As they say, slow and steady wins the race. Yes, I'm still puttering with painting up Dreadfleet, while the game has already vanished from the publisher's website...
Last year (!), I painted the Wind Gauge and the ship bases.
![Navigation Rod Navigation Rod](showcase/fanshowcase/2013/138820f.jpg)
More recently, I've moved on to the Navigation Rod (i.e., a ruler with a few joints). I'm not sure what my "design vision" was, I just went with a brown basecoat, tan highlights, a brown ink wash, black ink around the numerals, then gold on the numerals themselves.
![One end of the rod One end of the rod](showcase/fanshowcase/2013/138820g.jpg)
I painted the parts separately, then snapped them together. It's a bit shiny, so I might follow up with some Dullcote later.
![Ship's Wheels Ship's Wheels](showcase/fanshowcase/2013/138820a.jpg)
On to the Ship's Wheels. The box claims there is only one of these, but there's definitely two in the box. These are used to measure ships' turns in the game. I decided to paint each differently, so each player could know which one was "his."
![Ship's Wheels Ship's Wheels](showcase/fanshowcase/2013/138820d.jpg)
I find that a lot of painting is learned through playing around. I started with a brown basecoat, followed by tan and white drybrushing. I then carefully dropped blue ink into the lower parts of the wheel, and let that dry. I then gave everything a brown ink wash.
Next, I painted the outer parts silver, then applied a black ink wash where the lettering is. Then I just touched up the paint.
![Ship's Wheels Ship's Wheels](showcase/fanshowcase/2013/138820e.jpg)
I liked how that turned out, so I tried the same process on the other device, substituting red ink for blue, brass for silver, and brown ink for black ink.
![Ship's Wheels Ship's Wheels](showcase/fanshowcase/2013/138820c.jpg)
For the backsides, I just painted them silver and brass, respectively.