Dr Who, Bolt Action, VBCW - A Mitford Gal

One of the Mitford Gals shown with her BMW Sports (in patriotic Red, White and Black), her dog spot, and her current squeeze, Hauptmann Von Klot.

This is an out of production Revell 1:48 kit that is still widely available, from their aircraft accessories range. The Hauptmann is from their Luftwaffe ground crew accessory range.

Suitable for Dr Who or, at a pinch, Bolt Action or VBCW - very tall, the Mitford Gals.

Doctor Who: UNIT

The Tenth Doctor investigates a strange glassy dimensional intrusion into London accompanied by a nervous UNIT Section and Land Rover.

The British UNIT patrol is armed with SA80 rifles with underslung grenade launchers and Minimi LMGs. The Doctor has a sonic screwdriver.

UNIT send in a Supacat armoured Coyote patrol vehicle as back up. The Coyote is equipped with smoke launchers, an HMG in a 360 turret ring, and an LMG firing into the front arc.

Doctor by Warlord Games, UNIT by Airfix.

Kit-Bashed Genestealer Cult Vehicles

My Goliath Rockgrinder equipped with various bits from my junk-box alongside a cultist.

The Rockgrinding bit.

Showing the heavy stubber and burner.

A really series big Goliath truck.

Carrying cultists into combat.

Warlord Games Dr Who Minis - Size and Scale Comparison

The photo shows Daleks from three manufacturers: In the middle is a Dalek from Warlord Games - Exterminate, on the left an old-series Heroclix Dalex, and on the right a new-series Dalek given away free in Doctor Who weekly.

They are pretty much the same size. In fact most of the Heroclix and Dr Who Weekly Dr Who minis do not look out of place against Warlord's.

So what scale are the Warlord minis?

This photo gives some idea of scale, as opposed to size.

Depicted are Cyberman, Tenth Doctor and Dalek Warlord figures alongside a 1:48 Airfix kit of Modern British Infantryfrom their Operation Herrick range.

Well, well, well......the Warlord Minis are 1:48!

There is a lot of 1:48 stuff out there.

British Army Models painted by Shaun Murphy.

Disclaimer: I wrote the as yet unpublished 'full-fat' Into The Time Vortex Doctor Who Wargame Rules for Warlord Games.

Sea Lion Book Signing, Rochester Games and Models

Saturday, 20th May is Operation Sea Lion launch day. Warlord Games are running a special event in Nottingham: see their Web page for more details.

Meanwhile, for those of us who live 'south of the River' Rochester Games, Models and Railways are themselves holding a Sea Lion Book Signing, with me signing the books.

Tori has done a deal with Warlord Games so they will be offering a free Churchill model with each book sold.

I will be there from around 11.30 on Saturday morning. So do come to get your book signed or just to have a chat.

See you there, people.....

Cheap 40K Industrial Plant/Scenary

I happened to be in Sainsburies this morning when I came across these two beauties on special offer for £3.75 each.

They are suitable for three year olds so great for wargamers.

If you look carefully at the top truck, you can just see a genestealer cultist standing on the bonnet.

I see these as either just scenary or treated up with a bit o'plasticard as improvised armoured fighting vehicles.

Shadow War - Genestealer Cultists on the Cheap

I picked up some half used sprues from the Kill Team Boxed game on eBay for a modest price, from which I extracted fifteen neophyte gangers.

I decided to use orange as the base colour partly because I haven't any orange troops and partly because these are supposed to be civilian miners and orange, to me, suggests heavy industrial plant. I used purple as the contrasting tie-together colour. The bases are Tamiya Pavement dark-grey textured paint. I also liberally applied dark brown wash to dirt everything up.

The models break down into a five man command team with autoguns, the leader equipped with a power mining pick and an autopistol, .....

and two fire teams with a mining laser, grenade launcher and autoguns.

3D Printable Figures

An artist called Miguel Zavala has put up the templates for 300 D&D figures for 3D printing on Shipways. They are free to download and created from D&D manuals.

I've no idea of the cost /quality comparison with cast minis at present but I do know technology always gets cheaper from its initial launch.

Suspect this is a straw in the wind.

40K Space Marine Colours

I came across this in a Bell of Lost Souls article.  The graphic blows up to show much more detail, listing all the 'known' Space Marine chapters and their uniform colours.

I have a couple of squads to paint up and wanted to try something different..... I have a great Vj purple, so, I think I'll make Hawk Lords.

Review Warlord Games Plastic Doctor Who Cyberman

I picked up a copy of Warlord Games's Exterminate Doctor Who game-in-a-box at Salute. I haven't had a chance to play the game so I can't comment on that aspect, except to say that superficially it looks like an uncomplicated card-driven 'family game' or club game. It reminded me a bit of Warlord's 'Test of Honour' Samurai game which I have played and is excellent.

The box is superb value for money  as you get 12 40mm Cyberman and 12 equivalently sized Daleks.  If you decide that you hate the game and throw it away, the models alone are easily worth £35.

This is the cyber-army 'in the box'. You get four with a large wrist gun and 8 without: one arm is posable, the rest of the model is fixed. There are also two clusters of cybermats and six 'solo' models.

I painted these by undercoating with Humbrol aluminium spray, washing in GW black 'Nuln Oil', and then drybrushing lightly with VJ airbrush chrome.

The models are 'push together' (I glued them) and in a silver -grey plastic, making them look very kiddies-toy game counters. But don't be disappointed. When painted and washed, an incredible wealth of detail is revealed. The finished models are really nice. Incidentally, the photos are higher res than they appear on the blog. You can blow them up to have a closer look.

The Tenth Doctor is unimpressed.


This shows the size of the plastic versus the metal 'collectable' models. These two are both almost exactly 40mm from the bottom of the base to the top of the head.

Cyberman alongside a Bolt Action metal infantry model to show size comparison.


Recommended

Disclaimer: I wrote the as yet unpublished Doctor Who "Into The Time Vortex" wargame rules for Warlord Games.

Reaper Bones, Varghulf Courtier Substitute

I fancied adding a Varghulf Courtier to my Flesh Eater Courts Army. Now the GW model is very nice but too rich for me at £20 for a single model.

In this situation, I often turn to Reaper Bones and discovered this gargoyle model for £7, which I felt fitted the style of the army well - and fitted my wallet even better

.

I added some 'fur' on the back using Milliput and a modelling needle to bulk out the model and more closely mimic the style of the GW mini.

The RB fig is slightly smaller than a Crypt Flayer but not ridiculously so.

It's a nice mini and I'm pleased with it.

It came yesterday so I did a fast paint job last night so it would be ready to take on Dr Simon E's  bloody Lizards after lunch.