Dystopian Wars: Dominion of Canada Frontline Squadrons

A lot happened in 2013, but of most relevance to this blog it was when, with the help of The Outpost in Sheffield, I first discovered Dystopian Wars.

 At that time, the game was made by Spartan Games and all of the miniatures were cast in resin. I'd never seen anything quite like it before and a combination of the aesthetics and the narrative setting sucked me into collecting an Empire of the Blazing Sun Fleet. This was a somewhat short lived venture though and I ended up selling my collection - probably to fund Horus Heresy purchases knowing my predilections at that time.

A few years later, in August 2017, Spartan Games ceased trading and the rights to Dystopian Wars were snapped up by Warcradle Studios, who, after a short redevelopment phase released a new and updated version as part of their stable of Dystopian Age games which featured a revamped world and back ground backed up by a new line of plastic and resin miniatures which they have continued to flesh out with new releases on a regular basis.

Being the hobby butterfly that I am, I've kept a weather eye on the game and have often been tempted to pick up a few models 'just to paint'. Over the summer, temptation finally got the better of me and I finally dipped my toes back in the water (pun intended!) picking up a box of Dominion of Canada Frontline Squadrons to 'scratch the itch'.

 I can't put my finger on exactly why the Canadian vessels grabbed my attention over everything else in the range, but I think it's a combination of the models (who can resist an up-armoured prow?) and not really seeing a lot of painted examples around. And so, armed with a box full of plastic components, a bottle of glue and the instructions I rolled up my trouser legs and set about wading into the Dystopian Age...

Like most kits in the Dystopian Wars range, the Canadian Frontline Squadrons box offers multiple build options for the larger vessels, but after some careful consideration I elected to build one Bonaventure Strike Cruiser and one Yukon Auxiliary Cruiser as well as a pair of the Orca Hunter subs. The box does come with four Orcas and I may circle back and paint the other two at some point, but two seemed like a good initial starting point.

When it came to painting, I actually started off with the Combat Air Patrol or SRS (short range squadrons) tokens as I wanted to see just how far I could push the details on such small miniatures. I was pretty pleased to be able to add in wee touches such as the foaming crests of waves and the glint of light on the aircraft canopies without too much trouble at all, and I think I was able to paint the tokens up in no more than a couple of hours all told. In terms of colour schemes, I did a some googling to see if I could find some photos of early Canadian Airforce planes for reference, but most of what I found was in black and white, so after a little thought, I plumped for an olive drab with yellow markings as this seemed a fairly safe bet for military aircraft.

Suitably emboldened, I decided to tackle the Orcas next and for these, I knew I wanted to emulate the box art as the red and grey livery was another aspect of what had drawn me to the Dominion of Canada in the first place. Being smaller than the Cruisers, it also meant I could test out my plan for the paint recipes on a smaller scale and get an idea of what things would look like before 'the main event' as it were.

With the Orcas done, it was time to bite the bullet and move on to the Cruisers. It feels as though I spent quite a long time on these, though I think that's mostly down to them being bigger and more detailed miniatures than the subs and SRS tokens, but I'm pretty pleased with the results and I think it was well worth taking the extra time to pick out things like the bridge windows to help tie the bigger models back to the SRS tokens.

I've kept weathering on the subs and cruisers pretty light with just a few scattered spots and streaks of rust across them. The reason for this was twofold: firstly I wanted the vessels to look in fairly good states of repair (as the morale of Dominion ships is supposed to be pretty good I think) but also because at this scale, any visible damage will be pretty significant and I didn't want them to look like they were rustbuckets full of holes. 

Designed for supporting and reinforcing Canada’s fleet actions, the Yukon-class are especially good at establishing blockades and disrupting threats to shipping lanes, thanks in no small part to their mine-laying capabilities. I couldn't find any photos of painted Yukon-class Cruisers online when I was planning how to build the kits, so it seemed like a good idea to remedy that.

Combining the power of heavy ordnance and an ablative armoured prow, the Bonaventure-class are found in the thick of the Dominion of Canada’s fiercest fighting in the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It was this ubiquity which got me thinking that I'd build one of these because regardless of what else I might end up collecting for Dystopian Wars, there's bound to be a Bonaventure-class nearby!

So with these complete, what else am I thinking of collecting? Well, I'm heading away on my own oceanic voyage shortly, but I have the HMCS Tilloch Galt waiting for some attention on my painting desk when I get back and I've been eyeing up some Merchant Ships as well, so there will definitely be more Dystopian Age models hitting the blog in the future.

Until next time though, as always thanks for reading and happy hobbying.