It has been almost 3 months since I last picked up a brush. Luckily, this Tabletop Simulator project has got me to come back to work up a new model for Dropzone Commander, the Hydra Relay Command Hovercraft. It needed some help with it’s packaging so I decided to help things along.
From the moment I saw the preview pictures of this model, I knew I had to do a callback to that old G.I. Joe toy, the Killer W.H.A.L.E.
A lot of the work was just easy airbrushing the base green, throwing on some Nuln Oil, and then dry brushing the highlights. After that, it was just some simple detailing and rust.
After the detailing, I went back to the airbrush to put on my army’s signature red stripe (yay beer!). This is always a pain in the ass but in the end, it worked very well.
The kit comes with two load outs, with the command option pictured here. I chanced a double stripe on the command piece and got a little lucky that it didn’t go sideways on me with non-parallel lines or grossly different widths.
Resin manufacturing is still a struggle for TTCombat (at least in 2019 when this model was first cast according to the sprue). The main gun was snapped off from the attack option piece as well as several of the missile cones on the command piece. All of that was easy to overlook but there was a sizeable bubble on the right of the upper rear engine. I had to rebuild with green stuff and try to paint over my bad sculpting skills. Hopefully the company figures their QA out as the revise their resin manufacturing.
Really love the model though. I’ll digitize it soon so it can run around and play with some eFriends while we wait for better and more social days.
As mentioned earlier, I had to repair the main gun here on the alternate attack option. It was easy enough to pin with a long, thin wire.
And with that, the unit is complete and ready to rock out. I really like the idea of a hovercraft force so it’d be cool to see more suck models come out for the line. Nothing like it looks to be coming down the pipe so I’ll just have to work out my all hovercraft force with what we have.
Russ Spears
As a Joe-fanboy (I had a W.H.A.L.E once upon a time), well done! And glad you got to dust off some brushes between scan-a-thons.
Now I’ve got the urge to paint something besides 28mm figures….. or the buildings they’ll skirmish amongst.
Christian
ah, I’m jealous. I always wanted a W.H.A.L.E. but never got one as a kid. Dropzone will have to check that item off the childhood wish list.
Russ Spears
Don’t be too jealous – I think I may have been in my mid-20s when I got the W.H.A.L.E. Although I’m not sure that kept me from playing with it like I was a 12 y/o.
Maybe DZ can lend itself to a GI Joe mod (since Hasbro never made a decent game).