Dropzone Commander - Question about Transports

[DrJekyll325]

I've just found myself sucked in to Dropzone Commander and am now working my way through assembling the models from the two-player starter set.  It seems like there are three ways one could reasonably assemble the transports:

1)  Assemble and paint the transports and vehicles separately, and physically place the vehicles into the transports when embarked.  Looks great, but surely the paint will begin to wear off unless loads of protective coating is used.  Also, I think I'd have to build the UCM tanks with their turrets retracted for them to fit.

2)  Assemble and paint the transports and vehicles separately, and use counters to show when vehicles are embarked.  Certainly the simplest method, but it would seem to lose a lot of the "dropship" flavour of the game.

3)  Assemble and paint two sets of transports and vehicles, one set disembarked, and one set embarked and glued in together.  Seems like the best aesthetic solution, but obviously costs twice as much.

How are other players and modellers handling this?

[Major_Gilbear]

1)  Assemble and paint the transports and vehicles separately, and physically place the vehicles into the transports when embarked.  Looks great, but surely the paint will begin to wear off unless loads of protective coating is used.  Also, I think I'd have to build the UCM tanks with their turrets retracted for them to fit.

This option is not too bad if you magnetise the tanks and dropship - as the models really only touch at the magnet points. Lots of varnish helps though.

You could also magnetise the tank turrets, so that you can pull the turrets out and stick the tank chassis to the dropship - this lets you avoid modelling the turrets all flat. Further, as many DSC units share hulls, you might only need to magnetise a few hulls to represent whatever it's carrying (since they will look the same when loaded up once their turrets are popped off).

Alternatively, you could make some generic-looking "cargo pods" to represent any unit, and have those magnetised to the dropships. At least that way it's easy to have some visual representation of loaded/unloaded dropships, even if you can't see the specific tanks they're carrying.

2)  Assemble and paint the transports and vehicles separately, and use counters to show when vehicles are embarked.  Certainly the simplest method, but it would seem to lose a lot of the "dropship" flavour of the game.

This would most likely be my choice. It's a shame as you say, but at least it's easy to do and works well.

3)  Assemble and paint two sets of transports and vehicles, one set disembarked, and one set embarked and glued in together.  Seems like the best aesthetic solution, but obviously costs twice as much.

This is definitely the "Rolls Royce" approach, but would be too much for me - not just double the cost, but double the painting too. 

[Daeothar]

I've built and painted the Scourge part of the starter box, The Voivod did the UCM faction of said box.

We went different routes, mostly because of the models themselves. I suppose I got the easy half, as the Scourge vehicles can be fit into their dropships without any additional wizardry; just slide your craft into the CD-rack and you're done.

I did mine with magnetized bases, since they're supposed to be skimmer type vehicles, but had they been tracked/wheeled/legged, I would not even have bothered with those.

My miniatures were spraypainted with an under/base coat of silver, which makes it a bit more durable than brush-on paint. And after the painting was done, I simply sealed them with some dullcote. As they are plastic (so more resistant to chipping), and have a strong base coat, that's all I deemed nessecary. I've not played many battles with them yet, but so far, they're holding up perfectly.

As for Voivod's UCM; he ran in a bit more challenges there. When you assemble the dropships and attach the peg mount underneath, you'll find that it basically blocks the middle position of the tanks. The APCs are fine (two per dropship), but for the the tanks, you'll need to get creative.

He didn't bother with mounting them, as it would have required magnets in the turrets, glueing the gun arms in a stowed position, and doing something wildly creative with the flight stand. So he deploys the tanks from the dropships as usual, but the dropships remain empty. He places one vehicle on the base of the dropship to show it's loaded up.

I find that this can be slightly confusing as an opponent, since it's not clear how many vehicles are actually loaded in the dropship and when deploying, a vehicle can start out on the dropship's base, creating additional confusion (was that tank embarked or on the ground now?). So when you go that route, I'd recommend using numbered counters, so everyone can see how many tanks (and of what type) have been loaded onto the dropship.

Should you want to go with the magnetized option (which I'd prefer), you will need to address the flightstand issue though. I was thinking of using a recurved wire attached to the tailpipes of the dropship and the base, so the space on the belly of the dropship can be used for the tanks and APCs. Of course you will have to model the magnets in the turrets as nicely as possible, since they're highly visible on top.

So, long story short; Scourge; easy as pie, just load them up  and don't bother with the paintjobs as they're pretty resilient to abuse anyway. UCM; needs a bit of thought and creativity, as the models are not suited for out of the box mounting...

[DrJekyll325]

Thanks, guys - very good feedback!