Dreadfleet: Black Kraken and Grimnir's Thunder

The first two ships are finished– the Black Kraken and Grimnir's Thunder. I painted the ships on their sprues, trimmed down so they were only attached by the bottom. This allowed me to sufficiently clean the mold lines (the lion' share of which were on the Kraken's tentacles). There is a lot of interior detail that's still visible, but would be difficult to reach once assembled.

 

 

I didn't deviate much from the basic color scheme. In the book the ship has green accents, but I went with Fang Grey. The rest is just silver and gold. Considering how simple the color scheme was, it certainly took a long time to paint. The detail on these models is so tiny and so tight it needs to be given the same level of attention a regular model would receive. All those cannon hatches needed to be picked out in gold, and then the silver of the cannons poking out, then all of the silver accents washed with brown ink.

 

 

 

The Black Kraken was a little easier to paint, since it's mostly tentacles. The color on the hull is Formula P3 Coal Black. GW Coelia Greenshade was washed over the hull and gold bits to give everything a blue-green hue.

 

 

 

 

I also painted the treasure tokens. So, I have enough to "officially" play a small game with two enemy ships going head-to-head. It's been over a year since I read through the rules, so I'll have to sit down and muddle through it to see how the game works. It looked interesting when I read it, but it seems like there are a lot of random events to keep track of throughout the game like damage effects, fate cards that get drawn every turn, shifting wind, etc. I suspect this will be one of those games where you forget to do half of the things you're supposed to do every turn. We'll see how it goes.

 

'Til next time!

Dreadfleet: Islands and Bases

For of you who haven't been keeping track, my friend Chris Walton has challenged me to finish my Dreadfleet models before he finishes his Deathwatch: Overkill boxed set. Chris has started his own hobby blog, where you can follow his progress on the Overkill models (and I'm sure he'll post plenty of pictures of the other projects he's working on). Check it out:

 

http://worldofwaltonscrafts.blogspot.com/

 

I've really been dragging my feet on the Dreadfleet challenge, but I've finally gotten through the bases.

 

 

They went about as quickly as I had hoped, painted in an afternoon. The bases were coated with Formula P3 Exile Blue and then drybrushed up with the P3 colors Cygnar Blue Base, Cygnar Blue Highlight, Meredius Blue, Arcane Blue, and then some Arcane Blue and Morrow White for the highlights. The green areas were given a glaze using a blend of Thrall Flesh and Gnarls Green, and some straight Thrall Flesh for the highllights on the wave crests. It was all washed with GW Coelia Greenshade and the floating bits were picked out. The final step was to paint straight Exile Blue on the edges.

 

Only the base for the Skaven vessel Skabrus remains. It's got the interior guts of the giant fish carcass that the ratmen are using as a boat. There's also a trail of chum in the water behind it that will need to be picked out with greens and reds.

 

The Islands are coming along, as well. All of the rocks are finished and now it's a matter of going through and picking out all of the ship wreckage and water.

 

A few of the islands are finished–

 

Corpseface Cliff:

 

Castle Island:

 

And the appropriately named Skull Island:

 

'Til next time!

Dreadfleet: The Plan of Attack

My Dreadfleet box has been sitting in a closet for the past four years, which is a shame because it looks like a fun little game with some really beautiful models. Chris Walton has challenged me to finish it before he can finish painting his Deathwatch Overkill set. Challenge accepted! He just received his Deathwatch set today, so IT'S ON!

I went through the sprues in the Dreadfleet box, and it seems a little daunting, but after breaking things down, the intimidation factor is greatly reduced. The parts are all arranged and organized pretty nicely. The largest sprue holds all of the island parts and the measuring tools:

 

 

All of the bases and all of the masts and sails are each on their own sprue, meaning they can be primed and painted all together:

 

The small ships are each arranged in their own section of the other sprues. Scattered among these are the treasure icons and smaller auxiliary ships:

 

The Skabrus and Shadewraith ships are a little more spread out on their sprues:

 

The last one holds the Heldenhammer and Bloody Reaver, and the remaining auxiliaries as well as the sea monsters:

 

That's a lot of stuff! To start, I've broken down the sprues and separated each ship from the other parts around it. That leaves me with the eight vessels– Grimnir's Thunder, the Seadrake, the Swordfish, the Flaming Scimitar, the Curse of Zandri, and the Black Kraken...

 

...the Shadewraith and the Skabrus.

 

The Heldenhammer and Bloody Reaver parts remain intermingled on the final sprue:

 

Most of the islands and wrecks are a single piece. The others, once assembled, greatly condense the number of elements to be painted:

 

And that leaves a handful of remaining bits, including the measuring stick and turning gauges:

 

So now the question is: Where to start? Probably with the bases. I think it's safe to say that the sails will be last. When I bought the game, I was considering sanding the sculpted imagery off of the sails and painting my own, but now I don't know. I think I'll just go with the original designs. Thankfully, we're starting to get into ideal priming weather. I've got a lot of painting ahead!

 

 

'Til next time!

Corpsemasters, and Dreadfleet, and Tombstones, Oh My!

I'm in the middle of a terrain commission, so I haven't had much time to work on my Mortis Engine, but I took a spare moment to finish painting the corpsemasters:

 

 

The different versions are a "regular" corpsemaster and a wraith version meant to be Korak the Grim riding the Mortis Engine. I'd put him up there in the event that he's not in the army as a regular Hero-level character.

 

 

All that remains on this model is the bone cage surrounding the reliquary and bits like the skeletons and book. I'll hopefully find some time to work on this so I can get it off my plate and focus on other projects (alas, the Morghasts are already resigned to the Shelf of Shame). My buddy Chris also put forth the challenge for me to finish painting my Dreadfleet set before he finishes his Deathwatch Overkill set. Challenge accepted!

 

In other news, those of you following me on Facebook will have seen that I'm getting ready to release my first resin terrain set. I hope to have these tombstones and shrines up for sale sometime this month. More on that in the coming weeks...

 

'Til next time!