The Bloody Reaver was created by Count Noctilus himself. From his mystical realm, he used powerful sorcery to bind the wreckage of the ships he found there, to forge a warship of staggering proportions with which to dominate the seas and drown the mortal world in blood.

Miniature Review

The Bloody Reaver began as a Sylvanian castle, but has since been built around with the shattered hulls of the grandest ships destroyed by the vampire lord. The rocky crag, path and bridge to Noctilus' lair have also been torn from their original resting place and form the core of the ship.

The Reaver is by far the largest ship of the Dreadfleet and even bigger than the Heldenhammer. The sails are massive in order to pull the mammoth ship along, and have a lot of great detail.

Overall it's a really great miniature and the real focal point of the boxset. There's so much detail, and it's just so different from any other ship you'll see anywhere else. I mean it has a castle at it's center! There's some nice detail on the various ships that make up its hull, as well as anchors and over items scattered around the former cliff face. It's easy to spend a good amount of time just looking around it and spotting new trinkets and other features.

Painting Techniques

Sails

Sail symbols

Ship Hull (Red)

Ship Hull (Purple)

Ship Hull (Green)

Ship Hull (Cammo)

Ship Hull (Blue)

Ship Hull (Brown)

Rock

Castle Walls

Castle Roof

Dirt

Bone

Rope

Wood

Steel

Gold

Basing

Ocean

Sail & Bone

Wood

Roundup

I'm glad the detail has been sculpted onto the sails, as what's there is far better than anything I could ever freehand. Having different ship hulls gave a chance to experiment with a few new colours that I rarely use, but painting them in a way where they blend nicely together to form a single ship.

The cog was painted using the same palette once again, with a small freehand skull painted onto the sail to help tie it with the Reaver. With that the Dreadfleet is complete, next up the Imperial Fleet!