Confrontation Part IV: Plastic & Putty

Last time, I presented the heavily engineered mounting post that I crafted to support the metal knight & pegasus combination for this diorama. Any hope of suspending such a heavy, metal figure from a single point required a solid structure. This time, I will explore some of how I approached the dragon at the opposite end of the scene, as well as some of the initial rough terrain layout for the base.

First, and foremost, this base is going to use up a massive amount of Super Sculpey modeling clay. The material is easy to work with, cheaper than Green Stuff, and won't dry out, or set until I bake it. That means I have weeks to fiddle with it, and add detail before I run off to bake it. You can see the first few stone forms in the photo above, as well as the clear delineation between the little fired patch around the brass support post, and the fresh Sculpey.

Confrontation Part III: Engineering for Metal

It has been quite some time since I posted the last installment of this series. Even though I knew this would be a long one, I had not intended to go five months between updates! To provide a brief recap: I had assembled most of the parts of the dragon Narthrax, but the other participant in the scene was sadly lacking in readiness:

Since the, I have been trying to get the metal half of this duo assembled, so I could get back to blocking out and building the base that will support both of them.

And then an Army Happened

I have been playing DropZone Commander for slightly more than a year now, focusing primarily on the Shaltari army for that game. As is my usual pattern with war games, I got off to a good start on producing a painted army, but then stalled a bit, and never finished. This time around, I have been focusing on having at least one or two new models painted every time I play the game, and, over the months, an army just... sort of... accumulated.

More ROBOTS!

As if I needed more mecha minis, my Reaper CAV Kickstarter package arrived over the weekend, bringing me another batch of delightful plastic robot toys to paint and play with.

Unlike the white plastic of the original Bones series, and of the Alpha Strike early shipment that went out last year, the latest CAV plastics are molded in a solid grey color. I'm not sure I believe it makes an important difference for painting, but it sure makes photography easier for the unpainted version - Yes, painting on grey different than painting on white, but you can always apply a primer layer to change the start point.

Do it Yourself: Terrain Bonus Feature (2 of 2)

Last time, I detailed the build process and material I used to build a set of custom terrain boards for DropZone Commander. This time, I will complete the article by detailing the paint strategy I used to finish the boards, and get them ready for play.

Step one was to both prime and base coat each board. Because this is terrain, and not a competition miniature, I used the cheapest gray spray primer I could find at a local hime improvement store. In this case, it turned out to be a Rustoleum combination paint and primer, but anything should do.

Do it yourself: Terrain Bonus Feature (1 of 2)

One thing I left out of my review of 10mm terrain options was the option to build your own. I am not an experienced terrain building master, but I have picked up some techniques, and I like to think that I can produce some pretty good results, given the time and motivation.

I left this out of my review series for a simple reason: The quality of home-made terrain, and the effort required to get it ready, are entirely dependent on the skills of the builder, and, since I won't be shipping myself over to do your building for you, your results will vary wildly.

Enough Terrain! Paint a Figure!

In the midst of my mad dash to CaptainCon, I took a brief detour through the Reaper forum winter gift exchange to paint up a traditional miniature. My assigned exchange partner requested something that showcased Non-Metallic Metals, so I took on Reaper SKU #02551: Monique DeNoir. I thought her full-body armor and elegant cape would provide a good canvas to try.

Photo courtesy of Aaron G.

I used a combination of different NMM colors for this project. The most prominent was a deep brown/black scheme using Reaper Walnut Brown and Linen White. It was a fun experiment in a new NMM color formula for me. Up until this project, I feel like I was in a bit of a rut, using just the same steel and gold formulae over and over. (Of course, both of those feature here too.)

CaptainCon 2016 Wrap-up

On February 6th, we held our first local DropZone Commander tournament at CaptainCon 2016, in Warwick, RI. Even with a couple of last-minute  no-shows, we were able to muster five players (6 with me as organizer). I am prepared to call it a success, and look forward to the next one!

This was my second tournament, after Gencon, and the first I have organized myself. As I posted during the past weeks, I dedicated a great deal of time to preparing terrain for the event. The end result was four tables ready to go right at the start, with enough extra materials for at least one more, should the players materialize.

Ten Mil Terrain Wrap-up

After an unexpected month-long delay, caused by the mad race to CaptainCon, I thought I'd post my final thoughts on the ten millimeter terrain products I have been trying out. Although there are a few other options to look at, perhaps most notably N-scale railroad scenery, I think the three I have explored here provide a pretty good cross-section of the options on the market.

The above photo shows the tables we set up for the DropZone Commander tournament at CaptainCon. Our setup showcased a mix of Hawk, Blotz and 4Ground terrain options, as well as a little bit of home-made scenery, bodged together by yours truly. (More on that in a future post) Also featured, although not reviewed, were a set of 10mm urban F.A.T. Mats, from Frontline Games.

So, now that I have worked with all three brands, and used quite a few on actual gaming tables, what do I think of them? Read on for a comparative summary of my thoughts.

Fighting Fields of the Reconquest - Terrain part 3

I can't honestly go through a survey of small scale terrain pieces without including the card stock and resin offerings from Hawk Wargames. Any of the 10mm pieces I have looked at so far would be an excellent fit with Hawk's popular Dropzone Commander game, but Hawk has produced a line of their own (mostly) resin terrain pieces to fit the scale as well.

Although very clearly molded in the style of Dropzone Commander, these pieces are perfectly usable in other 10mm scale games, such as CAV or Firestorm Planetfall. Really enterprising 10mm sci-fi gamers might even trot out their old GROPOS models to play along.

Building a Better Tomorrow, Today - Terrain part 2

Last week, I posted my thoughts on the 10mm urban terrain options offered by 4Ground miniatures. This week, I turn my attention to the equivalent product line from Blotz.

Blotz terrain is superficially similar to 4Ground's products: Both are made from laser-cut MDF; Both are made in the UK, and both require you, the consumer, to assemble them. How do they stack up? Read on to find out.

Pick your battle(fields) - Terrain part 1

Recently, I have been working with a lot of war games terrain. Part of this is to get some variety in my miniatures work, and part is because I have agreed to run a Dropzone Commander tournament in the spring - and I need to be able to supply three or four tables worth of terrain! As part of that project, I will be sharing some of my experiences with 10mm scale terrain over the next few weeks. This week, we begin with pre-painted, laser-cut terrain by 4Ground Miniatures.

4Ground offers quite a range of terrain styles for 10mm, 15mm, 20mm, and 28mm gaming. They also offer terrain from many genres, but they are not evenly distributed across scales. Happily, their 10mm terrain focuses on a combination of ultra-modern and art-deco urban terrain. I will leave it to your imagination to guess why.

Say, is that a Scourge Grav tank in their promotional image? How did that get there?

Anyway...

Dropfleet Commander

I have been posting quite a bit work on Dropzone Commander over the past year, including my review of the game. I have really been enjoying Hawk's approach to tactical, objective-oriented games, and now I am very excited over the impending release of Dropfleet Commander.

Confrontation Part II: It's Not Easy Being Green

As expected, I have been proceeding slowly with this giant diorama WIP. In the past few weeks, I have been mostly painting tabletop miniatures for my Dropzone Commander armies (more on that in a later entry.) Still, I have done a lot of work preparing the dragon Narthrax for paint.

I need to get both the dragon and the knight mostly cleaned and assembled before I can begin construction of the scenic base to support them. I can't really complete their assembly or paint until I get that done. As is usually the case, prep work is key.

Ten Milimeter Paint

After posting my recent review of Dropzone Commander, by Hawk Games, I thought it might be a good idea to write up my painting experience with the Shaltari and UCM armies.

The two are an exercise in contrasts. One shows the bold colors of an alien military, unconcerned about hiding their position, while the other is a more traditional military force, emphasizing pragmatism over style.

Confrontation Part I: Storytelling

With convention and tournament season over for 2015, I am starting to think about show-piece painting again. I have a few projects percolating at the back of my mind, but one thing I have never tackled is a diorama.

Dioramas are all about telling a story in miniature, and in a confined space. A good diorama presents exactly what is needed to convey its story to the viewer, and nothing else. For my first try, I am going to attempt a classic showdown of knight versus dragon. The two models are large, dynamic and iconic. It will be up to me to bring the piece together with base design and arrangement.

Dropzone Commander Review

Bowing to peer pressure, and the allure of tiny resin goodies, I have slowly been drawn down the rabbit hole that is Dropzone Commander, by Hawk Wargames.

Scourge and UCM forces face off in a skirmish

My slow slide into a new game culminated with the official DzC tournament at Gencon this July. At this point, with a mostly painted army, and seven games under my belt, I feel that it is high time that I collect my thoughts, and write a review.

Gencon 2015 Recap

I got to spend last week at Gencon 2015, which was an absolute blast. I got to try out Robotech RPG Tactics on the table. I doubled my games played for Dropzone Commander, and generally got to take in all sorts of cool stuff. I won't try to capture all of it here, but I will try to hit some of the highlights.

 Certainly, the biggest miniatures splash at the con was Halo Fleet Battles, by Spartan Games. This was Spartan's first trip to Gencon, and they only had a small booth to show off their product. Fortunately, the War Store was there to provide some additional table space, and a store front for product sales. If they hadn't been, I Spartan would have been completely overwhelmed. They even had the gigantic Covenant flagship looming over the demo table to keep all the Human players in-line.

Temptations for the Mini-holic

Go ahead, you know you want to...

The Vagaries of Life

There is not a whole lot to report for June: I haven't been able to make much painting or modelling time in the past month, due to the intervention of life:

What you see is the state of my front door, as of the end of May. Fortunately, the repairs are now complete, and I have most of my furniture back in place. I have even installed a new, slightly safer, spray booth in my paint area to give me a place to experiment with air brushing.

My first airbrush project has been to try to inject some additional color into my DropzoneCommander Shaltari army. My basic red scheme looked good enough, with chrome highlights and bright yellowy lift-vanes, but it didn't really pop the way I wanted it to. My newest experiment is to add some brighter yellow-orange patterns to the base design and see how it looks after that.


Stay tuned for further updates!