New fleet, Now with rust tutorial Options

[Darth_Fraggle]

Just getting into BFG and I've painted my first Kill Kroozer. Let me know what ya think.

[Mad Grot Docsnik]

Looks ded proppa. I am always happy when someone paints the engine glow. A tip on basing though... those plastic spindles snap off with frightening regularity. A) because they are plastic holding up a metal model, but more importantly B) because the model's center of gravity is not centered over the spindle. All you need to do is set it down a bit roughly and it will snap off. I used coat-hanger for a spindle and gave it an s-bend so that the model's weight is over the center of the base. Works a charm.

[Darth_Fraggle]

I've not done much playing (and toting my minis around to do so), so I don't know how well my methods will hold up. I drill the flight stand hole bigger and deeper into the ship, cut off the thin part of the stand, and vertically pin the stand. In the past, if a stand broke, it didn't break on that end. You can't quite tell from the picture, but this time I used green stuff at the base of the stem to give it a little more strength.

Does having a bent coat hanger make it hard to measure? How do you attach it to the base?

[Mad Grot Docsnik]

It occasionally throws other players for a loop, but it's usually no harder to measure. You just have to actually look at the base rather than try to guesstimate the center from above. I also put registration marks on the base at the front of the ship, and the front and back 45s. That way you don't even need one of those little fiddly paper templates to determine fire arcs. Makes turning easier too.

Attaching to the base is pretty much the way you have it... a bit of putty. Except I use plumbers putty, which cures rock hard and I put a washer underneath the base. Once the spindle is glued in place the hole in the washer gets filled with putty too. The washer also serves to hold the ship down to my magnetized transport case.

[Harkon Greywolf]

Looks good as a First ship.
I wouldn't worry too much about the base unless it does break.
Your method should be fairly robust.

I love the engine glow!
I tried to do the same with mine, but just cannot get the right brilliance.
I used orange to yellow though.

Well done.

HG

[Kr00zA]

I like this style as it has very little klan colors. To me that makes sence, after all a kroozer is supost to be about 3 miles long... and what Ork would wanna waste time painting it all when he could be kroozing about krumping stuff.

[Darth_Fraggle]

The engine glow is:
Regal blue- painted fully on the engine opening
Enchanted blue- leaving a rough line of enchanted on the edge
Ice blue- heavily watered down and put on in a tapping/stippling sort of way
skull white- only on an engine this big, put on in s small spot the same way as the Ice blue, just ultra-watered down.

You could probably do it similarly with orange working to yellows.

I was avoiding a Klan, partly because I haven't decided which I'll be doing (if any). Also because I've redone the way I do rust, and I'm kind of going hog-wild on everything I can get my hands on to rustify

I'm varnishing my first escort skwadrin, pics will soon follow.

[Darth_Fraggle]

Ere we go! First skwadron-





I'm not sure if that's an effective way to squadron them. The idea is that with ork LD being what it is, I may only get one shot with the 'peedos, and since they can't combine anyway... might as well splash them in with the onslaughts.

[Mr_Foulscumm]

The engines look ace.

Over all a very nice job.

[Harkon Greywolf]

Looking very good there.

Makes me want to go back and revisit my engines now!
(Maybe when I finish this damned Stompa projekt, I'll need something different by then!)

Keep 'em coming!

HG

[Darth_Fraggle]

Finished another two skwadrons of escorts, and I'm working on a fighta-bomma ordnance conversion. Piccies:


For the fighta-bommer, I took an imperial fighter.
1. Rotate 180 degrees
2. filed off the cockpit
3. Clipped and filed the big tail fin to be the new cockpit
4. Cut out a tiny triangle of plasticard and glued it down for the new tail fin (this was the hardest part)


The rust and steel look may be a little bland for some, but I usually go for more bland and realistic paint jobs anyway. Besides I'm trying to live up to the quote from the rulebook, "A more ramshackle, inefficient and downright ugly fleet is hard to imagine."

Up next: Another Kill Kroozer.

[Bellygrub]

They look really good. Your little fighta conversions are brilliant. I personally would never have the patience to cut out those tiny little tail fins.

[Kr00zA]

Thats a great conversion tip
Very clever no-watz indeed

[Darth_Fraggle]

Gawsh thanks folks.

The hard part isn't cutting a tiny triangle of p-card, it's trying to glue the ing thing down.

[Skullcrusha_Zog]

The rust and steel look may be a little bland for some, but I usually go for more bland and realistic paint jobs anyway. Besides I'm trying to live up to the quote from the rulebook, "A more ramshackle, inefficient and downright ugly fleet is hard to imagine."

I think you have achieved this. I really like the way you do rust, could you give us a rundown on how you do it? This thread has made me break out the old BFG minis and organise a game thank you!

[Darth_Fraggle]

I've got a kroozer primed, I can do step-by-step probably tomorrow or the next day. It's a game that I've been wanting to break into for a while. The intro article on BoLS reminded me about it. I took the plunge in hopes that some of my regular gaming buddies will follow.

[Darth_Fraggle]

Ok, so here's the rust tutorial.

I start with a grey primer, in this case Dupli-color sandable primer (in auto stores). It helps to have a giant cheap brush with stiff bristles like the one pictured. I got two at Wal-Mart for a buck and a half.


Paint Snakebite Leather on in a splotchy way. It helps to do a watered-down second coat to get it all in the cracks. Let dry.


Third, stipple Blazing Orange one the snakebite parts. For those who don't know how to stipple, it's like drybrushing (wiping most of the paint off so that the paint only ends up on the high parts) except, instead of painting in strokes, you jab the paint brush onto the model, making it look "dotty".


Next, wash with a watered-down Black wash. I don't know about the new inks, but I use the old Black Wash, and it is really dark. I water it down severely in order to get it to be more transparent. Adding too much water will cause the wash to apply evenly instead of seeping into the cracks; adding a small bit of Ard Coat to the mix will help. This is the hardest step to get exactly right, so test it on a small area before the whole model.


Last, drybrush on Boltgun Metal. It helps to drybrush it on in an irregular sort of way, leaving some panels very silvery and some panels very rusty. The only other thing I do with the hull is paint a few patches with Tin Bitz and highlight with Brazen Brass.


After painting details, a final couple coats of Purity Seal will dull it out a bit more to complete the look.

There are plenty of articles out there on rusting stuff, but I tried it this way because I can use a large brush iin sloppy coats. The only thing that needs to be handled delicately is mixing the wash, and after that it's hard to mess up. This is important for me because I'm an unreasonably slow painter and can use all the help I can get.

[Skullcrusha_Zog]

It's a game that I've been wanting to break into for a while. The intro article on BoLS reminded me about it. I took the plunge in hopes that some of my regular gaming buddies will follow.

I got a regular beakie buddie that used to play a lot of BFG. Im gunna whip up an orc fleet in the hope of gettin him interested again... Think it'll be a nice change of pace from kickin his butt on the table top to kickin his butt in space.

Thanks so much for the tutorial it will really help me get a fleet up quickly.

[Harkon Greywolf]

That method painting is very good.
I would actually give it an all over watered wash of brown/black ink mix to finish with.
It'll draw highlights and accentuate the rust too. But that's me and they're your fleet!


HG

[Darth_Fraggle]

Here's the current fleet:


With a close-up of the completed fighta-bommerz:

Sorry for the blurry pic, it's difficult to photograph these tiny things.

I've got another Kill Kroozer and a Terror Ship that are almost completed as well.

I got to play my first game (since a proxy intro 2-3 years ago) and it was a lot of fun. I like the game a lot, but I'm not too keen on the ork fleet. These suckers will take some getting used to.