Doctor Who: 12th Doctor Set

Back this week with the second half of my daughter's Christmas present, the 12th Doctor and Companions set.  Once again I used Warlord Games' painting guide online for each character using Army Painter paints.  The 12th Doctor is only into his second season so his list of companions is a lot more limited than the others at this time.

The 12th Doctor is played by Peter Capaldi whose first appearance was way back in 2008 when he played a Roman citizen in Pompeii during the eruption.  His appearance here is the 12th Doctor's classic look with red or black cloak, black sonic sunglasses and electric guitar.  This miniature was nicely done and easy enough to paint (though the guitar was a little tricky with such small details).  Unfortunately the sunglasses bled a little onto his forehead and I need to repaint the face when I get the chance.

The first companion is the crossover companion from the 11th to 12th Doctors, Clara Oswald played by Jenna Coleman.  She is also the main companion of Doctor and finished her last show at the end of last season (2015 as there was no show in 2016).  She has since moved on to play the title character in the British historical drama Victoria.  I was initially disappointed in the sculpt like I was with Billie Piper's Rose Tyler, feeling the face did not do the actor justice.  Looking at it now I feel the face is much closer to Jenna's then Billie's sculpt, I just need to keep working on my skills. She has a simple outfit for this one and I am very much looking forward to her version with the 11th Doctor.

The next three companions are known as the Paternoster Gang and make their first appearance in the 11th Doctor episode "A Good Man Goes to War", a very good episode.  The group makes various appearances throughout the 11th and 12th Doctor series but never stay long.  They are present when at the first appearance of the 12th Doctor following his regeneration.  

Strax is a member of the warrior Sontaran alien race. Strax was forced to serve as a nurse, healing the injured as a punishment for being defeated by the Doctor during the Sontaran invasion of Earth. This is contrary to the Sontaran's warrior instincts and mentality and as such, Strax has been known to occasionally slip back to his Sontaran ways and mannerisms. In "A Good Man Goes to War", he states that he is nearly 12, suggesting that this is quite old for a Sontaran. A running gag is Strax's inability to tell the difference between genders and his obsession with using violent tactics. Strax is played by Welsh actor Dan Starkey and is seen in his butler outfit from his second appearance.

Madam Vastra is a female Silurian warrior from prehistoric Earth who was awakened from hibernation in the 19th century when her lair was disturbed during the construction of the London Underground. Initially enraged, she slaughtered five commuters before being pacified by the Doctor. She eventually overcame her race's hatred of humans and joined London society. She became a consulting detective to Scotland Yard, and a possible inspiration for the Sherlock Holmes stories. Among her unseen adventures is her capture of Jack the Ripper, whom she eats (she mentions in "A Good Man Goes to War" that she found him "stringy, but tasty all the same"). She hired a maid, Jenny Flint, who assists her in her investigations and who is also married to her. Madam Vastra is played by the Scottish actress Neve McIntosh.

Jenny Flint's backstory in "The Battle of Demons Run: Two Days Later" shows she was turned away from her family because of her "preferences in companionship", and saved from attackers by Vastra, who took her on as an employee. The Doctor was present at their initial meeting, during which Vastra recounts in "The Name of the Doctor" that he saved Jenny's life. She shows herself to have acquired extremely formidable skills as a hand-to-hand combatant and a swords-woman. She is shown in all of her appearances to be entirely comfortable with post-19th century technologies, time travel, and she is repeatedly seen using technology devices, and in the episode "Deep Breath" she is seen wearing and using the Sonic Gauntlet designed for that episode. She is played by Welsh actress Catrin Stewart.

Next week I will start showcasing the Goblin Town starter set miniatures from Game Workshop's Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game. I have finished all the goblins (1 post) and through a quarter of Thorin's Company (14 plus Gandalf and Radagast)  which will have a post for each model so the blog should return to its normal weekly posting!

Doctor Who: 10th Doctor Set

So now that the computer is back after a couple weeks in the shop (RAM failed and then the solid state hard drive died), I can get back to posting some updates.  The first two will be my eldest daughter's Christmas presents.  She is a big Doctor Who fan and with Warlord Games now having the license to publish Doctor Who: Into the Time Vortex I picked the 10th and 12th Doctor sets a couple of months go (now is even a better time with a drop in GBP against the dollar as these have to be ordered from the British site vice the U.S. site).  She will likely be getting future sets of aliens as they come out and I will probably be picking up the Doctor sets for myself as well.

Each Doctor set (just the 10th and 12th so far) come with that iteration of the Doctor and four of his companions from that version.  They come in nice cardboard box packaging with a plastic tray/box for the miniatures to sit in.  The plastic tray is surrounded by a cardboard sleeve that gives information on each of the characters.  The miniatures are all approximately 38mm tall, allowing them to have more realistic proportions compared to most 28mm miniatures.

Warlord Games has a painting guide online for each character using Army Painter paints and I followed each of them while painting these miniatures.

The 10th Doctor, David Tennant more recently as the protagonist in Broadchurch (with another season coming!) Kilgrave in Jessica Jones, and previously as Barty Crouch Jr. in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, is in his classic suit and trench coat outfit.

His first companion is the first companion of the new series, Rose Tyler.  While all the models are great I feel this miniature's face does not do a good job of representing Billie Piper at all, but that may be more to my slowly improving painting ability and some funkieness that happened between the paint and the primer...

His next companion is Martha Jones in her classic red leather jacket. This was my first time painting black skin tone and my paint selection is a little limited so while I am happy with the effort I feel it should be a bit paler to truly represent Freema Agyeman's skin tone.

Next companion is Donna Noble, probably my least liked companion to date, but I think they did an excellent job with Catherine Tate's likeness.

The last companion for the 10th Doctor is Donna's grandfather Wilfred Mott.  Another fine sculpt that captured Bernard Cribbins very well.  I did enjoy him as a companion and what he brought to the Donna character.     

Next up is the the 12th Doctor and companions!

*9th Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and 11th Doctor (Matt Smith) have not been released yet.  For aliens we have Judoon, Zygons, and the Silence.  There is a plastic Darlek kit in the works and a Cyberman set that will include each version over the 50+ years of Doctor Who history.

GySgt Gifts: The Palm Tree

    A final post on the GySgt Gift series, and a little late as I had to dig photos off a couple of packed devices and find one of the kits that was packed away for the move as well.

    The trunk of the palm tree is a stick from the backyard in Okinawa.  It attaches to a thumb tack glued into the hole of the base of the diorama, allowing for easy removal for shipping but remaining sturdy enough for display.  The top of the trunk is rapped with twine to simulate the dead palm frond bases you find on all palm trees in Okinawa.

    The kit itself comes from the Japanese company Kamizukuri, who makes laser cut paper vegetation and buildings diorama kits for Japan's large plastic model enthusiast population.  Below is the front and back cover of the kit I used for this project, their jungle kit, as the 1/35 scale of the kit better suited the Warlord 28mm Bolt Action figures than the palm tree kit you will see further down.  The fern kit came with four different types of fern leaves, though I primarily used the ones on the right.  I used one kit for each gift.

 


















    Below is a palm tree kit's contents.  The palm tree kit comes with two sheets of laser cut paper leaves, one with 10 and one with 7 leaves (and 2 lizards).  They also include a white and black piece of paper (I have not figured out what those are used for, and 8 wire stems used to attach the leaves to the trunk of your plant/tree. The leaves are decently sturdy, even when painted (all kits come pre-colored as dead leaves), and hold their shape well once you bend them the way you want.  The leaves are attached to the sheets by a number of tabs that are easy to cut with a pen knife and with little worry of damaging the leaf.

    Also included is a direction sheet in Japanese, though it is easy enough to deduce from the pictures, at least the important parts.  

    Over-all the kits are nicely done, but they only come with the leaves and not the trunks.  They are a bit pricey as well: the jungle kits came in at 1234 yen each (about $11.21), and the palm tree kit was 1400 yen (about $12.72).  They make good kits for special diorama projects or displays for your miniatures when not using them but I would not use them for regularly used war-gaming terrain.

KR Multi-Case Kaiser2 Review

  A break from the GySgt Gift posts as my KR Multi-Case came in today.  My wife got it for my birthday but the USPS lovely routing system sent it on the slow ship out of California and it took a month to get here.  The case looks phenomenal so far, tons of pockets for additional storage, and well constructed for securely transporting miniatures.  I got the Kaiser2, as I wanted to be able to carry two opposing armies and the case meets airline carry-on requirements.

  Here is the front of the case.  There are two flap pockets, the width of which match the "pocket" size Bolt Action rule books but can fit multiple books in each pocket.  Behind them are a zipper pocket for the whole front.  On the top you can see the carrying handle, nice and comfortable.  When I had the inside cases out my 36 lbs four year old climbed inside and had me zip him up.  I was able to pick up the case from just the handle with no issues or concerns of tearing.

  

On the left side are is another zipper pocket, capable of storing multiple full size rule books and the KR insignia on the side is actually a clear plastic pocket for placing an identification card in it from inside the zipper pocket.

  On the right side is a mesh pocket, currently holding the shoulder strap that can be attached for ease of travel.

  The back has an additional two zipper pockets for more storage.  As does the inside cover as seen below.

  The KR2 contains two multi-cases, thick, heavy duty card board boxes with plastic handles that hold the foam and miniatures.

  I had each case set-up the same and capable of carrying a good standard size (1500 pt) army with room to spare.

   The first tray is for individual miniatures.  Here I have a couple of Warlord Games' 28mm USMC from their Bolt Action line in various poses: the first three are standing, the next two are crouching and placed base down, and the last is prone Marine sans base.  They fit fairly snug and should have no issue during travel.

  The next level consists of two trays.  On the left is a 70mm deep pluck foam tray for vehicles and goes all the way to the bottom of the case.  In it is one of Warlord Games' resin LVT-4 Buffalo AMTRACs model for scale.  All the pluck foam trays are the same as the miniature trays, just without spots for miniatures removed.  It does require removal of the internal walls when the model is larger than one row.  On the right is a half miniature tray, this allows for a total of 75 individual miniatures per each of my cases.

  The last level is only on the right side and is a 30mm deep pluck foam tray for storing team based units (mortars, anti-tank rifles, machine-gun teams, etc).

  Each tray, pluck and individual miniature, has a 5mm base sheet on the bottom for the miniatures to sit on and provide additional protection between trays.

  Overall it appears to be a very well constructed product and I am relieved to have it for the upcoming move, after which I will provide some additional feedback.