Prussian Month Wrap Up

Well, another month (and three weeks) have passed so I thought I would look back and check out what I achieved during Prussian Month. As it turns out.... not a lot! With the incoming arrival of my son and a fair amount of apathy, plus a mid month arrival of Dropzone Commander I managed to get very little done. I have around 35 or so ships somewhere in the process of undercoated through base coated and whilst they do not require much work once all the base colours are on it still seems to be a bit of a sticking point at the moment. Below are some "representative" images of where the fleet got to.

Gewitterwolke and Imperium Sky Fortress - almost base coated

Imperium Sky Fortress from another angle - not sure about the blue for the planes.

Gewitterwolkewith the bomb bay doors open

Rhine Class Fleet Carrier and Blücher Class Dreadnought - a long way to go on both

A selection of the other vessels - at least the masking tape part (for the black and white stripes) is over and done with.

I did get my latest order of Amera Plastics islands however. I bought a couple of their Fantasy Hills, which are made from a thicker plastic and gave me a couple of fairly flat pieces so that I could make an island airfield, as well as a small corner headland for the table. This would give us a couple of interesting terrain pieces for scenarios or just general play. I've spent a little time playing around with the arrangement of Spartan Games buildings and accessories and I think I have something that will work. Now I just need to pull out the airbrush and go to work on them. Easier said than done at the moment when painting is one of those priorities that is struggling to make its way to the top!

Industrial Headland

Close up of the Bunker Complex

Headland from the top - still trying to decide if I will glue the buildings down. Makes them harder to transport but it will look better.

Island Airfield

Complete with Zeppelin Tower and Radar Station

Island Dock - this piece goes with one of the other Amera islands and fits nicely into the bay

With a couple of left over Prussian Tower guns, the ships should be safe at port.

Dystopian Legions logo - Prussian version

On other Dystopian Wars news it has been a big week or so for Spartan Games, previewing the Kingdom of Denmark fleet, as well as land forces for the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth land forces, the Dominion of Canada, as well as their new campaign book Storm of Steel! I've already pre-ordered my copy... Their other bit announcement has been Dystopian Legions - 28mm gaming set in the Dystopian Wars universe. I am excited about this, but not sure if I would be so excited that I would be an adopter of the game. Mainly because I already have a pile of things to play, a larger pile of things to paint and only so much time in the week. Although the images they have put up on their site are pretty awesome so I think it is safe to say I'll invest in the rulebook if nothing else... any maybe a few figures just to have a look... and then maybe a few more....

Prussians vs the FSA (shamelessly stolen from Spartan Games website)

Well, that wraps up Prussian Month - depending on how much painting time I get over the next month or two I am planning on finishing up the islands, as well as my ship backlog. Still contemplating if I want to base my ships, still very tempted but at the same time if I don't then I am one step closer to having them finished!

First Pre-painted Miniature from Wargamer on Tour Studios

I guess Blake said it best when he mentioned that I finally had a miniature that did not need painting, or smuggling past my very forgiving wife!

Weighing in at 8lb 7oz, Stephen Allan Townley came into the world on the 5th of August. This little man is my first child and like most new dads out there I am pretty happy (classic understatement there!) to have the new addition to the family. He is named after my father (Stephen) and Sheena's (Allan) as neither of them got a chance to meet him.

So far he has been a pretty laid back guy, happy enough to be fed, changed, bathed and allowed to sleep (as long as he is nice and warm) and even managed to watch a good portion of the first season of Battlestar Galactica with me last week whilst him mum was catching up on sleep.

Stephen - 1 hour old

Very tired dad!

Stop tickling my tummy!

Thanks to this new addition (already using him as a scapegoat) I am a bit behind on my Prussian Month wrapup, so I'll get that done in the next couple of days as well as taking a look at some of the cool new gaming stuff that has come out of the woodwork over the last few days.

Dropzone Commander Lands!

Taking a short break from Prussian Month, today I received a parcel I have absolutely and unquestionably been waiting for.... Dropzone Commander!

For those of you living under a rock for the past few months DZC is probably one of the most talked about things in the wargaming community this year (after Third Edition Flames Of War of course!) and something I have been keen to get my hands on. DZC is a 10mm scale sci-fi massed battle game where troops are brought to the battlefield in massive dropships.

It is the first game from a new company called Hawk Wargames. What makes them stand out is that the vast majority of the miniatures have been designed via CAD, rapid prototyped (or 3D printed) and then moulded (and produced) via more traditional methods. These guys have gone one step up in terms of quality over the Spartan Games products (of which I am a huge fan) that are done the same way and at a guess used a newer generation of rapid prototyping machine that leaves significantly less striations, so after the clean up and mastering process none of these marks are visible on the final product. You can read more about them on their website, but its a pretty cool story and well worth reading. Queen probably said it best with the words "One dream, one soul, one prize, one goal".

Anyway, back to the initial part of the story, the package finally arrived and within a few seconds of me commenting that DZC figures were here I had half a dozen people clustered around my desk wanting to have a look! 

After the dust had cleared (and once 5pm rolled around) I headed downstairs to the white table to take a few images of the blister contents. I know that there are already nice images of the bare resin on the Hawk Wargames site, but there is something nice about seeing the real thing fresh out of a blister or box! 

UCM Starter Army Deal - loved the foam tray from KR

Bear APC in parts (left) and assembled (right)

Colonial Legionnaires

Colonial Legionnaires closeup

Rapier AA Tanks

Sabre Main Battle Tanks

Sabre MBT hull close up

Gladius Heavy Battle Tanks

Condor Medium Dropship (minus flight stand)

Condor Medium Dropship cockpit

Archangel Interceptors

Seraphim Strike Fighter

UCM Command Cards Deck

The Rulebook

So, what are my thoughts on the figures and rules so far? Pretty awesome really! Couple of stand outs for me are the quality of the resin figures, they really are nice. Few challenging bits of clean up, and a little bit of green stuff or milliput work required but no more than is considered acceptable for a good wargaming miniature. Quick read of the first few pages of the rulebook is looking good, I'll have a good read tomorrow hopefully and update my thoughts but the initial question of how many pages are there to read... about 40pgs of actual rules. Big tick in that box from me!

Negatives... to soon to tell but I am still wary of the infantry sculpts. Not saying that they are bad, more a case of all the other bits exceeding my expectations that they stick out as not looking as awesome. Tomorrow I'll try to put a quick black wash over one of the stands of figures and take some more images. That will make the detail easier to see and let me make a more educated judgement.

I did have one other negative, but this is definitely more of a light hearted one for sure... we have a running gag in the office of asking companies to draw a Dinosaur or a Wizard on our boxes.

See....

Dave, where was my Dinosaur or Wizard? Never mind, based on the fantastic figures I have seen it is safe to say that I'll be placing another order and therefore giving you another opportunity to nail it next time round.  :)

A sad box about to go in the rubbish bin.....