Category: Battlefleet Gothic

Completed Project: Strike Cruiser Conversion Kit

Posted by Mangozac on December 29, 2011

I trust everybody had a Merry Christmas! Accompanying the festive break for me is a fortnight of holidays, which has given me some time to get stuck in and finish some projects! The first task is to knock over my pending BFG projects so that I can get back to some 28mm modelling (which I’m really starting to miss).

This is a project I’ve had on the workbench for far too long. It’s something that Vaaish approached me with early this year. The premise was that he wasn’t a big fan of the GW Space Marine Strike Cruiser design. He much preferred the FW Grey Knights Strike Cruiser, not to mention that oddly enough the FW model is half the price of the GW one! The problem with the GK SC is that it has the GK style curved prow and side fins, preventing it from fitting in to the rest of the Space Marine naval aesthetic.

So the plan was to make a new prow and side fins that could be used with either the FW or the GW Strike Cruiser models. Easy huh?

Much of the build process was chronicled in the Resin Addict Forum and yesterday I finally moulded up and cast the finished pieces. It has turned out quite nicely and in an amusing twist it turns out that Vaaish prefers the look of the conversion kit on the GW model rather than the FW one like he had originally planned to outfit his fleet with. Fortunately for him he stumbled across a glut of GW strike cruiser models for a very keen price somewhere online!

As always feedback is welcome. Enjoy!

Completed: Zeus Destroyer Commission

Posted by Mangozac on October 1, 2011

Well it’s all done! The master model was completed and moulded this morning, and I’m already pumping out the bunch of copies required for the commission. For best results casting (and to prevent having any gates damaging details) I decided to break the model into two pieces, with the prow and hull separate. Add the two turrets and that makes it a four piece model. I went with the usual single part split mould for this one, with all of the parts together on one tiny sprue. There’s actually more resin used up in the sprue block than there is in the model itself!

Overall the project has turned out fantastically, and certainly gives me the motivation I’ll need to do a Frigate sized variant for the same client later…

BFG Commission: Zeus Destroyer (Part I)

Posted by Mangozac on September 28, 2011

Hey guys,

I’m about 75% through a commission build and thought I’d share. It’s a torpedo destroyer in the same style as the other Zeus prows and ships I have done, as a commission for a client in the UK. He’s wanting quite a few of them so I’ll be casting them up. The model itself is quite tiny at only 30mm long, but has a very high level of detailing.

The photo quality is really ordinary, simply because it’s so hard to photograph styrene, and confounded by the fact that the camera is struggling to do macro shots this close. Note also that the prow is stuck on with blu-tack for the photos – once I finish this post I’ll start work sculpting the eagle figure head.

I at first had planned to have the side fins oriented horizontally, however both the client and I agreed that vertical looked cooler ;)


Enjoy!

WIP: Exorcist Grand Cruiser

Posted by Mangozac on August 29, 2011

Hi guys, been busy with Real Life stuff, but wanted to post a quick update on a project I’ve been slowly working on in between other projects. It’s my take on an Imperial Exorcist Grand Cruiser. I don’t like the official Imperial GC model so I felt compelled to make my own from a Chaos cruiser I had, mashed up with some Imperial launch bays and a custom prow.

I’ve just got the one pic for now, and don’t hold your breath for fast progress!

Oh, and ignore the fin underneath the prow. It’s just a placeholder for a more aptly shaped fin…

Admech Spear Prow: Complete!

Posted by Mangozac on August 16, 2011

Well it’s all done – the Spear Prows are complete and I started fitting the casts to some cruisers:

They turned out quite nicely and I feel give a bit more of a regal feel to the Admech cruiser design. As you can see the Admech cruiser has been primed grey so the next step is to do some painting – I’ll likely go for a grey and red scheme along similar lines as the official GW pics…

With this project out of the way it’s time to move on to the next one; and of course it’s another BFG related project!

Personal Project: BFG Fuel Transport

Posted by Mangozac on August 7, 2011

The now out of production BFG Imperial freighters are in my opinion some of the most characterful ships available for Battlefleet Gothic. Don’t ask me why; I just feel that they are! I recently picked some up and since there’s only really two base models, I decided to make a third one: a fuel transport. Yes, I am aware that Heavy Fuel Transports are available from Forge World, however they are a bit bigger and I just didn’t like the look of them. Or maybe I’m just a hobby masochist – I wanted to do a conversion!

So I moulded one of the stock transports, made a resin copy and then proceeded to chop out the centre section. After a little bit of cleanup it was ready to have a fuel tank installed. The main tank was made from a piece of styrene tube which had its ends capped with 1mm styrene sheet. I used my lathe to turn it into a perfect cylinder before chamfering the ends. The ribs were added using some thin styrene strip and the details along the bottom from small diameter styrene rod.

I had planned to either cut or pressmould the aquilas from something like a Space Marine bolter but since I’ve long since cleaned out any such marine stuff I had I couldn’t actually find any! I could have scabbed some of a friend but I wanted to get the project finished this weekend, so I sculpted them myself. It would have been nicer to sculpt one and then pressmould a duplicate from it, but alas that would also have taken more time so the two aquilas (one on each side) are slightly different in size.

All in all it turned out very nicely indeed. I’ll cast up a couple more and then all I need is to actually get some games of BFG that use transports in!

Admech Spear Prows: Almost Done!

Posted by Mangozac on August 2, 2011

Some more quick snaps for tonight, as things are still pretty crazy busy for me at the moment. I finally got the Spear Prows completed and cast up, these pictures are of the first casts. When I get a chance I’ll set up the Admech cruiser properly and actually glue a prow in place, and then give it a prime so that the final result is a little easier to visualise. I’ll mount one to a standard Imperial cruiser too to show how it looks.

Here’s the pics – sorry for the crappy quality. Stay tuned for more!

BFG Admech Spear Prow Part III

Posted by Mangozac on July 6, 2011

Another quick update on the Spear prow project. I’ve done a fair bit of work on the Nova Cannon variant, but it still needs some further fine detailing, such as some power conduits and extra nubbins on the forward facing antenna masts to make them look less like power rams!

Ramilies Star Fort Part III

Posted by Mangozac on July 3, 2011

OK so after a lot of agitation and frustration I finally got my Ramilies assembled. Honestly it was more hassle in its worth and I’m left with a far less than perfect model. In order to get the four quadrants to align what I ended up doing was to glue two quadrants to a single pier and then place the single flat edge down on a belt dander until it was somewhat flat. This was performed for the opposite side quadrants too and then the whole lot glued together after adjusting fitment to the final two piers with a knife.

The centre towers and upper halls went on easily enough, but some sanding of the halls was required to fit them in between parts of the quadrants.

The next step will be painting and honestly I feel that to be a little daunting. I’ll probably paint it in the same base colour as the rest of my fleet (a sandy colour) so it will end up very similar to the one on the FW site. The pier roofs I will paint black. For the main colouring I figure I’ll break out my new dual action airbrush (it’s only a cheapie no-name so don’t get too excited) to make things quicker. Probably undercoat black. Basecoat brown, main coat tan and then a brown wash brushed on. Finish up with a tan drybrush and then a light bone drybrush. The big trick will be easily painting the roofs without getting the dark paint on adjacent areas…

Anyway I won’t be getting around to painting for a while so in the meantime enjoy some pics of the assembled Ramilies!

BFG Admech Spear Prow Part II

Posted by Mangozac on June 28, 2011

Just a quick update for tonight: I’ve finished the first variant of the spear prow. This is the torpedo tube version: the starboard side has three tubes aligned vertically while the port side is adorned with an array of sensors and scanners as one would expect to find on an vessel of the machine god.

Next up will be a lance version, although I haven’t quite worked out how to execute it! On second thoughts maybe the Nova Cannon variant will be easier…