Monday 10 January 2022

AHPC XII: From Mike W - 28mm Dr Who Miscellany

 Out of the pile of plastic and lead have emerged a small collection of Dr Who related figures, namely his enemies - Davros and some Daleks, Cybermen and a few Ood.

The Whole Group

First to the iconic Daleks, these are mostly ridiculously cheap plastic figures known as 'Mini Monster Army' that I sourced off of eBay and I already have number of these painted up in a range of bright colours. These guys are going to be Davros' personal body guard. (For those not in the know Davros was the inventor of the Daleks and he's a pretty sinister guy, hence the black and silver colour scheme for him and his followers. 

Unpainted (Mostly - a couple supplied with very poor finish) as of Monday!

Included with these Daleks is a rare Heavy Weapons Dalek. This and the Davros figure are Warlord Games miniatures - if I remember correctly.

By all accounts the Heavy Weapons Dalek is a venerable,
battered and somewhat disillusioned member of the Dalek Forces 

Whereas Davros, is your typical overbearing megalomaniac,
subject to underestimating his enemies 

As these Dalek models are so cheap (30-40 pence each in UK, if you look hard) they often turn-up with broken pieces, I have simply taken to modelling these as destroyed / knocked-out Daleks by taking a pair of clippers to cut off the top of the model and when painted stuffing the hole with some smoke. (Not sure what this 'smokey' material is exactly but rather conveniently Perry Miniatures use it to pack their metal figures, I long ago realised it makes good smoke / steam, when teased out).

On reflection a darker background may have been better to show off the smoke effect!

These models were undercoated grey, given two watered down black washes before using neat back paint to colour in the lower bumper and collar. Oily Steel was used for the grill work and weapon / sensor stems before a touch of orange on the head sidelights and a light blue 'eye' added to the head stem.

These Davrovian Daleks, will join others I have previously painted,
to form a force within a force for the Daleks

And then the gutsy bit, the silver domes on the body of each Dalek - did you know each model has 48 such domes? The Davros model has 56 domes (presumably because he's in charge!), that's a total of 670 domes...

Luckily I have a secret weapon - a silver Sharpie pen - this allows an oil based silver paint to be placed via a relatively fine nib, onto each raised dome. It made a horrible job tolerable!

Repeat that all with the Heavy Weapons Dalek, which was painted white and then a Gold Sharpie pen was used to add the gold/brass detail on the figure. Another 56 domes, this time in gold.

Next we have a group of Cybermen, again from Warlord Games, this time in plastic. These are pretty much straight out of the box, these guys are straight forward to paint, silver washed with watered down dark tone, then the light blue chest light added and a matt varnish.

Cybermen on their frame

The Cybermen crew, heartless robotic foes of humanity


Close-up of a Cyberman

Finally the Ood, again pretty sinister chaps, all dressed in black with tentacles for a mouth and a small white ball that is a universal translator, enabling then to communicate with anyone they come into contact with.

Ood figures glued to bases and undercoated grey.

Again the Ood are available from eBay as part of a Mini Monster Army set that appears there from time to time and are again as cheap as chips! These guys were undercoated grey and then given three very watered down black washes, to build up a black cloth feel. Skin tones were Balor Brown dry brushed with Ivory and then washed in regular flesh tone. The Tentacles were first painted Imperial Purple and the washed in purple ink.

Not sure what the collective noun for Ood is, lets say here's a flock of Ood!

The translator device was painted white before a matt varnish as scenic basing added.

A detailed view

With all this Dr Who stuff, I sound like I know what I'm talking about! Not so. Its all just what I've found on the web! I haven't really watched any of the episodes since David Tennant left and even then I was an infrequent watcher...

...I just like the idea of putting on a Dr Who themed game at some point in the future - another surrealist Survivor type game no doubt!

I've put all the figures on round bases and have used a home made premix sand / grass scatter - not much shows on the Dalek models though.