The plastic Imperial cruisers you get with the Battlefleet Gothic boxed game are some of my favourite ships in the range - a staunch Imperialist at the best of times, these glorius vessels cemented the idea of doing a mighty Imperial fleet in my head. These days, of course, that idea has been translated onto the tabletop, and here's my guide to painting Imperial cruisers quickly and effectively.
Tools and Paints
When painting BFG ships, the method I use for the vast majority of the work is drybrushing. While Games Workshop do sell drybrushes, the head on them is tiny, and you'll be there all day if you try to drybrush your cruisers using one of them. Personally, I use a pair of brushes from Royal, in their Soft Grip SG1425 range - a size 5 (for smaller work) and a size 10 (for the majority of the legwork). If you can't get hold of these, don't panic. Any brush for use with acrylics, with relatively stiff bristles and heads of around 3/4" and 3/8" should be fine. I also use a GW Detail brush and Fine Detail brush when doing detail work (surprisingly).
With regards to paints, I use the following when painting my Gothic ships:
- Chaos Black
- Codex Grey
- Fortress Grey
- Skull White
- Boltgun Metal
- Tin Bitz
- Shining Gold
- Chestnut Ink
- Regal Blue
The use of Tin Bitz/Shining Gold/Chestnut Ink and Regal Blue is to do with my fleet's markings, so if you want your fleet to use different colours, change these. I do think the gold combo works well on the banding and aquila on the prow, so I would advise you try it before dismissing it.
Step-By-Step
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Once you've spray-undercoated the ship, the first thing to do is go back with Chaos Black, and touch up any bits you may have missed. This gives a nice, consistant base for the paint that will follow. As you can see, for this example we're using a Tyrant class Cruiser, if only because it was undercoated and to hand. |
 | The first stage of drybrushing the cruiser: Codex Grey. Two main things to remember - 1, Don't press too hard; 2, Don't get too much paint on your brush. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to use this stage to give a lighter base for the future "highlight" drybrushes. The size 10brush was used for the majority of the ship, with the size 5 being used for areas such as under the bridge (downtown), as well as near the rpow and engines, to avoid getting paint on them. |
 | Drybrush 2: The Sequel - this time we're using Fortress Grey. When doing this coat, you want to have even less paint on your brush than stage 1, and not to be pressing as hard as you were - the idea is to build up to the next stage with an intermediate highlight. |
 | Drybrush 3: The Final Encounter - Skull White is our paint of choice for this occasion. As you can see by the picture to the left, using Skull White immediately gives an increase in contrast between the areas that the drybrush picks up and those it doesn't. Again, you should be drybrushing really lightly - when doing this stage in my local GW recently, I was accused of "camp" drybrushing, which I felt was a little harsh. |
 | Nice simple step - repaint the weapons, engines, side-mounted-prongs and aerials with Chaos Black, as metallics don't work too well over Skull White. |
 | Paint all those bits that I just mentioned with Boltgun Metal. I guess you could use Chainmail, but I prefer Boltgun Metal myself. |
 | Give all the areas a coat of heavuly watered down Chaos Black. We're looking for something similar in consistency to an ink, but which will dry faster and without unwanted shinyness. This has the double benefit of shading the metal, and stopping it blinding your opponent when the light hits it. |
 | Next job - paint the banding on the prow with Tin Bitz. I tend to find this gives a good basecoat for Shining Gold, and means that the Gold comes out looking more effective than if it were painted over black itself. |
 | Go over the Tin Bitz with Shining Gold - and who says the Imperium couldn't afford that much gold, anyway? Mind you, it ain't gonna be much use when it comes to ramming, is it? |
 | At this point, you'll probably have noticed Shining Gold living up to its name and being, well, shiny. A quick wash of Chestnut Ink helps with this (in my experiece) whilst adding some lustre to the gold at the same time. |
 | Finally, paint the rest of the prow Regal Blue, as well as the recessed bits of the fin on the underside of the ship. As I said earlier, blue and gold ar my fleet colours, so if you decide you prefer something else, go for it! |
There you go, a quick 'n' easy method for painting Imperial Cruisers. Job, as they say, is a good 'un.
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