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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Dropzone Commander First Pass

Brian, from Magnetized to Lead, has lately been pushing Dropzone Commander, by Hawk Wargames. Being local, and having enjoyed a demo game at GenCon '14, I decided to pick up a few models and see what it was like.

My first experiment is with a Shaltari Jaguar Warstrider. For 10mm scale, it's quite a beast. Fully assembled, it stands almost 2.5" tall, giving most 6mm scale Battlemechs a run for their money.