My finished minis for Dropzone Commander

I've finally finished painting the UCM and Scourge armies that came with the 2-player starter set I bought. I've had the colour schemes and test models done for ages but other things have conspired to keep me from finishing them.

For the UCM I've gone with a dirty desert scheme instead of the army green I'd originally intended and I'm pleased with how it turned out. I sprayed the models with the Army Painter Desert Yellow primer and then picked out certain details with gun metal and gold. I followed this up with a coat of Army Painter Dark tone dip. On my Bear APC test model I'd painted the side pods red so I decided to colour code the grab pads on the dropships to match so it would be easier to spot which unit went with which dropship. So on with the photos. The coloured side skirts on the tanks and AA are not as bright as they look in the photos

The whole force

My Rapier anti-air tanks

The Bear APC's

The Sabre MBT's

The Legionnaires

For the Scourge I went with a silver basecoat with a purple wash followed by a coat of Army Painter Strong tone dip. I was happy with how it looked on my test model but the silver didn't show though as well as I'd have liked on the final models. I picked out the exhaust vent detail in gold and used a green wash to give a glow to the weapons. I carried on the colour coding by matching the colour of the headlights/sensors? on the models with those on the dropships.

The whole force

Hunter MBTs

Reaper AA tanks

Invader APCs

Scourge warriors

I've also had my first proper game using the scenario that came in the set. I was pleasantly surprised at the tactical complexity in the game and can see that games at 1500pts with the command cards will be a fun challenge. We picked up the rules very quickly and only made a few mistakes. I felt that the rules would have benefited from more examples to explain things and a detailed turn structure at the start of the rules section. But apart from that I was happy with my purchase and look forward to more games.

Assembling the Dropzone Commander plastic miniatures & a building fix

I commented yesterday that I was disappointed with the card buildings so I had another look at them. I noticed that the roof tabs had a white unprinted area on them and closer inspection showed that this made the tabs too long.

So I decided to cut off the white area and see if that made a difference and it did. The tabs now fit well and the roof is more level. If you're having problems assembling your card buildings give this a try

So having assembled the two test APCs it was time to pick a colour scheme. There's plenty of colour scheme suggestions in the main rulebook if you're short of ideas. I'd decided to go with a base spray of Army Painter 'Army Green' primer for the UCM. Block painting in details like radiator grills etc and then giving it a coat of Army Painter dip and a spray of matt varnish to finish. However I planned to take a different approach with the Scourge. I was going to spray prime them white and then use a purple wash as a base picking out the details in green and gold.

However when I went to check my box of spray paints the white was empty and the green was nowhere to be found. So I popped online and ordered a couple of cans. However they probably won't arrive until sometime next week. So I decided to try a desert scheme for the UCM with a base of Army Painter 'Sand' which I did have. As its only a tester model I figured if it didn't work out it wouldn't matter. If I liked it I could assemble and paint the UCM stuff while I waited for the sprays to arrive. So quick spray of sand gave me this:

The next task was to block paint the tyres black and the rims gunmetal and then paint in some detail to give it some zip. After a coat of Army Painter 'Strong' shade dip and a spray of matt varnish I got this:

I'm happy with the way it turned out and I'm going to go with this paint scheme for the rest of my UCM. I think the light base colour works well with the darker dip bringing out the details nicely. It also has a dirty, used kind of feel which I like. Just as well I couldn't find my can of green primer. I've also assembled one of each of the other UCM models on the sprue.

First up is the Sabre tank which has six parts. The gun arm has three parts that you can just push together but will need glue to make them really secure. As on all the models the parts can only be assembled one way so are easy to put together. On the Sabre there are notches to help you locate the tracks.

 

One thing to note, check that the tracks are square before the glue dries. It's not always obvious if you just push the parts together. You can see what I mean in some of the photos below.

Note the wonky track and the gap it creates along the side.

 

Next we have the Rapier which is the same chassis with a different weapon. The procedure is the same except you will have to glue the gun barrel in place as it doesn't fit as well as on the Sabre.

 

Last is the Condor dropship. This is the most complex model with either 15 or 18 parts depending on whether you configure it with two or three carrying points. You assemble the main body and the wings first.

 

Then you add the carrying points.

There is a glass canopy which you should put on after the model is painted and varnished. Don't forget to paint the pilot before you glue on the canopy! (an Airfix reference for all you old timers)

 

You also get infantry but I'm going to leave those till last. The detail on them is poor in comparison to the other models but from 3 feet away they'll be fine.

 

I'll do a post on assembling the Scourge next week but they're even simpler to assemble than the UCM. Most of them having just a couple of parts. The infantry do look slightly better with their overcoats than the UCM, in fact they remind me of the agents in the old PC game Syndicate and that's how I'm going to paint them up.

Quick Review: 'Dropzone Commander' 2-player Starter Set

I was going to post my first Dust Tactics AAR today but Thursday morning saw the postie struggle to my door with my pre-ordered 'Dropzone Commander' 2-player starter set from Firestorm Games. Woohoo! I get to play with it a day early. I won't go through what's in the box as that has been covered elsewhere. But I will give my initial thoughts on the contents.

The contents of the Tardis-like box.

First up the dice and tape measure. The dice are an ok size and don't seem to be cursed out of the box, rolling a decent spread, for now. The tape feels a little flimsy but the stop and rewind mechanism work well, which is more than the B&Q tape I use does. I wouldn't use these myself preferring my Chessex dice but they're great for an opponent who is perhaps is new to wargaming.

Chessex dice and a tape for comparison

The plastic sprues are great with zero flash or mould lines. The detail is sharp and crisp and should take paint and washes well. The plastic is fairly hard, probably about the same as you'd get from Warlord Games.

The rulebook isn't new and there's plenty of positive reviews of it on the 'net. But I'll just reiterate that it's excellent quality with great photos. It comes in at about 158 pages of full colour goodness. The rules themselves only cover about 47 pages. The rest is devoted to fluff, scenarios, force lists, unit descriptions, painting suggestions and special rules for each of the races etc.

The paper maps which serve as the playing area are crisply printed with plenty of detail. They're not as good as the cardboard tiles obviously but are a decent substitute. I had no problem getting them to lay flat after a bit of judicious reverse bending of the existing folds. However the paper isn't that thick and looks like it will tear easily if you're not careful.

The counters and templates pop out of their sheet easily and are of a good thickness. As are the paper quick reference sheets which have a nice slightly glossy finish to them. The instruction sheets for assembling the models are in English not Chinese which is a bonus :-) The assembly instructions are pretty straightforward and helped by all the components on the sprues being numbered so there should be no confusion as to which part is which. They even contain a list of recommended paints.

That just leaves the card buildings. Again these aren't new coming from the existing Cityscape product but they were the only things that disappointed me. One of the buildings was torn and bent, I presume it had caught on something while the box was being moved around. Not the fault of Hawk though. But I found the buildings didn't go together as well as I had expected from seeing them being built in various videos. I was going to leave them flat and assemble them as needed but now I may glue them together permanently.

Overall though I'm happy with my purchase.

I've started to assemble my DzC minis and they've gone together very easily. I started with the 'spare' APCs so if I made a mess of things it wouldn't matter. I also want to paint them up first as testers for my colour schemes but more on that in another post.

The Scourge 'Invader' APC is just two parts, the main body and a baseplate. Even I managed to assemble those with no problems.

As you can see from the photos the detail is good but if you compare them to the resin models the detail seems 'flatter' but from three feet away on the table the difference won't be noticeable.

The UCM Bear APC comes in six parts. You start by adding wheel assemblies to either side of the base plate. I suggest dry fitting the models with multiple parts as I found it tricky to get the wheel assemblies 'square' so I glued the assembled base/wheels to the main body before the glue on the baseplate dried so I could use a paintbrush to push things properly into line. I then glued on the rear door. The instructions say you should attach this to the base plate first but I found it much easier to do it after everything else had been assembled.

The flatter detail is more obvious on the Bear but again it'll be fine once its painted up and on the table. Hopefully I'll get some paint on them today and have some more pictures to post up tomorrow.

Dropzone Commander 2-Player Starter set

I've done a bit more digging into the new 2-player set as I now intend to buy at least one set.

Box Art

Box Contents

The first thing to note is that the models that come with this set are injection moulded plastic rather than the usual resin. Does this make a difference to me? No, I could care less what they're made of as long as they look ok on the tabletop. Hawk are saying that there's little difference visually between the plastic and resin models anyway. The models for each faction come on three identical sprues as shown below.

UCM sprue

Scourge sprue

The contents of the starter armies are basically the same as the existing resin starter armies (£68 each RRP). The only differences are that you get one extra APC for each faction (because there is one on each of the three sprues) and that you don't get the set of Command Cards. Apparently the extra APC can't be used although I don't know why, maybe because of army list limitations. So I guess you could use it as a wreck marker or an objective. The Command Cards are not needed in a starter set game as you have no command vehicle. But as you will no doubt want to expand your forces you will need the Command Cards, they cost about £4 for each faction specific deck so not a big deal.

Next up is the card terrain included in the box. The card buildings are the same as the ones you get in the Cityscape terrain set (£30 RRP) except you only get ten buildings not twenty. Also you get a 6'x4' urban street system made up of 1'x1' tiles in the Cityscape box while in the starter set this is replaced by two paper 'posters' to give you a 48"x33" playing area. But this is quite adequate for starter set games.

So you have two armies plus all the terrain you need to play a starter game. But wait there's more! You also get the updated version of the rule book (£15 RRP) which also has army lists and fluff for the four factions, over 300 photos and 12 scenarios plus variants. In addition you get UCM and Scourge reference sheets with stats, army composition and quick reference tables. A starter scenario and turn sequence prompt sheet. As well as ten 14mm D6 black dice, a 1m/38” Hawk Wargames tape measure keyring and a full set of card templates and Scenario Objective tokens. No wonder the whole thing weighs in at a hefty 4.4lbs/2Kg.

Rulebook

 

This is a starter set that literally contains everything you need to play a starter game of Dropzone Commander. It's scheduled for release on September 28th for £60 RRP. To whet your appetite here's a few more pictures of the set's contents.

 

And finally a few photos to give you an idea of the actual size of the models.

 

As a starter set this can't be faulted. I'll be buying one or maybe even two sets so watch this space.