Hot off the Desk: Dropfleet Commander UCM Frigates and Corvettes

UCM Santiago Corvettes on patrol. 

Quick post, mostly pictures.  Although I'm not fighting for UCM at Gencon this year, I'm still pressing at "best possible speed" through the rest of the project.  This morning I managed to clear up some real estate on the bench by getting all the UCM Frigates and Corvettes mounted on their pegs.  The capital ships (Crusiers, Battlecruisers, and Battleships) are also now well on their way, but that's a post for another day.

I'm pretty happy with how they came out; will thank Aaron Lovejoy at Miniature Monthly for pressing me to push my own boundaries in terms of process and color selection.  When I set out, I didn't expect to do any masking/striping of the hulls, and the (limited) weathering and engine smut that I did was also unplanned.

Once I'd done the test cruiser, it was apparent that masking and striping these hulls was entirely do-able, and actually gave some flavor of the "dazzle" camouflage schemes tried by the major navies when my grandpa was a kid.  (Although it seemed like a great idea, it was perhaps the most time consuming part of the painting process....).

By the numbers, this is well over half my fleet (11 hulls total) but by total surface it's not even close to half.

I'm not quite happy with these pictures, but they're not bad for a Sunday afternoon after I've had a double rye....  :)

Santiago: Top view.  The Reaper Misty Gray tips were painted by hand, the Reaper Rusty Red stripe was masked and airbrushed.

Reverse view.  Engine smut was applied with the Sotar 2020 airbrush.

UCM Jakarta missile frigate.  These guys were real jerks to stripe because of the launchers, so I punted and striped the bridge structure.  I liked it so well I went back and painted the other bridge structures the same way.

Jakarta front, UCM New Orleans class dropships rear.

Jakarta and New Orleans rear view.

Four UCM Toulon class gunboats. 

UCM Toulon front view.

UCM Toulon - Side view.

UCM Toulon - Rear 3/4 view.

UCM Toulon - top view.

ZPS - July 2018

July was all about Dropfleet

I'm going to break tradition and go rogue for this month's formatting.  Instead of the 4 normal categories of things rising and falling in priority, let's just ramble a little bit.  I know you'll miss the bullet points; they shall return next month.  There are basically three topics I wanted to tackle.  Gencon, Dropfleet, and more Gencon.

I. Gencon and a Retrospective.

Gencon is in a few days.  That's a good thing; I could use the time away from the office, and am very much looking forward to seeing old friends and walking the convention floor.  I'll be glad to visit some of my favorite booths and chat with people that I've developed online conversations with.  And I'm excited to be in the same room as one of my favorite authors - James S.A. Corey.

Gencon also marks the first anniversary of this blog, at least in concept if not by posting date.  There were things I wanted to write about coming out of last year's event, and this venue became the repository for those things.

It's been a good year.  Sometimes it feels like I'm overwhelmingly behind the curve in terms of project progress.  I mean, I'm just now getting to DFC (figures I bought last August).  But in terms of personal/hobby growth, it's been a big year.  I've typed about this before, but model prep (filling, moldline removal, priming) and airbrushing shading are the two biggest things I've added to my toolkit and now take for granted.  I'm still learning blending and brush control, and am looking for ways to expand how I do detail work with the airbrush.  But there are some big game-changing things I hadn't attempted - and was afraid of - this time last year.

Good, but not quite good enough.  Watch for improvements.

II. Dropfleet Commander.

As the Kenny Rogers classic says, "you have to know when to hold them, know when to walk away, and know when to run."

The big Dropfleet push (GC Project #2) started strong, and as the month started I had a really good feeling about it.  The test piece (shown above) looked great, model assembly went well (except for the Battlecruiser) and I was about to pop my knuckles, roll my neck, and crank out a lot of little ships.

But weekend before last, I hit a point where I was mapping out the remaining work against remaining days and coming up short.  Shortly after, I realized I was starting to make trades in quality for the sake of schedule.  "Oh, I'll just skip this, it'll look okay."  Ack, not the situation I wanted to be in.

I have a ton of money wrapped up in the DFC fleet.  I really didn't want to drop back and punt (whoa! Zoxe used a sports metaphor!) but I really didn't want to be unhappy with the result.  The direction I was going was perhaps "above average" in terms of DFC ships I see on google search results, but I knew that I was capable of better.  And as I said, I was looking for shortcuts that were becoming too tempting.

The voice in my head said that I should drop out of my DFC event at Gencon but it took a few days for me to say it out loud.  But, once I admitted it, it gave me the creative freedom to go back through the ships I thought were "done" and do some additional work, fixing things and pulling out details that I'd otherwise have overlooked.  It's also allowing me to take some risks and develop some additional skills instead of just assembly-lining them through.  Are they pro-level?  Oh, heck no.  But I'm far happier with the results I'm seeing.

Get Ready.

III. Getting Ready for Gencon.

There are a lot of google results for "how to Gencon" so I won't replicate that level of detail here.  Sure, the event is an unwieldy beast, and we certainly have our own recipe, but there's really no "wrong" way to do the event.  Instead, I'll share a few personal steps:

1. Take your vitamins.  'Con Crud is an illness that's real.  Between all the unwashed masses you'll be rubbing against, late nights, crappy diet, and various forms of nerd stress it's easy to compromise your immune system.  I think I've been sick after at least the last 2 of 3 Gencons.  This year, even though we drive, I'm treating it like one of my work trips to the airport:  multivitamins and extra sleep in the days prior, and vitamin C throughout.  (I'm not a doctor and this is not medical advice, just do what makes sense for you).
2. Stay hydrated.  We bring water with us each day and buy more there.  This is a little crude, but if you haven't had to pee in awhile, ask yourself why.
3. Don't eat the food in the convention center.  We bring healthy snacks to grab throughout the day.  When it comes time to find an actual meal we go to the food trucks - there will be two areas where they congregate and they'll rotate each day.  I can't say that the food trucks are any cleaner than the convention center, but the food can be lighter (less "cafeteria-ey"), tastes better, and getting some fresh air won't hurt you (really).
4. Make dinner reservations.  Preferably somewhere outside the radius where the nerd hordes will pillage.  Sit down, have a real dinner and an adult beverage or two with friends.  You might be thinking you need to be rolling dice 23 hours a day, but just stop and pause and enjoy the weekend for what it is: time with people like you.  Indy is a great city that supports the 'con like few other places, step outside and enjoy it.

WIP: Dropfleet Commander Battlefleet and Battlecruisers

I'll cut to the chase:  The past week has been pretty busy in the Zoxe Shipyards.  I've worked through all the basic assembly for my intended fleet list, plus a few alternates should I decide to change the list around between now and Gencon.  I've primed the ships that I assembled earlier this year, and partially painted a test cruiser to confirm colors and process.

Test piece: airbrushed cruiser, accent panels, and accent stripe.  More detailing will follow, but this cruiser established the processed for the other large ships.  I'll do a separate how-to post later, but wanted to share the WIP.

Battlecruiser parts, dumped straight out of the bag and assembled.  Only one of the hull sections in the left (lower and center) are used, depending which primary weapon type you choose.

Ugh. The Battlecruiser aft hull section had some monstrous flash and goop that apparently blew out one side of the mold.  Look at the tip of my knife and note how goopy  the model is.

Reverse view showing thee correct geometry.

The Battlecruiser gave me some issues.  Strictly speaking, I don't need it for my list (I'll likely run a Battleship instead).  I went ahead with assembly thinking "oh, there are only a few parts, it won't take long."

WRONG!  Two hours of fussing with a series of issues - some of them self induced, but many of them production issues. 

The biggest problem was that after trimming, the forward/top hull section didn't want to align straightly.  I glued and then broke the joint apart twice because I wasn't happy with the alignment.  By the third attempt, the amount of residual glue was crudding up the joint.  I ended up scraping it clean and then actually removed the molded-in locator tabs.  Then I used a paperclip to pin the joint.  More hassle than I expected, but it's probably stronger this way anyway.

I hadn't intended to pin the joint between the upper-fwd hull and the aft hull, but it just wouldn't align cleanly with the factory-molded alignment tabs and slots.

Finished battlecruiser.  Wider gap than I'd hoped, but it'll fill with a little bit of Vallejo Plastic Putty after I apply primer.

Here are all the ships I've assembled in the past 7 days.

The entire fleet, including the ones I already have in primer.  Test piece is in the lower left.  Test frigate is on the middle left, but will be repainted entirely.

Test cruiser, side view.

Test cruiser, side view.

Test cruiser, top view (repeat image).

From here, I need to mount all of the ships to corks, and get them in primer.  I've got just under a month to get everything through the paint booth and apply finishing touches, but I think I can get there.

Unboxing: Dropfleet Commander UCM Battlefleet Box

Another quick unboxing. I took these pictures a few days ago; as of last night I'm up to my elbows in sprues.

For those unfamiliar, the Battlefleet Box is a package deal containing oodles of ships.  They were premiered at GenCon 2017 (we obtained the very first to be available anywhere) and I'm only now removing the shrink wrap. 

This UCM Fleet Box contains:

• 1x Johannesburg or Perth class Battlecruiser
• 6x UCM Cruisers
• 8x UCM Frigates
• 3x Santiago Class Corvettes
• 1x Command Cards
• 1x Activation Cards

Said another way:  the BF box is basically DOUBLE what you get in the starter fleet, PLUS 3x Corvettes and 1x Battlecruiser, but MINUS the core rulebook, tokens, map, dice, and tape measure.  Paired with a starter box (or in our case a 2 player battle box), it's a great way to build out a mid/high point Fleet vs. buying everything separately.

Box Front, Shrink Wrap still intact.

Box Back, with some possible builds.  The Battlecruiser, Cruiser, and Frigate hulls are modular allowing the builder to choose the exact role/stats desired.

Box OPEN.  The stack of sprues on the left and right are the same:  1x Frigate and 3x Cruiser per side.  Center Top are the bags for the Battlecruiser, and a separate bag for the 3x Corvettes.  Bottom center are the Activation and Command cards.

A quick break for some bullet points.  Bullet points are cool.

• Each UCM Frigate sprue can build up to 4x Frigates, but only 2x of any single type.
• Each Cruiser sprue can build just 1 Cruiser of any configuration.
• The Bag of Corvettes (which is a fun thing to type) contains 3 hulls, no assembly required (just trimming).
• The Battlecruiser comes in several pieces and requires assembly.
• Cruiser and Frigate sprues are plastic (Zoxe recommends Tamiya Cement for assembly).
• The Battlecruiser is resin and will require superglue.
• The Corvettes are also resin but require no assembly.
• All of my sprues looked great, though one Corvette had a void in the center of the hull.  I filled it with Vallejo plastic putty; if I were building for a contest I'd need to complain and seek replacement as I did lose some minor details.
• I didn't take pictures of the individual Cruiser and Frigate sprues.  They're identical to the ones previously shown HERE.

Anyway, more pictures....

Stickers for the bases, clear posts for the bases, and quick reference stat cards and assembly sheets for Cruisers and Frigates.  The Stat cards and Assembly sheets are the same as what comes in the 2p Battle Box.

Battlecruiser and Corvette bags.

Santiago class Corvettes come fully assembled in resin. Shown here untrimmed straight from the bag.

SPRUES!!! GLORIOUS SPRUES!  Ahhh, I love the smell of Tamiya Thin Cement in the morning.

Unboxing: Dropfleet Commander UCM Battleship

Assembled ships:  UCM New York top, UCM Beijing bottom

I feel like I've been neglecting the blog the past couple of months since most of what I'm doing I'm (for GenCon) not posting about.  Here's a quick post while I'm enjoying my morning coffee.

DropFleet has had a tough year.  I'm no expert on Hawk Wargames, but the gist of it is that after the DFC Kickstarter, the company struggled to make the transition from fulfillment and back to regular operations.  That meant that Dropzone Commander (their original ground-based skirmish game) as well as DFC got somewhat neglected.  Store shelves were empty, and planned product releases (including the Battlefleet Boxes that we bought last year at GenCon) were delayed and deferred.  TTCombat bought the line and is doing their best, but progress has been slow.

All that to say this:  it's been hard to find DFC stuff at times; items randomly go out off stock and there's few details on restocking. 

So, several months back, I noticed that the Scourge and UCM Battleships were restocked at the TTCombat Web Store.  It's based in the U.K., but I had to have them and put an order in.  Despite best of intentions, they remained in the blister packs until yesterday.  (Note:  They're still hard to find in the U.S., so my delay really didn't cost me much.)

With that out of the way, here are some pics:

I was somewhat surprised to see how they were packaged. When they say blister packs, they MEAN blister packs.

Package contents.  Model, stand, stickers for the stand.  There are bits (nose and guns) to make one of three configurations depending upon your mission.

I set out to assemble the New York class first (carrier variant) but found a molding error on the NY's nose piece in the first blister.  Here I'm showing the difference between the two blister's contents.  Note the missing geometry where my finger is pointing.

Another shot of the low-fill NY nose.  Since I wasn't intending to build two NY variants, I was actually ok (the Beijing uses the other nose provided), but I did notify TTCombat of the error and got a fast and friendly response.

Here the Beijing is partially trimmed and almost ready for assembly.

A few assembly notes:

1. No assembly instructions are included but they are available online.
2. This kit is entirely resin, so you're using superglue and NOT (not!) plastic cement.
3. Mold detail was very good and the resin is more rubbery and not as hard and brittle as other companies' material (*cough*FlyingFrog*cough*).  It was easy to clip with a sharp set of cutters or carve with a sharp hobby knife.
4. Assembly was straightforward but NOT as easy as I'd hoped.  After assembling the plastic models several months ago, I was expecting very little trimming, but was surprised/disappointed to find that almost every piece needed some adjustment, in particular all the little antennae that run along the bottom/keel of the ship.

ZPS - June 2018

Caldari from EVE Online: Painting inspiration for Dropfleet Commander.

It's hot, humid, and the bugs bombard me whenever I step out the front door.  Spring must be over and it's gotta be summer! 

1. On the Table:

• GenCon Project #1 - I had high hopes of getting project GC1 done by mid-June, but it wasn't meant to be.  Between the Ikea Hellquest and a gazillion little things that needed doing before my annual family BBQ, I lost at least 2 if not 3 weeks of progress.  But, I've recovered and actually put the last adjustments on the final figure last night.  As soon as I post this, I'll put her on her base and I'll call this one done.
• Dropfleet Commander - Finally, finally, I'm going to shoot some primer on the first ships today or tomorrow for GenCon Project #2 (GC2).  I'm prepping for an event at GenCon, so I have a lot of work cut out ahead of me.  But I've come up with a reasonable Fleet List that won't cause me to build (that) many more ships.  Since this project isn't cloaked in secrecy, I'll be able to share some pictures as I go.
• Convention Planning - GenCon's events are planned and in the pipe.   PAX unplugged tickets are bought and the hotel is reserved.  ReaperCon tickets are bought, hotel reserved, and event tickets purchased.  Phew.  

2. Gaining Momentum:

• GenCon Project #3 - I don't have much hope of finishing this one but I might be able to squeak it out.  
• KDM Expansions - They're still in the box, but if I can knock out all the GC stuff, assembly of the Legacy Expansions will finally begin.
• Guild Wars 2 - It's stupid humid (heat advisories most days this week), so I've been hiding inside enjoying some PC games for a change.  I enjoy the vanilla game most, so I rolled a new Elementalist and have been working across the map.  I'd never played a Double Dagger Ele before, and have been having a blast (pun intended) with her.

3. Losing Traction:

• Gloomhaven - Not by choice.  Need to get the campaign back out and continue to play.  I'll need to hotseat some Dropfleet before GenCon, so I'm not sure we'll have the time or space to make progress.

4. Going, going, gone.

• Biking - I haven't been on the bicycle since last May.  Have been getting the itch lately (I do miss it) but my timing and the weather couldn't be much worse.