Painted Dropfleet Commander PHR ships (final lots added 1/17)

[Hobby Services]

Starting in on the third fleet for Dropfleet Commander, here's the first battlegroup in my test paint scheme:



That's a Bellerophon heavy carrier and a pair of Calypso support frigates, making up a 254 point Vanguard Battlegroup.



The carrier is expensive, but PHR bombers are arguably the best in the game (only the Scourge ones compete) and that huge twin superlaser on the prow makes her one of the best armed-carriers in the game.



Add the PHR's trademark toughness and she's a bargain both offensively and defensively.  Kind of slow, though.



The frigates are defensive ECM platforms, guarding nearby ships (like a big expensive carrier) by messing with key enemy shots.  Raising the target lock of a burnthrough weapon by +1 or +2 is just crippling to the damage output.



Like all PHR frigates, they're also very tough for their size, although they do lack offensive weaponry beyond some token close-range missile bays.



The large ship is on a 50mm base, the smaller ones on 35mm.  So, good-sized models, a bit larger than the old Battlefleet Gothic range class-for-class.

[supervike]

Beautiful!  Love that scheme.

[frenchfever]

yes really cool scheme 

[The_Beast]

The carrier has a strong Terminator jut to the 'jaw', but I'm also seeing a bit of 'Aliens.'

Definitely 'something else.' And in a very good way.

Doug

[Hobby Services]

The carrier has a strong Terminator jut to the 'jaw', but I'm also seeing a bit of 'Aliens.'

Definitely 'something else.' And in a very good way.

Doug

Think these figs in particular can have a very different "feel" to them depending on paint scheme.  Do the carapace in white or beige and they feel more "optimistic high-tech future" while darker colors and my nebula scheme feel more "sinister stealth invader" and I suspect a green tone would evoke "Robotech Zentraedi" a bit.  Definitely the most anime-inspired of the four factions, regardless.

[Hobby Services]

A few more painted up, this time concentrating on the troop haulers, which are the core of any fleet that plans on actually winning games of Dropfleet.

Orpheus assault ship and a pair of Medea strike carriers.  The Orpheus is slow, tough, and uncommonly well-armed for a troopship, with a big spinal mount laser and massed light broadside guns that are very effective at murdering frigates or strike carriers that are trying to hide in the atmosphere.  The Medeas are by far the toughest (and most expensive) dropship carriers in the game, and uniquely have some light planetary bombardment capability to help out their troops.







For those wondering where the bulk lander launch bays are on the PHR big boys, they're tucked away below the prow as you can see here.



Ganymede assault ship and another pair of Medeas.  The Ganymede is another big, slow, expensive brick of a ship with the same landing capability as other troopships, but it has a mix of medium guns for ship-killing work and hefty orbital bombardment capability for troop support.

[Elbows]

Love the PHR ships...not feeling the dark colour scheme though (and it's an odd thing, but for some reason I hate celestial-esque camouflage, ).  How are they to paint?

[Hobby Services]

I can't speak for what they're like to paint in other colors schemes, but the one I'm using here isn't too difficult.  Mostly a matter of patience in picking out the engine details.  I expect doing the studio color scheme would require some caution to get the pale armor parts to come out cleanly, keeping your paint thin and your highlights subtle.

[The_Beast]

Do the carapace in white or beige and they feel more "optimistic high-tech future" ...

Took another look, and in white/silver, given the sculpt, and I'd go with Robocop, not all THAT optimistic... 

Doug

[Hobby Services]

Took another look, and in white/silver, given the sculpt, and I'd go with Robocop, not all THAT optimistic... 

Doug

That depends on how you feel about evil corporations ruling Detroit, really.  If you're a stockholder it's a bright future. 

I suspect a chrome-armor scheme would evoke a bit of the "Naboo royal yacht" feel from Phantom Menace.  Not sure that's a good thing considering the overall quality of the film, but if there was a bright point to it I suppose it would be the spaceship designs.

[Hobby Services]

And finishing up the painting on this fleet, which is now up to four starter boxes and a battleship.  At this point I've painted at least one of every class of commercially available PHR ship, barring the Minos battleship variant.

Heracles battleship.  Toughest ship in the game, with scary heavy mass driver broadsides and the unique dark matter cannon on the prow.  Pretty much going to cripple or kill at least one cruiser every turn, and extra rough against heavy/superheavy targets.  Almost 7" long, too.











Hector heavy cruiser.  Pretty much an upgraded Orion, with dual superlasers and medium broadsides on a slower, tougher hull.



Achilles heavy cruiser.  One-shot prow ship-killing torpedo and heavy broadside mass drivers, this class is best at hunting other heavy/superheavy targets.



Orion and Perseus class cruisers.  The Orion is the "workhorse" common cruiser type, armed with loads of medium mass drivers.  The Perseus is pretty much the opposite with a mix of light, medium, and heavy mass drivers, and is noteworthy for being the only standard combat cruiser that can only operate in a group size of 1 instead of the more common 1-2 limit as well as being the smallest ship with any heavy mass drivers.



A pair of Ikarus vanguard carriers.  Fairly cheap for a medium weight carrier, pretty well-armed with medium mass drivers, but with a pretty small launch capacity that's only partly made up for by having the best bombers and second-best fighters in the game.



Three Andromeda escort carriers.  Tiny frigate-sized carriers, only ones of their weight class in the game.  Virtually unarmed except for their strike craft, but even a single bomber token hits as hard as most combat frigates.



Launch bays are in the prow, for those wondering.



Group of three Pandora frigates, armed big spinal lasers that have both the Burnthrough and Flash traits.  Only frigates in the game with BTLs, and currently the most expensive frigate because of that.



Group of four Europa frigates.  Broadside medium mass drivers, these are the basic combat frigates in the PHR.



And yes, I am very, very tired of painting tiny blue engine panels. 

[Inso]

you may be tired of painting little blue engine panels... but you have created an awesome fleet of ships.

Absolutely stunning 

[Hobby Services]

They are very attractive sculpts, won't argue that.  Clever designs too, they really get a lot out of just two different frames.  Haven't seen anything as good for building multiple ship classes since Battlefleet Gothic came out, and that was over 15 years ago now.

But man, enough of them for a while.  Got some UCM to do for a customer, then maybe I'll take a break with some 15mm scifi.  Or maybe tackle the Shaltari, they're the only fleet I haven't tried out yet.  Or maybe I'll do both.

[Major_Gilbear]

Very impressive! I hope you treat us with some battle reports and action shot in the future!

[Hobby Services]

Very impressive! I hope you treat us with some battle reports and action shot in the future!

Given that they've been sold to customer in California and I live in New York, that seems unlikely.  Perhaps he'll grace us with some in-action shots at some point though.  I'll mention that there were people asking for such next time I trade emails with him.