Hey guys, people showed intrest in seeing this from the dropzone thread over in the news and rumours section, so i'm going to blog my progress on the dropzone commander figs we have in for diaramas and alternative paint schemes.
First up, something you have probably heard plenty of times before if you have been keeping up to ate on the upcoming dropzone releases, a quick word about the quality of the miniatures, both in sculpt and in production;
Redonkulous.
I dont know too much about resin and its moulding, but this stuff puts its competitors to shame, and just makes me plain angry at
GW finecast, even more so than usual. The resin is flexable and cuts easily with a sharp knife, has an almost plastic feel to it, but isnt as brittle and doesnt really stretch. I put some of the spare tabs through a little stress test and they really do bend a fair way before tearing, and tearing is the right word, the stuff doesnt go white and a lost its shape like plastic, doesnt just snap, its rather odd really, but in a good way.
As for the moulding process, the detail in the minis is simply awesome, especially for the scale, and require minimum cleanup, save for cutting off a tab or cutting the peice off a sprue. There is practically no flash at all, anywhere on the models. The only flaw I could find is the occasional small bubble in the most extreem places the resin would need to reach in the mould. These end to be around 0.5mm or so and could easily be filled by touching it with some liquid green stuff, assuming you notice them in the first place.
We sometimes get sent resin masters to paint up for companies as they have the best detail on. One of the first things Tommie at the studio asked me when he saw the minis was if these were masters, and I explained with a smile that they were production models.
Which brings us to the pictures! Please do bear in mind these are 10mm scale, its easy to forget when your looking at photos off them. For reference i've included a penny coin, and for all your forign types, these are 20.32 in diamiter
First up, a squadron of Sabre MBTs;
As you can probably tell they come in 4 parts each and ware easy enough to assemble. The turret setup can be modeled at almost and angle you like and can be left unglued at the coupling so that the turret can turn, or magnatized for aditional stability. An inventive modeler might also be able to magnatize all the turrets joints so it can raise and retract.
At first I thought the tabs at the front looked like a problem, but they actually attach underneath the tanks, so there isnt any visible scaring on the model once these are removed.
The models can have taken longer than 10 mins from start to finish to build, including the time I spent plating around with the turret angles. In hindsight I might lower the guns more when I get some of my own. One point I will mention is these tanks are very low profile, to the point where I have to wonder if they are controlled remotely as I doubt even laying down a crewman could fit inside, I guess we will find out more when rules and fluff information starts coming in.
Next up, a scourge Hunter MGT;
The tags were not quite as nicely placed on this one, but still much better than alot of resin companies i've encountered. A simple 2 part kits, the turret can be left loose, glued, or magnatized easily. A crazy amount of detail on these guys, I dont think the 'standard' paint scheme does them the justice they deserve.
No picture of this one cleaned up and ready to go i'm afraid as I couldnt help myself and got right into painting it.
Not the best pic for this one I'm afraid, but here it is about half done. No prizes for guessing the inspiration. I think grav tanks in general benefit alot from having a small flight stand.
Finished pics when I get back from my weekend away.
Next up, little men!;
Very little men.
Its really easy to forget that these guys are barely bigger than Epic scale infantry looking at this pic, the detail is pretty damn nice, especially as the infantry are the only figs in the range sculpted using old school techniques of green stuff and tools.
The infantry comes with resin bases, which are as well cast as the vehicle models, requiring just the tab cutting off. My only complain with these guys is that it takes a fair effort to get them off that chunky sprue as I usualy just a knife. Clippers advised for these.
A little larger than the humans are the shaltari, only 3 to a base on these. The detail is still wonderful though.
If I 'really' had to try to critisize these, i guess the 'lack of veriety' in poses might grind some folks, but in my experience of this kind of scale only having each base look the same as the next rather than each model is a bonus.
For the bases I have glued a few simple rocks down, then attacked them with some liquid nails adhesive, smoothed out where I want it, and then dabbed with a sponge, leaving a nice texture on the base without having to use sand, which at this scale would actually be rather sizeable stones.
Lastly I'll leave you with this beast;
As I said i'm away for the weekend, but more comming soon!
(and take some shots from different angles).
Deff Gearz 2,000+pts. (50% painted), 
Retribution 57pt.(70% painted), 
FOW 
