Doctor Who Wednesday #20

If you've already read about the Companions elsewhere, still with me, there's more news below.

On the Painting Table

Last weekend saw the final bonus round of the Analogue Painting Challenge - 'Characters/Scene from a Scene from a Movie, TV Program, Book or Piece of Music'*.  Sadly the vignette I bought with this round in mind is still languishing in the plastic bag it arrived in before Christmas.  So, in order to have something to submit, I've had to fall back on my old favorite for the Challenge - Doctor Who.

*You've still got time to go and vote for your favorites.

I therefore present you with six 28mm Not-Doctor-Who Companions (they're even more Not Not-Doctor-Who now as most are OOP since Warlord Games got the official licence to produce Dr Who figures).

River gets the 'Alien Sand Pit' treatment.  As the other characters are mostly seen on Earth, they are on the lawn of whichever English country house UNIT is currently occupying.

The Amy Pond on the right is the only one of these figures not by Crooked Dice.  It's by Heresy Miniatures and still in production (they changed the name to 'Girl' and the colour of her hair in their pictures).

I'm not sure why I see the Paternoster Gang as Guinness drinkers, but I do.  Possibly it's easier to paint than a whiskey and soda...

Spotted On the Web

Cybermen are in the news and trending on Facebook.  Apparently, some time ago Peter Capaldi was asked in an interview which classic villain he'd like to see reintroduced into the series: being of a certain age, he chose Mondasian Cybermen.  Stephen Moffat is supposed to have said it wasn't going to happen* - but they will be back for Capaldi's last bow.  The Word on the Street is that we'll also get Ice Warriors in Season 10, which can only be good news.  Yetis next please!

*Quite possibly because they resemble the Black and White Minstrels. 

We'll have to see whether this works.  But Black Tree Designs will presumably be happy, given that they keep 'finding' old stock of them*.  I may even get around to painting up my laser team...

*Other Cybermen are available.  Warlord Games have a box-set of Cybermen-through-the-ages.

In other news, Warlord is now accepting orders for the Tetrap miniatures I mentioned in Doctor Who Wednesday #19, and they've also announced the release of a Professor Yana and Chantho set.

Derek Jacobi is a fine actor, and many of us were disappointed not to see more of his version of The Master.  Here's our chance to remedy that!

Gratuitous Sarah Jane Photo

One for the Padre

That blogger par excellence, Capt the Revd Dr Michael Peterson has a thing about military goats.  As I missed making a St David's Day post this year, here are some pics from this week's Royal Leek Presentation...

The Goat by the way is Fusilier Llewellyn, a serving member (not a mascot) of the Royal Welsh.  It's not know if his ration includes the two cigarettes and pint of Guinness his predecessor L/Cpl William Windsor received.

And here's Taffy IV of 2nd Bn The Welsh Regt, who took part in the First Battle of Ypres.

New Stuff

This week has been another poor one as far as the hobby mojo goes.  I have done absolutely no painting, so it looks as if I will miss this weekend's (and final) bonus round in the AHPC.  This is particularly annoying, as I had wanted to submit for each bonus round, I'd bought something specially with this one in mind, and that both my Curtgeld and my normal run of Dr Who figures would have fitted in with the theme (character of scene from a book, movie or tv).

I have some excuse though - I've pulled a muscle in my back (moving books, naturally) and thus spent a day in bed, and the rest of my time feeling extremely sorry for myself.

However, nice Mr Postman did bring some consolation.

Some of you may remember that back in November 2016 I backed the Midlam Miniatures' Cult of the Kraken Lord Kickstarter.  Well, like the previous Midlam Kickstarter I back, these were delivered spot on time.

The Shrine awaits

The Cult arrives..

Jolly nice artwork

I'm been given some thought to my lack of hobby mojo and have come to the conclusion that, much as I enjoy painting figures, it is quite disheartening that I so rarely get to play with them.  I'm going to therefore make a concerted effort to get some solo playing in ("I used to play with myself all the time!").

So I was looking for something simple, fairly self-contained that wasn't too expensive and which was suited to solo play.  Warlord Games let you download the rules of Project Z for free and they seem to meet the above criteria.  And at the moment if you buy the core box, you get an expansion pack for free (£45.00's worth of game for £30.00).  So I watched a couple of YouTube videost and decided it was a good deal.

When I came home this afternoon I found the Red Card of Frustration.  Fortunately, in our case it means that the parcel in in the woodpile, so here we are-

As you see, you get a fair bit in the core box, but for Solo play I reckon you need extra Zombies, so for my free box I chose them rather than more survivors.

Sadly, the core set that was sent to me contained the rules and cards in German.  I see that this has happened to other people and been resolved quickly, so have every confidence that Warlord will sort it out.  I've sent an e-mail and will update you on the results.

But don't worry, I've not sworn off Pulp and Classic Sci-Fi, so stay tuned!