Hello folks
after months and months of doing nothing but 40k stuff I wanted a break, so decided now would be the time to do some BFG fleets - somthing I've wanted to do for years, but never got round to!
I'm kind of making two fleets in tandem: the first is the fleet that ties in with my 40k Chaos Space Marine army, the
Legion of Taurus. I've been working at this army for almost two years and have developed extensive background for them - if you feel the need to delve in to it, I recommend checking out the project log I've done for them on
Bolter and Chainsword.
The way that this background relates to the fleet I'm building, without going in to too much detail at the moment, is that it consists of vessels that were formerly Imperial vessels, or have been captured from the Imperium, Rogue Traders, merchants, etc.
Their tactics have been to ambush Imperial or merchant patrols and fleets, then to capture their enemy. Two of the cruisers I've converted below have been made to reflect this.
To start with though, I just made a couple of standard Chaos cruisers - a Slaughter (which has Mark of Khorne) and a Carnage (which will have Mark of Nurgle - just need to 'scroffulate' it up with some GS
)
Now, to fit with the back ground of this Chaos fleet, which is made up of captured Imperial, merchant and Rogue Trader vessels, I've converted some more that I've aimed to look somewhere between Chaos & Imperial vessels. These ones were captured directly from Battlefleet Odothese, a loss the Imperials are still bitter about! They've been retrofitted and corrupted somewhat though by the forces of Chaos... One will count as a Devestation, the other a Murder:
Because I've used upside down Chaos Cruisers as the bulk of these conversions, there's some detail that needs covering over - I've been cutting up bits of left over Imperial cruiser, but there'll be some GS work to do to tidy them up:
Here's a couple of comparison shots between these conversions and the standard cruisers - as you can see they are shorter, but I think it makes them look inoccuous somehow, more like merchant vessels than warships, which I think fits the MO of the Legion of Taurus' fleets, wich are about laying ambushes and setting traps for fool-hardy Imperial Naval Captains
Finally, here's the flag ship of the Fleet, another conversion. It'll count as another Devestation, but in terms of background, it was originally a Strike Cruiser of the Astral Sharks Space Marine Chapter - I've tried to allude to it once being this in certain elements of its shape, but obviously it's been retro-fitted and corrupted in to something else over two millennia... I've no names as yet, but I refer to this one as the 'Predator', asn I think it looks quite shark-like:
Profile shot, and some comparison shots - although shorter again, I think it looks imposing enough against the normal cruisers:
Still some work to do on these. When they're done and painted, I'm going to work on some escorts, about a dozen, a mix of Infidels and Iconoclasts. For the most part these will be scratch-built, once again to capture the 'rag-tag' feel of the fleet being made up of captured vessels.
Whilst I've been doing these, I've started work on a much more straight forward Imperial fleet, representing a patrol group of Battlefleet Odothese. It'll be 1,000 points, 3 cruisers and 8 escorts. Here are the cruisers, pretty standard - 2 Lunars and a Mars:
I also have a Retribution and a couple more escorts, so I can take this fleet up to 1,500 points if I wish.
Anyway, that's the start, I hope to crack on and get these done over the next couple of months. More pics soon, thanks for looking!
I've slowly been chipping away at these Chaos cruisers, I'm calling it a do on the 'Predator' conversion:
