Best of Enemies

Due to being somewhat busy, as well as posting chapters of my novel “The Last Knight” is instalments over on Corvuscope, I’ve not had a great deal of time to butcher the miniatures I showed in the last post for my new version of the 13th Doctor.

However, I did manage to set aside some time to clear all the flash from ALL my unbased Doctors and companions, then attacked the two figures I had decided to use as my 23th Doctor and possible incarnation of the Master.

When we last saw my proto-13th Doctor, he looked like this:

The base was filed down, so it would sit flat, then glued to a 2 pence piece. I then removed his hat, by carefully cutting away the extraneous metal, then filed down the top of his head, with the idea of building this back up with either Milliput or Green Stuff. I usually use Milliput, as I find it easier to work with, but it is coarser than Green Stuff, so may have another go with that, although I do find it a little awkward to work with. Probably either the mix I’m using or lack of experience.

Next, the end of the portfire was snipped off, leaving a bare shaft – the basis for his sonic screwdriver.

I then sat for a while, going through my box of bits to see if there was anything that could be added to this shaft to give it a bit more character – ideally a tiny bead or a small ring of plastic. Unfortunately, everything I had was little bit too big.

Then I had an idea…

If I used a pair of needle-nosed pliers applied from the tip down, I could create regular ridges around the entire shaft, rather than trying to file down individual slots in it, which had the added advantage of being of a regular width. I then file the tip of the shaft to a square-based pyramid, to suggest that the end was an emitter crystal of some such.

This is the result:

It kind of reminds me of the 12th Doctor’s sonic screwdriver, which I recall thinking was pretty cool.

Obviously, there are differences and it will need a decent paintjob to bring out the detail, but it’s a good start.

Next I moved on to the Master. He originally looked like this:

So, based was filed, glued to a 2 pence piece and the lower part of the trail spike removed. I then carefully bent his arm to lower and twist it, so that he was now brandishing whatever device I decided it was – possibly a revised laser screwdriver or another variant of the tissue compression eliminator. I thought the hand wasn’t exactly in the right place, so made the mistake of trying to twist the hand position, which resulted in it snapping off and much swearing as I tried to locate it when it dropped onto the floor.

After more swearing at the glue that proved to less than super (although it was branded as such), this was reattached and held in position until it was stuck solidly.

The result is below:

I think I may need some additional detailing on the device, which given the delicacy of the wrist joint now, might have to be completed via painting, but the haughty expression on his face does scream “Master” to me, so I think this was good choice.

But all progress is good, so whilst it might be going slowly, at least it’s going…

Unlucky for Some…

As most of the readers of my blog will know, I was less than enamoured with Chris Chibnall’s tenure as both show runner and lead writer on Doctor Who.

Which is the polite and British way of saying that it was a big pile of steaming horseshit.

After struggling through the first two seasons and watching as he slowly sucked the soul out of my favourite sci-fi show, I decided that enough was enough.

I did write a post positing that the whole Chibnall run was actually an alternate reality and the TRUE adventures of the 13th Doctor could be found elsewhere, even going so far as to attempt the first episode of the true series, replicated in miniature form, which can be found here.

Now, whilst I still think that was a fair effort, I believe I can do better – especially since I’ve decided to repurpose the figure I originally used as my version of the 13th Doctor as the Derek Jacobi iteration of the Master.

So, having searched extensively on too many websites to count, I finally ordered two figures as potential 13th Doctors, which arrived today.

This is the first, which can be purchased from Gripping Beast for a very reasonable £1.60. It is SSA1 Artillery Labourer in Waistcoat, holding Trailspike. The reason I chose this figure was that I liked the expression on his face and thought that the trailspike could be trimmed down to create a sonic screwdriver.

However, having now received the figure, the almost haughtiness and suggested arrogance just says this is another version if the Master we have yet to meet.

Which leads me to my second option…

This is SYFA1 Artillery Crewman – Gunner with Portfire. Also from Gripping Beast and also only £1.60.

The miniature pictured on the website is fully painted, but I could see the potential beneath their paintjob (not that there’s anything wrong with their version). The pose says sass, the expression is confident and maybe a little smug, and the outfit is effectively saying “Don’t you wish you looked as damn fine as me?”

That’s a Doctor I can get on board with. He will need the hat removing and a newly sculpted hair and the portfire will need remodelling into a suitably flashy sonic screwdriver, but once that’s done, we will have a newly regenerated 13th Doctor, ready to take on the Universe.

“There are many beautiful and amazing things all across time and space… and you’ve just met one. I’m the Doctor, and the pleasure is entirely yours.”

Corvuscope

If you were expecting a new post regarding my progress on the almost full collection of Doctors (still waiting on one to arrive) for my ongoing Doctor Who project, unfortunately you will be disappointed.

Due to various personal issues, I’ve not had a great deal of time to pursue hobby-related projects – although my bathroom has now been repainted and had both the bath side and toilet seat replaced, which has potentially earned me some much-needed Brownie Points with my wife.

For those of you whom the title of the post means nothing to, this is the sister site to the Buffet, which was originally planned as a place where I would review various TV shows and movies. Sadly, this fell by the wayside and the last such post on there was way back in 2018.

So, as I DO actually have another blog, I have decided to re-purpose it. As the literary agents I have submitted my book to have yet to realise that my “magnificent octopus” would result in a best-seller (no bias here…), I have decided that in order to expose the adventures of Alexander Crowe to a wider audience, I will use Corvuscope as a platform to publish the book in easily digestible portions.

Therefore, the first chapter of “The Last Knight” is now available to read by following the above link and the subsequent chapters will follow on a semi-regular basis, so should anyone be remotely interested in finding out what happens to someone who has been mentally thrust back in time to occupy their own teenaged body, but in a past they neither recognise nor remember, that’s the place to go.

If any of you reading it enjoy it as much as I had writing it, then my work is done.

Well, not quite…

I’ve already written a short story in the same world and begun work on the sequel, so until I run out of ideas (unlikely), Alexander Crowe will continue to get really fucking annoyed with Fate mucking him about.

Off on a Tangent

We have news both good and… not so good.

The good news is that the miniatures ordered from Heresy Miniatures have arrived, so I have a full complement of Doctors, from the First Doctor in the form of William Hartnell up to the Twelfth Doctor in the form of Peter Capaldi, with the official canon non-numbered Doctor (John Hurt as the War Doctor) also in my grubby little mitts.

Of course, I then realised that I had no suitable glue with which to assemble said figures, but a quick trip to my local DIY store soon solved this issue.

However, as I had decided to re-purpose the Crooked Dice Time Traveller, which I’d previously painted up as my version of the 13th Doctor as the Derek Jacobi version of the Master, seen below facing off against a Rutan;

This left me in a quandary, as I now needed a NEW 13th Doctor, as I think we can all agree that the one we did officially get wasn’t very good…

So, after discussing this with a friend, I decided to take a risk and order both Rowan and Rich Shada figures from the Chronocop range from Tangent Miniatures. I say take a risk as although the 3D renders shown on their site looked good, the actual painted examples of their figures did not fill me with confidence…

Which leads me on to the not so good news… they’re not very good figures.

The detail is very shallow, which means that unless I’m very careful when painting them, quite a bit of the detail will be obscured or lost when painting them. Having examined the miniatures closely, I believe I know what the issue here is.

Those of us who collect, paint and play with 28mm metal miniatures are used to a slight exaggeration in respect of our figures. Generally, features will be slightly bigger and more defined, so a miniature that is “true to life” would look wrong to us, as the features would less defined, the build slimmer, etc.

So, when a miniatures is designed in a digital format, whilst the detail will look great in the digital format, once this is transferred into a physical form, this can result in shallow details, which are a pain in the arse to paint properly.

If you combine this with the assumed fact (based on the striation marks on the figures I received) that the digital models for these figures were 3d printed on a plastic reel printer and not a resin printer, then used as the base for creating a mold to be cast in metal, you can see the issue can be compounded. This then results in a figure that not only has shallow detail, but also faint horizontal lines on the figure itself.

I can possibly salvage these figures, but this will take some work and when you’ve paid £5.00 a piece, you expect to be able to just give the miniature a quick clean, base it and then start throwing paint around.

So, when purchasing online from a manufacturer whose only images of the figures you are buying are digital renders, caveat emptor – let the buyer beware. From now on, unless I can see an photo of the actual figure I’ll be getting, whether resin or metal, my money will stay firmly in my pocket

Thankfully, the Time Rider miniature from the same company was sculpted old school by Steve Saleh and looks exactly as it was shown, so at least I have a new version of the Master to bedevil my version of the 13th Doctor.

My current plan is to potentially convert the below metal miniature, by removing the hat, giving him a new hairstyle and converting the portfire he’s holding into a sonic screwdriver…

The advantage of this is two-fold – firstly, it’s a 28mm metal miniature with plenty of character and attitude AND this Front Rank Figurines miniature from Gripping Beast is only £1.60.

And this Doctor has style…

Time Slipping…

Time is a slippery bugger. You look at the “spare” time you believe you have available and plan the many things you wish to achieve, only to have this time slip between your fingers, as various other tasks rear their heads.

Which is why I was not particularly active hobby-wise in the latter half of last year. Yes, I may have managed to complete my first novel, publication of which is still pending, as the literary agents I have contacted have not yet seen fit to respond, but that was about it really.

However, I do intend to at least paint some figures this year and have reviewed my Tray of Shame and replaced those figures that were gathering dust in there with other miniatures, as I felt it was about time the remaining Doctors that I have got a lick of paint, especially as Doctor Who has now returned to our screens in a more palatable version than under Chris Chibnall…

Unfortunately, I am still missing the 9th, 10th and War Doctor, as although these were ordered as a Christmas gift for myself from Heresy Miniatures (as the Cease and Desist notice issued by Warlord Games when they got the licence to produce their frankly underwhelming line of miniatures – bar the plastic Daleks, which were cool – has seemingly expired), these have not yet arrived, due to a resin explosion at Heresy, which has put his production behind.

But what if you’re new to Doctor Who miniature gaming and want to foil the dastardly plans of the many enemies the Doctor has racked up in his 60+ years of time-travelling shenanigans? Where do you go to get the necessary figures to recreate your favourite adventures? Read on, and I will tell you…

Your first port of call would naturally be Black Tree Design, whose Doctor Who range of figures covers the 1st to 8th Doctor, along with the myriad enemies and companions that appeared during the classic era of Doctor Who. The average cost of these 28mm figures is around £2.50 each, so they do represent good value, although some of the sculpts are a little lacking.

Next is Crooked Dice, as Karl Perroton who runs this company has described Doctor Who as his first love and produces miniatures that represent the more recent Doctors and companions. Currently, you can get the 3rd, 4th, 8th, War, 11th and 12th Doctors, with the recent additions of the 14th AND 15th Doctor, although the 14th is David Tennant again, so could be used as the 10th and the version of the newest incarnation of the Doctor portrayed by Ncuti Gatwa is in one specific outfit from an upcoming episode, as it has been hinted that this version of the Doctor will change outfits rather frequently. Figures are £5.00 each, so a little more expensive than Black Tree’s, but are cleaner sculpts, although the sculpt of Rory below does look like Jay from The In-Betweeners…

Heresy Miniatures have now reinstated their Doctor Who inspired figures, so you can get several variations of the 10th and 11th Doctor from them, along with probably the best versions of both Amy Pond and the War Doctor I’ve seen. Their not-Sontarans are also rather good. Price per figure ranges between £4.00 to £5.00, but they’ve currently got a sale on, so you you can get at least 25% off the RRP.

Now, if you want to properly represent a large force of Daleks, Cybermen, Silurians, Sea Devils or Autons, you could just buy multiples of the metals miniatures from Black Tree, but a cheaper option may be to take advantage of those 3D printed resin figures available from Twisted Pinnacle on Etsy. Your get 10 figures for £12.50, so this works out as £1.25 a figure. I’ve not yet purchased any of these, so can’t advise on how robust the figures are, although some feedback on the site does suggest that the Daleks plunger arms don’t always reach the customers intact, so bear that in mind if you choose this option.

Finally, we have Tangent Miniatures, who have some rather unique Doctor Who inspired figures lurking in their Chronocops range. Should you want a figure to represent the alternate incarnations of the 9th Doctor as seen in “Scream of the Shalka” (Richard E. Grant) or “The Curse of Fatal Death” (Rowan Atkinson), as well as another version of the 8th Doctor, this is the place to go. These ARE metal miniatures and are £5.00 each. They also do a range called “Doctor What”, which are more cartoony versions of nearly all the iterations of the Doctor and is currently the only place I know where you can get a version of Jodie Whitaker’s 13th Doctor, should you actually want one. From their Facebook page, there do appear to be other Doctor Who inspired figures in the pipeline, but these have yet to materialise (pun intended) on their website.

So, there you have it, a complete guide to the Doctor Who inspired figures that are readily available of the Internet. There are a few characters that are not yet available, but I have several figures in mind that will make good proxies, which a future post will highlight.

I will finish off my first post of 2024 by wishing all my readers a Happy New Year. Or rather, a Happy Who Year…

I’ll get me coat…

Carrion Crow’s Guide to… Beer!?

So, it’s been a fair old while since I’ve posted on here and no matter what Keith may think, I haven’t been on Barsoom…

October was a busy month for me, but regretfully not hobby-wise. Holiday had been booked and my wife and I jetted off to Lanzarote for a week in the sun.

And it was whilst there I had an idea…

I ran this past my father-in-law (we were staying with them) and then my wife, who surprisingly thought it was a good idea. However, I needed additional support – someone else to do it with, so reached out to my sons and brother-in-law, my sons agreeing immediately and my brother-in-law being somewhat less enthusiastic.

The end result is that I have now posted what I hope will be the first of many videos to YouTube.

Now, as you may have gathered from the title of this post, it’s a guide to beer, specifically those ales released by UK supermarkets for Christmas.

It’s a bit rough and ready, but if you have any interest in beer… or if you actually want to know what I look and sound like, then give it a watch. It’s only 8 minutes long, so I’m not impinging on too much of your time. It probably took you longer to read this post.

Feel free to leave a comment on the video on on YouTube or here, subscribe if it’s content that interests you and, of course, tell all your friends.

Here’s the link:

https://youtu.be/V9qMnLC21Ps?si=fVmMPhA81XlNFmSW

There will be more content on YouTube, as I do need to do Part Two, but rest assured, as I received a box of Eisenkern Stormtroopers for my birthday, my Distant Stars project has received a much-needed kick up the arse.

On a final note, I hve received feedback from someone who has read my entire novel and stated “I loved it, it’s a triumph, absolute genius, but what happens next?”

Which was nice.

Until next time.

Feast of Crows

I can’t quite believe that it’s been over two months since I last posted on here. I could go into great detail as to why, but generally anyone visiting this site isn’t here to hear me moaning about how real life crap has got in the way of doing hobby-related stuff, so I won’t bore you. Suffice to say, some people are quite passionate about cardboard boxes and want them delivered with the sort of alacrity that you would usually attribute to urgent medical supplies, such as blood plasma or donor organs…

However, I haven’t been entirely idle in hobby-related pursuits, even if what I HAD planned to do was pushed to one side in favour of something else.

Those who follow this blog will know that, whilst a fan of Star Wars, I wasn’t keen on spending vast sums of cash getting into Star Wars Legion. Yes, I’ll admit the models are lovely, but I balk at spending £30 on seven miniatures, no matter how pretty they are.

Hence my Distant Stars project, where I find suitable proxies for the various factions within my version of the Star Wars universe. I’d been using the Void 1.1 plastic marines and junkers for my Stormtrooper and Scout Trooper proxies, but when I went to the Scotia Grendel website, I discovered that they had sold the entire line to Seb Games. After a quick search on their website, I couldn’t see the plastic sprues anywhere, so dropped them an email to query whether they wold be stocking them and got a ‘yes’, so all was right with the world.

However, if the particular style of the Viridian Space Marines doesn’t meet your proxy Stormtrooper needs, then why not get some Wargames Atlantic Eisenkern Stromtroopers instead?

£25.00 for 20 multipart hard plastic figures seems like a better option than forking out £30 for 7 genuine licenced SW Stormtroopers and that’s not because I’m “tight”, as my wife says when I refuse to spend £4 for a Starbucks when I can get a perfectly serviceable coffee from McDonalds for half that, but because if you have limited funds, you want to get the most for your money.

So, whilst I may be gathering my troops to either save or subjugate the galaxy, it occurred to me that I didn’t actually have any rules with which to fight these battles. I looked at the various free rules from Mantic Games, etc. and realised that I could potentially use them, but as I had a half-written set of mass combat rules languishing on my disc drive, I decided to brush them off and revise them instead.

So, that’s what I’ve been working on – Feast of Crows – a set of generic mass combat wargaming rules that should allow you to fight whatever battles you want, with whatever figures you have available, be they a snarling horde of feral goblins, a highly trained phalanx of Greek hoplites or Grimdark space marines allegedly saving the Universe from the incursions of Chaos – or any mish-mash of the above.

Once they are done, I will post them on here for all and sundry to give them a try. I’ve kept the rules relatively simple, so they should be easy enough to pick up and play without the head-scratching you get when reading through some rule sets out there.

And remember – The only real victor in any battle are the crows…

The Crowe Takes Flight

I initially started this post with “many months ago” but then decided to actually check the relevant dates, only to discover that the last post on this topic was 29th October 2021 – so actually 19 months ago.

Anyway, digression aside, I have completed another of my projects! “Unprecedented!”, I hear you cry, “What has got into him! He’s usually a bit crap at actually finishing things…”

Well, in this case, I think the time to complete this was justified, as unlike revamping RPG rules, when you are creating a fully-realised fictional world and then writing a novel set in said world, it does take a little longer.

But after many, many hours, we have 90,739 words spread over 176 pages and 32 chapters, detailing the first tale of Alexander Crowe, a time-displaced consciousness trapped in a past he neither recognises nor recalls, tasked with preventing some kind of apocalyptic event that will rewrite reality, with no real idea of what he’s doing. Not only that, he has to maintain the illusion that he’s an ordinary teenaged student wizard in a world of magic, when he has no ability or knowledge of the arcane arts.

And you thought your first day at a new school was challenging…

I posted the original draft of the first chapter of ‘The Last Knight’ here, so those of you who have not yet read it can get an idea of what’s going on.

And I have submitted it to a literary agent, because otherwise, what’s the point?

Now I just have to wait and see what happens next. Exciting, isn’t it?

Supervisors Rule!

After many hours of collating, typing and, in some cases, making stuff up, the Golden Heroes Supervisors Book is complete.

Combine this with the Players Book that I attached to this post, and you now have a complete roleplaying game to recreate the kind of four-colour action from your favourite comic books.

Now, I do appreciate that these rules date back to the early eighties, but I still feel that they are a solid set of rules and therefore haven’t really tinkered with them too much. My contribution was to tidy them up, add additional options for some of the existing powers or rewrite them where I felt they were a bit lacking and, in the case of the Heroes & Villains section of the Supervisors Book, add those characters that appeared in various articles and scenarios that were published after the original boxed set came out.

In respect of some of these characters, some were only mentioned as an aside, so I have expanded on what was written to beef them up a little and, where possible, found suitable illustrations for the majority of the characters.

Both the Players and Supervisors Books lack cover art, as I wanted to create new covers for these, but have yet to have the time.

The final book, which is referenced in the rewritten rules, will be the Adventure Book, which will contain all of the previously published Golden Heroes scenarios I have managed to locate, along with a Champions scenario that I have converted to fit in with the GH background. This is about a third complete, so keep an eye out for this in the coming (hopefully) weeks.

Obviously, there is nothing to stop you using these rules as they stand and creating your own adventures and, should you do this, I would appreciate any feedback on what you think of the rules.

ghsbDownload

The Perfect Storm?

So, here we are, 11 days into July and even with the week’s extension that I kindly gave myself (because I’m nice like that), I still managed to fail to complete my Forgotten Heroes entry until last night. So, four days over. A pretty poor showing on my part.

Note to self: Must try harder next year.

Anyway, this is the figure I started with, a DC Heroclix Signalman, complete with weedy arms, which I removed and replaced:

And this is what the end result should look like, the Tornado, in all his pink and red glory;

So, having done the majority of the shading last time, the first thing I needed to do was reattach his painted cape with hot glue, which I was somewhat nervous about, as I wasn’t sure if the hot glue would react with the paint and result in me having to repaint various parts of the figure. I needn’t have worried, as this went extremely well and set in no time, allowing me to complete the details.

I started by painting a capital ‘T’ on his chest in Docrafts Noir (black to those of us who don’t speak French), then when this was dry, painted a smaller ‘T’ in Docrafts Blanc (i.e. white) inside the black, so as to create a black border. This needed several touches up to neaten the borders, but all was good at the end.

Next, the black was used to paint a tiny ‘T’ on his belt buckle, as everyone needs to know that it’s HIS belt. I also used some watered down black to add shading to the cavity in the top of his holster, to suggest shadowing.

I then moved on to his eyes. Now, I’m always nervous about painting eyes, as if you cock it up, you end up with a cross-eyed hero, which no-one will take seriously. Two blobs of white were adding to suggest his eye-sockets in his mask, then I carefully painted one eye, then the other, making sure that they were even. Then I tidied up the edges of his ‘mask-holes’ with some Cherry Red. A few parts of his cape, where the wash from the previous stage hadn’t taken, were over-painted with GW Tentacle Pink (at least I think that’s what it’s called) and a black circle added to the end of his gun barrel, to suggest a hole.

Finally, I mixed some black with burnt ochre to get a dirty wash, then liberally applied this to the base, which had previously been given a cost of dark grey. This was to suggest dirty concrete.

And he was done.

Even with the pink cape, he doesn’t look like someone you want to mess with.

So, done for another year and another unique figure for my collection. I’m pretty pleased with how he came out, even if he did take slightly longer than anticipated to finish.

So, what’s next?

Well, it occurred to me that I’ve not recently turned random crap into something cool and I’d squirrelled away the below;

A couple of months ago, I replaced the windscreen wipers on my wife’s car. As I’d bought Halfords own brand, they have a generic blade for the model of her car, but it comes with multiple fittings so it can be used on different makes. I used the correct fittings, but ended up with two of the above extra fittings. Not being one to throw away interestingly shaped bits of plastic, especially when they can be re-used elsewhere (single use plastic? I think not!), I kept hold of these, as I had a cunning plan…

So, what am I going to use them for, you may ask?

I’m not saying yet, but the image below may give you a clue;

Join me next time, when we will be voyaging to a galaxy far, far away, for some high-speed pursuit amongst over-sized trees, avoiding feral teddy-bears…