Imperial Fleet Grows

So some of the Sorylians that I ordered have arrived, so I spent part of the afternoon with some simple converting.  It's been fun seeing the fleet slowly take shape and I need to talk Neverness into a game here in the near future so I can start trying them out.

First up are the pair of Retribution-class Battleships.  On the left is the Sturmswalbe under the command of Captain Oliver Prescott and on the right is the Queen's Gambit under Captain Ian Marlowe.  The Sturmswalbe is the flagship of Rear Admiral Piotr Vaeltun who is one of the Sector Fleet Battlegroup Commanders.

Next is the quartet of Avenger-class Grand Cruisers.  Going from left to right, we have the Albatross commanded by Captain Lloyd Callahan, Kirov under Captain Anthony Villers, Warrior Code under Captain Joachim Belliard, and the Bellepheron under Captain Duncan Tellermann.

Now we finally get to some escort class vessels.  We have the (again from left to right) five Endeavor-class Light Cruisers.  These are the Flintlock, Hauberk, Vincennes, Greyhound, and Marblehead.

Then we've got five Endurance-class Light Cruisers. There are the (you know the drill by now) Paladin's Shield, Constellation, Dryad, Galahad, and Semper Fidelis.

And then last of all, we have the first group of Cobra-class Destroyers.

There's where we stand at so far with the Cymric Sub-Sector Battle Fleet.  We finally have a Battlegroup Flagship, some heavy hitting ships of the line, and finally some escort vessels.  I've got a few more ships coming and I need to see about ordering some more vessels to use as Destroyers and Frigates.  All in all, it's coming along nicely and I'm hoping to get some paint on some vessels as soon as I get a good day for priming that I'm off work.

That's it for tonight and I'll see you all later.  Trust in the Emperor for his servants' firepower will defend you.

Still More Battlefleet

So I've continues on with my BFG conversions and scratchbuilds this week.  This blog will pull together everything done so far so it'll have already finished items plus all the new stuff so it's going to be a longer one than normal.  Hope you all enjoy and here we go.

First up is the two Overlord-class Battlecruisers Essex (top in picture) and Obsidian Desire (lower in picture).  These are commanded by Captain Erik Urkhart and Captain Sevarius Quinn respectively.

Next is the Mars-class Battlecruiser Pan's Labyrinth commanded by Captain Ian Preussner.

After that we have the five Lunar-class Cruisers.  From Left to Right we have the Black Prince under Captain Vasily Solinov, the Pride of Orthavan under Captain Jacen Calius, the Ivanhoe under Captain Walter Scott, the Might of Vigilance under Captain Kurt Gordrecht, and the Kingfisher under Captain Raleigh Peerlain.

Next is the four Dominator-class Cruisers.  Again from Left to Right we have the Royal Oak under Captain Nicolai Girbierge, the Hellbarde under Captain Paulus Haarlis, the Odin's Oracle under Captain Klaus Yorck, and the Artemis under Captain Brice Coomb.

Then we have the Furious, a Tyrant-class Cruiser, under the command of Captain Emil Demblon.  To the Right of the Furious is the pair of Gothic-class Cruisers.  These are the Duke of York under Captain Nikolai Ushenko and the Royal Crown under Captain Andrew Galloway.

Up next after that is the Bellicose Dreams station under the command of Commodore Tomas Calhoun.  I've mounted it on a piece of cut wood that came in some terrain packaging and works out just right size wise.  I've also added a power plant bit to one end and it's ready for priming now.

Now we've got something new in the BFG terrain category.  This is an orbital smelting plant for processing various resources needed for industry.

Last of all we've got my version of a Ramilies-class Star Fort.  This is intended to be a smaller and less capable, more of a system defense station rather than the mobile warp-capable monstrosities that the Ramilies represents.

And there we have it as it stands so far.  In the next week or so I should have what's needed to start on the battleship size vessels as well as light cruisers and downward.  If anyone has any other suggestions on what might make interesting terrain, feel free to leave some suggestions.  That's all for now, and I'll see you again next time.

More Battlefleet

So I got in a partial game of CBT this past Sat night.  We got a late start due to circumstances beyond our control and ended up with beaten up forces for a draw.  I took one picture at the start and never remembered to take another one.  I gotta get better at that.  I do think we've got Scott seriously interested in CBT though and he's getting drawn in to a whole new system now.

On the BFG front, I've got another three Lunar-class cruisers done for an even quartet.  I'm planning on putting paint and some naming conventions on them come Wednesday when I'm off work again.

And then the major development, I've been working on the Bellicose Dreams the dockyard/orbital defense base for Cymru-II.  This has been a pretty fun project for digging in the bits box.  I still need to get some better support underneath it so I'll be able to put it on flying bases.  I'm pleased with how it's coming out so far.

 

 

I've still got a few more cruisers to do, but I'm going to have to come up with a way to tweak the overall look slightly to use them as a different class.  I've also got a pair of battle cruisers to finish converting as well to join the first Overlord-class.

I'm hoping to get an order in to be able to start making some light cruisers and other escorts.

Imperial Fleet Stand-ins

So I've wanted to build up my Battlefleet Gothic and get some of the Johnson City crew to get me going in playing this.  Unfortunately other than some marine vessels that I acquired some time ago, I'm a bit lopsided in ships.  My marines have a battlebarge, a strike cruiser and then about a dozen destroyers and frigates to escort them, which is hardly a balanced fleet much less one for table top play.  Also unfortunately BFG models are nigh on criminally priced on eBay which has stymied me on that front as well.  So I've decided to go the alternative model route with some modifications.

 

 

I've decided on the Sorylian line from Firestorm Armada.  I really like the overall look and feel of these models.  I've been able to pick a few of these up quite cheaply, especially considered against the available BFG models.  Since they won't match my marine ships, I'll be using them as Imperial Naval vessels, and so the Cymric Sub-Sector Battle Fleet under the command of Admiral Theodorius Childress has been born.  The medium Skyhammer-class cruiser that I got is just a bit shorter than my Battlebarge so I'll be using it as an Overlord-class Battlecruiser since the size seems a bit smaller than a Battleship would be.

 

 

The Sorylian Scythe-class Frigate was the other blister I got (and you get 6 in that pack) and it is the same size of the Strike Cruiser I have, so I'll be using them as regular Cruisers.  Right now I'll be using them as Lunar-class Cruisers as this seems to be a good all round class to start out with.  After I get the first 6 of these done, I might look into a second blister of these to use as a different class.

Once I get what I currently have all assembled and tweaked with bits to look more 40K, I'll look into getting the Frigate and Corvette set to use as destroyers and frigates.  Some of the box sets have a mix of ship sizes so I might end up going that route as well.  All in all, this looks to be a pretty fun project and I've been looking into some things to do for scenery as well.  I'll be doing a follow up post to this sometime next week and show off the collection of finished cruisers as of that point.

That's all for now and look here hopefully Sunday evening for a Classic Battletech battle report.

Battlefleet

So I've been showing off the Lions of Harlech, but I haven't shown yet how they project that power beyond their own star system.  The debut of my Avenger Strike Fighter on Saturday got me thinking more about the fleet component of the Lions.  Therefore this blog post is on that.  Battlefleet Gothic is one of the specialty games that I've never gotten a chance to play before, but I love the look of the Imperial ships.  I picked some marine vessels up on the cheap several years back but not nearly enough to represent the Lion's entire fleet of course.

First up is the fluff part of the fleet.  I think it'd be fun to build out the entire force though.  Gothic scale Thunderhawks are probably the only way I'll own any of those as well.

Fleet Command
    1 Battlebarge
        Caernarfon, Captain Jacob Wellsley
    8 Strike Cruisers
        Cardiff, Captain Ian Siarles
        Powys, Captain Mori Stenshoel
        Swansea, Captain Liam Caudell
        Conwy, Captain Mithos Henke
        Caerphilly, Captain Malcolm Greystroke
        Rhiannon, Captain Cedraig Faulkner
        Blodeuwedd, Captain Bertraum Mallory
        Gorsedd, Captain Hiram MacGuinness
    11 Gladius-class Frigates
    7 Nova-class Frigates
    14 Hunter-class Destroyers
    22 Thunderhawk Gunships
    10 Thunderhawk Transporters

The Caernarfon

The Caernarfon

I've only managed to get one of the Strike Cruisers so far as eBay is getting pretty ridiculous for Battlefleet Gothic prices.  I'd like to build the fleet on up at some point, but that's on hold.  The Rhiannon is only partially painted at this point but it like so many other parts of the chapter are on the To Do List. (along with a couple hundred marines, eight dreadnoughts, thirty some vehicles, .... I need to find a way to hire a full time painter I think.)

The Rhiannon with two Gladius Frigates and two Nova Frigates

a dozen Hunter-class Destroyers

a pair of BattleTech ships used as fleet train vessels

Their fleet was once larger but the Battlebarge Colwyn and several strike cruisers were lost during the Lion's crusading years.  Once arriving at Cymru, the Battlebarge Gwynfedd and another strike cruiser was cannibalized to build the Fortress Monastery.  Having now re-established itself with the Imperium, the Lions have acquired their two newest strike cruisers Cardiff and Gorsedd.

So that's the fleet as it exists so far, though it's skewed heavily toward escorts at the moment.  And if anyone in the area here who plays Gothic and wants to walk me through a game or two, say the word and we'll set something up.