Flying Drones for Space Station Zero (& more terrain)

    Unmanned aerial drones fly over my newest terrain piece for Space Station Zero

One of the dangers that crews can possibly run into when exploring Space Station Zero are flying drones. With my dearth of Science-Fiction terrain and figures, I had nothing I could reasonably use as them. So, when I was at Shore Wars 2022 this past December, I was very interested to see RRB Minis & More's booth at the show. They carry an extensive line of 25mm Sci-Fi figures, vehicles, and accessories. Maybe I'd be able to find something there?

    Closeups of the red and blue color schemes I painted on the Stormbirds from RRB Minis & More

Naturally, I did find something that would be perfect with a little modification. From the McEwan Miniatures Classics line that RRB carries, I picked out the Stormbird flying vehicle. Leaving off the crewman and a couple other pieces, I thought it would make a suitable unmanned drone to guard the corridors of the space station. Because I wanted the figures to fit on some magnetic flight stands I'd bought long ago from Litko, I had to glue a washer on the underside of the drone. I also epoxied in the gatling/minigun, and that was it for construction. I can certainly deal with a minimum of fiddly-ness!

Drones endlessly patrolling corridors for intruding crews (I really like the dark red metallic color!)

I primed the figures white, and then applied metallic craft paints to them. My favorite color scheme turned out to be the dark red metallic. I had recently purchased that bottle of paint, along with the dark blue, which I used for another pair. The green and white colors I already had, and had painted earlier droids, robots, or terrain with those colors. After the base coat was painted, I decided to get fancy and add in stripes. I am not really happy with how they came out. My hands apparently aren't steady enough to paint an even width line that is good and straight anymore! I did a dark metallic gray wider stripe with a slightly narrower stripe of either silver or gold. I then decided to paint the two nacelles that project forward on the model in the accent metallic, too. For the white metallic ones, I used the dark red and a lighter blue as my accent colors.

    Four more aerial drones that will be a menace to any exploring crew in the derelict space station

The mini gun was painted with a range of steel metallic colors. The breech and housing ring were done in Ral Partha steel, while the gun barrels themselves were painted pewter. I highlighted the barrels with an aluminum color that I don't like using often. It is a weird, almost enamel consistency and is really hard to remove from my brushes. Finally, I did a dark black wash over the mini gun. I decided not to do the usual black wash over the entire drone surface, rationalizing that if they are in good enough working order to be still flying, the machines would probably be kept fairly clean. 

    Luckily, I had some unused flight stands from Litko and some rare earth magnets to attach them

In the photos, the drones are flying above my latest piece of 6"x4" terrain for Space Station Zero. As with earlier ones, it is a combination of store-bought pieces (Mantic Games) and scratch-built items. I painted it in the same colors and style as the previous ones. The only difference was I decided to do the floor slightly different. I wasn't happy with how dark the metallic floors were looking in previous pieces, so I lightened the floor up with a watered down pewter. I added in full strength, dark black wash to represent oil leaks or other equipment seepage.