Starting Battlefleet Gothic

So I decided to begin playing Battlefleet Gothic with a friend of mine. I have always wanted to play a "naval" table top strategy game. They always seemed so much different than the classic land-based games. One reason I went for Battlefleet Gothic is because everything you need to play (except for the actual models) are free pdfs on the Games-Workshop website under "specialist games."

Below are some pictures of my fleet, my space board, and even some terrain I painted.




Here are the first two ships of my fleet. Standard cruisers. One is armed with Port and Starboard weapons batteries and Lance weapons. The other is armed with port and starboard lance weapons and launch bays. They also both have prow armaments.

painting these miniatures is fairly simple and quick process. I began by priming the miniature with black. Then I dry brushed the entire model with Codex Grey. After that dried, I dry brushed the entire model with a mixture of Codex Grey and Chainmail silver. Then, I dry brushed the undercarriage of the ship with a mixture of Codex Grey and Chainmail silver, but with much more Chainmail than Codex Grey mixed in. This gives the under side of the ship a little more brightness.

Once all that is finished, I dry brushed the grating on the front and back of the miniature with Dwarf Bronze. This gave the miniature the iconic "Black Crusade" look.




Time to add detail. Detail on model's like this hard to see but have fun and add some color. I added blue lights to the top of each antenna. Although it is difficult to see, I add a light grey to the window of the bridge, and I also highlighted each gun with chainmail.



Here is the board I will be playing Battlefleet Gothic on. It is not perfect but I think that is what makes it look so much like space. I started with a 4x4 piece and sanded the surface down with a sander. After that, make sure to wipe the board down with a damp cloth and get any dust off the board before painting. After sanding and cleaning the board, I painted it with black paint that I bought from the hardware store. After the paint dried, I grabbed some old spray cans and went to work. I started with a simple dark grey color. I just misted areas of the board to give a space cloud/dust look. Then I took some green spray and blue spray and painted over and around the grey areas. Just mist the color onto the board, do not blast it right onto the board or you will get less than desirable results.

The next step are the stars. This is can be interesting and the result could vary from great to terrible. I actually started with a spray can of white paint. From about three feet above the board I sprayed a blast of paint onto the colorful areas to represent dense star clusters. After a few shots of that, I switched to flicking white paint off of a tooth brush onto the board. Practice this method on scrap board before doing it on the board. You will get some large paint drops, and some very small drops. If done correctly it can really make the board look great. Do not flick paint at an angle however. Always make sure to be above the area you want to flick the paint onto. If you flick paint at an angle you will get oval stars or streaks which will not look good at all.



Here is the first piece of terrain I made for the Battlefleet Gothic board. I actually followed a great guide for painting these planets. Check it out, it gives a step by step guide to painting an Earth-like planet.

http://www.tabletopgamingnews.com/2007/05/11/7587

Trygon and Mawloc

Hey, been awhile since my last post. I wanted to show some pictures of my latest additions to my Tyranid army. Below are pictures of one Trygon and one Mawloc.







The skin and carapace were painting exactly as I have detailed in prior posts. Take a look at some of my older posts to understand how I did that. The mouth for each miniature was painted by starting with Hormaguant Purple. I then applied a mix of Hormaguant Purple and Dheneb Stone (much more Dheneb Stone than Hormaguant) and highlighted the raised areas of the mouth, gum, and tongue. After that dried I simply washed the area with purple wash.

I also tried something new with the green membrane on the Mawloc's and Trygon's chest. As I painted the skin I made sure to paint over these membranes. Much later in the painting process, after I had painted the carapace red, I took green ink and painted over the membrane area which had previously been painted exactly as the skin had been. The result was great and turned.

The 1500 point Tyranid army is finished and my first game will be this weekend with them!