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

Dr Who Wednesday #17

By a pleasing coincidence this Dr Who Wednesday falls on the 53rd anniversary of the first broadcast of the show.  

I should have something interesting and erudite to say about it all, but frankly I haven't the energy to write anything sensible.  Instead, I'll point you to BBCAmerica Doctor Who's-Day round-up - a blatant rip-our of our own dear Dr Who Wednesday.

Shiny!

After last week's lament that Crooked Dice's Not-Doctor-Who range had be pull from the shelves before I'd managed to stock up, I managed to pick up three of the companions.

Now, I know a couple of my readers don't approve of Capt Jack or the Paternoster Gang for introducing sexuality to the programme, but that ship sailed once they started allowing snogging in the TARDIS.  Personally, I find Capt Jack a great character.  I enjoyed Torchwood greatly before it got too dark in the last two seasons.  I have my reservations about how Sontarans are now portrayed as comedy characters rather than menacing ones, but I must admit that Strax is written and acted very amusingly.

Gratuitous Sarah-Jane Smith photo

Dr Who Wednesday #16

Shinies

Last week Annie from Bad Squiddo Games announced in her FaceBook group that she wasn't going to include the Not-Doctor Who figures on her new website, and she was thus selling off her existing stock,  

I picked up these two - a Crooked Dice Not-River Song and a Heresy Not-Amy Lake.

Being a little dim, I didn't twig that Crooked Dice and Heresy had each removed their Dr Who lookie-likies from their sites.  I should have stocked up as soon as I realised that there were likely to be Cease and Desist letters!  I notice however, that Heresy have kept their "Emily Lake" with the simple expedient of changing her name and colour of hair.  I must stock up on Not-Firefly and Not-Blake's7 figures...

Spotted on the Web

As suspected, news from Warlord Games is coming thick and fast as Christmas approaches.  

The Silents have been released in sets of three lead figures for £11.99.  And we've had a a teaser pic of plastic Cybermen.

These leave me a little cold, but then I'm not a great fan of the 'new' Cybermen.

Gratuitous Sarah Jane picture

Gratuitous Sweep picture

Dr Who Wednesday #10

 
Noted on the 'Net

• It seems Warlord Game's plans for producing Dr Who minis are progressing.  Last week they advertised for freelance digital sculptors specifically to work on the project.
• And for those of us who like our minis second-hand (and therefore hopefully cheaper!), a new FaceBook group has been set up - Doctor Who Miniatures Buy, Sell & Swap.
• Crooked Dice have been producing some nice Not-UNIT miniatures recently - their starter set (which includes the Not-Brigadier and the Not-Jo Grant) is very good value at £15.00. 
• And talking of UNIT, TARV Models has produced a couple of very nice looking decals for customising your vehicles.  I can see their Naval Landing Parties being useful too (Sea Devil bait!)

Painting

As evidenced over several Dr Who Wednesdays since November, the main (and unplanned) theme of my entries to the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge has been Dr Who - and great fun it's been too!  I'd like to thank those of you who've given me support both here and on the Challenge pages: it's been very gratifying to find others getting pleasure from my efforts.

It therefore seemed fitting that for my final submission to the Challenge I should present the Man Himself.*

*As someone said 'The Proper Doctor!'

Unlike my other recent efforts he's not from Black Tree Design, but from Crooked Dice.  They're pricier, but I think that when it comes to likenesses they are much better.  Indeed, while painting him I found myself wondering whether he looked more like Jon or Sean Pertwee!  They've certainly caught the dandy man-of-action in his dynamic pose.*

* In my APC submission I mentioned Venusian Ju-Jitsu.  I didn't mention my old English teacher who insisted that the proper adjective should be Venereal - he did admit though that writing stories about Cosmonauts coming back to Earth with Venereal disease might cause some confusion.  Our English lessons were fun!  As one of the other teachers said "If you lads could get O-Levels in bullshit and tall stories, you'd be alright." 

I had intended to have him in a black cape (as in the banner above), but The Wife* insisted on something a little more tweedy.  Needless to say, I didn't bother with the check!**

*Who is of the Third Doctor generation.

** It is in fact Khaki Grey with black wash.