I'm on a boat! (Man O'War)

[Humorous_Conclusion]

I never knew about those Ral Partha models before. The Dwarf and Empire ships look like a perfect fit, aesthetically and, given the price, I think I might have to grab a few.

[OSHIROmodels]

Jimbibbly, yeah, it's a lovely old game, isn't it? I do believe your Japanese cliffs are partly to blame for this project... I've had an unfulfilled urge to build islands for the last few days now. Though I'd never dream of approaching your terrain prowess.

Yup, one of GW's better offerings and so simple 

I'm sure whatever terrain you decide to do it'll be great 

cheers

James

[Modhail]

LordOdo, boat wars, if you find the right ruleset, are quite fun. If you have the chance, try it!

Yup, one of GW's better offerings and so simple 

Absolutely, this game was a quiet little gem, discontinued before it's time...

I'm sure whatever terrain you decide to do it'll be great 

Thanks for the confidence!
Well, initially I'm going to be lazy and just paint up the Dreadfleet terrain. After that, especially once I get a second fleet underway, I guess I will need to build some proper islands. Until that time I'll be following your cliff thread for inspiration.

[Modhail]

Sooo, sunny sunday painting happened... 

The rock colour on the Dreadfleet islands is done:


And I've painted the water on the Nautilus Submerged marker experiments, it just needs gloss varnish:

I attempted to paint in the silhouette of the submerged Nautilus on the rectangular marker, but I think I was too careful/subtle with it, as it is barely visible.
I'm not deciding with which basing method or which style of marker to go with just yet, I'd like to hear what you all think first. So, what do think?
I am liking the recipe for water I tried though, I'm sticking with that one.

[Vanvlak]

I'd go for the rectangular one.
I too bought Dreadfleet for MoW 'support', so looking forward to more 

[Modhail]

And here is the Lonely Island... 





I decided not to go with the Dreadfleet doomy and gloomy dark colours for the castle, but to paint more as if it were an Imperial or Brettonian castle. Should I ever get a second one I would like to make it even more of a liveable castle, by adding foliage to the rocks (after carving out those humongous Skullz!), putting some small fields and buildings inside the curtain walls and maybe extending the sea-level part into a proper pier or mooring dock.

Once all the islands are done, I'll paint some gloss varnish along the rim, near the sea level, to give the effect of wet sea-splashed rock.

[OSHIROmodels]

Looks great 

Might I suggest some windows on the towers?

cheers

James

[Modhail]

Thanks!
And good point, that might be why the castle still looks incomplete to me. I'll be adding windows on the next painting session.

[Geoffrey21]

Inspiring work. I love the castle.

[Evil Dave]

That Nautilus template idea is getting burgled. Great stuff.

[Modhail]

Thanks, both of you!
For the dive template, while the rectangle makes sense from a movement and uniformity standpoint, the "fishy" template looks more fun. Plus it could serve as a reminder that (outside of torpedoes), other ships can't interact with the Nautilii. Internal discussions on which to choose are still ongoing... 

Painting is progressing, where current weather (either heat or pouring deluge) allows, but nothing exciting enough to take pictures of.

[warburton]

Great work. I prefer the fish shape template and I also prefer the greenstuff waves to the other. Cheers!

[Elbows]

Modhail,

Regarding the submerged nautilus.  Perhaps a rectangular base with wake cresting in the shape of the nautilus itself, so it retains its shape but is a rectangular base? 



Only actually submerged?

[Modhail]

Elbows, thanks for the inspiration, I'm currently GS-casting the superstructure of a Nautilus to try something similar to that picture. But deeper in the water, with (hopefully) more bow-wave and wake suggesting the shape of the vessel itself.

And I painted all the Islands and reefs from Dreadfleet:


Some highlights (more on my blog)
The Castle on the Rocks (now with windows):


Caldera Temple Isle:


The Weird Skull Reef (Though in modern GW naming conventions this would most like be the "Skulled Headlands of SkullCrania"?)


As you can see, I didn't follow the "official" Dreadfleet colour schemes. Mainly because I expect to be using these for Man O'War as least as much as for Dreadfleet and so they need to fit in with the Old World a bit better. Besides, I found it quite boring to make all the human-built structures from the same dark green glossy rock.

Now, time to start getting the Dwarf fleet ready for primer. (Flags and waves still to do on most of them.) After that I will hopefully turn my attention to the Empire Fleet. They will need completing (I'm lacking a number of critical ship types, mainly Wolfships and Hellhammers or Ironfists, that I will need to either convert from Wargalleys or scratchbuild.) and I will have to settle on how to do the sails.
I'd like to do something more pretty and durable than paper sails, currently considering either making the sails from thick metal foil, or going all in and making formers/Oyumaru moulds for 3D sails.

[OSHIROmodels]

Castle works now 

I think making a former for each sail might be more work than it's worth 

I drew papers sails in cad for my Empire and Bretonian fleets and (with a bit of curling) they work fine 

cheers

James