Tuesday 11 September 2018

Hello Hobby Zoners once again!

I hope you all enjoyed a great weekend and are facing your week with renewed vigour. 
I have been looking at some of my Dropzone Commander (DZC) units with the aim of refreshing their paint schemes. 

In this regard I will post two of the units I intend to complete this week.
One is the United Colonies of Mankind (UCM) Broadsword super heavy MBT.

It is a frontline battle tank armed with a Heavy Rail Gun as its main armament (and machine guns) and is extensively armoured with a sophisticated composite/alloy weave on a dual tracked chassis.

It is quite an imposing vehicle on the battlefield and I use them with Condors which are Dropships used as bulk lifters in the game which provide tactical mobility.

This one was initially painted with dark green Army Painter spray, then washed with GW Biel Tan Green. I then drybrushed the vehicle several times mixing a lighter green to the base colour then finally adding a little yellow to achieve the highlights I wanted.

After this I picked out other details like grills and vents as well as the tracks. 
I still need to do lights and the sensor domes but overall I feel this one is coming together quite nicely.








Next up is my UCM Phoenix Command Gunship. This is the heaviest Dropship the UCM field in frontline missions. It is a formidable aircraft armed with various sensor payloads and advanced radars as well as some ECM gear. This Dropship co-ordinates the rest of the UCM force on the ground during the battle and makes use of various advanced long range encrypted communications and data links. 

The weapons on her are six UM-86 'Punisher' missiles that are perfect for destroying large structures or emplacements, two triple-barrelled heavy chain cannons, which can lay down a harrowing weight of fire against the enemy and these are paired with AA Point Defence Launchers capable of deterring any aerial threats that may want to threaten the Phoenix.

But back to the painting. This was a model I painted for a competition ran by the lovely people at Asylum Wargaming. I actually placed joint 1st and received a lovely parcel of Dropzone related loot as well as a custom printed t-shirt in XXXL. 

The painting on the Phoenix was a little bit more complex than my usual efforts. I used two Army Painter sprays to achieve the basic scheme. Spraying first with a dark green, then I used the Anarchy Digicam Stencils on parts of the model. Then masking areas off with cling film I sprayed with a bone white colour over the top. Once dry I removed the masked areas which would be painted a different way to tie them in with my existing units. This was a tri-colour WWII Flecktarn scheme I will talk about in more detail on another post.

After applying washes of AP Soft tone over the model. Then painting the rear portion in in my custom Flecktarn scheme I went back and picked out the canopy and other details like the engines thrusters, chain canons and missile pods.






I am particularly proud of the work I did on the Phoenix and to this day she remains some of my best work. But having been used in countless games and at three Invasion Events over the last few years the model is a little chipped in places and so needs some care and attention to get her looking her best.

Keep an eye out for more updates later in the week Hobby Zoners!

Till then farewell... :]