Solving The Puzzle

A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO PAINTING THE PRUSSIAN NAVY - Part Two

The second part of my self-aggrandising Painting Guide, this section actually shows how to paint the models! Remember to read Part One for the inspiration and intentions of the scheme.

This method of base coating, blocking, washing and re-highlighting is an age old method of painting miniatures, one that almost everyone will be familiar with. Games Workshop have built their entire paint range around it, with the Base, Wash and Layer series of paints. It is a simple system, and looks effective quickly and easily. It might not win the Best Painted awards, but for a small-scale system like Dystopian Wars, I find it to be perfect.

STAGE ONE - BASECOAT

Once cleaned and undercoated with black, the model is basecoated with the chosen colour. This basecoat depends greatly on the intended scheme of the fleet, but should be rather obvious - grey for a grey fleet, green for green, brown/dark red for red etc. For complicated split camouflage schemes such as the two-tone French fleet, I would recommend choosing the lighter of the colours. For the Prussians, I used a spray, but would also recommend airbrush or just painting on if needed.

Basecoat: Army Painter Spray Uniform Grey

STAGE TWO - BLOCKING 

Areas of specific detail and larger sections such as decking are painted here, so that the all-important wash stage will do its job. Metallics, decking and base colours for smoke-stack details etc. are done in this stage. Remember to tidy up any mess before the next stage for the best finish.

Decking: Citadel Mournfang Brown
Metallics: Citadel Leadbelcher
Tesla Coil: Vallejo Model Colour Bronze
Smoke Stack: (bottom section): Citadel Mephiston Red
Hull: (retouching as required): Vallejo Model Colour Medium Sea Grey

STAGE THREE - WASH

The entire model is covered in the wash, which shades the metals and the decking, fills in the recesses and basically does all the work for you. This is the longest stage, as the wash can take some time to dry.

Wash: Army Painter Dark Tone

STAGE FOUR - FILLING IN

The first stage of highlighting across the model, this stage requires steady hands. On the grey hull sections this is less of a highlight stage and more like blocking, filling in the entire section aside from the recesses and seams. Go over any mistakes with black to ensure the lines are neat.

Metallics: Citadel Runefang Steel
Gun Barrel: Citadel Stormvermin Fur
Tesla Coil: Vallejo Model Colour Bronze mixed with Citadel Runefang Steel
Smoke Stack: (bottom section): Citadel Blood Red
Smoke Stack: (middle section): Citadel White Scar
Smoke Stack: (top section): Vallejo Model Colour German Grey
Hull: (blocking, rather than highlighting): Vallejo Model Colour Medium Sea Grey

STAGE FIVE - CAMOUFLAGE 

This is a deceptively simple stage, only made difficult by how confident you are working with camouflage patterns and placement. I purposefully made the camouflage random so that I would be able to paint every ship differently and not go mad. For this specific pattern, I used clusters of three triangles a lot, pointing in different directions, crossing over each other etc.

Triangles: Vallejo Model Colour German Grey mixed with Army Painter Black

STAGE SIX - FINAL HIGHLIGHTS AND DETAILS

The final stage, this last neatening up  adds weathering and finishes the grey of the hull. The highlights on the hull are not the blocking of before but natural highlights - the windows, edges and, in the case of the Saxony-class Corvette, the large armour plates at the prow. More or less highlighting of the grey at this stage determines how light the entire scheme will turn out.

Rust: Citadel Vermin Brown (unsure about modern equivalent)
Verdigris: Citadel Nihilakh Oxide 
Gun Barrel: Vallejo Model Colour German Grey
Gun Barrel Final Highlight: Army Painter Black
Hull First Highlight: Vallejo Model Colour Sky Grey
Hull Extreme Highlight (only the extreme edges, such as the prow): Vallejo Model Colour Sky Grey mixed with Citadel White Scar

FINISH WITH ARMY PAINTER ANTI-SHINE MATT VARNISH

So there we are! These techniques work across the Prussian fleet, though different ships may have new or unique materials that need their own painting guides - the Generators on the Dreadnought and Battleship spring to mind, or the extra large areas of decking on the Fleet Carrier.

I hope this has been informative on how I paint my Prussian fleet, and gives you some ideas on how to paint your own fleets. I can honestly say the wash stage is the key - on these models it is so important to get the metallics, decking and recesses/seams properly shaded.

Thanks for reading,

George