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: -



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: -

Not too shabby! I have a couple of suggestions on them though. First would be to shade the white prow. It could be the photo (and white is tough to photograph), but it would help if you built up to white as you went forward or added some kind of simple embellishment to the white to break it up.

Second I've always thought those wings at the back were a bit wide but I think it's mostly due to how thin they are. Perhaps bulking them up slightly with a turret on them or some such structure would help?

_________________
-Vaaish

Thanks for taking the time to give advice

I specifically under-exposed the shot to get the background to work well with the white prow, I wanted to get a rich clipped shadows feeling. I am aiming for a certain purity on the prow as it currently stands, the solid block of white offsets nicely against the chosen blue, a contrast I was seeking (similar to that found with the Gothic fleet colours). Of course as the fleet grows I plan to add fleet markings and most probably then I will choose to add a series of red stripes to donate squadrons. One other thing that will change will be the next resin version having prow torpedoes.

It is interesting that people perceive different things about models, for me the slender nature of the Kar Duniash pattern works well with the size and density of the wings. If you comparison them to the regular cruisers, the normal cruisers for me start to feel chunky and the prow stubby. But this merely serves to emphasize the difference between the two patterns of cruiser.

They look lovely, nice unique idea.

What arangement will you be using for the torpedo tubes? The same style as the normal gothic cruisers or something new? I'd hate to cut into that smooth prow unless I knew the end result would look good.

This looks great! I like how you have thought about the background and how you have a great overall theme to your fleet. I can't wait to see all the ships when you are all done, because I think this will be one of the most unique and striking fleets out there. While I like your wings they way they are, I have to admit I agree with vaaish's feedback about the white prow. If you wish to keep it "pure" as you have suggested, perhaps add some more white near the back of the ship. For example, perhaps a large white stripe running along each wing. I think this may give your beautiful ship an excellent final touch.

Great work,
CF

As said, great work. Love the prows.

_________________
Light at the Horizon.

Warp Rift
Project Distant Darkness
Eldar MMS

GothiComp Hall of Fame
http://www.tacticalwargames.net/taccmd/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=19176

Nice models and a good fleet concept. I hope IA9 from forgeworld has some bfg scenarios for you to try them in. Alan Bligh hinted that there may be at this years open day.

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: -

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!

Excellent work.

_________________
Light at the Horizon.

Warp Rift
Project Distant Darkness
Eldar MMS

GothiComp Hall of Fame
http://www.tacticalwargames.net/taccmd/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=19176

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. ..

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.

Awesome.

Why did you give the Gothic a dorsal lance? Ruleswise I mean...


Dang,
zeus class
these prows...
..the other things...

community is cool.

_________________
Light at the Horizon.

Warp Rift
Project Distant Darkness
Eldar MMS

GothiComp Hall of Fame
http://www.tacticalwargames.net/taccmd/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=19176

<laughs> Thats my fault, I just grabbed some painted magnetised weapons from the storage box and shoved them in the sockets for the picture. To be honest the weapon sockets would have rules legal weapons if I was preparing for a game, most likely I would make it a Mars class. However with the prow and weapons all magnetised, I can change almost all my ships to any configuration.

At the moment for any ship I can choose either a battle-cruiser or normal cruiser body ... and then go on to fit a normal or torpedo prow ... followed by a Power Ram or Nova Cannon ... and then finally any of the three types of weapon in any slot. If I get myself motivated I could make a universal cruiser body, with magnetised dorsal lances which can swap out of domes, but I wonder if that isn't going a bit too far.

As for community ... its people like you producing and writing articles for warp rift that keep this part of the hobby alive and interesting.

Part of me is still interested in doing an endeavour prow .. but I want to get this stuff out of the way first.

These are looking really good, makes me want to nag people at my local club to get their bfg stuff out again.

Any plans to attempt a battleship or escorts with a similar theme? With the cast cruiser bits I imagine it might be possible to convert a battleship to a similar style.