Dropzone Commander Armour section taking shape

Well, I was away in Berlin last week, so no painting got done, but I've also been off this week so amongst other things, I've managed to get some work done on my UCM force for Dropzone Commander.

3 Rapiers (AA Tanks) and 3 Sabres (MBTs)

The 3 Rapiers, for shooting down pesky planes.

And a close up, so you can all spot my flaws.

The 3 Sabres, leading the charge in taking back the Cradle Worlds.

And another close up to spot my flaws.

Must admit, I enjoyed painting them. It doesn't take a massive amount of effort to make them look good, and once I did the test tank, to make sure that I was happy with the scheme and just started mass production of doing 3 at a time, they go reasonably quickly. Well for me.

In that though, it doesn't take long to see an effect, which I think keeps me going on it. One of the other reasons I'm starting to like smaller scale games more and more.

I've got some little scout buggies on the go as well, and shall hopefully have them done soon. Then I've got one more squad of 3 Sabres to do, and then move onto other bits of the army. Getting there.

Mecha Ace out.

This could be the start of something very very small...

Well it's been a while since I've posted anything, as frankly I haven't been doing much hobby wise for a good while. My job landed me with work that basically meant working during the day, then coming home and writing up about what I'd done during the day. And I've generally been so knackered that I couldn't muster the energy to do anything hobby related, and it's kept me from the club, so no gaming either. But no more thankfully. Well hopefully. I'm off to Inverness this week, so I don't know how much I'll get done.

So that means I've finally had a chance to start work on my Dropzone Commander stuff from Hawk Wargames that I received after pre-ordering it to ship on day of release.

So I purchased the large army set for the UCM (United Colonies of Mankind). The humans basically (I generally end up going human). They've been pushed off Earth and all the good worlds, known as the Cradle Worlds, by an evil parasitic race known simply as "The Scourge". Now 170 years later, after forging a new society out of the fringe colonies that weren't invaded, they've back with a great big armada, full of tanks and legionnaires to take the planet back.

On top of them there's also the Post Human Republic, who abandoned Earth just days prior to the invasion, after Earth received a doom laden prophecy from a mysterious white sphere, and the Shaltari, an enigmatic alien race, who fight mankind and each other as often as they help them.

Anyways, on to the painting. I've chosen a reasonably simple two tone urban camouflage scheme, just going for different plates rather than an actual camouflage scheme to speed things up.

Bear APC and it's squad of UCM Legionnaires

Bear APC on it's own

Close up of the infantry

The three infantry stands

So I started out with a spray can of Army Painter's Uniform Grey, which would act as one tone, and also purchased some of their Wolf Grey to use as the alternate tone. This was applied were desired, along with Vallejo Game Colour Gunmetal were needed, and then given a coat of GW Badab Black. They were then given a quick drybrush of the appropriate grey to lighten up the edges and the plates on the APC. The Gunmetal areas were given a quick drybrush of GW Mithril Silver. For skin on the legionnaires that was VMC Medium fleshtone, Ogryn flesh, then just highlighted back up with medium fleshtone. Then just add little extras like the lights on the APC and on the ends of the rocket launchers, and do up the base for the infantry to attempt to show that while it's urban rubble to provide some contrast with the grey camo infantry.

And that's it. I'm trying to keep it reasonably simply, as they're 10mm figures and I've got a lot to get through and I don't want to be spending ages on one tank, cause then they'll never get done. Larger vehicles, or vehicles that won't be used in such large numbers will probably get a bit more attention, but these, along with the tanks are the bread and butter of the force.

Anyways, hope you like them, please comment on what you think and what I could improve on beyond my camera abilities, and hello all again to people. Hopefully I'll be able to keep this going again.

A small memorial

I've never really been one to post up notes on the internet of people I knew passing away, but today when I found out that one of my good friends lost his fight against cancer this morning I decided that I would, because after seeing him at shows talking to people it always amazed me how many people he knew on site, and who knew him, and that how much of the gaming community had been touched by this man, who for most of my life knew simply as the guy who worked that till at my local gaming shop.

My friend Spencer Warner passed away this morning. That's him second from the right. As I said above, I got to know him through my local gaming shop, and then became involved in helping him establish our local games club and we became friends from there.

He inspired me to start my own game project, which I'm still working on. He was always there with a good bit of advice on a game, or to help pitch in with a club project when we needed it. It'll feel strange at Claymore doing our demo game or Empire of the Dead, knowing he painted the figures.

I don't really want to write much, just something so that others in the gaming community know that this man, who did so much for our hobby in his time has passed on. If you knew of him, or actually knew him in your life then I too feel your loss.

For those who do know him, his wife has asked not to be contacted at this time, and to leave off sending flowers. If anybody wishes to do anything all that's been asked is maybe fling a couple of quid at McMillan Cancer trust.

I'm going out to meet some guys for a drink now to remember him. All I can say is that I know he'll be painting and gaming away somewhere. Hope his dice rolls are forever good.

Deals, Deals, Deals...Summer Sales

So right now there is some great deals going on, and thought I'd write a quick article in case people were unaware of them.

Ground Zero Games

Ground Zero Games are having their summer sale, which sees everything in their store at 15% off. Yes that's right everything. The sale lasts till midnight on Monday the 11th of July, so you've got a bit of time, but I wouldn't leave it too long.

Ground Zero Games online store

So you can get yourself a Full Thrust fleet, some of their 15mm models, or some of their great scenery. I may be tempted to get some of the little add-on bits for buildings for my recently acquired GameCraft MDF buildings. And speaking of GameCraft Miniatures...

 GameCraft Miniatures

GameCraft miniatures are having a 4th of July weekend sale. Until the 4th of July, all their merchandise is at 20% off, as if it wasn't already good value. So why not go over their and get some great scenery to use on all that Ground Zero Games stuff you just bought.

GameCraft Miniatures shop

Or if you want to use that scenery for a different purpose why not head on over to

Critical Mass Games

Critical Mass Games are having their summer sale as well, with 20% off everything in their store until the 22nd of July, so that's a good deal of time to mull over some purchases. I've always fancied some of their scenery, and I think one of those Otilium refineries would go nicely with what I've just purchased.

And last but not least

Dream Pod 9

Dream Pod 9 have just declared the summer blitz to push Heavy Gear, their game of mecha combat.

To start with, their offering up the rules books for Heavy Gear for free. Yes that's right for free. To get them head on over to DriveThruRPG and simply download. Free, gratis, etc etc.

Locked and Loaded 1.1

Field Manual - Core Rulebook

Essentially the field manual replaces Locked and Loaded as the core rulebook, though Locked and Loaded is still required as it has all the army lists in it (unless you play one of the later armies).

And if that wasn't enough, they've listened to people about the game being a bit expensive to get into and they've launched some summer blitz packs. Now these packs are truly epic, and make for a great start. For example the Northern Starter Pack comes with

1 x Northern General Purpose Squad (DP9-9021, $43.50)
1 x Northern Strike Squad (DP9-9024, $44.50)
1 x Northern Fire Support Squad (DP9-9027, $53.75)
1 x Northern Recon Squad (DP9-9045, $43.50)
1 x Northern Infantry Platoon (DP9-9035, $23.00)
1 x Heavy Gear Blitz! - Field Manual Rulebook 60 pages black & white digest size book (DP9-9997h, $10.00)
1 x Heavy Gear Blitz! - Field Manual Rulebook Full Color ebook (DP9-9997 ebook, Free)
1 x Locked & Loaded Full Color ebook including Northern Army Lists (DP9-9996 ebook, Free)

Which costs $150 and ends up saving you $68.25, which I think is a pretty damn good deal for such fine quality merchandise. There is also a southern pack as well for those people who prefer the southern states.

Frankly, even if you're not sure about the game, I would urge you to download the rulebooks and give it a look, as frankly at the end of the day it's going to cost you nothing. Even if you pick it up later, you'll lose nothing by checking the rules out now, and hopefully you'll find yourself as enthralled by the setting as I was.

Hope these have been some use.

Mecha Ace out.  

15mm Tomorrow's war buildings from Gamecraft

So it's been a bit quiet round here, and frankly it's cause I've been too lazy to do any real hobbying of late. I'm trying to break out of it though, and I started with a bit of light assembly of the recently arrived 15mm Tomorrow's war buildings I purchased from GameCraft Miniatures

Landing Pad (elongated hex)

Garage/shop module

Medium Module

Small module

They arrived pretty quickly, taking around 7 days to arrive from the States. I ended up purchasing the landing pad, the garage/shop module, 2 medium modules and 2 small modules. I also purchased the 3d kits for the 3 modules, which basically without means that the raised areas you see on the outside wouldn't be there, they instead are just cut-in to the surface. Still visible, but not raised up.

The whole order cost about £48 I believe. It was originally £51 odds, but GameCraft charge a flat rate of $20 for international shipping, and then refund the difference, which for myself was $6 something. All in all, I think it's pretty good value for what they are.

The buildings themselves are pretty good. They fit together well, with the laser cut MDF having small slots for everything to go, though there were some very small gaps, though nothing a bit of filler won't take care off. No removable roofs which would've been nice, but it's survivable. They don't have a bottom either, but if they're based up then it doesn't matter. I had to place a big box of random figures on top of the landing pad, as when I glued it, the MDF on the top layer

I haven't fitted the doors to these yet either, and I'm not sure I will, or at least not on all of them. Again these just slot in to the frame, and can then be glued in.The doors themselves are a little taller than the model I've got them next too, so they may look a bit big if used for smaller scale things, like Heavy Gear. Possibly not too bad though, I'll need to test it and see.

So now the next thing is what colour to paint them. I'm looking for something a bit more than grey. Possibly a white/red combo. What are your thoughts?

Mecha Ace signing off

Sometimes you get what you want, sometimes you don't...

So a couple of things happened this week in gaming. Well a lot of things happened, but I'm going to focus on a couple that have particular interest to me.

It was announced this weekend that the game Robotech Battles that was in the works and I talked about in this post has not got the green light from Palladium and Harmony Gold. John Paulson of Paulson games was told that he would not be used for the project. On the robotech battles facebook page, it was announced that apparently the numbers do not add up, and that while the project may be viable in the future, they would not be using his company. I think this is a great shame considering the amount of work he put into this game, both with starting the rules, and with some of the great prototype figures he produced. I can only feel that Palladium or Harmony Gold, or both, have dropped the ball on this on, and instead seem happy to just let the licence sit there and do nothing.

You can read all about it at his blog robotech battles blog

Keep flying...

There'll always be a place in my heart for Robotech. It's what exposed me to anime and giant robots and started my love of both, and I was genuinely quite excited when I saw this game, and the miniatures it was producing. I reckon that dream will just have to wait a while longer unfortunately.

In other happier news this weekend the the website for Hawk Wargames new game Dropzone Commander went live. I would suggest you all rush over and check it out.

Hawk Wargames

It's a 10mm massed battle game, that has the premise that a lot of the time your forces are being deployed by Dropships (the name is a big clue to this). No more just lining up your forces (though I'm sure there will still be an element to that).

Frankly the pictures of these miniatures look gorgeous, and to those people that saw them in the resin at Salute can testify, they are still just as gorgeous.

I've prattled on about Dropzone Commander a couple of times now, probably cause I think it's worth. You had difficulty getting near the stand, and I think Dave has the next big thing in gaming on his hands. The prices are a bit higher than the rest of the 10mm crowd, and you're looking at £68 for a starter army (which is about the smallest game size), though I worked it out for the UCM army (as they're who I'm interested in) and it saves me £14.50 over buying the bits individually, which is good, and the rulebook is £15 which in this day and age is hardly expensive. So yes a bit pricey, but still reasonably in line with them. Frankly though, if you want nice miniatures, and these are very nice miniatures, you pay a bit more money. Same with Infinity, same with Mercs, and a whole load of other games that charge more for their figures.

Along with the miniatures, he's also releasing a line of scenery in the future, that will be modular double-sided tiles. So you can assemble them in anyway you desire. I think it's a great idea, and looking at some of the dioramas he's created with very little beyond his own figures and the scenery he's made it'll look gorgeous.

The United Colonies of Man on parade

The alien Scourge swarm through the streets of an abandoned core world city

The alien Shaltari invade in force

This and various others show what excellent work he has done, pretty much single handedly. I for one will be getting some.

I would suggest you go to the website and read up on the background that he's created for this, and if you're like me will be left wanting to know more. Speaking to him at Salute, I was very pleased when he said he whole heartedly believes in letting people know who they're fighting with, who the enemy is and why they're fighting.

And if you are still intrigued after that, the man himself will be on Facebook chat on Monday the 11th from 9am till 9pm on Hawk Wargames facebook page to answer questions regarding the rules, the game and anything else I imagine. I might pop on myself.

Mecha Ace out. 

Empire of the Dead WIP, Wappinshaw, and competitions

Well I've been a bit quiet on the blogging front of late, but I had the day off today so managed to get a bit of progress done on my Empire of the Dead faction, all of which can be seen below.

WIP Wolfskins

Two WIP wolfskins. Forgive the lower than usual quality (which is in itself not great) photography as they were just quickly snapped on my phone camera to get a pic up.

The one on the left is finished miniature wise, I just need to do the base. The one on the right currently just has the base colours and washes applied to him, he still needs highlighted etc. I'm going for a bit of a gypsy look from the victorian period, so different colours on them, though generally using the same ones. Might not have all the colours present on them at the time.

For the bases, I think I'm going to mostly keep the gravel look on the base, with a few cobblestones and bits of grass sticking through, as if they're in the run-down areas of London were the cobbles have all come loose and been carted off by the locals for other things.

Hope you like them, any comments and criticisms welcome

Wappinshaw 2012

Wappinshaw was this weekend, on Saturday the 2nd of June at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, and once again my club G3 was in attendance with our Empire of the Dead demo game. There was no prizes this time, but we were certainly busy all day, with a generally good crowd round our table asking questions about the game and a good few demo games run during the day. For some pictures and talk about the event you can find some here. If you look closely on top of the Tenement with the flat roof, you can see we managed to squeeze a geeky in-joke in, with a Vorlon watching closely the events that transpire, before whisking Jack the Ripper away for their future purposes.

Wappinshaw blog

To help as well the Figures in Comfort, who are the official stockists at shows that Westwind themselves cannot attend, gave us 4 vouchers they'd received from Westwind productions, so that if we felt someone had done something especially worthy during a game, that they could receive one and take it to their stall. They would then receive a prize of a free limited edition figure. These were put to good use, on occasions such as when Sherlock Holmes actually managed to beat The Ripper in a fashion rather than just managing to hold him up for the 10 turns.

All in all a good day was had as well.

Competitions

As no doubt some of you are aware, my mate DangerousBrian aka LeadLegion is running a competition over on his blog

Lead Legion prize give away

To celebrate reaching 50 followers, he's offering up the chance to win £50 worth of painting by himself to the lucky winner. I think it's a great prize, and I've entered myself to hopefully get the lead mountain down a bit.

If you weren't aware of it, I'd heartily recommend you go over and enter. He does a great job and in a good time scale. The best of luck to anybody who enters.

Mecha Ace out.