Dropzone July Roundup
Welcome, Commander.
This month, I’ve been focussing on Dropzone Commander models, but I originally had bigger plans… However this month, I just hit a wall and had been extremely unmotivated. I had painted a bunch of Operation Artemis models as testers for multiple painting tutorials. Originally planned was 4 painting tutorials, a PHR Walker video, Sphinx video, Minotaur video and Harpy video. But the creative block hit hard and reduced that to just the PHR Walker video, but that’s a video I’m really proud of, and I spent longer on it than I do other videos, and used some new hardware to record the footage, so from that slump came some positives! And I managed to get an entire box game painted, plus an extra model! That’s 21 models, plus a painting tutorial!
I was also hoping to paint some other stuff from the Drop Universe, but that would have ended up spreading me too thin, if I had done the 4 videos, too. But using a piece of a Bioficer ship from Dropfleet Commander, The Anomaly, and some Mini Mould, I made some 2-part moulds that I could use with Greenstuff to make copies. These copies will replace the tokens in Operation Artemis, for the Bioficer beacons. However, if you play Dropfleet and collect Bioficers, you’ll have plenty of pieces spare to do this, without the need for making moulds! They’re currently sat primed, but that’s it so far.
The PHR Type-9 Frontier Walkers are armed with incredible weapons, all with the purpose of destroying Bioficer beacons, and fending off the local Mega Fauna that call the ruined cities home. I painted each of the Walkers the same, until it came to the markings. My thoughts for these were that they are squad markings, and Operation Artemis has called together the best of the best from their ranks for this mission.
The Mega Fauna side of the Operation Artemis comprises of 2 Minotaurs, the largest and deadliest of the wild animals that roam the overgrown streets. Covered in bone like spikes, it gives the impression that they are not the top predator on the world, because in animals, this is a protection against attacks. And well… Let’s just say that TTCombat has brought the top predator back in the form of Event Exclusive models… And I have one on order.
The Sphinx has an armoured plate of bone on their head and body, with smaller protrusions down their tails. Black teeth and claws make these creatures look otherworldly and alien, which was also a technique used on the Minotaurs.
Harpies are flying creatures that are a nuisance on their own, but as a swarm are a real threat. Very little armour makes these creatures able to manoeuvre quickly, and light enough to fly, despite their large size when compared to humans.
The Bullhorn is an extra creature for the Mega Fauna, who is available separately. They are a pretty docile creature, content to eat the overgrowth. If you use one in Operation Artemis, you don’t set them up with your other Mega Fauna, they start the game in contact with Difficult Terrain not in the PHR deployment. And this creature doesn’t count as Friendly for Fauna players. It moves towards the nearest target at the end of each round, moving a number of inches according to the dice roll, and the higher the noise level, the more dice that are rolled. I painted my Bullhorn as a reference to the prehistoric cow, which has been back-bred and reintroduced, the Auroch.
The painting tutorial to show you how to paint the PHR Walkers, all using TTCombat’s paint range.
So what is coming up in August?
Well, it’s going to be Anything Goes August. I have an idea for a video trying out some cool new TTCombat paints I’ve bought which I don’t think many people in our side of the hobby are well versed in, so I want to do some experiments in what I’m calling The Tippy Test Lab. But the main thing for the month is just getting some more bits painted. Not being system focused this month will be a nice palette cleanser.
Learn how to apply those pesky decals and make your models look absolutely awesome!