From JamesM: Battlefleet Gothic (Babylon5) (60 points)

Hi folks,

Getting sucked in to painting for the Quadrant Map, I thought I'd have a bash at some Games Workshop 'Battlefleet Gothic' miniatures that have languished in my possession for around a decade. I'd gotten into this game when it was first released (back in the late 90s), and around 2007 I sold my original collection as I was doing nothing with it. I've then spent years regretting this decision and buying bits back. 

And done nothing with them. Until now!

This small patrol group originates from my interest in the Rogue Trader role playing game produced by Fantasy Flight Games. Within the Warhammer 40k setting for the roleplay game was a Imperial Naval force belonging to Battlefleet Calixis named 'Passage Watch 27-Est'. The standing force patrols the unexplored reaches of the Koronus expanse and guards the narrow safe route back to 'civilised' space. The force also has a secret role in guarding a warp gate to another distant part of the galaxy where an Imperial Crusade is being fought. 

This long standing detachment was often nicknamed 'Battlefleet Koronus', and attracted many of the ships not suited to 'traditional' Battlefleet tactics. I decided to paint up at least some of my imperial ships using the scant information available about this fleets paint scheme, and to add bits and bobs fitting their long range patrol and protection theme. 

This small painted patrol taskforce is led by the Dauntless Light Cruiser 'Aegis':

Painted with the red prow and yellow/gold trim of Battlefleet Calixis. Most of the artwork available seems to show a blueish hull colour, which I duplicated using 'French Mirage Blue'. This vessel is based on one featured within one of the RPG adventure books 'The Frozen Reaches' which sees the players coming to the aid of a forgotten Imperial colony under attack from Orks, supported by a single Imperial Navy ship.  

Serving alongside the Aegis in my small fleet is the 'Retribution' - an uncommon design of Imperial light cruiser. The mangled hull of this ship and several others were recovered from Ork pirates who had been using them for an unknown period of time. After the Orks were defeated, the hulked hulls were retrieved, cleansed and rebuilt in a fashion befitting the Omnissiah.  

The Adeptus Mechanicus rebuilt the four artificially shortened hulls with the 'Retribution' and her sister ship the 'Revenge' re-entering Imperial service after decades of work. The other two vessels were retrofitted differently. 

In true Battlefleet Calixis fashion these vessels were immediately assigned to Passage Watch 27-Est. Mainly due to the very traditionally minded admirals of Battlefleet Calixis having no idea what to do with these unusual ships.

A dedicated light carrier and long range patrol vessel, the Retribution comes equipped with a fighter and bomber wing. It carries extensive stores to allow for long deployments, and following its long service as a pirate vessel has a reputation for being able to sniff out other ships at long ranges and accelerate into action with uncommon zeal. It's wings of strike craft are the bane of many pirate groups, who's raider ships have no easy counter to them. 

Outside of own fluff for this model, this ship came to me as a rather poorly executed Ork terror ship conversion alongside three others. I stripped back the conversion work and equipped the shortened hulls with resin imperial style prows obtained via eBay. Orkish conversion work to the engines was corrected and repaired using cut up Chaos cruiser bridge parts to extend the hull and fill the gap. The result of this repair work is a rather portly looking 'heavy' light cruiser sized vessel - really just a shortened plastic Imperial cruiser. In game terms, I would find a light cruiser with similar stats (possibly launch bays and dorsal lances or weapons batteries) and just use those on the table top. 

The strike craft are actual BFG models, which I was lucky enough to obtain a few years ago. 

Escorting these larger vessels are four Sword class frigates detached from 'Triumph Squadron'. 

These escorts are original metal GW models - one of my favourite ships. I've gone for some blue and white detailing on their lower fin, just to mark out that they are part of the same squadron. 

I will unashamedly admit that these models are painted in a very basic fashion - lets call it retro - in keeping with the paint style at the time of their release. I may do a few more bits to detail up the engines in the future with heat effects, but for now I'm happy with how they look. I took a huge amount of pleasure from painting these, so much so that I have spent this week looking at 3d printed offerings and talking myself out of adding to a large collection I've yet to paint!

These models, being of a 'Space Opera' style with even the smallest ships being kilometers long and having crews in the tens of thousands, are submitted for the Babylon5 planet. 

Points wise, I think the larger vessels are equivalent size wise to a 15mm vehicle, while the frigates are roughly equivalent to a 15mm mounted figure or gun. As such:

2 x 15mm vehicles: 16 points

4 x 15mm artillery piece: 16 points

4 x 15mm infantry figure (for the bomber and fighter bases): 8 points

Total: 40 points, plus bonus 20 points for 60!

It has been a while since I've seen anything for Battlefleet Gothic (normally that's a cue for GW to rerelease it in a new edition and completely different scale isn't it).   Really like the colours that you gone with on these spaceships, the ram like prows in red piped in yellow are particularly nice.