Hiatus

I just wanted to let those of you eagerly waiting for more Doctor Who news (or checking to see what other projects  may be spontaneously demanding my attention)  know that I am going to be taking a break for a while.

I'm getting married in two weeks and, although I have tried to keep on hobbying until the last possible moment, there is really too much going on right now to spend time painting or modelling.

But fear not, I shall return refreshed and with a little more time to spend on the hobby. Things I have had to 'freeze' at the moment include:

• Terrain for Doctor Who, including simple roads, a church & graveyard and a quarry
• Two more Companions and UNIT forces
• A look at the 2nd edition of the FNG rules from Two Hour Wargames
• A bizarre new obsession with GW's old Gorkamorka skirmish game

So when I return I hope to be progressing with all the above, plus getting on with 'Warhammer 3rd Edition', 'All Things Zombie' and the countless other projects I have put on the back burner.

Thanks for following this blog and I'll see you all in a few weeks!

Cheers
Chris

Heroes and Villains

Time for another update on my Doctor Who project. I've managed to make a little progress around everything else taking up my time, so have a few figures to show you now.

First up the bad guys...

Delete... Delete!

These Cybermen will make up one of the player forces available in the scenario. Apologies to any purists upset by mixing of different 'eras' of Cyberman, but too bad. The paint job turned out out and was ridiculously easy. Gun metal coat and a black wash. Job done.

You must be washed....!

I'm basically addicted to washes, and hopefully the picture above shows why. The figure in the middle is pre-wash, the ones to the left and right are post-wash, although still drying. As someone who finds painting quite tedious, I use black and brown washes to make my painting look semi-decent!

Here are a couple more baddies:

EXTERMINATE!

Okay, so I would prefer classic Daleks, but these guys were cheap on eBay and I wanted to try them out. I regret the lighter grey on them as I was thinking it would darken more after the wash. But good grief, painting all the 'bobbles' on them was a bit of a drag!

Anyway, these are going to be a possible non-player force, brought into play by the scenario specific event deck I have created. If they appear they will be 'damaged', meaning they'll move around pretty randomly terrorising everyone!

Okay, on to some good guys now... First up is Harry Sullivan, UNIT medic and Doctor's companion:

I'd have preferred darker trousers, but I'm quite happy with him. Of course, for those Doctor Who fans among you, this will pretty much have given away my choice of Doctor, so without further ado, here is the great man himself:

Yup, the Fourth Doctor. So choosing Tom Baker may be a bit of a cliche, but he was pretty awesome. I'm quite pleased with how this figure turned out.

Still on the table: UNIT troops and several other companions. Tune in later for further updates.

Maggots and flies and cars, oh my!

Time for a quick update!

Firstly, the dark light didn't do some of the figures any justice in my last post. I am going to take future pictures in the man-cave where I have more control over the lighting! Here is one of K-9 seeing as he deserves a bit better!

Next up, I recently managed to acquire the Corgi model of Bessie. It took a surprising amount of work to remove the figure of the Doctor from the front seat, and I managed to damage the model a little, but nothing too serious. It was a bit of an extravagant purchase in some ways as it is not really required for the scenario. But one of the event cards in the game allows for Bessie to be placed on the board, so I wanted to be prepared!

I also finished off the 6 bases of maggots for the game, so here they are:

Pretty icky! And of course, the rules allow for these beauties to change into flies. Had a bit of a problem here as it is surprisingly difficult to source a decent fly. I found one picture on the Doctor Who Miniatures game forum, but could not find them to buy. In the end I decided that, in keeping with the slightly dodgy effects the show is known for, it would be okay to use some joke shop flies! I got these in two packs of bugs and insects from Poundland. They actually also came with some large maggots, but I prefer my more 'realistic' fishing bait ones! Here are the flies:

I basically left them as they were, but applied a heavy dark grey drybrush and painted the eyes red. I think they look very much the part in terms of dodgy sci-fi monsters, but also slightly creepy...

There is plenty more on my workbench right now, UNIT troops and characters, the Doctor and companions, plus some Cybermen and Daleks. Stay tuned for more adventures!

Doctor Who Project

Well, I have felt the need recently for a more light hearted project where I am not trying to build big armies or paint a whole load of figures. Pressures in other parts of my life have led me to want a more relaxing game to work on. So I am pleased to announce my Doctor Who project!

I have written a 3 player scenario which will involve a search for an alien artifact, the rescue of hapless civilians and the presence of multiple non-player game-controlled alien forces. In short, chaotic and fun. I'm using the full event deck from the miniatures game, but also a scenario specific event deck of my own nefarious devising. It will all be kicking off big style. At least, that's the idea!

But let's start off slow... A couple of orders from Black Tree have arrived and I thought I'd start off small (sorry for the poor lighting):

K-9 will be one of the companions the Doctor player can select at the start of the game. Which Doctor? Well, let's just say I have selected a series of companions appropriate to my chosen Doctor, of which K-9 is just one.

Next up a few more Weeping Angels, from the Doctor Who Adventures Magazine, who may or may not be making an appearance in the game:

I'm a bit happier with these than my previous effort, but that might be due to basing them differently...

Finally (and randomly illuminated by flash...).... maggots from the story The Green Death:

And where are these from? Well, I searched far and wide for my perfect maggot...

Whoever Frank Warwick is, his fake maggot endorsement sold me on these bad boys. They are dead squishy, but paint up okay I think. Plus they actually scale pretty well with 28mm figures, looking similar to this:

So these maggots may be making an appearance in my game as well....

That's all for now, but stay tuned as there is plenty more to come.

Doctor Who (!)

Whoah, where did that come from?! Only the other day I was staying how I'm going to stay on focus and prioritise some of my current projects... Then BLAM! Two painted Doctor Who figures... I can only assume they came through a crack in space/time and I've painted them far into the future when I have the spare time to dabble in projects which might never see table time...

Both these figures came with the Doctor Who Adventures magazine, available weekly in the UK. The Silence figures came with last week's issue along with some Silurians (8 of each). When I saw the figures I was going to give them a miss but (as is typical) I couldn't help it in the end. I doubt the Silurians will ever be painted, but the 'lanky' look seems to suit the Silence figures and I've seen a couple of publicity photos where they actually look taller than humans, so  I figure they might work.

Here is a 'before and after' shot:

For a quick paint job done last night I'm pretty happy with how it came out, especially given the dubious quality of the soft plastic figure.

I also thought I'd paint one of the Weeping Angels which were given away with a much older issue. In this case I just decided to paint the figure grey and follow with a wash in ink as I'd like to spend as little time on them as possible. I was going to try a really minimalist approach and just apply a wash, but it wouldn't take to the plastic. Unfortunately it didn't turn out so good. I think partly this is due to the mould lines on the figure, but also the method I used. It does look a bit better in real life though.

Again, a before and after:

The figures (well, toys really) that sometimes come with the magazine are pretty hit and miss (Cybermen with 'childbearing hips' for example), but I'm kicking myself for not picking up the Daleks. The Weeping Angels came in a pack with two poses, hiding and pointing, the Silence just the single pose, but it looks a bit creepy, so that's fine. Crooked Dice do some stone angels (Link) but at £4.50 a pop I think I'll give them a miss in favour of the cheaper alternative...

Incidentally, I'd highly recommend checking out the Doctor Who miniatures game rules, (Home page) which are still available as free PDFs. The system has been developed further for Crooked Dice's 7TV rules.

That's all for now!

Generic Welcome Post!

Well, I have now reached the milestone of 20 whole followers, plus two that show up in the figures, but nowhere else.

So welcome to those who have joined recently. I hope I will post things that you find entertaining!

Out of curiosity, which of the following would you be most interested to read about?:

• Fantasy (Warhammer 3rd Edition, Lord of the Rings)
• Zombies (All Things Zombie, No More Room in Hell)
• Sci-Fi (Star Wars, Rogue Trader, Star Grunt, Epic 40K)
• Pirates (Flashing Steel)
• World War 1 (The Great War)
• Victorian Sci-Fi (GASLIGHT)

I could list a load more, but I'm going to try and stick to games where I have both rules and figures readily available! That said, I'm sure I've forgotten a couple... I will be covering everything in its own time, but I'm always thinking about what is next and this might give me some focus! Thanks!

Uh oh!

Okay, so it had to happen at some point, but I have become more than a little distracted by my zombie gaming plans...

My kind sister got me some Rebel Minis zombies, gangers and civilians for my last birthday and, as you can see, I quickly based them this evening. The undercoated figures are 'irish hitmen', or 'guys in suits who happen to have a pistol to hand in the event of the zombie apocalypse', as they will be known in my games. They were from my previous order consisting of zombies and SWAT team members (already painted). So plenty to be getting on with!

On the left you can see my current Warhammer production line. Slow but sure. It isn't being forgotten about, let me assure you.

As I type this I am being slightly overcome by fumes from my latest Poundland acquisition:

Perfect (and cheap!) industrial vehicles for my urban environment. For some reason they smell just like the London Underground, but for £1 each I don't mind too much. I'm thinking about converting the middle one to look something like the Dead Reckoning from Land of the Dead:

A perfect vehicle for zombie hunting. Provided you can find the fuel of course.

So there you have it, a small update about what is going on in the man-cave at present.

Thanks for reading! Comments welcome as always.