SFX049 & SFX050 - High Line Track

OK, so as seen from the previous update, a lot of the Dropzone board is now finished!  However, given I set up to do reviews of each of the sets (and given the pandemic there's been no games!), I'm gonna keep cycling through the sets.  In-fact, this time it's a double set update ...

The High Line Track curve and straight (RRP £6 each).  The event board set comes with 2 curves, and 1 straight set, which is enough to do a layer of track across 3 of the modular road boards:

Completed items laid out on the completed game board

One of each set laid out still un-punched

I recommend dry fitting them before gluing ... helps work out what to paint what colour!

Side view of a track corner

1 straight piece (2 of these in a pack)

End on ...

Side on.

Unfortunately I don't have any WIP of the painting stage, but it was done in Halfords Grey& GW Ironbelcher spray ... that's it!

To be honest, I'm not so keen of these pieces, as they feel a bit out of scale compared to some of the other bits ... that said they provide a 2nd level to fight from, adding an interesting z-axis dimension to battle's of Dropzone, at least in theory (as I haven't actually had a chance to try them out yet).  Let's hope that we can fix that in the near future!

Until next time Commanders ...

- Bsking

A Battle for Earth IRL?!?

Woah ... what happened there?!

COVID19 - The Scourge is upon us!

Yeah, so COVID19 massively impacted most things, but especially the blog!  However, things are beginning to look like getting going again, and excitingly there are games of Dropfleet and maybe even Dropzone on the horizon again!

However, things haven't been totally static during lockdown, as hopefully this picture might indicate:

Ooooo ... Hello New York ... progress has been made!

 So yeah, obviously not yet complete - but plenty to update you on now that things are hopefully returning closer (or a close as can be hoped!) to normal.

Until next time Commanders ...

- Bsking

SFX048 - Helix Labs

So - first building of the new year.  The Helix Labs (£6 RRP) is one of the smaller building sets, with a main building and a smaller garrison.  Starting here is the "completed" article.  I think they both look pretty quite cool.  When I go back to the weathering and detail stage, I think I'll probably end up picking up a lot of the detail on the "K-Shape" side-piece, but I'm calling them done for now.

Angled view

Straight on

If you're interested, below are some of the WIP stages.  The majority of the construction and painting was done using the same methodology as the Brownstone Rows - spray paints (Halfords red, white and grey primers, and Army Painter Brown), and masking.  Here we go ...

Helix Lab still on Sprue

Body of Main Building

Main building undercoated, test fit of side pieces

Masked side pieces, white already on underneath, red just done

Main building with extra colour (masking tape already removed)

Initial undercoating of the smaller building

 These were the main WIP pictures I took.  The whole building went together quite nicely as shown on the top picture.  As it happened, when I first got sent the building it had been mispacked and there were two sheet 2's.  Therefore I built an additional small building out of that and some spare doorways from the Cradle Commerce building:

Original article on the left, kit-bash on the right

This building took one about 6 hours all in to put together and get to this point ... lets see how it fits on the board.

Until next time Commanders ...

- Bsking

New Year, New Conquest ...

So the end of last year didn't go quite as planned.  Not on the hobby front, just on the 'writing it up' front!

As such, I've decided to come up with a bunch of goals for 2020 that should hold me to task.  Here goes nothing:

Goal #1 - Post every 2 weeks

As stated above, it's not that there's been no progress, I just haven't been writing it up.  The Battle for Earth Event Board is getting there, and the Battle for Earth Campaign has reached the end of the third battle!  I'm drafting articles for them so I won't spoil the surprise, but at least I've got a wealth of material to work with.  So if I fail to post, it won't be for a lack of material.

Goal #2 - Complete the Battle for Earth Event Board

It's the reason I started the blog.  So I should probably make this at least the secondary goal!

Goal #3 - Share my forces from the DropCommander Universe

Once the BfE gaming table is complete, I'm gonna need some forces to fight over it!  I've got semi-decent sized forces of UCM, Scourge, Shaltari & Resistance - in order to make a dent in the painting activities, I'll need an incentive - perhaps this can be it!

Goal #4 - Fight more battles!

There's no point in having all the toys, and no-one to play with!  We'll get the Campaign completed, but then there should be plenty of time after to try some other scenarios etc...  If anyone has any ideas, let me know in the comments below!

Goal #5 - Make sure the "to do" pile gets smaller

With the new Dropzone Commander releases, and the Dropfleet Commander releases, it's pretty certain that the collections (of all types!) will increase.  As such, I'll run a counter on the ol' lead pile to try to encourage a general decrease of the size!

That'll do for a set of goals.  Lets see how it goes ...

- Bsking

SFX015 - Brownstone Rows

So after a brief hiatus, lets address the first set of buildings built from the BfE event board, the Brownstone Rows.

These were done first for a number of reasons, however the main one was that they were simple builds that were able to be a simple test bed for the method of painting the buildings to actually get a reasonable finish without spending a lot of time on them (example shown below)

Red walls & white roof

The above picture only shows one of the buildings, but the principle was the same for all of them.  Each was painted with spray paints to achieve a quick and easy finish, with the roof done a different paint colour to the walls.

The colours used for the walls were Halfords primers (Red and Grey) and Army Painter Primer (Leather Brown).  The roofs were done with Halfords (White and Grey) and Plastikote Primer (Grey).
The vent's and aircon's on the roof were done using GW's Lead Belcher spray.

Here are the finished buildings:

Front view

Side view

The buildings haven't been glued together to allow them to be stored flat-pack when necessary.  Also, any weathering will be done once all the buildings in the set are built (so possibly never!) in order to try and ensure a consistent level of weathering that is easier to achieve if doing the lot in one go rather than in batches.

Given the Brownstone Rows are only £10 RRP, it is feasible that a further set may make an appearance once the majority of the event set is complete, and definitely when going from a 4' x 4' to a 6' x 4' layout.

So there they are, a simple and quick set that probably only took a couple of hours to get to an entirely reasonable tabletop quality.

Until next time Commanders ...

- Bsking

SFX006 - Meller Heights

The Meller Heights building was purchased a while ago, in order to qualify for free shipping from a TTcombat order.  As such, it was built a while ago before this blog was considered, so there aren't any WIP pictures from the build (something I've done for the recent buildings), and instead we just have the built product.  

As you can see, the building is also still unpainted.  With the newer acquisitions I'm painting them as I build to try and make as much use of spray's as possible.  However with this building I'll have to do the painting separately later, which might mean it gets a more nuanced colour scheme.  Let's wait and see ...

That said, I was and still am really impressed with it as a piece of mdf and hardboard terrain:

SFX009 - Adnet Apartments

Front View

Side View

I remember it was super easy to put together (as you'd expect with mdf terrain), but for the scale and price (RRP £7.95) I was really impressed with the attention to detail on the building ... and the window-sills which come in strips which do all windows on one floor in one go are really clever. 

In order to the paint this building, I'm going to wait until I've completed a few more of the new buildings, before committing to a colour pallete / scheme, to try and match to the rest of the terrain,

This piece of terrain was what convinced me to the TTcombat Sci-Fi X line, and let to me splashing out on the BfE event board, as it's a simple yet impressive piece of terrain for a reasonable amount that really makes your games of Dropzone Commander come to life.  I'm really looking forward to building and sharing the rest with you!

Until next time Commanders ...

- Bsking