Prussian Empire Takes to the Sea

The Whiz, on Rte 9 East in Westborough, is moving two miles closer to Rte 495. To lessen their move burden they are discounting everything in store from 15-50%. My friend Murf and I went to the store to see what we could buy. I purchased a lot of Dystopian Wars products including the Prussian Empire Battle Group.

Wasting no time I began to paint one Reiver Class Cruiser and one Arminius Class Frigate. Since it was late at night and with the recent craziness it wasn’t possible for me to spray prime the models (it won’t be possible for a few weeks). This resulted in an aggravating problem.

Applying Chaos Black onto the resin models, by hand, saw the models drinking the paint like a dehydrated man coming out of the Sahara. I simply could not believe my eyes. After awhile, their thirst quenched, the paint went on more or less normally. Perhaps spray priming will solve the problem. But, maybe someone has a suggestion?

This project, like every other, needed some guidelines.

-Use a minimum number of coats, custom colors, and special attention
-Maximize time by using foundation paints, inks, and drybrushing
-Create a consistent scheme to enhance the power and fluff
-Be relaxed
-Have fun

The Prussian Empire, like the 1830s Germany, loves metal. Behemoth steel vessels with big guns cry out for metallic paints. For some reason I got it into my head that they should be dirty and try to have a blue tint, if possible.

Palette
Basecoat: Boltgun Metal
Ink: Asurman Blue (for the cruiser), Badab Black (on top of Asurman Blue for the smaller vessel)
Drybrush: Chainmail

Wooden areas
Basecoat: Calthan Brown
Ink: Devlan Mud
Drybrush: Desert Yellow

Special Accessories/Weapons (like drive shafts, generators, unique weapons)
Basecoat: Tin Bitz
Ink: Badab Black
Drybrush: Dwarf Bronze

Once the Chaos Black was dry the rest was easy. The GW metallics are amazing! They made the job infinitely easier, which is why I chose them instead of a succession of grey coats. I left the turret off of the larger ship because I didn’t open the bag containing: bombers, fighter tokens, turrets, and special weapons.

I tried two different methods with the ink. On the smaller ship I inked it blue, after the basecoat, and then inked it with Badab Black. I was concerned that the blue would be too bright and too blue. The black erased almost all traces of the blue making for a dirty looking ship. It is nice but maybe too black.

The larger vessel received the blue ink. It was very blue. So, the drybrush of Chainmail was heavier than usual. Hints of blue remain but not much. I like the final result from this but the drybrushing took a little more work. In a way it was almost a wet brushing instead of a complete dry brush. The rest of the ships will probably be painted this way.

I hope you enjoy the below pictures. This was a nice break from painting American Revolution figures, which will be boxed up until after the move. If I can solve the thirty resin problem I could crank out the entire battle group in no time!

One note to make. The big ship isn’t finished yet. I’m thinking of doing an extreme highlight on the rivets (maybe with a Mithril Silver or a Skull White) and the side gun things (and dome on top) are too bright. I’m going to repaint them with Tin Bitz and do a less intense Dwarven Bronze highlight so they match the items at the stern of the vessel.

Oh yeah, don’t forget to check out Wargamer Blue: South Seas Detachment to see fantastically painted ships from the Empire of the Blazing Sun.