MG144-Aotrs03 Hunter Drone Platoon

Army Of The Red Spear

144th (10 or 12mm)

Size: (Bounding Box, physical print sprue): 82.09mm x 37.12mm x 21.75mm

(Bounding Box digital files, individual, not counting stand): 10.7mm x 10.0mm x 8.75mm

Entirely Optional Lore PDF included.

Physical Print: 21 drones supplied.

Digital Files:

Mounting: 1.6mm flight post (with thicker base).

7 Models:

1 command drone

6 drones in 5 poses (a to d, and "default" pose on two different fligt stand heights).

Scaling Notes: Red (scaling down; thin parts) or Green (scaling up).

Physical Sprue size and composition: 21 models; 1 command drone, 5 posedhigh, 3 each posed a to d and 3 posedlow.

Sufficient models are provided on the physical print sprue to allow the squads as shown in the photo:

One command team of Command Drone and one drone

Three squads of six drones

(and one spare!)

Photos of VPN print (Shapeways) (painted) and resin print (Only-Games) (on physical print sprue).

Models are printer type-agnostic, though FDM is not typically practical or recommended.

Versions of the six poses (CMD, a, b c and d and the "default" solidposed used on both posedhigh and posed low) are provided without their integral stands (use the "nostand" file) as an alternative option.

Hunter Drones are essentially War Droids that can fly. They are circular disks, about six feet across, with twin Plasma-Pulse Cannons underslung with 360º fire. In the Mark 1 and 2, these were same guns as the standard War Droid’s shoulder-mount. The current Mark 3 Hunter Drone uses instead significantly more powerful light vehicular weapons, better using the Hunter Drone’s larger mass and power generator.

Hunter Drones have high flight ceilings, up to about 50% of orbital flight, though they rarely move above nap-of-earth. Hunter Drones possess significantly improved sensors and one of their primary jobs is reconnaissance and targeting designators for warhead-armed vehicles. As such, their intelligence cores are slightly improved over regular War Droids, and they are sometimes attached to a specific vehicle or with their own special Hunter Drone command unit, the Hunter Drone equivalent of the War Droid commander.

The Hunter Drone Command element is a substitute for the regular War Droid command element. It consists of the command droid itself plus a second Hunter Drone as backstop and bodyguard (and occasionally a third). All are armed with the normal Hunter Drone armament of twin plasma-pulse cannons. These elements are typically assigned to full Hunter Drone platoons, consisting of three groups of six Hunter Drones and the command element. Though in theory, they could command a mixed unit as the regular droids do, in practise the higher cost of the Hunter Drone Command sees it solely assigned to places where its ability to fly is most useful.

Occasionally, other units like Sentry Drones or Scarab mines are also assigned to a full Hunter Drone Platoon, but this is uncommon.

Hunter Drones are a relatively recent introduction (circa 2330), and their rapid widespread use has seen the phasing out of older recon vehicles for many tactical reconnaissance purposes as well as the total replacement of prior remote recon drones. They are of little use for strategic reconnaissance, however, which requires a subtly well beyond a War Droid brain.