Something Better Than Human

Oh Dropzone Commander.

A little over 3 years ago I was completely enamored with the stories in the gaming community of a guy from the UK who wanted to design the perfect Scifi game so badly that he just went ahead and did it. Designed the game system, wrote the rulebook, designed the models, took all the pictures, etc etc. I was hooked with the concept of Dropzone Commander from every aspect.

The Post Human Republic, unsurprisingly, with their sleek lines and cool designs, perked my attention. The background behind them; a segment of humanity leaves to become cybernetically modified by an alien intelligence, was the stuff out of my favourite Alastair Reynolds books.

I'd left the system alone though, the price of the models being pretty considerable and my own gaming community being a little leery of new gaming systems. I was content to just chill and focus on gaming systems we were already playing.

Last June though, we all got the bug and pulled the trigger and bought sizeable armies for the system. We've loved the game since. I thought for a LONG time about the colour scheme that I wanted my PHR to take though. Often the tan scheme that one sees everywhere online is the most popular and I wanted something I hadn't seen before, something distinct.

The Neptune dropship gave me the inspiration. There is something sleek and almost insectoidal about the Neptune. It made me think of a Yellowjacket thrumming in, dropping off some deadly robotic war machines and taking to the skies once more. The rear of it looks like the thorax of a wasp or something. I'd been painting (slowly) a Ryushi fleet for Firestorm Armada and was just chuffed at the prospect of finally being able to paint a decent red tone so I knew I wanted that deep red colour to be my primary. I also knew I wanted a nice complimentary colour that was distinct to highlight the paneling on certain parts of the ship. Hence the stone grey.

I think the results turned out pretty good. It's quite a simple scheme, only 12 colours in all and a nice shiny gloss coat from my favourite line of sprays; Testors.

Let me know what you think.