I’ve finally got around to breaking out the drybrushes for the Balsa ship. Here’s the usual ‘three drybrushes’ scheme I use for painting balsa. First, prime everything black then with a 2.5cm hog’s bristle brush drybrush with Resene’s ‘Barista’. This colour is similar to Games Workshop’s ‘Scorched Brown’ but considerably less ruddy.
Then drybrush a second coat of Resene’s ‘Root Beer’ which is an almost perfect match for GW’s ‘Bestial Brown’. This coat is applied as vigorously as the first, although make sure your brush is really dry. I typically give it a good number of swipes on a large ‘palette’ of scrap cardboard first.
Finally apply a light drybrushing of Resene’s ‘Sandcastle’ which is basically a light sand or khaki colour. There’s no real match in the GW range…a blend of ‘Bleached Bone’ and ‘Commando Khaki’ would be close though. Finally break out the detail brushes and start well, detailing! The windows and trim on the ship need to be detailed yet.
The more astute reader may realise this is exactly the same scheme I used to paint the WHFB modular Fortress. However because of the different textures and the amount of paint the surface captures while drybrushing it appears quite different when applied to plaster than it does to balsa wood.
I’ve also thrown together some rigging from balsa dowel, bbq skewers, brass eyelets, epoxy glue and ship modeller’s nails and ‘rigging’ string. The masts have yet to be drybrushed so they’re just primed in this photo. Right, now the ship is nearing completion I really have to finish those Mordheim canal tiles.