Wednesday, 18 April 2018

"Salute" Loot 2018 - Part Two Of Two

"The Dominators" WIPs - All the models have been based and primed
Undoubtedly my main reason for attending this year's "Salute" 2018 was to visit the "Warlord Games" stall and buy the Nottingham-based company's latest two releases for "Doctor Who: Exterminate!". This range is really starting to 'take-off' and I was particularly pleased to see this blog featuring once again in the latest "Into The Time Vortex" digital newsletter, which specifically focused upon Dalek conversions, 'tip-top' paint-jobs and their "ever-growing loyal customers."

Patrick Troughton's incarnation of the travelling Time Lord has always held a high place in my memories of the BBC science fiction television programme, even if my first encounter with the Second Doctor only occurred during "The Five Faces Of Doctor Who" season of repeats in November 1981. The recent announcement that "Warlord Games" will be releasing his miniature, along with "Zoe, Jamie, Victoria and the Brig" later this year, has only helped fuel my enthusiasm for this 'black & white' period, so I was absolutely delighted to get my hands on a set of models taken from the Gallifreyan's August 1968 five-parter "The Dominators".
"Warlord Games" Newsletter Wednesday 11th April 2018
Featuring formidable sculpts of both Navigator Rago and Probationer Toba, I have already set to work basing the two male "humanoids from Drahb", as well as applied a double undercoat of "Vallejo" Iraqi Sand over the pair. Initially I did think these 'conquerors of the Ten Galaxies' would be fairly straightforward to paint, due to the majority of their clothing being black. However, colourised pictures of the duo, as well as the studio's official paint-jobs, actually shows them to be wearing dark green costumes...  
"The Ninth Doctor & Companions" WIPs - Rose, The Ninth Doctor and Captain Jack
Far easier to paint, at least upon first impression, are the three "robot work-soldiers" which accompany their taller masters in the box. Despite providing enough models to both deploy a complete Quark Recruitment Card and have one spare to 'defend' a Dominator ("must always stay within 4") I can still see me buying a second set of the servitors once I've finished work on this initial batch. This should then give me enough Quarks to field a second Recruitment Card and provide Toba with a 'cuboid-shaped guard' too. Of course that'll give me duplicates of the two Dominators, but I can always utilise them as scenic statues or as an extra ethereal ghost for my Fisher King.

In addition to picking up some figures from the show's Sixth Season, I was also able to buy the Ninth Doctor And Companions set. Featuring sculpts of Christopher Eccleston's character, Rose Tyler, Captain Jack Harkness, Mickey Smith and Jackie Tyler, I have immediately set to work priming the "sole survivor" of the Last Great Time War, as well as two of Nu Who's most popular assistants Rose and the "con man Javic Piotr Thane."
Copyright "Warlord Games" - The 'Nu Who' Sontarans
Lastly, I was thrilled to see one of next month's releases in the fully-pigmented flesh, the Sontarans. The stunning detail on these "militaristic clones from the planet Sontar" was absolutely breath-taking, despite the somewhat poor lighting of the ExCeL convention centre, and I'm really looking forward to picking up a couple of boxes of them in the near future... 
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46 comments:

  1. Undercoat18 April 2018 at 13:29

    I think those Sontarans look awesome! When I saw them at Salute they were a little smaller than I imagined, but they remain my favourite Dr Who minis to date. Glad to see you getting your other purchases ready. You are going to be busy over the next few weeks and months! As ever I can't wait to see the results.

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    1. Blaxkleric18 April 2018 at 13:50

      Thanks Undercoat. It's been a busy few days cleaning, assembling, basing, priming and doing the odd bit of dry-brushing in order to get all my "Salute" 2018 Loot photo-worthy(ish). This weekend will see the painting begin in earnest as I desperately attempt to try and get the vast majority of my latest purchases painted...

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  2. Dave Stone18 April 2018 at 13:32

    You've been very busy since the weekend Simon, amazing what inspirational models can do. The Sontarons look really good

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    1. Blaxkleric18 April 2018 at 13:51

      Cheers Dave. The Sontarans look corking minis imho, and I'm certainly planning on picking up a few boxes upon their release. They really are quite tiny in the flesh though, so it'll be interesting to see how well I can paint them, as opposed to the "Warlord Games" official paint-jobs.

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  3. Dick Garrison18 April 2018 at 13:42

    Interesting post Simon, glad to see you getting recognition you deserve from Warlord, The Dominators do look rather nice and should paint up a treat, I fully understand you wanting more quarks, I would of thought a lot of people would, so I'm a little disappointed that you can't buy them separately, I think Warlord might be missing a trick here.

    I'll skate over those "things" in the middle of your post, and get straight onto the Sontarans, they are really nice, cant wait to see how you paint them up!

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Blaxkleric18 April 2018 at 13:55

      Thanks Roger. Yeah, I think a small pack of two or three Quarks would have been a bit of a big seller for "Warlord Games" too tbh; although I don't recall seeing more than three at one time in the TV episode ;-)

      I'm surprised that you like the 'Nu Who' Sontarans and not the Ninth Doctor though, as I thought you'd tar them all with the non-classic brush I know you wield. LOL :-)

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    2. Dick Garrison19 April 2018 at 11:07

      I have more of a tolerance where it comes to sontarans, as they have changed over the years, maybe it's the bridging one from the video, "Shakedown" that makes me like them? I'd paint then in red/browns myself ;-)

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    3. Blaxkleric19 April 2018 at 14:36

      "Shakedown" was an excellent story imho, and as you say, makes for a nice bridge between Classic and Nu Who Sontarans.

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  4. Simon Quinton 18 April 2018 at 13:43

    Awesome! I really wished I'd got some of Heresy miniatures Sontaron figs when he did them as an alien invasion force for 7TV they would of been great.

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    1. Blaxkleric18 April 2018 at 13:57

      Ah... In that case Simon, message me your address and I can return your favour by sending you some of mine. I'll need to have a rummage around, but I'm pretty sure I have some somewhere.

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  5. Vampifan18 April 2018 at 15:31

    It's always a delight to see new "Doctor Who" stuff on your blog, Simon. Certainly, the Sontarans are the stand out minis.

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    1. Blaxkleric18 April 2018 at 23:10

      Cheers Bryan. I’m certainly looking forward to getting my hands on some Sontarans just as soon as they are released.

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  6. The Wargame Addict18 April 2018 at 18:29

    "Who" would have guessed what the theme of part 2 of your Salute post would be? ;-)
    Some great looking mini's as ever Simon and I look forward to seeing your own Sontarans in due course :-)

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    1. Blaxkleric18 April 2018 at 23:11

      LOL Greg :-) Plenty of “Doctor Who” painting to be done over the next few weeks, so expect loads of posts and WIPs :-)

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  7. Clint18 April 2018 at 21:23

    Salute costs me £45 before I walk through the door money I would rather spend on my hobby toys. I have seen the "Rolling Stones" a few times and they were cheaper than a Salute ticket. So I suspect you have been VERY restrained indeed.

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    1. Blaxkleric18 April 2018 at 23:14

      I fear “Salute” costs me similar with train fare and parking etc, Clint, but I see it as paying for an experience as opposed to entry to buy stuff I could ordinarily pick up on the web; albeit the “Star Trek Adventures” Khan was meant to be an exclusive. Tbh, I was restrained because I have my eye on the imminent “Games Workshop” Sea Alves for “Age Of Sigmar” - and they aren’t going to be cheap either.

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  8. Vagabond18 April 2018 at 23:48

    Congrats on the recognition from Warlord, and those guys in the last picture do look excellent. The three figures in the middle that you have started work on look quite soft on detail, but it could just be the light, it will be interesting to see how you finish them.

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    1. Blaxkleric19 April 2018 at 06:54

      Cheers Vagabond. I think both the Ninth Doctor and Captain Jack should paint up well enough. I'm not so sure about Rose though - I certainly won't be doing a Union Jack T-shirt :-)

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  9. Phil Curran19 April 2018 at 00:30

    Well done and keep up the good work.

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  10. Carrion Crow19 April 2018 at 01:27

    Whilst I breezed past the Warlord Games stand, I didn't get a chance to see their upcoming releases display and have to admit liking those Sontarans. The question I have is - do we know if they're metal or plastic? There seem to be a fair few different sculpts and I'm hoping that, given that you ideally need a fair few, they'll be plastic, thus reducing the price. A three-way battle between Sontarans, Daleks and Cybermen would be pretty cool.

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    1. Carrion Crow19 April 2018 at 01:30

      And could you do me a favour and measure the 9th Doctor? As I have yet bern unable to find the Heresy one, I might have to end up getting him and want to know how well he'll scale in with my other figures.

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    2. Stephen Gilbert19 April 2018 at 05:16

      The WG DW sizes are fine Jez, I have a lot of this stuff and apart from being a t-i-n-y bit tall, it all fits seamlessly with the rest of the usual suspects which comprise my collection. Its not easy right now to understand scale, one mans 30m or 32mm might be another company`s 38m, and so on and so on (its just the recent change in definitions which aren`t always too clear).

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    3. Stephen Gilbert19 April 2018 at 05:17

      make that 38mm.... not 38m hahaha

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    4. Blaxkleric19 April 2018 at 06:57

      The Sontarans are all metal Jez. There were at one point going to be plastic but they'll now be sold in two boxes with the commander and guard in one, and the minion clones in a larger set. Hope this helps?

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    5. Blaxkleric19 April 2018 at 06:57

      Ah... and the Ninth Doctor sculpt measures 38mm from head to foot :-)

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    6. Carrion Crow20 April 2018 at 04:24

      Hmmm...as Warlord's metal figures usually work out at £4 each, to field a respectable Sontaran force will work out rather pricey. How annoying. And thhanks for the info on height - might have to search elsewhere for a suitable proxy, unless I can find the Heresy one going cheap.

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    7. Blaxkleric20 April 2018 at 07:47

      I haven't seen the price range of the "Warlord Games" Sontaran minis yet, Jez. But I'm certainly hoping there are more than five models in their larger expansion set.

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    8. Hils20 April 2018 at 10:50

      Bit late to this thread but, just back to size a second. A good example of what Stevie says is the 28mm Steampunk Female from the Kaosball range by Tritex Games.. which Jez was talking about in his Salute post this week. Its actually ever so slightly BIGGER than the 38mm 12th Doctor Who and companions set miniatures,, lol, go figure :)

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    9. Blaxkleric20 April 2018 at 13:20

      Wow, that is some scale creep, Hils - and splendid to hear you and Stevie are still about within the hobby :-)

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    10. Hils20 April 2018 at 15:04

      Thanks Simon, yea we never really stopped the hobby, just the on line part due to other non game-y things which took precedence for a while. Our hobby endeavors nowadays tends mostly to be focused on a couple of campaigns, which allows us to have a couple of tight knit dedicated gaming groups. Really makes for a lot of ongoing fun and immersion and avoids endlessly flitting from subject to subject. Really feels good.

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    11. Hils20 April 2018 at 15:08

      also, had the knee op (had it in January) and am, finally, well on the mend now :)

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  11. Colgar619 April 2018 at 03:34

    Sontar, ha!

    I like the Warlord sculpts, but they're not the right scale for any existing terrain that I have (and, perhaps more importantly, they wouldn't fit with my existing collection of Doctor Who minis). So I'll just keep watching other people's experiences...

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    1. Blaxkleric19 April 2018 at 06:58

      Cheers Hugh. Lots of "Doctor Who" planned over the next few weeks with a few BatReps too if I can find the time ;-)

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  12. Zabadak19 April 2018 at 04:27

    The Dr. Who experience just continues to get better (I remember Patrick as the Doc) and of course the Sontarans are one of the better enemies of the Doc and now with great figures to match!

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    1. Blaxkleric19 April 2018 at 06:59

      Thanks Joe. The next few weeks will see an awful lot of "Doctor Who" being posted up as I try and 'break the back' of my collection :-)

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  13. Stephen Gilbert19 April 2018 at 05:18

    Nice Salute Simon, and a nice two part article :-))

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    1. Blaxkleric19 April 2018 at 07:00

      Cheers Steve. Good to see you back commenting :-)

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    2. Stephen Gilbert20 April 2018 at 03:58

      Cheers Simon. Yeah its nice to be back to gaming (not that I ever stopped really, just wasnt about publically or on the internet due to rl commitments taking precedence for a long while). But yeah, I am a lot more limited on spare time nowadays, and tend to play games with most my time, and write far less (internet eats time and so I will be spending any spare on line hours writing up my AAR`s for the new place, or on a new project I`m sharing with Jez over the coming months.. and beyond). Dave`s taking good care of TGC and that`s running along nicely without us, which leaves me freeeee to pursue things I have dreamed about for a long time, but which always just remained pipe dreams - up until now woohahaaha <--- evil mysterious laugh :-)

      I`ll pop in and do the rounds in comments when I can, but if I am quiet a lot, its just time restraint and lack of decent internet half the time.

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    3. Blaxkleric20 April 2018 at 07:45

      Well I'm always very pleased to see you "pop in and do the rounds" on this blog :-)

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  14. caveadsum147119 April 2018 at 08:24

    I like the look of the sontarans,be interested to see how the ninth doctor and friends shape up,youv yo been much more diligent with your salute purchases than me!
    Best Iain

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    1. Blaxkleric19 April 2018 at 09:11

      Thanks Iain. I'm hoping to get many of these models painted over the next few weeks :-)

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  15. Michael Awdry19 April 2018 at 11:07

    There was no way you were going home without these.

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  16. Ray Rousell21 April 2018 at 10:59

    Some great buys there Simon!

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    1. Blaxkleric21 April 2018 at 13:38

      Cheers Ray, and it was good to see you in person at "Salute" too :-)

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