Dropzone Buildings from Blotz

With my recent interest in Dropzone Commander, I figured it was time to start into some 10mm city terrain. I ordered a set of MDF buildings from Blotz in the UK, and they arrived just in time for Christmas. 

Here are the first four painted up (includes a carpark).

I got a set of 14 buildings...all at a reasonable cost: well less than $20 per building all in.

Assembly instructions for each kit are online. Convenient. And the instructions are very clear, with photos to aid in putting the parts together.

By the end of the first building session, three kits were done.

Elliot came over during the holidays for an introductory game. He had a set of the cardboard buildings, and a FAT Mat to play on. My new MDF buildings fit right in.

Dropzone is a good game, buy the way, if you haven't tried it. However, I believe that the biggest draw for the game is not its gameplay. It's the models and terrain. Lovely.

'Til next time.

Dropzone Commander...First Units

My buddy Elliot recently came into a large lot of Dropzone Commander miniatures. I traded him for a Scourge starter army, and painted it this past week.

This is the ground-based counterpart to the Scourge fleet ships I painted up for Dropfleet Commander last month. Here are the vehicles from the starter.

And the infantry.

And here, the dropships are loaded and ready for action. Looking forward to my first game of Dropzone.

Over a week ago, I finished up these accessories for the BloodBowl Skaven team.

Not sure what's going to take priority next on the table. We'll see.

'Til next time.

10mm Sci-Fi from Hawk Miniatures

I ordered some of the very fine 10mm vehicles from Hawk Games for Dropzone Commander. Love the detail in the models. Nice designs too.

The camo was very straightforward to apply (if just a little time consuming). First, I sprayed down a few tones of the base color.

Then, I applied a liberal amount of putty and sprayed a few green tones.

Remove putty, and presto!

After that, I gloss-coated, applied a weathering wash, dull-coated, drybrushed on some dust and brush-painted in the final details. Textured and painted the bases, and that was that.

Six new 10mm vehicles, which include some pretty sweet mobile missile launchers.

'Til next time.

Some 10mm Sci-Fi

I'm back on the 1/144 scale sci-fi bandwagon. So, I ordered a few packs of Reaper CAV vehicles to paint up.

The models are nice, and painting was very straightforward. Masks were done with putty.

Here are the finished vehicles. Looking forward to doing some more of these.

'Til next time.

The Forgotten Men of Middle-earth

A few weeks ago, I got the urge to paint some more Middle-earth figures. GW's old metal minis are really nice. Great sculpts, nice animation, good proportions...on and on. Looking through the shelves of inventory, I decided to do some free men. 

And when you think of men in Middle-earth, Gondor and Rohan immediately come to mind. I have some Rohirrim ready to go...but I didn't feel like painting horses. So I dug into some of the more obscure models.

These are an assortment of models from the fiefdoms of Lamedon and Lossarnach, the Kingdom of Arnor, and men from Dunland.

After basing, priming and the first ink pass, skin and metal were the first things to paint.

Then, cloth. GW painted their clansmen from Lamedon with tartan kilts. Looked good. I tried it on mine as well.

Next up I worked on the leather items. There was a significant amount on the Dunland models...it's always a challenge to vary up the shades of leather.

Then it was time for cloaks. King Arvedui has the fanciest.

Finally, it was time to finish off details. The remainder of the wood bits, eyes, hair, and everything else missed in the previous steps. Bases were painted and flocked...and then, all done.

Clansmen of Lamedon.

Axemen of Lossarnach.

Men of Dunland.

And finally, an assortment of characters from Arnor.

This week I was also able to base the 10/12mm sci-fi vehicles I've built recently. First there's this flight stand for the 1/144 scale stealth fighter.

And then a mix of other vehicles and artillery pieces. I like how they mix with the Heavy Gear models.

Well, that's all for this week. Next up, I have a number of Warmachine models ready to be logged in.

'Til next time.

Step-by-Step: Painting Sci-Fi Stealth Camouflage

On the continuing journey to build up a couple of 10-12mm sci-fi armies, the time has come to add some air power. I have some Dropzone Commander aircraft on order, but while I'm waiting for them to come in, I went out and bought a 1/144 scale Chinese stealth jet, the J-20. This stealth fighter is due to enter service at the end of this decade. So, seeing as it's not in service yet, it looks high tech, and is generally unrecognizable to North American eyes, I figured this model makes a good sci-fi jet.

Not a complex model...particularly since I was going to paint over the canopy and build it with the landing gear retracted.

Here the model is built and is ready to take it's primer coat.

The base color was black. Over top of that I sprayed dark grey to give it that matte look. Next I started planning out a muted camouflage pattern. The Chinese jet, like some of the American stealth aircraft, is a matte black. However, as a sci-fi piece, I have the luxury of just making something up. So. I decided to do a patchy black/dark brown/dark green camo pattern.

So, the first order of business was to mask off the black patches. I used some tacky putty.

Next, I over-sprayed a dark brown and then highlighted that with a medium brown.

I peeled off the putty, which left a very cool looking dark camo scheme. To add the green, I marked off the patches with more tacky putty...

...and then filled in the spaces between the patches with tape.

After spraying with a dark green and highlighting with a pale green, I removed all the masking material. I was super happy with the result. The scheme feels familiar, but has a good military sci-fi aesthetic. Familiar and not at the same time.

All that was left to do was hand-paint the engine nacelles, canopy and running lights. The model got an over-spray of floor wax and a few decals were applied. The final dullcoat spray sealed everything up, and the model was done.

I'll mount it on a flight stand later.

Hopefully, I'll get those next Dropzone Commander models in this week and have them on the table for next weekend.

'Til next time.

Dropzone Commander APCs, Howitzers and Buggies

Recently I've completed some 12mm mechs and infantry stands from the Heavy Gear franchise. They got me interested in building up a couple of sci-fi armies. I started looking around for other models to round out a combined arms force. The vehicle models from Dream Pod 9 (Heavy Gear's manufacturer) are just way too expensive to consider...and really, there weren't good quality cheap alternatives. However, I was intrigued by the aesthetic of Hawk Wargames' Dropzone Commander UCM vehicles. Although these models are 10mm scale, they are a close match for the Heavy Gear stuff. And they look good. I ordered some.

Here are some Bear APCs. I was suspect of the lateral mould break...there were going to be some nasty gaps to fill.

Also got some Longbow Howitzers. These artillery pieces are real beauties.

This is the Kodiak command vehicle. A variant of the Bear...so same mould gap issue.

Wolverine buggies. These fast attack cars can be built with chain gun or rocket pod armaments.

Here is an assembled Bear. As I suspected, the gap right through the middle of the vehicle is a real problem.

The Howitzers went together like a dream. Really like these models.

And the buggies are very cool.

The Kodiak, with its trailer. This is going to look really good once the radar dish is mounted.

Putty for all the APC chassis. Nasty. Had to apply and scrape down several times.

On to painting. I acquired these Dropzone models for my Heavy Gear Southern force...so they got the same blue-grey color treatment. I felt that the APCs needed a camo pattern, so I applied a tape mask...

...and sprayed brown.

Once the tape was removed, I was left with a pretty interesting looking camo pattern.

To finish the models off, they got a blue-black wash and details like windscreens, guns, tires and lights painted in. They were then sprayed with floor wax and decals were applied. A final spray of Dullcoat flattened out the finish.

And these are the buggies and howitzers.

And here's how the models mix in with the Heavy Gear mechs and infantry stands.

I've ordered some stands to mount these new models on...when they arrive I'll do the bases.

Anyway, I think this mix of models (along with some aircraft and tanks to come) will make a nice 10-12mm sci-fi army.

'Til next time.