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!