Falling Star
Getting started
This was a BIG project. The ship is nearly 3 feet long. So I had to make a few decisions.
Firstly, I am not a fanatic. I am firmly of the best kind of paint job is one that is DONE, rather than perfect, so I didn’t want to have to hand paint a lot of detail in boring areas – such as wood grain, So I wanted to be able to use a big brush on those areas. The problem is that on some areas, such as the planking along the side, the woodgrain detail is fairly smooth, so wouldn’t show up well, and even if it did show, wouldn’t be convincing with my usual technique of wash and drybrush to highlight. So Having pondered for a bit, I decided on using Vallejo’s “Wood Grain” paint. This dries in a “streaky” effect and gives a wood grain effet (at a reasonable distance) on plain areas. Much better than freehanding the woodgrain on such a big area! So I decided to try it out on a small area first to see what it would look like. Fortunately the steering wheel piece is separate, so made a perfect trial piece. And if it failed, then repainting wouldn’t be too much of a pain!
Nice project. Who makes the model ship that you painted?
It’s the Falling star Sailing Ship from Nolzur’s Marvelous Miniatures for D&D by Wizkids. It comes either painted or unpainted.