Titanium Dropship 2014 - Sponsor - Ground Zero Games

Ladies and gentlemen, we've reached cruising altitude and will be turning down the cabin lights. This is for your comfort and to enhance the appearance of your flight attendant.

Jon from Ground Zero Games sure doesn't need any more introduction to this crowd, so let's go to the meat of it without further ado!

 

First thing first, Jon, I'm sure everyone is eagerly waiting to know what you'll be offering for prize for the Titanium Dropship 2014 painting competition!

Well, the main part of our prize will be one of our 15mm Infantry Starter Force packs - they retail at 36.00 GBP (inc VAT) but include around 42.00 to 45.00 GBP worth of product. 

Typically one of these packs contains around 64 infantry, 4-6 heavy weapons and crew teams, and some grav or wheeled bikes and/or light combat vehicles or walkers (depending on which force is chosen). The winner of the prize will be able to choose their pack from any one of the following forces: NAC (New Anglian Confederation), NI (New Israeli), UNSC/L (UNSC Light Infantry), UNSC/H (UNSC Marines in Hardsuits) or, if they prefer an alien force, our ever-popular "Crusties" which includes 4 combat walkers in the pack! You can see the lists of the exact contents of each pack option on our store. Note that the UNSC/H option, which is not yet listed on our store, is very similar in composition to the UNSC/L pack listed.

A couple figures from the Crusties range (which is one of the available
prize option), expertly painted dy Spacejacker from Tiny Solitary Soldiers.

In addition to the starter force deal I'll add in some sample packs of our very latest releases - whatever is out at the time of the contest end.

Something extra that I'd like to do is to give a special additional prize to the best entry in the contest that uses some of my (GZG) figures and/or vehicles! I'm not sure what this will be quite yet, probably a bundle of new release items, so if your entry includes some GZG minis then you might be in line for a special prize even if you're not one of the overall main prize winners!

You've been around the 15mm Sci Fi market for, like, ever. Would you like to give the less ancient of us a short history lesson on how you started being involved in 15mm Sci Fi and came to become one of the mover and shaker of that niche?

I did a full interview with Dropship Horizon a little while back which tells the story in some detail, but a very shortened version of it would be:  

When I first started GZG in 1985, my very first products were for 15mm (resin SF vehicles and the "G-CAV" rulebook). 

After major detours via 25mm, 6mm and Starships, around 2000 I re-entered 15mm production with both figures and (new) vehicles , all in metal. I've always loved 15mm as a scale for my own gaming, and the move away from it and into 25mm during the 1990s was a business decision rather than a personal one - getting back to the scale around the turn of the Millennium just felt right, and I think the huge proliferation of new 15mm producers since then has proved it was a sound move that plenty of folks liked.  

The rest, as they say, is history - 15mm sales have simply exploded and now account for a large part of my turnover; I still sell a lot of Starships of course, and still do the 25mm figure and 6mm (and 2mm!) ranges, but 15mm is where my main focus is these days - so really it's all come full-circle for me.


How about the future? I'm sure you don't intend to let us save our money all of a sudden... Care to give us a hint of the incoming goodness?"

Don't worry, there will be plenty more coming! As a lot of readers are probably aware, I've been steadily re-visiting each of my various forces and nationalities and greatly expanding them with re-sculpted figures plus all the support and extra packs that people need for complete forces. Just making a couple of packs of a particular race or nation simply doesn't cut it anymore, people want enough figure types for a complete force with all the troop types, heavy weapons and so on, so that's what I'm providing. This will continue as fast as I can get it done, with the NSL and the Japanese currently being worked on and others like the ESU and the Kra'Vak waiting for their turn in the spotlight - plus the all-new forces I've been adding to the range such as the Colonial Defence Forces, The Pan-African Union and many packs of useful "generic" stuff like the new Combat/Security Robots. Add to this a good number of new vehicles coming up, plus a fe w surprise additions to existing lines, and there will be a lot to look forward to during 2014. :-)

One of the factions currently being re-released: the Japanese

Oh, and of course we have our "official" figure tie-in with Tomorrow's War from Ambush Alley Games - next up for that range will the the Brazilian troops in hard armour, watch out for them soon!

Next year (2015) represents a big milestone for me - 30 years in the business, nearly 25 of which have been doing this as a full time occupation, so I really ought to start thinking about doing something special for it.....!

 
Thank you very much, Jon!

Thanks you, Hans!