Having worked on a few Space Wolves, I started to feel bad at the number of old board games I still have looking at me unpainted. I decided that before expanding the army too much, as it will likely never stop, I should paint at least one more now. Dreadfleet was one of the older ones and is something truly unique that I don't expect anything similar to come out any time soon.

For two bleak decades the Undead reavers of Count Noctilus have plagued the oceans of the world. After each raid, the Dreadfleet disappears into its lair as quickly and silently as it appeared, far from the reach of Man. And yet there remains hope.

Captain Jaego Roth of the Heldenhammer has vowed to hunt down and destroy Count Noctilus and his Undead captains once and for all. With him sail the most notorious and cunning of the pirate lords of Sartosa, each borne to battle upon a giant warship bristling with cannons, organ guns and bolt throwers.

At the stroke of midnight on Geheimnisnacht, most forsaken of nights, the Heldenhammer and her companions sail into the realm of undeath known as the Galleon's Graveyard. One by one, Count Noctilus and his vile allies move in to stop them.

To start things off easy I decided to leave the boats for last and start with some bigger pieces, so it might look like I'd painted more than I had. The islands seemed like the biggest, so the best place to start!

Miniature Review

I was quite surprised by the detail on the islands. The rocks themselves are fairly simple, but I expected all the different details on them. There're the castles, monuments, shipwrecks, giant skeletons and even lava. As a set they make for some interesting scenery to play around, something I hadn't really remembered from looking through the rulebook previously.

Painting Techniques

Ocean

As the colours become brighter, they should be focused closer and closer around the waves.

Rock

The Nuln Oil shade was applied heavier towards the bottom of the rocks. Once highlighted, the seaweed was drybrushed on roughly with Warpstone Glow then blended in with Biel Tan Green.

Stone

Shipwrecks

Bones

Castle Walls

Castle Roof

Wood

Glowing Eyes

Lava

Roundup

With all the pieces painted the rock definitely pulls them all together and gives them a unified look, while the details give them a bit of brightness and interest.

The lava was time-consuming, starting with white and slowly painting further and further out with each colour so the heat to show the lava cooling off as it hits the sea air. It looks great though now it's done, along with the skull eyes adding some real brightness to the otherwise fairly drab islands.