Heldenhammer 2

Well, it's taken long enough!

What with Christmas, New Year, invasions from relations, Test Matches and the lure of War in Middle Earth on the computer, I've hardly been able to pick up a Penguin, never mind a paintbrush.

Even now, the gold needs added glitter and the 'Cathedral' some highlighting.

However, I'm now onto the little cogs and, once they are done, a welcome return to Middle Earth.

Dreadfleet Heldenhammer

Just to show that I've not stopped completely, here are a couple of poor shots of the Heldenhammer, approaching completion.

The sails are really tough - beyond my skill

Perhaps I need a bigger magnifier?

However, I have made one discovery which I should have made, years ago.

I now use two pots of water while I'm painting and wash my brushes in the first, wipe off the surplus water, then rinse again to rid the brush of any remaining paint.

It seems to be effective in preventing my brushes from speedily loosing their point and spreading out.

I can see a big advantage in working alongside others as they might have suggested it years ago!

Dreadfleet - 3 ships

The remaining 3 ships are The Swordfish, the Bloody Reaver and The Heldenhammer.

All three a challenge, particularly the latter two, both for assembly and for painting.

Heldenhammer's sails being red with gold insignia, I went for the Mephiston Red that I used to base the recent wargs with.

The other two have white insignia so I used white spray for the front hoping to fill in the sail colour round it leaving the white showing.

The Swordfish has black sails so it was OK to spray the back of its sails black.

The Bloody Reaver has purple sails so red should give me a good base.

We shall see how all this turns out.