Wednesday 25 April 2018

"Great Big Absorbing Creature From Outer Space..."

"Interesting. A sort of Absorbatrix? Absorbaclon? Absorbaloff?"
This 33mm tall metal miniature of an Abzorbalovian is manufactured by “Warlord Games” and can be found in the Abzorbaloff & Victor Kennedy boxed set from their "Into The Time Vortex" range. Able to "absorb his victims' bodies, along with their memories and consciousnesses, into himself at a simple touch", the Abzorbaloff  was created by nine-year-old William Grantham as part of a Blue Peter competition to design a monster for "Doctor Who", and appeared in the June 2006 story "Love And Monsters".

The figure was initially undercoated with "Vallejo" Heavy Khaki, heavily shaded with "Citadel" Biel-Tan Green and dry-brushed with some additional "Vallejo" Heavy Khaki. His clawed toes and fingers were subsequently picked out with "Citadel" Abaddon Black and "Vallejo" Iraqi Sand, before being washed with "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade. 
Cult Of Skaro WIPs - Dalek Thay and Dalek Caan, plus an additional drone
As the detailed sculpt contains the partially-absorbed heads of Ursula, Mr Skinner, Bliss, and Bridget (L.I.N.D.A. - London Investigation 'n' Detective Agency), I decided to try and make these stand out a bit more by washing them with a spot of Strong Tone Quickshade, and later lightly dry-brushing each face with some "Vallejo" Heavy Khaki and Heavy Skintone. In addition I straightened the extra-terrestrial's somewhat bent limitation field cane and 'picked out' its end using a combination of "Citadel" Ironbreaker and Nuln Oil.

With  my inhabitant of the planet Clom completed, I have started work on getting my "Maximum Extermination!" expansion set on the tabletop. Perhaps surprisingly though, I haven't yet actually started painting any of the metal and resin miniatures which come inside the box, but instead begun progressing the final two plastic Dalek models I need in order to be able to field a fully-fledged Cult of Skaro.
Copyright "Warlord Games" - General Staal and his Sontarans
I had initially intended to simply field these three one-time ordinary drone units using a single Faction Recruitment Card taken from the Nottingham-based company's Davros & the New Dalek Empire expansion set. However, each of the members of the cult, Caan, Thay and Jast (as well as their all-black leader Sec) now all come with their own unique Recruitment Cards. Resultantly, I've already got an idea for fielding the foursome against some of the "Doctor Who: Exterminate!" rule-set's other alien factions to see how they get on 'alone'...

In addition, "Warlord Games" have now released some additional details regarding next month's Sontaran-based releases, with General Staal currently taking centre-stage. Accompanied by two bodyguards, "The Undefeated" officer looks set to be a formidable force with "Wounds (3)", "Concentrated Fire!" and the "Commander (Sontarans)" ability, as well as generating two highly-valuable Fate Tokens.

22 comments:

  1. Lovely paintwork on the absorbolovian, though I still don't like the character or sculpt. Stop messing about with these ordinary Daleks and get to painting the Special Weapons one! :-D

    Those Sontarans do look pretty nice.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thanks very much indeed, Roger. I've quite a few Daleks yet to paint as I plan to branch out into the "Doctor Who" novels in order to broaden my all-bronze look; and that means drones like the Eternity Circle Daleks.

      Having seen the Sontarans in the flesh, they look excellent, and well worth investing in, imho; albeit I won't be going into such highlighting detail with my Sontaran armoured suits ;-)

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  2. Great work on the absorbolovian Simon, it turned out really well. I guess once you've finished these Daleks we might see you painting the more interesting bits ?
    The Sontarans do look good, have you seen any scale shots being they all seemed quite short in the TV series

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    1. Cheers Dave. I've quite a few "Doctor Who" minis lined up over the next few months, so plenty of other models apart from Daleks are on the menu :-)

      The Sontarans are small, having seen them in the flesh at "Salute", so match-up well scale-wise with the rest of "Warlord Games" range.

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  3. That is wonderfully grotesque!

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    1. Thanks Michael. Hopefully that's a good thing ;-)

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  4. Abzorbalovian is suitably creepy. I was surprised it is for doctor who it would look good in your Nurgle warband!

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    1. Cheers Simon. It was nice to apply my Nurgle paint scheme to something different for a change, tbh :-)

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  5. The Absorbolovian looks great now he's (It's ?) finished; for one who knows nothing abot him (it?) he's a very intriguing figure, with lots of detail that i smissed in the smaller photos.
    Of course the Dalek looks great and who knew that there were so many variants (other than you of course),but still looking forward to the Sontarans that you'll be building a force of.

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    1. Thanks Joe. Even though "Warlord Games" currently have only the Time War Dalek sculpt available in plastic, there are still a few colour variants possible courtesy of the novels. I'm looking forward to the Sontarans too; especially having just watched "The Sontaran Strategem" again :-)

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  6. There's nothing wrong with the painting of your Abzorbaloff figure. I just don't like him as a character and the episode he appeared in was amongst my least favourites. On the other hand, anything to do with the Daleks greatly interests me. I agree with Roger - get the Special Weapons set painted up pronto!

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    1. Tbh Bryan, I'd have much preferred a boxed set based on L.I.N.D.A. to have accompanied this mini, as I thought a few of those characters would have made good 'What If?' companions or some such. As it is I painted the Abzorbaloff purely for fun; at least until his "Doctor Who: Recruitment!" cards are released. Lots more Daleks to come, including the Special Weapons variant ;-)

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    2. Interesting you mention L.I.N.D.A. who are without doubt my favourite characters /organisation in DW to date. But I made my own set by customising other figures, mostly from spare clix. They loo great actually and give me that sense of feel good, at having made them all myself (the face in the paving stone was the most fun to do).

      I really like those Sontarans.


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    3. That sounds awesome, Hils. I rather L.I.N.D.A. and think it would have been quite a hit popping ip in the odd modern-day adventure. The Sontarans are excellent, aren't they :-)

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  7. I think with your Nurgling that you've got green down to a fine art.

    Have you seen the Hellboy Kickstarter, very tempting, even though the figures are Mantic and could be hit and miss, a miss like Dungeon Saga or a hit like The Walking Dead zombies.

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    1. Thanks Phil. I have seen the "Hellboy" Kickstarter, having also seen the minis at "Salute". It looks rather good to me, tbh. Interestingly though I thought "Dungeon Saga" was rather good too, and bought that as a KS rather than "The Walking Dead"; which having played I was a little disappointed with tbh.

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  8. Who Wednesday is a great treat, and those new Sontarans are a treat, just splendid. Well done Warlord! Having watched them in action on the small screen I may have to get some. The Abzorbalof looks great, good job on him. I think that episode had one of my favourite lines in when he says what planet he comes from. Great writing and still makes me chuckle. You can't have enough Daleks and your painting formula is tried and tested. Lovely read with my coffee this morning.

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    1. Most kind, Undercoat. I think there are some good lines in "Love And Monsters", even if overall its a rather poor episode - although 'Nu-Who' has certainly had its fair share of those in recent years. Plenty of Daleks to come as I wade through my plastic sprue, metal and resin collection :-)

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  9. I was curious about the Eternity Circke Daleks you mentioned, so looked them up. I like their colour scheme and feel that I might have a go at doing thi variant colour scheme on a couple of the Time War figures. I am still trmpted to paint one up in the livery of a police car though...just because.

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    1. The Eternity Circle Daleks are excellent imho, and should make a good contrast from the usual all-bronze Time War Daleks. I look forward to seeing how yours turn out :-)

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  10. No real idea who the nurgle type chap is but him and the dalek looks great!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks very much, Iain. More Daleks to come soon :-)

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