Dropfleet Commander - Starting the UCM

The first UCM ships are finished.

More photos after the jump.

The observant among you will have noticed that these are not PHR ships... As mentioned in one of my earlier blog posts, I wasn't really enjoying painting the PHR ships, as much as I liked the result. Rather than doubling down I decided to change plans and went to the fleet I nearly started instead of the PHR, the United Colonies of Mankind. The "generic" human faction of the game, I was drawn to the UCM's combination of sleek lines and "spiky" details, that just looked very human to me.

For a colour scheme, I was inspired by the Hiigarans of Homeworld 2. I particularly liked the idea of using orange as a spot colour to mark out weaponry. I toned down the scheme a little bit and replaced the Hiigaran blue with more of a blue-grey, as I didn't want these to be TOO vibrant.

I have so far painted the four frigate and one of the cruisers from the UCM starter box. I have kept them modular using magnets to allow me to swap between configurations. It was a bit hit and miss finding an approach to magnets that worked. I'll do a tutorial in the future once I get hold of more cruisers and frigates that I can take betters photos of.

Unlike the PHR ships, I have really been enjoying painting these models, and am very happy with the result. I'm looking forward to getting some games in as the rules also seem like a lot of fun.

Anyway - photos!

2 New-Orleans class strike carriers

A very common ship in the UCM fleet - the New Orleans can drop troops onto the planet's surface.

So many frigate components!

2 Toulon Frigates - the UCM's standard gunnery frigate

2 Taipei Frigates - aggressive ships, bristling with close action weapons.

2 Jakarta Aegis Frigates - unarmed, they provide point defence support to larger ships.

2 Lima Detector Frigates - equipped with powerful scanner suites to aid the fleet's targeting.

A similar number of cruiser components!

Rio class cruiser

The UCM's standard gunnery cruiser

Berlin class cruiser

Equipped with a burn-through laser, it's capable of cutting enemy ships in half with one shot.

Madrid class cruiser - the UCM's primary bombardment ship

Seattle class carrier

Combining decent gunnery with the ability to launch fighers and bombers, the Seattle is a flexible ship.

Osaka class light cruiser - it trades some of the Rio's hull and secondary weapons for increased speed.

New Cairo class light cruiser - similar to the Osaka, this is a faster, lighter version of the Berlin.

I still have one cruiser and a heavy cruiser to paint up out of the starter box. I have also grabbed three of the limited edition Saratoga class light cruisers from TTCombat as they were on sale again during Adepticon. I have enjoyed painting these a lot, so you will likely see a lot more of these ships in the future!

Thanks for reading.