"Dropship 15mm" Topic

Yes another dropship thread. I am looking for a dropship to use in my Space Hulk 15 mm game terrain I am building. It will be used more as a stage prop for insertions and extractions so I would like something with landing gear down. The overall effect I want is something similar to the game X-COM or the movie Aliens. Brigade Games Athena VTOL is my first pick but not a real dropship. What are my other choices? If I have to kit bash one what should I do for landing gear?

The Old Crow Models dropship has a great "Aliens" feel to it, and the quality from Old Crow is top-notch.

I kitbashed one a while back, and for landing gear I used the feet from a Robogear walker model. You might also be able to use Mechwarrior clicky mech legs for that; take a look at the Targe or Uziel.

Attach them with magnets, so you can display the model in flight, or landed mode.

Several Toydropships around would suit:
mikes-tanks.com/Future.htm
Galoob Starship Trooper
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Konami Alien
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whoever made the recent terminator ship
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Overlord mapscale dropship
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Union mapscale dropship
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How does the Galoob Dropship scale next to 15mm miniatures?

I bought the Athena to pick up my 15mm Starship Troopers (GZG NAC power armor). It is an amazing kit. I highly recommend it.

The new 'slick' HunterKiller from T:S is very nice, but what about the transport from the movie, that cvarries the Nod equipment and the Human captives? Anyone got some pictures of that and know anyone who makes one?

How big are the Battletech dropships?

Or kitbash a GW Tau devilfish…..

Probably the best thing to do is to find a modern corollary to what you want to transport, and "sci-fi" it with a craft of similar dimensions. When trying to figure out size for 15mm, scale it down by a factor of 100 for you metric types. For inches, multiply the thing's dimensions by 12, divide by 100, and that's the length in inches on the tabletop.

Thus, a CH-53 helicopter that can carry 30 to 40 troops, and is 26 meters long in real life, would be 26cm long in 15mm scale. The CH-53's 88 foot length translates to 1056 inches, or 10 and a half inches on the tabletop.

Find or modify something of similar size, bulk, and functionality in the sci-fi world, and make it your platoon troop transport.

If you want to insert a squad or section of troops, find something the size of a Lear Jet or Blackhawk helicopter.

If you want to land a reinforced pair of platoons, along with a squad of heavy power armor or an infantry fighting vehicle, find a C-130 analogue, and scale and build accordingly. That's a lot of eggs to put in one basket, from a tactical standpoint, but that's what's cool about building your own.

Best,
John Bear Ross

Info Junky,
They are the perfect size for 15mm. About the size of a large grapefruit. All the doors, vents etc. work out great for 15's.
John Hogan

I kitbashed a dropship from a Star Wars Trade Fed tank and a pair of A-10 turbofan engines. Cost me about $20, all told, and I can use it for either 28mm (infantry only) or 15mm (troops and a vehicle). I'll take some pics this weekend and post them for you to look at.

JBR,

I have been looking at doing that very thing. I am looking at the Kamov "Helix" family of helicopters. A 1/72 model is the closest I can get to 15mm but this shouldn't be too huge problem.

I will second the earlier suggestion of converting a Tau Devilfish.

-Eli

Ijumpajav;

So about 4 or 5 inchs in diameter then?

Cool I figured they would be in just about the right size class….

That and I have a thing for tailsitters….

Old Crow's 6mm armoured dropship ought to fit the bill.

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It looks quite all right for a 15mm model. At 13.5cm, it's a good bit bigger than my 15mm Claymore APC, which is about 9cm long and looks like it can carry 8 to 10 blokes. So the dropship should be able to easily carry, oh, 12-16 troopers (your typical X-Com squad). Plus it looks a lot like the old Sky Ranger.

It does look like the Sky Ranger an excellent suggestion Lampyridae. I would have never looked for it in the 6mm section. I would like to see one next to a 15mm miniature before I make a purchase.

I blew it up to approx 13.5cm on my screen. Looks perfect next to Old Crow infantry, I'm probably going to get one (also for X-Com).

The Rebel Minis Sabre class is about 10.5cm long, as you can see in the photo there's room for about 8 guys if they don't stand upright.

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I really like Inara's Shuttle, from Serenity.

They are available on eBay, and don't need any modification, or even painting, unless you want to do that.

They work very well, and appear to be able to carry a squad or two of 15mm troops.

Check out the Dropship Horizon blog for pics of them with GZG New Israeli troops. They go very nicely together.

Here's the kitbashed dropship I was referring to earlier:

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That's a great conversion job Javelin98. Was the SW Trade Fed Tank a kit?

Very Nice Javelin 98 I really like the landing gear down. I am not familiar with the Fed tank kit did you have to file of the front flap or just leave it off during assembly? The landing gear comes from what source? I know the engines are parts from an A-10 model. I am trying to get and idea for how many kits I would have to buy to replicate your result.

peter pig's dropship, while it is still availible, is pretty unique and worth looking at.

Javelin98

Excellent looking dropship there !

Vulture

Have never seen those serenity models, they are pretty nice looking. That does however lead me to the dubious conclusion that i need to start frequenting my local comic shop again, not sure my wallet can withstand that sort of exposure….

peter pig's dropship, while it is still availible, is pretty unique and worth looking at.

I really like it – a great utilitarian battle-taxi.

Force XXI also have one: picture

Look at Force XXI gunships! Both are dropship proxies.

And Rebel Minis – I'm at work so some links are banned.

I'd also recommend a 25mm Alienesque Dropship that is perfect for 15's but I can't remember who it is just now.

Cheers
Mark

How Terminator hunter killer compare to 15 mm ?

Yeah, it's a Trade Fed tank (the AMT kit, I think) with A-10 engines and legs from a Robogear walker. I threw a few other minor things on, but that's the majority of it right there.

Here's another 15mm dropship from Brigade, a pretty good IMHO:

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The terminator ship is quite big -- 12 inches long and about 8 wide over the engines. It would fit the part for a dropship like the Aliens one which carried a large APC inside.

The Terminator ship has a hinging down ramp under the nose, It would need a bit of work as the front landing leg is attached to it. You could make twin landing legs on the sides of the ramp.

Another thought is these card models.

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Free to download so you can easily get an idea of the dimensions. If you like the model you could make the panels out of plasticard for extra strength.

Dragon Gunner

The dropship required, depends on whether you want to deploy vehicles or not…. If not, I would agree with Logain and Mark (from Dropshop Horizon) that the Peter Pig 'Bomag' model is worth considering. On the news that he is soon to withdraw his 15mm sci-fi range I went and bought two. Just finished painting them up at the weekend. There are a couple of pictures on my blog…

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Regards to all

Vulture

(My Blog: link )

Javelin, that dropship conversion looks phenomenal; plus a cool paint job.

Was that a 1:100 A-10? I'm considering blatantly copying your idea.