Painting dreadfleet

In between painting ships, I’ve painted these. Painting them was very simple, so I wont bore you with long lists of what paint I’ve used to paint which part of each token. ?

On Table Top put me in the Community Spotlight for this month! ???
https://www.beastsofwar.com/warhammer-40k/community-spotlight-fantastical-ships-falcon-cadia/

I’ve started on The Swordfish. A pirate ship that reminds of the Heldenhammer. The colours I used are often the same.

Basecoate

Model Color Chocolate brown: hull and masts

Panzer Aces Old Wood: deck

It took me a while to figure out what colour to take for the big ram:

• Blue or green? To similar to the base.
• Brown? To similar to the hull
• Metallics? To heavy. A ship whit a metal ram that size will sink instantly.
• Yellow? NO!
• Black? Will make the ram almost invisible.

Eventually I settled on Model Color Light Grey. This colour will make it stand out enough without drawing away the attention of the rest of the ship.

Model Color Black: figurehead, anchors, harpoons (at the top of the masts)

The masts hadn’t been primed and basecoated well. I could see grey plastic coming through. I’ve put extra layers of Chocolate brown on the masts to get a good covering brown coat.

Washes

Black Wash: hull

Model Color Wood Grain: deck

High lighting

Dry brush: Panzer Aces old wood, followed by Model Color Dark Sand on the hull and masts.

Model Color White Grey on the ram.

Metallics

Model Color Natural Steel for the figurehead and harpoons.

The figurehead received a blue wash.

Then both figurehead and harpoons received a hightlight with The Army Painter Plate Mail Metal.

Details

The cannons were painted black: the one on the deck as well as those sticking out of the side of the hull.

Flags: Vallejo Game Color Jade Green. I wanted to use something else than blue. This colour seemed fitting for this ship.

Above the figurehead there is something that looks like a horn (as if coming from a very big unicorn). The sail at the front of the ship is attached to it. I couldn’t find a suitable colour among my paints and created my own colour by mixing Modol Color Dark Sand with Game Color Off White on my wet pallet.

Burning eyes

There is a skull at the front of the ship (see photo below). I’ve painted the eyes white first, followed by Carmine Red.

Swordfishes!

There are two sea creatures on the base of the ship, swimming near the stern of the ship. I wasn’t sure in what colour to paint these at first. Eventually I painted them in Modol Color Burnt Red. Then I pinwashed with black wash. I finished with a highlight in Modol Color Carmine Red.

In part 2 I will paint the sails and finish a few details.

Painting terrain

On YouTube I found this video about painting the terrain pieces of Dreadfleet. They have been painted very well: https://youtu.be/5NZnqx5OrIs

The sails

My initial plan was to keep the sails white. After gluing them to the ship, the white sails made the ship look incomplete. So I decided to paint them after all. This meant I hade to remove the sails from the ship again by breaking them from the masts. Result: one of the masts broke off and had to be glued back to the ship. The damage can’t be seen anymore. The small sails at the bow and stern I left in place and painted on the ship.

To paint the images on the sails, I choose black. The black and white looks good on this ship, I think. It’s the reverse of the traditional black pirate flag white skull and bones in white. To separate black surfaces from each other, I left certain parts white (eg: on the ribcage I painted the first rib black, left the second one white, painted the third one black,…). It took some time, but wasn’t that difficult either.

The details

While working on the sails, I decided to add some finishing touches to the ship. The flags were dry brushed with Model Color Lime Green.

The cannons were painted black. For the cannons on the deck this is sufficient to make them clearly visible and recognisable as cannons, but the cannons sticking out of the side of the ship are barely visible in black. To make them more visible, I painted all the cannons in The Army Painter Plate Mail Metal. The metallic paint can hardly be seen when looking at the ship from the side, but the cannons are very visible when looking at the ship from above. During gameplay the ship will mostly be looked at from above.

The cogs were a few of the remaining small pieces for this game. Three for the pirates (white sails + blue flag) and four for the undead (black and red sails).

The loss of the Flaming Scimitar

It has been a while since my last entry. Mainly because work kept me busy, but also because I managed to finish painting the Flaming Scimitar and then lost it. ☹ While the varnish was drying, a stormy wind blew the ship from my balcony, despite a weight meant to keeping it in place. I bought a new Flaming Scimitar on ebay. I’ll paint it a second time at the end of this project.

A real ghost ship! To maintain the ghostly appearance (and move on with this project), I’ve sprayed the ship white first, then put a green wash over the entire model.

The wash is Game Color Green Wash, thinned down with water for 50 %. Then I drybrushed white paint here and there.

Done. That went quickly!

The sea monsters have been in the stage “almost finished” for months now. I finally finished them.

They are the last small pieces from Dreadfleet. From now on, it’s ships only.

The Curse of Zandri is a ship of the Tomb Kings from Khemri. It looks very Egyptian. I’ve tried to give the ram and statues look like stone. Not the most common material on a ship.

The hull

Large parts are made of reed. I’ve painted theses parts Model Color Dark Sand, the deck and oars are painted Panzer Aces Old Wood. I’ve used Model Wash Brown on all these parts. The oars were drybrushed with Model Color Dark Sand.

Stone

The statues, ram and “tail” were painted black first, then heavily drybrushed in Model Color Blue Green. As a highlight they were gently drybrushed with Model Color Pale Blue.

Metal

The metal parts are painted black first, followed by Model Color Natural Steel. For the gold, I’ve painted The Army Painter Greedy Gold on top of the natural steel. I wasn’t sure what to do next: a brown wash or a black wash on the gold. I decided to go for the black wash, using 1/2 Game Color Wash Black and ½ water. The result looks good. A final highlight on the gold withModel Color Gold.

Varnish

The last step was to spray The Army Painter matt varnish on the ship and finally to brush gloss varnish on the metal parts.

And the ship is finished. This ship was easy and quick to paint.

The Flaming Scimitar is an Arab inspired ship. It’s the home of a wizard who controls genies. Two of these genies can be seen outside the ship: one’s blowing wind into the sails. The other one is a fire genie who protects the ship.

About a month ago I painted The Flaming Scimitar and then managed to lose the model. I bought a second one on Ebay and painted this ship a second time. I may be a bit frustrated over this, but it allowed me to learn from mistakes I made the first time.

Starting with priming: I noticed last time on this ship as well as on other ships, I hadn’t primed them properly. Bear plastic was still visible here and there. This time I payed more attention to priming and made sure the entire miniature was nicely covered in black primer.

Basecoating

I airbrushed Model Air Chocolate brown on the model. On the deck I then brushed Model Color Dark Sand. The sword of the figurehead was painted black.

The superstructure (with the genies) was primed white. It was painted separately and glued in place once everything was painted.

The hull

The hull received a black wash (50 % wash and 50 % water). The deck received a wash of watered down Model Wash Brown. The hull and other dark brown pieces received a dry brush with Model Color Dark Sand. The cannons on the deck were painted black. The holes in the hull for the cannons to fire through, were painted black as well.

Metallics

The domes and statues are painted in Greedy Gold from The Army Painter, except the figurehead. The figurehead was painted in The Army Painter Weapon Bronze. This colour looks more like a sort of copper than bronze, but a different, less red copper than Model Color Copper. Everything received a drybrush wit Model Color Gold.

The sword held by the figurehead (a scimitar!) was painted with The Army Painter Plate Mail Metal en edge highlighted with Model Air Chrome.

The sails

The sails were sprayed with white primer and then airbrushed with white paint. The figures on them consist of large surfaces, making them easier to paint then the sails of the other ships. The sail with the flaming sword (another flaming scimitar!): the flames are painted in Model Color Red Orange, the sword in Model Color Light Grey. On the sail with the winds: the winds are painted in Model Color Blue and the swords once again in Model Color Light Grey. To separate touching surfaces in different or the same colour, I’ve “panellined” them with Game Color Black Wash.

I felt it remained unclear where the water ended en the knives began. To resolve this I’ve painted a thin line in Model Color White Grey a the topside of the knives, to separate them more from the water.

The superstructure

The wind genie was pin washed with a blue wash (Game Color Wash). Then I painted all the raised parts white again.

The fire genie was painted in canary yellow from Pro-Color, then drybrushed with Model Color Red Orange. Now I needed another colour for a final drybrush. I couldn’t find something suitable among my paints, so I started mixing paints. What I wanted was a “dark orange”. I mixed Model Color Red Orange with Model Color Carmine Red. This looked like a dirty red. I added some Pro-Color Canary Yellow. I drybrushed the fire genie with it and it had the effect I wanted. The flaming swords (two more flaming scimitars!) of the fire genie were painted black, then painted with Plate Mail Metal from The Army Painter and finally highlighted with Model Air Chrome.

There’s a small “piece” (no idea how to call it) of the buildings between the domes and the walls on which they rest. I painted it Model Color Blue Green and used Black Wash to separate this part of the building from the domes and the wind of the genie.

Details

The flags at the top of the masts were painted in Model Color Orange Red, then drybrushed Model Color Light Orange.

Varnishing was delayed by a week. It was storming again and I didn’t want another Flaming Scimitar to be blown from my balcony!

This project is almost finished. Only one more ship to paint. A very big ship.