String and Sticky-back Plastic - Who Project Log

[Hat Guy]

Haven't been around these parts much lately, moved a lot of my wargames logs onto blogs and Facebook, but this one feels like it belongs on LAF, you know? I'm not going to say we're a little older and set in our ways here but... if the giant scarf fits? 

My collection of Doctor Who minis has been something of a side-side-side project to my ongoing Superheroes stuff, which can be found here: https://leadcapes.blogspot.com/ But now is feeling like the time to give it a little focus, as I wrap up a 40k army, finally get my Cursed City onto the painting table and am polishing off a few skirmish game projects. As it's never been something I've really focused on, the collection is pretty patchy, which is likely my first goal; fill in the gaps. That said, I'm aiming to get at least one big game happening before the end of 2022. First up, a little inspiration:



Now that's I've set the tone, let's start with what I have already, first up, my TARDIS and collection of Doctors:

As you can see, I have Doctors 1, 3, 4, 7 and 8, as well as Peter Cushing as Doctor Who from the Dalek films. In addition to the 8 Doctors, I would like to collect some alternate versions of the character, such as Doctor Who, the 9th Doctor from Scream of the Shalka and the "Older and Fatter" 4th Doctor seen on occasion, which I've always assumed to be the alternate version from the aborted "Dark Dimension" timeline. That's more of a "one day" idea though, for now, I'll be trying to find good versions of Doctors 2, 5 and 6, and at least one iconic companion for each if I don't already have some (companions next time).

Just a little note at the end to avoid any kerfuffle: I won't be purchasing any Warlord Who products I can't get locally as I find their new shipping policy to Australia to be absurd. Also I will only be focusing on television Who before 2005 and ancillary media thereof, the new stuff just isn't my bag. 

[Tactalvanic]

All perfectly understandable and cracking classic who.

What's not to love?

floppy scenery, monsters with their zippers showing and all the rest of it. All covered over with "good" acting and enthusiasm to keep us entertained and behind the sofa if necessary.

Hopefully we see more of it soon, and some action shots to

[Chief Lackey Rich]

I won't be purchasing any Warlord Who products I can't get locally as I find their new shipping policy to Australia to be absurd.

Can they even ship there these days?  Last update I saw the Australian postal service had told the rest of the planet (or at lest the US) they weren't accepting international mail till they cleared their backlog.

[Hat Guy]

Australia Post is back and running about as well as it has the past few years. The shutdown was so that they could ramp-up for the Xmas rush and was actually only a few days in the end. What can I say? This is why you don't privatise the damn postal service. 

[Hat Guy]

As promised, companions! The very backbone of an excellent Doctor Who adventure. Well, except The Deadly Assassin, and The Eight Doctors, and maybe some other books and audios, but let's not worry about that right now.


The 3rd Doctor and Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart (swoon).


The 4th Doctor with Romana 1 and K-9


Frobisher is here, but no 6th Doctor for him to travel with! 


The 7th Doctor, Ace, Absolom Daak and (from the Doctor Who Marvel Comics run) Death's Head! Surprise appearance, no?

Some antagonists up for a photo shoot next time.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

Australia Post is back and running about as well as it has the past few years. The shutdown was so that they could ramp-up for the Xmas rush and was actually only a few days in the end. What can I say? This is why you don't privatise the damn postal service. 

Afraid not.  The Australian post is refusing to take 1st Class and Priority International mail (ie the affordable options that everyone uses) from the USPS, and started sending stuff back to sender if it was in transit when they started doing so.  Excuse was COVID related issues.  USPS announcement is at the link and still in effect.  From what I'm told bouncing packages back like that has them seriously thinking about cutting off Australia entirely, apparently it caused enormous hassles on our end.

https://blog.stamps.com/2021/09/02/usps-service-suspension-to-australia/

I'm impressed to see Frobisher and Death's Head in the mix.  That's some serious dedication to the Doctor Who there.

[Hat Guy]

Afraid not.  The Australian post is refusing to take 1st Class and Priority International mail (ie the affordable options that everyone uses) from the USPS, and started sending stuff back to sender if it was in transit when they started doing so.  Excuse was COVID related issues.  USPS announcement is at the link and still in effect.  From what I'm told bouncing packages back like that has them seriously thinking about cutting off Australia entirely, apparently it caused enormous hassles on our end.

https://blog.stamps.com/2021/09/02/usps-service-suspension-to-australia/

I'm impressed to see Frobisher and Death's Head in the mix.  That's some serious dedication to the Doctor Who there.

That is some rather different information to what I've been getting through AusPost at work (we do a bit of shipping) and I haven't had any problems getting my orders from America myself, not that I don't believe you, of course, just pointing out that there is differing information out there. Hopefully the situation is resolved soon, it's hard enough getting wargames supplies in Australia as it is. 

As to Frobisher and Death's Head, well I can't resist the optional silliness of the comics if I'm being honest. 

Werewolf Tom Baker! Who wouldn't want that in their game?

My collection of Who villains is pretty slim at the moment, but I picked up some plastic Daleks from work yesterday, so they'll get put together at some stage.


Tetraps. Look, they're crummy villains, but I had a voucher and there wasn't much to choose from. The models are actually alright.


Rutans (Games Workshop Spore Mines) found cheap at a swap meet and given a glowing green paint-job.


Omega (Pathfinder mini), found in the overflow bin at work and I thought it worked pretty well. He's tall, but he's just a thought-projection of himself, so why not loom over lesser lifeforms?

That's about it for the painted minis at the moment, but I have a couple of things from other games that will probably work, so we'll go through them as I paint and build some Daleks.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

Seems like Werewolf Tom Baker would be doable with a head (and maybe hand) swap, the tricky bit being finding a suitably sized wolfman to donate the parts.  If you wanted to be less faithful about it, picking your favorite lycanthrope mini and adding a scarf made of putty would get the point across nicely.  I do rather like that the comic artists stuck to making were-Tom look like he was wearing prosthetics appropriate to the BBC's Classic Who sfx budget, though. 

I apparently need () to watch Time & the Rani again, because my initial thought was "what the hell is a tetrap?" on seeing them.  Nice enough pig-bat-man minis, though.  The rutan proxies is very clever, might be the best use for a spore mine ever.  Surely there's a suitable human fig out there (maybe in a Cthulhu range, or something from Pulp figs?) for the lighthouse keeper disguise too?

FWIW, I think your postal service is shipping out just fine and we're accepting stuff from them, that never changed AFAIK.  It's the other way around that's a no-go right now, USPS just won't accept the package period - at least as of last week.

[TripleBackflip]

It's always great to see more classic Who stuff, especially the BTD things, since that's the range I'm focusing on too.

How would you recommend Basing them though? I was gonna get some of the Vallejo basing paste but I'm not sure if it will work.

[Hat Guy]

Good news! I just happen to have a video I did on my basing technique handy:



After undercoating, it's just a wetbrush and a drybrush to get the results you see, unless there's some more detail to address. I have been using basing goop for Sludge and Reign in Hell, and I like the results, but I prefer something a little more plain on my Who minis so that they suit more tables. 

[Onebigriver]

Great project. I only own about 3 BTD Who figures, I might have to have another look!

[Hat Guy]

The Black Tree stuff is hit-and-miss, but the good ones are quite nice. What really bugs me is the pictures on the website really do not indicate the quality of the model. My 7th Doctor is beautiful, but their Ace was garbage, so I replaced her with the Crooked Dice one.

One of the fun things about this project is that I have to dig around different manufacturers to find everything I need and really get creative with some characters and monsters. There is really no comprehensive Doctor Who range out there and even the wide availability of some STLs barely scratches the surface. For example, I'm hoping to get some Cybermen at some point, preferably in both a The Tenth Planet and Silver Nemesis style, but they're not available anywhere in a variety of poses. Then there's characters who really don't have much in the way of visual representation at all, especially from the books and audio dramas, so I have a bit of leeway, though I did find this picture of Charley:



So far, in addition to Warlord, Black Tree and Crooked Dice, I have minis from Reaper, Games Workshop, Heroclix, Ironclad, Footsore and probably more, and that will extend as I go, in all likelihood. I know LAF is a little iffy on IP-infringing "Not-" minis, but if anyone reading this knows some good resources, please feel free to PM me. 

[Onebigriver]

Have you had a look at my thread? Might give you some ideas.

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=133339.0

[TripleBackflip]

CP Models have some "Not Slitheen" as well as Fungoids from 1960s story "the Chase"

They also have Varga plants from "Daleks master plan", they call them Vagra plants

[Chief Lackey Rich]

CP Models have some "Not Slitheen" as well as Fungoids from 1960s story "the Chase"

Ah, that's where those were from.  I knew they looked familiar but couldn't place them.

The internet seems to think their "real" name is gubbage cones?  Weird.   Apparently the shooting script (and nowhere else) used the name, but they were always just fungoids in the dialog.

Surely at least some of their "plant creatures" are forms of the Crinoid from Seeds of Doom, aren't they?