New Etsy Listing- Wraith

This miniature is a striking sculpt from Reaper Miniatures, transferred fairly recently to the Bones line. I prefer a much more realistic minimum to my sculpts than some of Reaper's miniatures, but this is a great, simple, classic wraith.

And, in this case, a simple sculpt deserved a simple paint job! It's just a plain black cloak, animated in the approximate shape of a floating humanoid. All the crevices and folds in the cloth were enjoyable to layer, and I'm pleased with the resulting tattered appearance.

If I had one qualm about the miniature, it'd be that my primer/black basecoat is a touch glossy compared to the grey middle and topcoats. This does give it something of an ethereal look in person, though, and is simply different than how I originally envisioned it.

Check out this miniature and other listings on my Etsy Shop!

Cult of Skaro

With 24 Time War Daleks in the Exterminate! core set and Davros pack combined, I've had plenty of room to play around with variants. To encourage myself to paint the standard Daleks, however, I've tried to space out painting the more interesting varieties. I painted Davros and the Emperor's Guard after six standard Daleks, and now the Cult of Skaro (and a battle damaged Dalek) after nine. For me, painting this many (17, 18 counting Davros) miniatures from a single faction is pretty impressive- I tend to lack the stamina for long term (or at least consecutive) projects.

Part of this is probably due to the speed and enjoyment of painting these sculpts. The only tedious part is painting the 56 balls (or hemispheres, rather) around the central section..
Dalek Sec in particular was enjoyable- I was very pleased with how he turned out, a gloss varnish over the power slats, head and hemispheres really made him stand out in a group. It makes me look forward even more to painting Tom Baker era Daleks, with their grey and glossy black color schemes!

I also corrected an error from my previous Daleks on these (I first noticed it when researching my 9th Doctor Dalek)- there is a silver frame around the lights on top, which I had mistakenly identified as clear.

YANA

Kindly old Professor Yana- found as a child on the border of the Silver Devastation, greatest scientific mind on Malcassario, seeker of Utopia...

And the Doctor's greatest friend and enemy, the Master.

Utopia is a favorite episode of mine. Despite the fact that I knew some of what was coming, it was a great reintroduction for a classic villain, with Derek Jacobi taking center stage as Yana/the Master and doing an excellent job as both. Interestingly enough, Big Finish Productions has brought this version of the Master back in a series of Time War audio dramas. The latter appearances of Jacobi as the Master was the biggest draw for me to this figure, as the Time War is one of my favorite aspects of the new show.

From what pictures I could find of the sculpts online, I was a little unsure of the detail- in person, however, there is plenty, subtler than, say, a GW miniature. While not the best sculpts of Warlord Games' line, they are certainly adequate- with the possible exception of Chantho's face, which seems off to me.

I'm not very pleased with the paint job, however. I made the mistake of using a new, spray primer on them, and it buried the already fine detail. I had to strip them, which failed to remove the heavy primer from all of the crevices. This is unfortunately most noticeable on Yana's face.

Still, the paint work is quite usable,  at tabletop distances the blemishes are less noticable.

Draconian Empire

The Draconians- a race of honor-bound, hierarchical reptiles- and uneasy allies of the Earth's Empire! They first appeared in the Third Doctor adventure Frontier in Space, when the Daleks (aided by the Master) attempt to start a war between the Draconians and the Humans to weaken them up prior to an invasion. They are some of the better designed creatures to emerge from the classic show, and were purportedly Jon Pertwee's favorite alien as he could interact with them much more believably then, say, a Drashig.

First is the Draconian Lord, wearing a green gem showing his status in the Emperor's court. This pose is based on a still of the Draconian ambassador to Earth, but interestingly has the design of a court official on the shoulders.

These miniatures are, as usual, from Warlord Games' 36mm Into the Time Vortex line. They're some of my favorite sculpts thus far in the line, the textures and folded robes really stand out and add interest to what could have been a pretty dull looking release.

Classic Doctor Who creatures are far from the easiest to paint! The mix of often dull tones, bad quality images and confusing prototype materials make difficult even figuring out what, exactly, the costumes looked like to begin with. I wound up taking a slight liberty with the Draconians' cloth robes- they were much darker (a satin in the case of the soldiers seen on the left) in the show, but a lighter tone made for a much better looking figure.

These wound up looking pretty good! I'm pleased with the effect I achieved on the scales in particular- it looks pretty much spot on.

This batch of miniatures are now available for purchase on Etsy- check out my shop for larger pictures and custom orders!

Black Series Imperial Jumptrooper Review

Picked up a new(ish) Black Series figure a couple days ago, so I thought I'd do a quick review. It's the Gamestop exclusive for the year, an Imperial Jumptrooper from the TV show Rebels. I'll admit, I haven't seen episodes with the Jumptrooper yet, having just started the abysmal first season, but I do enjoy my Imperial armor variants!

The figure itself is mostly a repaint of the original stormtrooper mold with a new helmet, gear and shoulder pads. It shares the advantages (great elbow articulation!) and disadvantages (slightly warped feet and legs) as the original, and reuses the peg hole from the sandtrooper backpack for the jetpack. Surprisingly, the large shoulder pads don't seem to hinder the articulation any more than on the standard trooper. Noticeable in this shot is the standard E-11 blaster, which has an excellent drybrush over the entire surface.

The paint application on mine had a couple miscenterings on the belt, but nothing major. The colors (especially on the helmet) look great, the combination of mustard yellow and grey make this character stand out alongside the usually monochrome stormtroopers. I believe the yellow shoulder pad marks him as a commander. The helmet lacks the usual detail around the breathing mask, reminding me of Commander Neyo from Clone Wars.

All in all, it's a good variant trooper with a striking design- perfect to spice up an Imperial display. 

Dalek

One of the most memorable moments of the Doctor Who reboot came early, with the episode Dalek. It's also one of my favorite episodes, so when one of my Cult of Skaro miniatures suffered some surface damage during assembly, I knew what I'd do with it.

The Dalek on show is heavily damaged, with cracks in its casing and a great deal of wear and tear on the surface. I replicated the cracks with scored lines, in several places bending the plastic back from a gash or, once on each side, applying copy paper to a gouge to represent the peeling Dalekanium.

I also applied washes and liberal amounts of drybrushing to the surface, as the prototype is covered in dirt, dust and even verdigris around some of the hemis (or balls) and eyestalk.

I'm very pleased with how it's turned out- now I just need to write a scenario pitting him against 9th Doctor and Rose!

Comparison shot with a standard Dalek.

Warlord Games Zygons

A classic Doctor Who monster, the shapeshifting  Zygons first showed up in the 4th Doctor adventure Terror of the Zygons, where a shipload of them crashed in Loch Ness- their pet Skaraksen even became the Loch Ness Monster. They've shown up twice (as I recall) in the rebooted show, once in the 50th anniversary special, Day of the Doctor, and then in a two-parter at the end of season 9.

These models (from Warlord Games' Exterminate! line) are based on the redesign from Day of the Doctor.

All the red tones were very enjoyable to paint. I went back and did plenty of "research"- rewatching the relevant episodes before I painted them, resulting in a fairly screen-accurate paint job. I especially like the model on the left, the pose (I believe borrowed from a publicity still) is excellent.
These should be fun to field as agents in game- their shapeshifting abilities provide a nice twist to the standard factions.

Next up- the Cult of Skaro!