade’s later years.
In common parlance, any capital class vessel used by the Legiones Astartes exclusively is often referred to as a Battle Barge regardless of the technical truth of the matter."