Recently I have turned my attention back to Dreadfleet. I bought this set a couple of years ago when it was first released and the models are simply too nice to sit around in a box unpainted. The models themselves are superb but they are quite fiddly to paint as they often need to be painted in several sub-assemblies before being glued together. However, they are a nice change of pace from more traditional 28mm GW models and I can definitely foresee more of these models on my painting table in the not-too-distant future.
Over the Christmas holidays I made good progress on Grimnir’s Thunder, The Black Kraken and Skabrus. Initially I decided to work on Grimnir’s Thunder alongside my Astral Claws as I was painting lots of metalics anyway. However, I got carried away with the Dreadfleet bug and painted a further two ships.
Grimnir’s Thunder
Grimnir’s Thunder followed my usual technique for painting silver. It was basecoated Leadbelcher before being washed with Nuln Oil and then highlighted using Leadbelcher followed by Mithril Silver. For the gold I used the new range of Citadel paints and I must say I was really impressed. I have been using old pots of Shining Gold and Burnished Gold for years and normally I hate painting gold. However, with the new layer paints it was straightforward. The gold was painted Balthasar Gold and highlighted using Ghenna Gold, Golden Griffon and then Golden Griffon with increasing amounts of Mithril silver added all the way up to pure Mithril. the gold was then washed with Agrax Earthshade. The green areas were painted Dark Angels Green and highlighted with Snot Green followed by Goblin Green.
The Black Kraken
The Black Kraken was painted with GW’s new black/blue painted. I started with a basecoat of Chaos Black and highlighted it using Dark Reaper, Thunderhawk Blue and Thunderhawk Blue mixed with a little Fortress Grey. The brass areas also used the new paint range. I started with Balthasar Gold washed with Agrax Earthshade and highlighted this using Runelord Brass and Sycorax Bronze.
Skabrus
And finally one of my favourite ships from the whole set, Skabrus. This is a really characterful and imaginative model (not to mention gross) and, like the other two ships shown here, it makes great use of negative space. This is very much the zombie of the Dreadfleet, an undead sea monster summoned to unlife.
The fleshy areas were basecoated using a 50/50 mix of Tallarn Flesh and Space Wolf Grey. It was washed with Ogryn Flesh and highlighted using the original mix with increasing amounts of Space Wolf Grey added. Areas were then glazed red and purple and mottling was applied to the skin using dots of Ogryn Flesh and Bloodletter.
