#8 Painted, Dropzone Commander, Starter Set

Dropzone Commander, Starter Set

 

Introduction

Dropzone command was one of many toes in the water I tried after deciding to leave all Games Workshop products behind. I hadn't read anything about the product apart from know you get a nice tape measure and some paper buildings.

Whats in the Box?

A bunch of really nice miniatures, two Mats to play on (I am under the impression you are meant to join them together), some nice buildings (paper) and some Assembly Instructions.

There are two factions include, United Colonies of Mankind (UCM) and the I haven't read the fluff evil faction The Scourge, both of which are distinct in look.

United Colonies of Mankind

3x Sabre Main Battle Tank 

3x Rapier AA Tanks 

3x Bear APC’s

 
6x Bases of Colonial Legionnaires

3x Condor Medium Dropships

The Scourge

3x Hunter Main Grav-Tanks 

 
3x Reaper AA Grav-Tanks 

3x Invader APC’s

6x Bases of Scourge Warrior 

3x Marauder Medium Dropships 

Assembly

Following the Instruction provided it was easy, but I did make one mistake on the Condor Dropships I reversed the angle of the holding clamps, at least they point in all the same direction so I don't feel too bad.

Painting

United Colonies of Mankind

Troops

1. Tops: Dark Green (Vallejo Game, Heavy Black Green)
2. Bottoms: Brown (Reaper, Woodland Brown)
3. Boots: Black (Army Painter, Matt Black)
4. Weapon: Silver (Army Painter, Gun Metal)
5. Ink: Black (Army Painter Ink, Dark)

 Vehicles

1. Base coat: Brown (Reaper: Wooland Brown)
2. Used a Stencil to create a grid of squares: Gray (Reaper, Military Gray)
3. Used Bluetack (Americans call it poster putty?) to create a mask across the model.
4. Painted masked model: Green (Vallejo Game, Heavy Black Green)
5. Weapon and Engines: Silver (Army Painter, Gun Metal)
6. Green Sections Ink: Black (Army Painter Ink, Dark)
7. Weapons Ink: Red (Army Painter Ink, Red)

The Scourge

 Troops

1. Coats: Purple (Minitaire, Ecchymose)
2. Boots: Black (Army Painter, Matt Black)
3. Weapon: Silver (Army Painter, Gun Metal)
4. Ink: Black (Army Painter Ink, Dark)

 Vehicles

1. Base coat: Black (Minitaire, Raven Black)
2. Painted Model: Silver (Minitaire, Gun Alloy)
3. Air brushed lines of Purple (Minitaire, Ecchymose) across the model.
4. Ink Exhausts: Brown (Army Painter Ink, Strong)
5. Ink elsewhere: Black (Army Painter Ink, Dark)

Basing

The troops had basing nothing else, did.

Both factions I used the same process just a different dry brush colour.

1. Mix Clean sand with PVA (Americans seem to call it Tacky Glue?) till its a cake batter consistency.
2. Add some black (Army Painter, Matt Black) paint enough to darken up the mixture.
3. Use a dead brush and apply over he base trying to avoid coating the little men.
4. When dry, dry brush with 
• UCM: Brown (Minitaire, Bark)
• Scourge: Orange (Reaper, Fireball Orange)

Conclusion

This is a great box, I enjoyed this from the assembly to the painting its really different from my previous experience with models at much larger scales.

I will have a mild gripe at the little men models which I found rather tedious to paint. I guess people without my level of vision impairment had little trouble but I tried really hard and was a little underwhelmed with my results, luckily I'm blind as a bat so they look fine to me from distance.

Would recommend.

8/10