[BFG] Battlefleet Maelstrom

[Brother Argos]

Well its been a fun few days working out a plan for the battleship. First thing I did was to cast the new prow in resin so I could make multiple versions, then I have made a rough plan of the various aspects to the Battleship and did some measuring and threw away the plan and started again <laughs>.  Finally now I have a plan for a multi-section model broken down into wings (2 sets one small, one large), weapon bays section, Prow, core body, keel, bridge and finally engines. As the prow is one of the most noticable sections of the Kar Duniash pattern I decided to work on the prow first and have been building the upper structure and some side panel decoration because the prow being bigger has a very "empty" feeling. I plan 4 variants of the prow the first two will have side panels sculpted in green stuff, the next will have some of the rear section of the prow cut away showing the super-structure and finally there will be an attempt at a special version of the "eagle" on the front.

For this stage of the project the aim is plan and build each section starting with the prow and working back.

This morning before dashing out of the door I snapped a couple of shots but forgot to lower the exposure, which is essential with plasticard as the overwhelming whiteness conceals all the detail. I really should ask "Klaus, not Santa" how he sets his camera for all the plasticard models he builds (see Klaus's work here).

So here are the disappointingly hard to see prow shots (I will do some more tonight with better exposure and add them in the next post): -

From the side


From the front


and here is the green stuff sculpt I am working on for the side panels, he represents the faceless faithful who keep the Imperium strong against the Xenos and Traitors



He still needs his hands added, but the hood will remain empty to reprecent the "faceless" masses.

I am quite pleased with the sculpting given the very small scale.

[horizon]

Hi,
I think I am going to add you into the basement. Put some chains on your ankles.

Then just request you to build me such a fleet.



Good work.

[Brother Argos]

Are you sure you don't play DARK eldar ... especially basement and chains stuff <grins>

[horizon]

It is only a thin line between the Eldar.

[Brother Argos]

I recieved a few PM's about the tools I used to do the fine scale sculpting above. I used Perfect Touch tools from: - http://www.perfect-touch.com

They are a specialist sculpting tool company and make a number of small scale tools for sculptors of wax, putty, greenstuff etc. The biggest problem is the cost to be honest, even when I bought my set 8 or 9 years ago they were $180.00 for a set of 10 tools.

You can see the Super Fine Pro Metal tips set that I use below and there is a link to them here: - Super Fine Tool Set





My favourite tool is the bottom one, which is a very small version of the Wax Carver #5, one of the most popular tools used by pro-sculptors.

In addition I use a 3x Optivisor when working on this scale as its the only way to see what you are doing (I have poor eyesight anyway).

I just checked and the current price for the set is around $225.00

[Brother Argos]

A quick update on the Battleship prow, the base outline for the eagle has been done as you can see here: -


I am now going to use a piece of paper to trace the outline of the wing shape from one side and transfer it to the other and repeat it in greenstuff, this will ensure the two sides are basically indentical.


Once the shape is on both sides I will build them up and add more detail including the eagles head which will be made from plasticard with greenstuff details.

On a different track I have been talking to MangoZac from Resin Addicts about his Zeus Light Cruiser and the various problems we both face casting, mouldmaking and scratchbuilding. The concept of making a Kar Duniash version of the Zeus Light cruiser came up during our discussions and as I had a Zeus I thought it would be cool to show you the results so far of the conversion: -



Tomorrow I will add the antenna around the bridge, using short and cut down imperial antenna from my antenna mould. Possibly I will add some wings and remove the side plates and see what that looks like.



It makes for quite a different look of Light cruiser ... but all in all I like it. At the very least its basically unique!

[Brother Argos]

A quick update before bed ... here are a couple of shots of the other side ... you will note the leading edge of the wing hasn't been done yet ... as it is an overlay and requires the green stuff "feathers" to be dry before applying it.



From the "view above" you can see the wing feathers line up and the tracing and marking onto the other side worked and gave me the correct outline.



Just so you know this was two hours of work for something 15mm x 7mm!

This will give me the base for doing the leading edge, which in turn will give me the head of the eagle. Finally the wings will be detailed a bit more to give depth as well as area. Once complete this prow will be ready to be moulded and cast and used as the master for another pair.

[Vaaish]

that works pretty well on those light cruisers I really like the flatter turrets you've got going there.

[Brother Argos]

@ Vaaish : Yes, modifying the turrets was one of the first things I had to do ... the big clunky turrets don't suit the Kar Duniash pattern as well as those sleek ones.

While looking for scratch building inspiration I came across this in my archives. Its a picture of the original Rogue Trader cruiser being built, when I saw this years ago I saved it to my "Inspiration folder", on an interesting note it was Bobby Wong (the Golden Demon Slayer Sword winner who lives in NY) who first turned me on to keeping inspirational images from then net, funnily he had some of my early Salamander sculpts and designs in his inspiration folder.



Some very odd things to note ... Firstly the column between the weapon bays is 180 degrees rotated compared to the final model. The creator has used green stuff completely to build the prow shape and amusingly plastic wings from some other model for the wings. There I am working hard on a new version rebuilding the wings using GS when the scratchbuild used them from something else ... oh the irony.

The rear columns all align perfectly, which they CERTAINLY don't on the final version (blame the caster/moulder for that) .. I also finally understand why the wings vary significantly in detail as they approach the body, the body section was taken in plastic from something else and therefore differs. In addition there is a very small "antenna" for want of a better description that is just behind the prow and that is completely gone on the final.

Great piece of work all told, he uses Green stuff for more than I would naturally but gets nice clean hard edges on his work. Now that I have seen the WIP of this ship I find myself more than ever wanting to complete the Battleship and do justice to the Kar Duniash pattern of ships.

Certainly inspirational!

[Brother Argos]

Tonight's two special words after the postman arrived ... Ninja & Magic ... More later after I have played

[Brother Argos]

When I first began this project I had a number of objectives: -

1. To complete something I had begun, I set myself a target of 4 cruisers and 3 light cruisers, painted and based.
2. To make my army as modular as I could, weapons interchangeable etc.
3. To not let my logging of the project become more important than the project itself (something that happened with my Steel Legion project)
4. To relax and have fun while I was doing it (who would have guessed that sometimes I become a bit overly focused)

Well so far I have achieved the following

1. Not based the cruiser or light cruisers so not finished yet.
2. Modularisation is complete.
3. I managed to make the fleet more important, but funny enough its very easy to slip into "self publishing" instead of modelling.
4. Relaxing and having fun has been achieved, making a BFG fleet and getting some background behind it was very enjoyable.

Hmm that makes 3 out of 4 ?

So why am I not basing my fleet ? ... well to be honest I have been waiting for the arrival of a parcel from the USA. I knew what I wanted and ordered it within a week of starting the project on the 11th last month: -

Ninja Magic Magnetic Adaptors

They sound like something from a bad Hong Kong movie ... but when you look closely they could solve one of the biggest problems I have with BFG ... my bloody ships snapping of the stupid little plastic stands!



You can see above the ship being held upside down ...  so those magnets are strong
You can see the ship detached ... so those magnets are useful
When I saw them release a few years ago I knew that I would have to have them for any space fleet in any game that I did ... because I LOVE magnets!

Well it took 2 weeks and 4 days (see I counted every day) for them to arrive, but today they did!

I have 24 adaptors in total .. and 16 extra of the part which fits into the ship, which lets me field 24 ships out of a potential 40 at any one time.

Lets have a closer look: -



You can see the magnet and "crown" for want of a better word, attached to the underside of one of my cruisers. I already decided to paint the stalks on my bases black so I painted the "crown" black too ... The part that goes into the ship was 3mm in diameter so I used my drill and resized the hole to 3mm for a nice tight fit and used some superglue to hold it in place. I also used the setting time to align the crown so that one of the "indents" pointed forward, as there are 8 "indents" that meant I could use the notches on the crown to rotate my ship in exactly 45 degree steps (quite handy).

Here you can see the same pieces from the side: -



Here is the base with the other part of the magnetic adaptor fitted, note the inverse crown and the hole where the magnet slides into. Together they form a nice tight bond and the ship cannot rotate easily.



Now put the two together and you get: -



I painted the stand black deliberately to hide the fact the adaptor was there, I wasn't sure if it would look "chunky" ... but I think it actually looks good and doesn't stand out in any way. By adding in another adaptor I can also change the height of the model: -



Which is very handy when things get crowded on the board, just lifting up your fleet another 2.5cm gets them clear of the opposition.

Here is a shot showing all the various parts of the Magnetic Adaptors in close up and how they fit together: -



Well as you can do doubt sense by now I am impressed with the product and very happy with my first usage!  ... Now I am going to have to find a way to make my bases "zing", but more on that later!

[Brother Argos]

Yesterday I got some sculpting done on the prows ...

I have smoothed, rounded and added bulk to the wing on the "right" as facing, in addition the second prow received its first layer for what obviously is going to be a fish according to my daughter: -



I have also filled in the leading wing edge on the "left" as facing side, I also



Here you can see the view from the top .. note the longer shadows on the "right as facing" side ... indicating the thicker wings. This added a subconcious unbalancing of the wings from this view, everytime I look at it I want to hurry up and bulk out the other side wings to restore the balance.



Somebody asked about the relative size of the sculpting tools I used, having seen the perfect touch tools photo's ... here is a picture showing the tools in question



On the top is my home made mini-wax carver #5 ... basically metal bashed with a hammer and ground with a grinder, its about 1/10th the size of the the Wax Carver #5 beneath it. finally at the bottom is the Perfect touch tool most like a Wx Carver #5 which is tiny compared to both of them. Each of these tools has a place in my sculpting work depending on the level of detail sought.

Lastly, Horizon, the editor of "Warp Rift" and all round BFG stalwart was curious to see my light cruiser body with the Zeus prow, so here it is: -



 ... I think it looks too stubby! What do you think?

[fracas]

I like how the voss prow hangs over to add a vertical line to the horizontal line of the hull

[Brother Argos]

I added the head to the eagle on the first prow last night, turned out to be a bit fiddly but it worked out ok in the end.

I carved the shape in plasticard and then built up the neck and shoulder area using greenstuff. I find mixed greenstuff/plasticard hard to see clearly in photo's but here it is anyway, when cast into resin and all the same colour it will be seamless. All that remains on prow 1 eagle is two wings on the left facing side need to be filled out and the top edge on both wings added.



I need to do some filing to the back of the head to get the shape right and am waiting on the greenstuff to set hard before doing so.

In addition I added the eagles fan tail on the second prow as well, need to tidy it up but I got the shape right in the end. The rest of the body shape has been roughed out, the wings, chest, feet and head need to be done still .. a long way to go on a more detailed eagle on the second prow.

[Brother Argos]

Well unfortunately I seem to get the same cold / sneezing / coughing that the rest of my family and friends had, so today I spend at home taking it easy in bed.

So most of today's stuff was done yesterday or in about a 1hour window where I did some modelling this morning.

First up I added the top edge to the wing on both sides of the prow so it is now officially completed. I will be moulding it tomorrow along with the superstructure, a turret and a sphere, which will let me use one mould to do the complete prow and all options for that prow. Now this prow (the master) is completed I will move back into the weapons area of the battleship, which will be a LOT less sculpting and a lot more plasticard work (and therefore much faster). I will continue to work on the other prows alongside the main parts of the Battleship, but they are not cruicial..



You will also notice an odd purple ship next to the Prow, this is an out of production Nicassar Dhow for the Tau fleet. I had planned to complete my imperial fleet and then invest in a FW tau fleet as I LOVE the look of their ships and noticed that the Dhow was in the proposed 2010 rules for the Tau and in the Armada book also. When I looked at the cost of buying my fleet I noticed the Dhow was no longer made and could not find them anywhere. Eventually someone on eBay had them so I bought them at the ludicrous price of 7 for £68, which should be more than enough for my needs, I might even sell some of them.



Lastly, have you ever doodled with a pen and paper while thinking ... well last night I was doodling with green stuff while watching Fringe and found that I had come up with something vaguely resembling a cherub, then I had an interesting idea about cherubs! ... so I set about finishing off the cherub, he still isn't done yet but I am getting the feeling of the shape, so will complete him and cast him up for a side project that is also 40k related. Oddly with an unfinished face he almost feels menacing.