Saturday 23 July 2016

Cities of Death

STARTING ON THE RUINED CITY FOR DROPZONE COMMANDER

The past week has seen my spare time dedicated to painting up some of my terrain pieces for Dropzone Commander - buildings that have sat unassembled and unloved for a very long time! Finally biting the bullet on Monday, I soon discovered these pieces were quite fun to paint, and bashed out the set in a couple of days.

These pieces were a mixture of prizes, Christmas presents and random leftover parts (the cars), so at the moment the board has been quite cheap to put together! Of course I need another ten or more big buildings to run the "correct" density for Dropzone, and at the moment it looks like a big order from Blotz is coming soon!

Anyway, onto the pictures...
The ruined city starts to take shape
Rival gangs of survivors skirmish in the streets
The first building to be featured is the Terrace from Hawk Wargames. This expensive resin construction was a prize from a recent tournament, where my force won the Best Painted award. Wonderful, but a nightmare to put together!
Beautifully detailed, this piece took the longest to paint as each section of the terrace has different materials and details
The roof section is detailed with airducts and vents, as well as a pair of rusted advertising boards taken from 4Ground (another prize from another tournament!)
The price of this piece is enough to buy several larger buildings from Blotz, so as much as I would love to build a board with lots of these, I do not want to spend the money or the time constructing them!
Construction was... unpleasant, and the result are far from perfect. Weathering and overgrown bushes cover all sins!
The Terrace - a gorgeous piece of kit and a lot of fun to paint
The small Residential Building from Blotz
An incredibly simple piece of kit, this building is dwarfed by the larger offices and will not play a big role in future games
Mehmed Siege Tanks hunt for larger targets
The Office Building from Blotz, detailed with some vents and airducts from Hawk Wargames. This building was a gift from Coxer, finally constructed and painted!
Weathering and rust covers some damage done to the MDF during construction
Not quite 6" tall, this is a good Medium-sized building
Another Office Building from Blotz, this time featuring an extra floor and a helipad on the roof. Again, detail has been added with resin pieces from Hawk Wargames
This larger buildings was easier to build as I was more experienced and confident after the first Office Building
The roof is overgrown, obstructing the helipad
This piece is over 6" tall, and can easily work as a Large building 
Resistance forces roll past
Diner and Gas Station from Blotz
These two pieces are far smaller and would not really work as Small buildings. They might, however, work as Bunkers - secret entrances to Resistance tunnels
These buildings will not survive a bombardment for long
Lastly some scatter terrain - piled car bodies and burnt out hulks
Four small piles can be arranged as needed
I think they look great alongside the rusted Diner and Gas Station, and can break up the clean roads nicely
The city starts to form
Wildly different heights and sizes offer something interesting to fight over
King Crow surveys his kingdom
Resistance fighters encounter a roadblock
To fill the board, I think I will need to paint ten or so more buildings, plus some more light scatter terrain. Current plans also include a small park to add something different
The collection so far!
What's next? Not sure at the moment, but I do have one more piece of Dropzone Commander terrain sitting on the painting table - something a little more violent. Watch this space!

Thanks for reading,

George

7 comments:

  1. Fantastic !
    That's nice to see what blotz buildings got in their guts :)
    I might reconsider them.

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  2. Very nice work.
    I especially like the uneven surface on the blotz buildings. Would you mind sharing you secret?

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  4. What awesome terrain! Would love to play a game on this!

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  5. The uneven surface is done with Rustoleum Textured spray - these are done with Pebble finish. Looks horrific at first, but spraying normal paint over the top makes them look great!

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    1. Cool. Is the rustoleum spray a hobby product available through hobby shops? Or is it meant for cars or houses or something like that?

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    2. It's meant for interior decoration so you need to get it from a hardware store or something. UK shops like B&Q or Wilkinsons are the places I have used

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