My blog has been pretty quiet lately, because the last few months have been exceptionally busy on all fronts: work, life, painting and playing, but now I have much to share.
The Spider Drones of Ground Zero Games have been a long time favourite of mine: I have plenty of them waiting for me in different stages of unfinishedness. A six-legged spider-like drone with a rotary gun – yes, that’s exactly what I’m thinking about when I imagine a sci-fi battleground. When I ordered a few more of them recently, Jon was kind enough to ask if I wanted the new version. Is it possible to say no to this?
He described them as “just like the old version but with more details” which is an understatement. Even with a plain white base coat, the difference is clear: the design has remained the same at a high level, but every part is a lot more detailed now.
I used mostly the same painting process that I did on my OutRim Coalition troopers: white basecoat, a layer of Basilicanum Grey contrast paint and a white overbrush. Grey areas were painted with Vallejo Neutral Grey, washed with Nuln Oil and had a highlight with the base colour. For the metallic parts, I used Vallejo Gunmetal Grey and Nuln Oil. The lenses I painted with Macarage Blue, Teclis Blue and Temple Guard Blue, plus a tiny white dot at the end. This worked well on the old version but I wanted to further emphasize the extra details on the new version’s dome and legs – the black OilBrusher from Mig Jimenez was just perfect for this.
Did I just use oil paints? I did indeed! Back in February, I was only joking about trying them but here we are. They are easy to use and versatile, however I still have a lot to learn about them, and I plan to capture my progress with them in future posts.
I could list all the changes one by one, but I think the photos explain everything better than I could. No surface was left unmodified, every part of the mini has interesting details added to them.
Funnily enough, these extra details have slightly changed the overall style: the original version used to have a lean, futuristic look while the new version looks more menacing, so I can imagine these minis in a grimdark-, a cyberpunk- or even in a steampunk setting as well.
Which one do I like better? There’s no easy way to answer this question. The new version opens up the possibility for giving spider drones to two opposing forces or adding them as enhanced or leader units to drone squads. You can also combine the two versions or add their domes to vehicles as smart turrets… there are plenty of options.
Seeing and painting the new spider drone left me with one big question: what other new designs does Jon have up in his sleeve for us?