Painting dreadfleet

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.