Jon Zucchi's Hobby Blog

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Battlefleet Gothic Chaos Fleet

Here's my collection of Chaos cruisers for BFG. I've got the Repulsive Grand Cruiser in the middle followed by 2 Styx battlecruiser carriers, 2 Hades battlecruisers, 2 Devastation cruiser carriers, 2 Carnage cruisers, 2 Murder cruisers, 2 Slaughter cruisers. So, pretty much 2 of everything. No battleships for Chaos yet. I think the Repulsive will do well as my flagship. The Chaos battleships aren't as great as their Imperial counterparts - their strength lies in their cruiser classes. I need to pick up some small craft such as fighters, bombers and assault craft (especially assault craft) models for this chaos collection. Launching assault craft from carriers along with waves of fighters for protection and bombers for extra damage is what will give my Chaos fleet its edge. As I mentioned, the Chaos cruisers are very good with lots of battery fire and lances, but they need some ordnance to combat the Imperial Navy's powerful prow torpedoes that ignore shields. I'm working on painting some fighter and bomber bases for my Imperial Navy fleet, so after I finish those I'll purchase some Chaos small craft.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Battlefleet Gothic Imperial Navy

Let me start by saying I love the idea of BFG even though I have never played a single game. I played BFG in it's original form when it was called Space Fleet. Battlefleet Gothic came out when I was in College so I missed out on the build up to playing when it was re-boxed and new (and still in production). The elimination of GW's specialty games has hit my ambition to some day play a game of BFG hard in the gut. Nevertheless, I was determined to paint up all my BFG collections because I like the models that much (really quite a lot of detail for those interested in finding it all) and it fills a different niche than X Wing does.

This is about 2,000 points of Imperial Navy and there's 2 ships of each kind of cruiser variant as they'll probably get squadroned together (if I ever play a game). They haven't been washed yet. I think I will go over them one more time checking for any tiny little hairs that collect in the portholes and any glaring stray brush strokes. When the weather gets better I'll seal them and give them a brown wash. As you can see, I went crazy with the yellow detailing. I started the yellow on the prows, then the weapon batteries, and then the rest of the model looked dull so then I decided to have yellow in every area - front, mid, and back.

I'm going to work on finishing up some metal Imperial escorts this weekend and I've got an Imperial battleship that needs the same yellow treatment. I wanted to finish up all the plastic ships first since they'll get the most use (I hope, some day, maybe). Then, I'm going start my Chaos fleet which will, like the Imperial Navy, be mostly cruisers. Also, according to the 2010 FAQ, Chaos Fleets can use Imperial escorts (and some cruisers as well), so I can put off getting any metal Chaos escorts and battleships off of ebay (that, and Chaos battleships aren't as useful as their awesome cruiser and battlecruiser variants).

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Battlefleet Gothic Imperial Fighters and Bombers

Here are some Fighters and Bombers for use in Battlefleet Gothic that I got off of Shapeways and that I bought for my Imperial Navy Fleet. I bought the Starfury Fighters and the Avenger Bombers at www.shapeways.com. If you search for BFG while you are there you will find the whole group of products that people have designed for the now out of print Battlefleet Gothic game from Games Workshop. These particular products were designed by GrimDarkBits. I didn't like the looks of them when I got them in a bag. They looked way too small and I cursed myself for getting burned and I confess I let them sit and off in a corner for at least a year. Now that they are glued onto their bases, which I got from www.Litko.com btw, I feel a lot better about the purchase and I think they look great when there's 3 to a base.

Imperial Navy Starfury Fighters

Imperial Navy Avenger Bombers

Monday, January 20, 2014

Warhammer Quest Miniatures

3 Minotaurs

12 Skaven

6 Orc Archers

6 Night Goblin Archers

6 Orcs

6 Goblins

12 Snotlings

12 Rats

12 Spiders

12 Bats

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Warhammer 40k Legion of the Damned Squad

Legion of the Damned

These models are from the metal boxed set that came out before the finecast phase of Games Workshop's model production. In fact, they were most likely one of the last boxed sets to be produced in metal. The boxed set came with a sergeant with power axe and plasma pistol and a legionnaire with a flamer. In order to optimize this squad, it would be best to pick up a multi-melta trooper and convert a legionnaire to carry a meltagun or (and this is probably what I will do eventually) convert a trooper to carry a plasma cannon and a plasma gun. They have a nifty rule that allows all their weapons, including special and heavy weapons, to ignore cover. Theses guys took a long time to finish for various reasons. First, they are not a commonly used unit as people favor Sternguard Veterans much more. Second, each legionnaire is as like your painting a Chaplain, so you've got 5 Chaplains to paint (the sarge looks a lot like a Chaplain, right?). Third, the flames. Although the flames weren't hard to paint, it was another detail point that you had to accomplish over the stuff you would normally have to do to paint a regular marine. So, these legionnaires stayed about 75% done for probably about 2 years until I got tired of seeing them half finished and decided it was time. They came out pretty good I think. They're painted to a good table top standard, and, as usual, that's enough for me!