Grimnir’s Thunder – Fun with Blimps

When I decided to paint Grimnir’s Thunder I was expecting to have an easy job – I mean look at it….

Grimnir's Thunder - completed

It’s just greens, and metallics (and base which is pretty easy tbh – see my earlier post on how I do these). Little did I realise that it’s a tad more complicated than I imagined. For one there is a ton of detail hidden on this model – a lot of it on the interior surfaces or the mid-section.  Then there’s the blimps….

No, I remember Man O’ War, it was a great game, it had fliers, it had ships, it had monsters, heck it was an innovation in wargaming, what I never comprehended (folly of youth) was the complexity in painting some of those fliers (like Warhammer 40k Epic’s models, they were TINY). As a result, the blimp(s) proved to be one of the most challenging pieces of painting I’ve done so far in Dreadfleet. In fact, I perceived the challenge to be so great, that I decided to start with them….

Following the White Dwarf guide, I started with the base colours.

Grimnir's Thunder - Blimps - base colours

As you can see, I’ve gone for the Gnarloc Green basket, Deneb Stone Blimp, Chainmail metallics and tin bits prow/weapons. This was then given a good wash of Devlan Mud.

Grimnir's Thunder - Blimps - washed

When that dried I picked out the specific areas with their highlight colours (go buy WD 382 to find out what they were).

Grimnir's Thunder - Blimp - highlighted

Finally I sorted out the base. This was done using the same guide I always use now for my bases, but at each layered stage (incl washes and drybrushes), I applied the same effect to the stem that the blimp sits on (working bottom up with the dry brushing). As a result I get a base and stem that looks like a good solid mix of sea and air for the blimp to fly on.

Grimnir's Thunder's Blimp - completed

I’ll do a second post later covering Grimnir’s Thunder.

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