More BFG?!? Strike Cruiser Conversion

[mangozac]

I promise I'm going to get back to some 28mm scratchbuilding soon. I just have to get all of these BFG projects out of the way. Also, BFG scratchbuilding it much easier: for the most part it's just cutting and gluing styrene strip. 28mm requires much more sculpting...

Anyway 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 design. He much preferred the , 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?

Vaaish flexed his fingers and drew up an awesome 3D blender model from me to work from. The model was so impressive that I asked him why he doesn't just get it 3D printed, however he informed me that it was unsuitable for a number of reasons.

Anyway on to the pictures!

First up we have the composite pictures with the 3D model superimposed alongside pictures of the FW strike cruiser:

Next are shots of the prow progress in styrene. After I showed these shots to Vaaish it was evident that the prow was too tall and didn't look right.

I partially disassembled it and removed some height from the fins, however this still wasn't enough, and left me with the vertical half of the fins far too tall. On these last two pics the pencil line indicated where the angled wing section starts.

SC_prow_4.JPG (23.08 KiB) Viewed 21631 times

So I cut my losses and took to it with a saw! I removed about a 2mm horizontal slice from the centre of the piece, sanded the cut smooth and glue it all back together with a 0.25mm strip inbetween:

SC_prow_6.JPG (22.67 KiB) Viewed 21631 times

And that puts you up to speed. The fins shape is almost done - it just needs a little finessing
I then just need to fill a few spots with Milliput and then I can continue onto detailing - adding all of the little antennae and banding to the design.

As always, comments are appreciated

[Seb]

Man, class work as ever. Agree with the revisions too.

Is there thought to altering the bridge section? It clearly has that Inquisitorial =I= iconography going on.

Other than that, liking the work alot, be interesting to see the outer section detailing.

[Vaaish]

That seems to be working out quite a bit better Any chance of seeing the prow on the SC since that'll be the proof of the proportions?

On the GW SC, I should be sending out the GW SC this monday which should help out with the testing on that end. You're almost ready for me to start in on the side fins too! I'm thinking something along the same lines as the horizontal FW orientation might work out pretty well on both of the SC.

I don't think we'd planned on doing anything with the bridge. It's pretty simple to just cut down the top or otherwise adjust it to remove the "I" symbology. What HAS been talked about are various plugs that can fit into the launch bay part of the prow to turn it into the other two variants from the 2010 FAQ. (we need to talk about this soon. There might be some snags on the GW end).

I hear you on the 28mm stuff. I've actually been pretty busy on that front myself. Xeones got me the Techmarine and servitor set for being in his wedding a couple years back and I've been working to get the techmarine painted up. I think you may see it tomorrow evening after three weeks of painting due to all the tiny details all over the model. It's been fun though and a welcome break from 6mm and battletech.

[Arkangel]

Zac, mate, seriously... You got to stop producing all this cool stuff I don't even play BFG and now because of you I gave a growing Imperial/space marine fleet!!
Great work mate

[mangozac]

Vaaish, yeah I'll post some pics of it attached to the hull tonight. I wanted to wait until I'd done some more cleaning up first

I wasn't too concerned with the I bridge, since a) it looks kind of cool and b) the cast is so bad that all of the finer detail on the front of it is practically nonexistent. I actually contemplated rebuilding the sections of the model that were badly miscast and then recasting the whole thing, but I decided I've got more important things to do! And in any case Vaaish scored a heap of GW SCs for cheap, so he'll be converting them with this prow anyway.

Can't wait to see the technmarine, et al!

Ark: I take that as the highest form of praise. "I don't need this stuff but want them out of sheer awesomeness"

[mangozac]

OK Vaaish, here's a shot of the modified prow attached to the GK SC hull. I think it's great and with the side fins eventually added to the rear of the hull it should be spot on

[Vaaish]

Thanks. That version looks FAR better proportioned than the earlier one. I look forward to seeing the rest of the detailing. I sent off the GW SC today so it should show up in a week or two.

[mangozac]

Great thanks mate. Yeah I have to keep looking at that original pic to realise just how much I chopped out of the centre!

[mangozac]

OK so after a MONTH in the post one of the GW metal Strike Cruisers Vaaish sent me arrived. It was still mint in its blister (I believe Vaaish scored a bunch of them on ebay for a steal) with the price tag still on it - only 5 pounds! IIRC they cost many times that now!

So the next step is to start work on the rear of the prow and where it will join on to the Strike Cruiser hull. I want to make sure it will suit both the GW and FW ships and fortunately I can't see any issues with doing so.

First pic is primarily comparing the sizes of the two ships. Although the FW one is only slightly shorter, overall it has a much smaller volume.

This pic is to show how the "complete" GW model looks with the new prow:

And finally two shots comparing the stock and new prows:

Any comments? After seeing the size of that huge cannon which hangs off the bottom of the GW prow we might have to do something similar on the new one. Note quite so enormous though....

[Vaaish]

That actually looks pretty good on the front of the GW one. Better than the FW one even. That large protrusion on the front of the GW prow is actually an antenna array of some kind, not a cannon. I think I added something similar to the underside of the 3d model I sent you but I can't find the file to check.

The prow itself is pretty sweet looking with the detail you've got on there right now. I think it'll look even better once the turret is in place and the plugs for the alternate weapons are done

What are your thoughts on the horizontal fins at the rear? is there a difference in the way the FW and GW ones attach?

[mangozac]

Yeah I like it too!

That antenna is way too large and cannon looking to be an antenna IMO. You did put the antennae on the front of the new prow design so we'll run with that.

I feel like we're going to need a small keel fin or something protruding down from the rear of the prow to help balance the side profile. I'll mock something up and post it. When you get a chance do you want to do a quick sketch of your idea for the weapons plugs?

The rear side fins are quite different between the two: the FW ones are horizontally oriented, whereas the GW ones are vertical. Additionally, the FW ones have a small piece of heavily detailed wing (with protruding antennae) attached to the inside of them. But I guess there's no reason why we can't make the fins with them - they will just add extra stuff to the GW model

I did start on the rear of the prow last night and when attaching to either model a small amount of the connecting nubs will have to be filed off (the FW made thinner and the GW one made shorter). This is so that the prow can fit both models.

Looking forward to getting this project done (it's been sitting on my workbench for so long!)...

[Vaaish]

Hmm... I'm not entirely sure a keel fin will be needed once the structure on the underside for the antenna is in place. That should drop a bit lower and break up the area. Could even add on some of the Imperial approved spikey bits like on the Zeus stuff if it needs to go down further.

I'll see about getting the plugs done tomorrow they won't be that complicated since the torpedo one basically amounts to a cap over the launch bay with 6 holes drilled into it to show the torpedo tubes and the bombardment cannon one basically has 5 cannon barrels mounted there.

The sketches Xeones showed me this morning for the fins on the side mirror some of the angles on the prow. Hopefully I can prod him into putting them up soon

[mangozac]

I should clarify that the idea for the keel fin I had was very small. Like only protruding 1-2mm. Otherwise like you say some simple stubby masts or spiky bits protruding down might be the solution. I might try both tonight and see what they look like. According to your 3D sketch the forward facing antenna array doesn't actually protrude downwards any further. I should take a pic of the underside for you to show what's going on

I just wanted to check that the plugs were what I thought and it sounds like they are. In which case don't stress about sketching anything unless you have a particular design in mind of the bombardment cannon.

Hurry up Xeones we want to see the sketches!

[Xeones]

[mangozac]

Very nice work! Your skills with Sketchup blow me away, since every time I've tried to use it I had the implicit urge to stab somebody in the eye. That's why for the safety of everyone around me I went and bought Rhino

The first of the two designs floats my boat. IMO the second one deviates a little too far from the Marine warship aesthetic with that angled fin poking out. I'm a big far of the little dome-y pieces poking up from the angled section.

It's full steam ahead then!