More on Dropzone Buildings

Part 2 – with some added text - and a disclaimer. I'm not associated with Waugh Games other than as a user of the shop - just in case you were wondering.

OK a bit of background. Brian Waugh is the owner operator of Waugh Games, which is a gaming shop on the outskirts of Middlesbrough. I’ve used the facilities he provides to organise local gaming tournaments, initially for Impetus, and more recently for Dropzone Commander.

Brian saw some of the mdf buildings available to DZC, and decided he could do better. He made a couple of prototypes but I was not very impressed, basically just boxes with squares cut in them. He then got Jez Evans to do some more interesting designs, and this is what we have here. Jez said he looked for real world buildings and then tried to get them into Dropzone friendly dimensions, and I think this has really paid off.

All the range is laser cut mdf, supplied unassembled and unpainted. They’re simple to assemble, as most are still just “boxes” although some have some internal inserts to blank out some of the larger openings, or external panels to give some relief. Interestingly, they all come with some small roof detailing – fans, vents and ducts, which adds something to the basic models. The level of detail is on the whole good

As you can see from the pics they paint up well – again Jez did the paintwork.

These will certainly fill out the table with some nice looking buildings. I’m getting that Cinema to use as my Resistance HQ building so am already looking for Rocky XXII posters to stick on the walls J.

I think the real question will be pricing. The webshop is being revamped as part of the move to the new (larger) Gaming Centre, but as soon as they are done I’ll report back, but they seem to hit a reasonable balance of price to detail.

Here is the demo layout.

The base board was just pained green, roads were printed from the Hawk downloads site and stuck down, then a metric sh*tload of mixed flock was applied. Finally the whole lot was sealed. I have played on it three times now and it really enhances the experience*

*Or something like that

New Dropzone Buildings from Waugh Games

As I mentioned in the post over the weekend, Waugh Games have a new range of laser cut mdf buildings for Dropzone Commander or any similar 10mm scale game. I tried to get some photos at the Teesside Wargames Convention but the lighting was pretty poor, so I have arranged with the owner Brian to drop in to their new Gaming Centre to get some better pics.

They say a picture says a thousand words so I'll just leave it up to the pics :-)

Show Report - Teesside Wargames Convention - New DZC layout & Buildings

Just returned from Teesside Wargames Convention. The organisers were aiming for a low key local affair and I think they got it just about right. It was fairly busy through the morning and tailed off after 3pm. I was there doing a demo of Dropzone Commander, and to be honest I was so busy I never got a chance to have a proper look at the rest of the demos (sorry guys) but the 1945 what if game from Redcar did catch my eye, as well as the Mantic and Spartan demos.

The Dropzone demo was on a new terrain layout which was put together to be used in Waugh Games new Gaming Centre. They're moving to a much bigger venue and so will have more space, so they are having a some semi permanent layouts to play on (and run demos), one of which will be Dropzone Commander.

I have to say it was a treat to see and play on. All the buildings are from Waugh Games new mdf buildings range and they are just about in the sweet spot for detail and price. Not sure if they are on the website yet but hopefully some time next week.

Only problem is the klutz with the camera (me) couldn't get the settings right and the light in the hall was a horrible yellow which has pretty much screwed up the pics, however here are some of the better ones.

 
The building designer (Jez Evans) has tried to copy some real life buildings and some of them are particularly good - the cinema for one

There is also a rather nice US style Town Hall shown in this sadly yellow pic

Here's another of the whole table

I'm hoping to get a chance to take some pics of the layout once it is installed in the new centre next week, so keep an eye on the Blog :-)

Chinese update

Bit of an update on those Chinese Nationalists I mentioned in earlier posts. I've painted up the armoured element of the Early War army, a Sdkfz 222, some T26s and a BA10. There is also a troop of Shermans but these are for a later period of the war so will get done another time.

First up the T26s. Initially I tried a three colour scheme that had been used on some Chinese Vickers 6 tonners, but I gave up because a) it looked too much like the Japanese who would be the opposition, and b) I couldnt find any record of it being used on the T26s. In the end I went with a simple Russian green which they would have been delivered in in 1938, with plenty of mud, as T-26s seemed particularly prone to spreading the stuff around. There is no record of them being repainted and it looks like the Chinese just used them pretty much as delivered.

The BA10 is another Russian import, again in a simple green scheme

Lastly the Sdkfz 222. There are some photos that show these retained their German Grey , so again a non fussy result.

Everything will need another coat of matt but they are looking ok for now

More Gruntz - Polish Flyswatter

Just a quick update. My New Vistula Legion troops for Gruntz have been a bit on the back burner, mainly because other "stuff" keeps getting in the way. I'm still planning to expand both my Poles and Crusties for use in Gruntz, when I get some organisation done.

One quick addition to the NVL is this MANPADS (anti aircraft missile) team. As with the others these are from Oddzial Osmy from Poland purchased from Fighting 15s and theyre great little figures. These are the first I painted from scratch myself, the rest of the Detachment were a lucky ebay win but I think I managed to get them looking pretty similar.

I'm hoping they will provide some much needed light AA capability. Actually in Gruntz because of how the game mechanics work they will also provide an additional light anti tank capability - something I am a bit lacking in as well - assuming there are no air threats, so a nice force multiplier.

I was weak - Dreadball

I quite enjoyed playing Bloodbowl - or rather I enjoyed it once it got "ported" to pc and the computer did all the hard work working out the oh so numerous dice rolls.

I was in our new Tea Shop Tea at Hart , which is a rather interesting shop that sells Tea & Cakes but also panders to the gaming community by selling boardgames and the like. Splendid cake btw, when I noticed they were starting to stock Mantic Games "DreadBall", and were offering teams for a Tenner if you joined their soon to launch Dreadball League.

I'm not sure about Mantic. They have a reputation for cloning anything GW did (but at a reasonable price). I bought a couple of figures from them in the past and they were ok, but the little I had seen about Dreadball in the past made me dismissed it as a Bloodbowl clone.

Anyway, my weakness struck and all that stuff about concentrating on a couple of projects somehow got forgotten and I left the shop with a "Kalmarin Ancients" team. Opening them was a mixed experience. Half the team were made of resin\plastic (restic???), half metal. The restic stuff cleaned up and assembled quickly and easily, but the metal looked a bit badly cast, lots of mould lines etc and I couldn't be arsed. Fortunately there is more than enough in restic to make up a basic eight player team, so I quickly painted them up, which took an evening.

As you can see, there is no shortage of tentacles and claws. We tried the rules Monday night and I was pleasantly surprised - much slicker and more streamlined than Bloodbowl. Worse case scenario is they get played once or twice, but for a tenner I think I will get my moneys worth

Ladies Night - or "Martha pass me another loaded musket"

One of the reasons I like playing Muskets & Tomahawks is the game involves side missions and quests that mean it is unlikely you will play the same game twice. One scenario will have you trying to protect the Colonels Daughter while the next you are tasked with defending a civilian outpost. The flip side is you need to have some less mainstream models - ie the said lady and a certain number of armed civilians to be threatened by Philip Madoc and his band of roaming Hurons (from the Welsh Valleys)

Don't tell them your name!

So we shopped around a bit and I picked up a few different female figures to fill the roles of supporting the men fighting, and swooning on cue. This also gives me a shameless excuse to watch the new series of Poldark on the BBC - just to see what the BBC costume dept have come up with that I can copy for 18th C dress colours I can copy - it's research!

First up is a nice rather well to do young lady who is going to represent the high class love interest. She is from Redoubt Enterprises "Bodys Bits" range. I had a bit of an issue cleaning the flash from the figure, and I cant work out what she has in her hand - I assumed a fan but it could be a flower? Anyway here she is - looking a little paler in the pic than in the flesh.

 Next is a more working class lady - actually the other half of the "posh totty" set from Redoubt - this is the ladies maid, but she will do as any female civilian.

More from Redoubt. Unlike the Lady & her Maid set these are armed - in fact they are busy loading muskets either for themselves or their menfolk. They're part of the French Indian Wars range - pack F&I 25 which has some interesting poses including loading and passing muskets around - useful for armed civilians defending their homes. The male parts of this pack will make an appearance later I'm sure.

Last is this older lady, again handing out muskets. This one is from Conquest Miniatures , available in the UK from Warlord Games. Pity that for some reason the Conquest pack has 8 figures in there but the Warlord one only has 7 - no idea why.

Here's the group shot - as you can see the Redoubt ladies are certainly more "robust" than the Conquest one, but a bit of variation is no bad thing in skirmish games.

So that's it for the Ladies. I'm still looking for some more female settlers, armed or not, so if anyone has any suggestions please shout out