More BFG?!? Strike Cruiser Conversion

[Vaaish]

I was chatting with Nate earlier about the domes sticking up. Even though they are on square pegs, we were thinking it might flow a bit better if the corners were rounded on the square bits. It only needs to be the outside ones to give it a curve matching the pegs.

We were also thinking there might need to be a bit of a spacer on there to get it fitting well on the GW side of the SC's.

[mangozac]

Good idea that's easy enough to do.

Yeah I figured the antennae he has pointing forward are actually sticking out of the spacer piece...

[Xeones]

[mangozac]

[Vaaish]

Heh. well then, if I have to make the decision on it, I say both What I mean by that is make the fin about half to two-thirds the height it is now and put the pegs on top but shorter than they are now and with different heights. It should balance out the turret on top and keep it from competing with the large fin on the GW version or looking out of place on the FW one with the shorter midships fin.

EDIT: quick sketches of the landing bay plugs to make the other variant SC. The top one is the torps and the lower one is the bombardment cannon

[mangozac]

Best of both worlds eh? Good idea I like it!

The launch bay plugs are as I had expected, although the height may be a slight problem for fitting in two rows of tubes/barrels. Even with the flange like you have drawn we've got at most about 1.5mm in height to work with. The smallest hole I can drill is 0.8mm, so two rows would need a bare minimum of at least about 2mm in height (preferably more).

The cannon barrels will probably be achievable because they are staggered. The two small sizes are 0.6mm and 1mm - I may have to turn down the 1mm on the lathe to 0.8mm to get the optimal thickness (and add the barrel tip at the same time).

Well I've got to get to work now, but hopefully I might even make a start on the plugs tonight!

[Vaaish]

Yeah, I was a little concerned about that. The other option for the torpedoes is four on the bottom and two on the top, but I don't know if that would be any easier to pull off. May need to just "fake" it and put in a row of three tubes but make them larger with the missile tips inset.

[mangozac]

Yeah I'll see what I can do (or what looks best).

[mangozac]

Question about the turret atop the launch bay: one fat barrel or two skinny ones (1mm vs 0.75mm diameter)?

Making decent progress now!

[Vaaish]

Unhelpful answer: whichever looks best The battlebarge goes with one large cannon per turret and I think that follows on the SC, but the GK one opts for two barrels. Personally I'd go with the single since it's bigger and would look more in line with everything else.

[mangozac]

I mainly wanted to make sure you weren't particularly attached to one or the other

I've got some ideas for the single barrel where I'll turn it up on the lathe to give it some details. Might even make it from brass so the details are super crisp!

[mangozac]

More progress!

Now these days I have a pretty wide assortment of styrene rod, tube and strip. In fact there's not a lot I don't have when it comes to the very small sizes (BFG scratchbuilding is to blame for that). Traditionally I've generally built masts and antennae from styrene rod, and with the acquisition of my lathe I would turn down bits of the rod to get more interesting shapes. Turning 1mm styrene rod doesn't work spectacularly, so I was never thrilled with the result.

I knew that in order to get away with a single barrel for the turret atop the SC prow I would need to have a fairly interesting design, otherwise it would just look lame. I had planned to use 1mm styrene yet again but then I had an idea. I recently bought some 2mm diameter brass rod (to use with my home made bases) so I figured "hey, why not turn this down into a fancy barrel shape?".

So I did. Brass machines really beautifully. Even using the incorrect lathe cutting tool for this purpose I was able to get a fantastic, smooth result, with a couple of steps in diameter (1mm - 0.75mm - 0.5mm). Here's the result atop the prow (note that the turret is a separate piece):

Actually the turret seems to be sitting a little high in that pic - I think it's just not seated properly.

I've also made some progress on the rear and underside:

I'm very happy with the progress thus far. There is actually more detail than these terrible shots of naked styrene reveal. One thing I noticed though is that the GW SC model has this bland expanse of area on its underside just behind the prow (as you can see in the second pic). It's the same if the stock prow is fitted. I think I'm going to have to make a little piece to go in there and fill the gap along the keel a bit.

Next up is the main forward antenna-that-looks-like-a-gun. I'll be using my new brass rod trick for it

[Vaaish]

That's really starting to come together! Once the antenna are in place it should be just about done on the prow right?

On small quibble about the barrel on the turret, while it is nice, it's a bit plain and there is a little trick I think could make it pop a bit more. If you look at the volcano cannons here in the warlord Xeones and I did a while back or the quake cannon minorus, you'll see thin strips of styrene decorating the cannon. I think this could work really nicely if you do this in the middle level of the barrel on the turret.

The underside is looking pretty magnificent I hadn't even noticed that blank spot there but now that you point it out, it looks pretty horrid. At this rate you might even go for a new bridge just to round things out!

[mangozac]

The problem is that the barrel is just so damn small! I had originally intended to add bracing to it like you describe but in practice it's just too hard. I would have to superglue a tiny sliver of styrene in place so there's so much opportunity to stuff it up

Once the antenna is done I'll move on to the alternate weapon plugs. Then the prow will be finished. Tempting as it is though I won't be doing a new bridge! I've got other projects I want to do you know!

[Vaaish]

LOL Ok, I'll concede the scale prevents tweaking the barrel. I really was joking about the bridge, there's just too much complication making it universal and no real reason to make separate bridges. I've toyed around with the idea of redoing the GW ones a bit since I'm not fond of the periscope and I think it would look better trimmed down a bit.

I'm anxious to see how this one gets transformed with the fins and the prow in place!