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So just my luck the other day at a local GW bizarre bazaar I swapped my Baneblade for this:



I know, it's a pretty sweet box, solid plastic construction, separated compartments and it's double sided. Jackpot! You just got hustled by the ultimate hustler, son. What's this there's stuff inside well let me just take it out so I can trash it.



Someone has left a SM fleet in my box. Free fleet and Forgeworld! That's just gravy on top of my new box. This will be my fourth fleet I already have a massive 3k~4k pt Chaos fleet, a Dark Eldar raiding force gathering dust and a Adeptus Mechanicus project that's been ongoing for the past 2 months. My current 40k army is Black Templars so naturally my new SM fleet is now a Crusade fleet. Now there's only one responsible way to go about assembling my BT fleet which is escorts and strike cruisers first then the Battle Barge and FW as a reward for all the hard work. feth that it's Battle Barge time.



So the first attempt at gluing the two main parts of the BB ended in complete failure as she broke up when I handled her. OK round two I scored the joins with my exacto and cut some bracers out of spare sprue to try to shore it up.



That looks terrible but you can't see it when it's right side up so whatever, don't judge me. Well there's nothing to do but let that sucker dry while I move on to better things, namely the FW. Let me just grab a lamp and some paper and there that's better. Bag one of three Thunderhawks.



For anyone unfamiliar with BFG let me tell you it's an unpleasant thing to be on the receiving end of a wave of Thunderhawks so I'm pretty stoked to get so many. FW gives you 10 Thunderhawks a bag with 4 bases. I'm not exactly sure about the math they used to get that ratio or how they expect you to base them especially when this is on the bottom of each TH.



Uh what? Tell what I'm supposed to do here FW!?!

I'm just going to "borrow" a method I saw on Port Maw when someone, I forgot the name, was basing their Mantas. Drill a hole in a base and stick a nail through it and boom.




Now to carefully drill a hole in the bottom of the TH.



And we're in business.




As for the stock bases, get outta here nobody likes you.

Cool, nice swap. Love BFG myself, will be watching this to see how it goes.

Is the SM Battle barge incomplete or?

It's missing one of it's forward fins/bombardment cannons/xeno skewers?. But it looks like everything is there.

It'll be interesting putting it together since I have no instructions and I'm going off the picture on the GW website.

Lovely stuff, I used to have the BFG boxed set but it got lost moving. then when I went to get another copy they'd got rid of the starter set. so unfortunately I don't play anymore. This thread i tempting me to part with some cash though.

Will watch carefully, subscribed.

Well at least you figured it out I actually used magnets on my first attempt, and then gave up. At least you will get a use out of this in a week I'm ordering the 5 GK strike Cruisers from FW. Illl telll them they are stupid lol.

Cool. It's nice to see some variation to 40k here.

Ya my Imperial Fleet is being based off my DKOK. Just need to buy a camera ......one day.

You didn't get hustled, I did say you can keep the box.....

I always pinned my battle barges.

Can't wait to see more!

Glad for the support guys, BFG is my favorite game that GW puts out and I feel like it doesn't get the attention it deserves. Alright, so I managed to pull myself away from more important work (beating the SC2 campaign) to put in some more time. I finished putting together the rest of the almighty (pain) Battle Barge:



Sadly the BB suffers from a affliction common to the metal battleships in the BFG line, commonly referred to in the medical community as "she gotta fat ass".



The balance point for the model is about a cm back (the ship is actually balancing on the point in the 1st pic) and sits almost on top of the join between the front and back pieces so drilling a new hole for the flying stand is a bit risky. I'll probably end up weighing the front since there's plenty of space just behind the prow launch bay. I also finished refurbishing the first Strike Cruiser, since I got the fleet second hand most of the cruisers and escorts got some gunk, snapped off flying stand pegs and/or superglue, where the flying stand goes. So it's pretty slow going drilling and cutting out the smaller ships. Anyways here it is.



I'll leave off with this:

Ironhide wrote:I always pinned my battle barges.

I didn't pin my last battleship, a Desolator class, and it's held together over the last year but to be fair the model design for the Desolator is far superior in terms of keeping in one piece. I'll see if I can get away with it.

Haha! SC 2: Wings Of Liberty ftw! How do you like the campaign?

Always loved the SM BB, but the balance thing has always done my head in as well. You would think they would design a stand that would hold the ship at a level angle, without having to glue them in place.

I had to use 4 stands(all connected to 1 base) on one model ship and its still a little unsteady. Doesnt help that the plastic is brittle and snaps frequenly when using metal ships.

Tempted now to stick my own stuff on here, well different thread.

Project question, are you going to paint all black ships or white or a mix of the two. I've done a mix of the two and looks preety cool.

Oh, I also have a BT fleet.

Good Job I think I will regret giving you the thunder hawks those are a fething pain. Are those nails to stop kids from touching stuff ?

Munch Munch! wrote:Haha! SC 2: Wings Of Liberty ftw! How do you like the campaign?

Pretty standard stuff. Unlock new unit, spam new unit to victory. I'm really more in it for the multiplayer but I need to upgrade my RAM before that happens.

Eberious wrote:Project question, are you going to paint all black ships or white or a mix of the two. I've done a mix of the two and looks preety cool.

It's going to match my existing BT which are painted with a black, red, bone scheme and power weapons picked out in purple. I'll try to upload a few pics of my BT. The thunder hawks and maybe the escorts are probably going to be a dark red.

ghostmaker wrote:Good Job I think I will regret giving you the thunder hawks those are a fething pain. Are those nails to stop kids from touching stuff ?

Thanks, actually I'm going to leave them underneath my opponent's tires whenever I lose a game.

Great I got your back when they come in pissed, hahaha well I have nothing to worry about cause I always lose to you. stupid bfg j/k.

If it is to match your BT it has to have lighting fields you realize this right.

Sat down in front of the TV (Always Sunny in Philadelphia) for a few hours with my drill and exacto and managed to finish all the Thunderhawks and start wading through the escorts.

Oh god bees

Mmm sweet sweet resin dust.


The first squadron of Gladius'


The Hunters


Scratch two more flat tops.


I still have three more Gladius Frigates, two more Strike Cruisers and three Nova Frigates waiting to be cleaned. I think I worked out a couple solutions to the Battle Barge problem. I dug through my bitz box and found one of the ball joints that GW used to put in skimmer kits; the fit is snug enough that it'll keep the BB from leaning but still be able to rotate the BB. The other is getting some jewelry fastener screws that I've seen used on a local Ork player's fleet with amazing results. I'll finally have some time to check a nearby hobby store tomorrow.

As for the paint scheme, I'm going to start priming tomorrow. This is what I'm planning to use as my main scheme. Sorry about the dust and wip.




And this dark red for the smaller ships.

Lighting fields on the ships right you have to know that every one has seen it.

A quick update on the Battle Barge.

Barrel jewelry clasps you can get at any hobby store






Huzzah!