Building the French

[Ruckdog]

So, I've decided that the French will be my next major fleet for Dystopian Wars. I know, know, the French. Still, they have really neat ship designs, and I like some of their quirky rules. Plus, they are a newer faction, which means that fewer people play them  .

Here is the fleet all washed and drying. I'm hoping to get them primed tonight!

[Landlubber]

And here I thought you were in school or something...

I have the French starter box, plus a couple of Fureiux-class scout airships, but I haven't done squat with them.  My heart is with the FSA, to be honest, and I only have two hands and a limited amount of time, so the FSA ships have been getting the attention here recently.

But I do like the French models as well--some neat designs, and some interesting rules.  But for me, for now, it's FSA all the way.

Looking forward to seeing how you paint them, I'm sure it'll look great whatever it is.  You'd better not take the paint scheme I have in mind!   

[Ruckdog]

And here I thought you were in school or something...

Well, turns out I do have a little bit of time for goofing around .

Anyway, here is the test cruiser I painted up; I basically used the "official" scheme but inverted the blue and white areas. Let me know what you think!

[Landlubber]

As usual, they look great.  I really liked the way they were painted in the box art, and your inverted scheme is nice.  What colors did you use?

Did you put any sort of wash on the decks yet?

[Ruckdog]

I primed them blue using the Army Painter Navy Blue primer, and then did several layers of drybrushing using Enchanted Blue to Ice Blue. The patches were done with a Fortress Grey base with Skull White drybrushed on over the top of it. I can do a step-by-step if interested . I have put one layer of Devlan mud over the decks, but I'm thinking I might need another coat as they are still looking a bit light...

[Ruckdog]

Just a quick update showing where I'm at:



I'm focusing on getting the starter box stuff done first, as I want to have them painted in time for a starter box tournament in a couple of weeks. I would say I'm on track to have them done by next weekend!

[Mezegis]

Where's the yellow bellies?  Isn't it some rule that all frenchies are yellah!

Looking good, though I do prefer it when the portholes are painted.

[Ruckdog]

Looking good, though I do prefer it when the portholes are painted.

Yeah, I hear you. I prefer that look myself, but to be honest I'm finding it problematic for 2 reasons:

1) The portholes on these models are considerably smaller than the previous fleets I've painted. I'm not convinced my hand is stead enough to paint them without making a mess of things!

2) I'm not sure what color to go with; my normal window color is a pale blue, but I don't think that would look right on the scheme I've chosen. I've thought about yellow or maybe even green. I'm open to suggestion on this one, though .

[Camthalion]

Nice work.  Like the Camo scheme

[Ruckdog]

Another update! I've made some pretty good progress this week. Today, I started in with the metallics on the naval ships:



Still left to do:
-Finish the metallics and detail painting on the ships
-Finish the same for the bombers
-Paint the TFTs

I would say that I'm on track to finish these tasks over the weekend, so stay tuned for finished pictures!

[Mezegis]

I shall enjoy sinking them next weekend.  If all goes as planned, I'll be fully painted by then too!

[Landlubber]

1) The portholes on these models are considerably smaller than the previous fleets I've painted. I'm not convinced my hand is stead enough to paint them without making a mess of things!

2) I'm not sure what color to go with; my normal window color is a pale blue, but I don't think that would look right on the scheme I've chosen. I've thought about yellow or maybe even green. I'm open to suggestion on this one, though .

Andy, here's a tip for the portholes--it works for me with my FSA ships:

I paint my hulls in several layers--boltgun metal, then black ink, then a drybrush of a light metallic (aluminum, silver, etc).  I paint the windows with Citadel's Icy Blue, and I paint the windows after I've done the black ink layer.  I don't do them perfectly, but I do them as best I can.  Whatever oversplash there is on the hull gets covered up when I drybrush the last metallic layer, and the windows are so small that drybrushing over them with the metallic doesn't affect the window color (or if it does, it's far too small to notice).

So if you're layering your hull colors, try painting the windows in the middle of that process.

As for the color...with that camo scheme, red windows might look pretty good!

[Ruckdog]

Well, in the end I decided I would leave the windows dark for a "realistic" feel. Plus, i just don't have the time right now to paint all of them a different color . I got the starter box done, you can find them in the Showcase. I still have a bit to do though!



As you can see, I've got everything primed. I'm not sure what to work on first, though. Probably the carrier, then the Dreadnought. I might go ahead and do the subs on the side, partly because I love the design and they fact they are subs, but also because they are so small they shouldn't take long to pain!

[MadDrB]

I like the look of those French subs as well.  Also, I'm wondering what you're going to do with the incorporated sea bases on those subs....  I want to see what you can do with drybrushing wave crests, etc.

But I must admit I love that flying carrier--I want to buy just that one model to paint, even though I have no intention of collecting the entire faction.  Your starter box models look great; I look forward to seeing what you do with the rest.

[MajorMcNicol]

I love the clouds on the TFTs - how did you end up finishing the planes themselves?