Clearing out the last of BFG

I've completed all the models I have for Battlefleet Gothic! These include some fighters / bombers, a space station, 4 defense platforms and 2 space marine strike cruisers from Shapeways. I also completed the 2 leftover transports from JohnC. The strike cruisers are noticeably different sizes and come from two different 3D print files. The smaller one has much more detail than the larger, but is a bit small compared to the other ships. I guess the Forgeworld it was built at uses metric.

Now I just need to put on a few games! Thanks for visiting.

August Projects

It's been a few weeks since anything's been posted, which is failry typical of August. I haven't been idle however and I wanted to show some of the things I've completed / been working on. First up is the Arachnus Heavy Lascannon Bettery for the Deredeo Dreadnough for 30k. Greg was kind enough to entrust me with his 30k Alpha Legion prior to his move to Toronto. This included a Deredeo Dreadnought with weapon arms fully magnetized! I decided to up gun the dread and picked up the heavy lascannon battery from Forge World. It's a higher strength lascannon for taking on pesky loyalist tanks, which my Imperial Fists have a few of. The magnets lined up failry well and my paint job blends in ok with Greg's I think.

Next up is a Land Raider conversion I built for a yet specified 30k legion. The kit is the standard Land Raider from GW. The tracks, side sponsons and top plate are from Blood & skulls Industry. The kit serves as a replacement for the top hull plate and tracks of the land raider to make it fit with the 30k vehicle asthetic. It's well thought out and mostly fits together smoothly with the plastic kit. The only issue I ran into was that the wrap arount tracks left a space that was too narrow to fill with a single link of the tracks. I had to shave down two track pieces to make them fit. It came out fairly well and you can't really tell the difference. It should be noted that this is not a "cheaper" option unless you already have a land raider sitting around. It is cool though and worth getting if you feel comfortable sorting out the track issue. Don't expect this to be painted in the near future, I just wanted to show off the build!

In non-GW gaming, I picked up Stargrave when it came out and it's got me raiding my bitz box and pile of shame for appropriate figures for crew and creatures. I located a suitable figure to represent a bounty hunter who periodically appears during a game and hunts one of your crew. The model is from Copplestone Castings.

Finally, I completed a bunch more Battle Fleet Gothic stuff. I have two more cruisers and a squadron of frigates from Vanguard Miniatures for my Imperial Fleet. These are resin and require very little cleanup. I really like his stuff and I hope he branches off into chaos stuff at some point. I also received a bunch of ships from fellow conscript, John C. He had a bunch of models from the predecessor of BFG, Spacefleet. They're solid peweter and placing them on a plastic flight stand was a bit tricky. I have no idea how long these models languished on John's shelf, but BFG was new when I was in High School and Spacefleet was before that, so long enough I guess. I painted them up so quickly that I forgot two of them on my shelf! I refuse to let them linger for another 20+ years and promise to paint them ASAP. These ships will be used as transports and troop carriers for BFG games.

Well that's it for summer 2021! They don't last long in Canada and I can already feel the chill in the air. Hope everyone stays healthy and hopefully we can game this fall/winter.

Battlefleet Gothic Ordnance and Light Cruiser

I finished a set of ordnance markers for Battlefleet Gothic. In the game there is an entire phase dedicated to launching torpedoes, breaching pods, fighters, bombers and for space marines, Thunderhawk gunships. These allow you to land spacemarines on enemy ships and they proceed to wreak havoc all over the ship. All the models are from Vanguard Miniatures cast in pewter and they have excellent detail. I especially like the not-thunderhawks. I also added a light cruiser to the Imperial fleet. The model is also from Vanguard and comes with various weapon options including gun batteries, lances and fighter hangers. I magnetized for maximum customization!

I have plans to paint up some more fighter and bomber stands and add a 2nd strike cruiser to the space marine fleet. Thanks for visiting!

Battlefleet Gothic Game

 On Monday I had a friend over and I put on a Battlelfeet Gothic game. It's an old game that hasn't been supported by GW for over a decade. At the start of the pandemic I had bought a bunch of 3rd party ships to represent forces of the Space Marines and Imperial Navy to represent conflict during the Badab War. the game included 3 Imperial Cruisers against 3 light cruisers, 3 escorts and 1 space marine strike cruiser.

The Imperial Fleet started off by launching some torpedoes. The range was too far and they ended up flying off into space.

 

 

The space marine cobras launched torpedoes as well. Some of these managed to land a few hits resulting in further damage to an Imperial Cruiser which was already damaged form some weapon battery fire.

 

Further damage to the Imperial Fleet.

The space marine strike cruiser took a few turns to get into position, but once it did, it started taking a toll on the Imperial Ships. It launched some thunderhawk gunships which delivered a squad of space marines to the ship who proceeded to light fires and destroy my Port weapon batteries. By this point I was able to destroy on space marine light cruiser and a single cobra destroyer.

We danced around each other a bit and tried to avoid the ever expanding blast markers from the  damaged Imperial ships

The Imperial Cruisers finally got into position to rake the strike cruiser with lance and battery fire, but dismal dice rolling on my part resulted in only one shield being hit.

The return fire from the strike cruiser was devastating with the bombardment cannon scoring several critical hits resulting in fires throughout the ship and a destroyed bridge. Only one hull point remained, which was probably going to be lost to the fire.

My second cruiser fared little better and was bombarded by torpedoes from behind, resulting in massive damage.

My final functioning cruiser was hit in the side by the remaining space marine cobras who managed to let off a torpedo barrage which crippled the ship. With all 3 cruisers crippled and facing destruction, I conceded the game. 

Thanks for visiting.

More ships for the Executioners

 I posted some ships I painted for Battle fleet Gothic back in October. One of the fleets belonged to the Executioners Space Marine Chapter during the Badab War. In the background, the Executioners had a seized (stolen) cruiser called the "Night Hag." It's described as having an assortment of weapons including lance batteries, launch bays and Macrocannons! Whatever those are. I found an interesting model on Shapeways that had a fairly unique, yet still Imperial look. It also had this weird cannon on top of it. I also ordered a Strike Cruiser to make the fleet look more space marine-y. Once arrived I added a set of lance batteries to the Night Hag and painted it up using the blue gunmetal color scheme I used for the other ones. The chapter insignia was again borrowed from the double axe transfer from Imperial Fist Forgeworld transfer sheet.For rules I will probably make it one of the battleships from the Armada expansion. Rumors that GW may relaunch BFG may rendered my efforts here obsolete. It's definitely a game I would purchase despite what I'm sure will be at an eye-watering price. Hopefully they don't change the scale too much.

I have two fleets now and had anticipated that we would be playing games soon. However, Winnipeg is now now entering a second lockdown and authorities are promising to take a hard line on violators of the Public Health order. With news that the virus is surging all over Europe and North America, I am not hopeful that we will be gaming any time soon. In the meantime, I'll keep plugging away at my stockpile of models in anticipation of the day we can resume in person gaming.

The Night Hag - 3D printed

I love how it's absolutely covered in guns!

3D printed Space Marine Strike Cruiser

Battle Fleet Gothic

 When I was in high school, Games Workshop released Battlefleet Gothic. A friend and I went in on the box together. He kept the rules while I took the Imperial and Chaos ships. He ended up buying an Eldar fleet which resulted in all our games being one sided affairs and we soon abandoned the game and moved on. The two fleets I had, were cannibalized for conversions and ultimately went missing during one of my many moves between home and University. It has only been in the last few years of searching Ebay that I learned to appreciate how stupid I was for squandering those models. Oh well, if that's the stupidest thing of done, I guess I'm in good shape. However, nostalgia for the game persisted and after locating a digital copy of both the rules and Armada expansion I decided to "acquire" a few fleets. I found the Litko made the necessary templates and counters while the order dice used in BFG are nearly identical to Adeptus Titanicus.

Ships were obviously the hardest part since GW hasn't supported the game in years and Ebay is charging a fortune. Luckily, others have stepped in to fill the void. Many of the ships I purchased were from Vanguard Miniatures in the UK. They make great looking Imperial proxies complete with side mounted batteries and launch bays. I decided to make a Space Marine chapter fleet and Imperial Navy fleet. The chapter would be the Executioners who were on the side of the secessionists in the Badab War. During the conflict they specialized in attacks on Imperial shipping and used a modified cruiser named the Night Hag as their flag ship. The Imperials would represent Battlefleet Solar. 

For the more iconic ships like the Battlebarge and Retribution Battleship, I went with Shapeways. I'll rank those models as fair. They won't win any awards, but they're fine as game pieces. Here are some photos of the fleets. I still have two ships to go for the Executioners including the Night Hag!

Yet another gaming option once gaming resumes.

Shapeways Battlebarge

Vanguard Miniatures gothic ships

Vanguard Helian Dreadnought

Good proxy for a Mars Battlecruiser

Shapeways Retribution Battle Ship

Painting Challenge Theme Entry - 30k Frigate "Eisenstein"

Another Bonus Theme Entry for Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.  This theme was "nautical" - and while it is not as odd as "l'amour" or as painful as "defensive terrain", "nautical" is still an area I avoid.  In fact, the one thing I am less motivated to paint than terrain is nautical stuff.  Nothing against it - ship games are awesome! Just not my cup of tea.  These bonus themes are open to wide interpretation, however, and so I thought I might be able to tie "nautical" to one area where I do pick up the brushes - 30k, and space gaming!

We all have models that languish in the "pending stage" - or at least I like to say we all do, so I don't feel like such a dunce about my own hoard - but this model was particularly patient - it has been waiting for six years!  Oh well, at least I got to it eventually.

So here is the frigate "Eisenstein", painted in the colours of the Death Guard. Horus Heresy fans will recall that one of the things that made the Space Marine Legions so scary was that - in addition to their massive size, terrifying weapons and primarch leaders - they had their own war fleets! A ship like the "Eisenstein" hardly stands out in the Legion war fleets, packed as they were with scary capital ships - but the "Eisenstein" is notorious in that it was the vessel seized by loyalists who escaped Horus' fleet at Istvaan to raise the alarm about the Heresy.

In fact, as GW has started to mine the Heresy story more and more over the years, a novel was even published about the Eisenstein's escape:

Of course, there is no actual model for the "Eisenstein" or any other 30k era ships.  This model is, I believe, a "system monitor" from GW's vanished "Battlefleet Gothic" game.  Of course, I hope this model shows there is no reason some selective painting cannot be employed to create 30k-era fleet engagements with Battlefleet Gothic models. 

While I'm not about to launch on a project connected to this right away, I have managed to source a few old cruisers which I hope to paint in Legion colours, to keep my ambition/dream of one day running a series of linked games which begin with a fleet engagement, move to a game of Epic, and finish with a game of 28mm 30k...one day perhaps.  A single escort-sized model for Battlefleet Gothic hardly took any time to paint, but I'm too locked into "Team Yankee", Epic 30k and 28mm 30k to divert into a bunch of Gothic ships for now.  But sometime...
 

There is one theme round left in the Challenge - "Gambler/Risk Taker".  If I can make that round too, I will have managed to get something submitted for all of the Bonus Themes this year, which will be a first for me - and a surprise, as I had expected I would end up missing nearly all of them.  But I haven't accomplished anything yet - I do have some models lined up for that last bonus theme - just need to get them painted in time.
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Be sure to check out the excellent submission by Byron as well - some Langton Napoleonic-era sailing ships - incredible stuff.  I hope he will post them here on the Fawcett Blog, but you can go see (and vote for) them now at this link.  Incredible work Byron!