Wednesday 12 September 2018

"But You Don't Understand! It's The Draconians."

"They've got the Doctor!"
This 39mm-tall "pewter" figure of a Draconian Bodyguard is produced by “Warlord Games” and can be bought as part of their "Draconians" boxed set. Based upon the "extraterrestrial race from the planet Draconia", this "tall, reptilian species" made their first appearance in Malcolm Hulke's February 1973 BBC television story "Frontier In Space" and were cited by Jon Pertwee as being "his favourite of all the monsters he had encountered during his time as the Third Doctor."

Originally primed using two layers of "Vallejo" Heavy Green, the articulate alien's limbs and head were painted using Heavy Brown and a wash of "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade. The warrior's robes were then shaded with "Citadel" Biel-Tan Green and delicately dry-brushed using (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Green".
Hong Kong Killer Robots WIPs - The automatons have been primed with "Vallejo" Heavy Blue
The Draconian's rather lavishly embroidered Feudal Japanese shoulder pads and golden flowing sashes were simply pigmented using a base of "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna and subsequently treated to a coat of Brass before being shaded with "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade. I later carefully drew some additional "Vallejo" Brass over the costume's ridges in order to highlight all the intricate patterns woven onto the material. As a final touch I tidied up some of the adjoining "Vallejo" Heavy Green areas with a thin line of watered-down Black and 'picked out' the soldier's hand-weapon with "Citadel" Ironbreaker and a dash of Nuln Oil. 

Alongside working on my Draconian faction for "Doctor Who: Exterminate!" I have built the last of my Hong Kong Killer Fembots by "Statuesque Miniatures". Originally, apart from an alternative blue uniform, these automatons were going to all look similar to the other faceless androids I've previously painted for my "Ghost In The Shell"/"Terminator" mash-up. But that was before I inadvertently drilled straight through the neck of one of the figures down into my finger. Fortunately flesh heals, however mutilated metal doesn't and my painful mishap left me with one Fembot having a deep gouge running the length of her back.
"Dungeon Saga" WIPs - Straightforward stuff on Elshara, a Ghost and a Skeleton Warrior
To be honest I was tempted to simply bin the broken piece or lay it face-up on an objective base so as to use as a casualty marker of some kind. But a thought then occurred to me that "Statuesque Miniatures" didn't actually produce an obvious rival to their Mei-Lin Mayfair 2.0 model, so I started to think about converting/covering up my damaged bot. A quick rummage through my "Games Workshop" "Warhammer 40K" bitz box, alongside a few cuts with a sharp modelling knife, and my 'kitbash' was complete; including a rather nice spare head which came with the original figure.

With this month also being Dungeon Saga'Tember I have been busy priming and base-layering a few of my Overlord's denizens ready to try out the opening adventure for "Mantic Games" "Dungeon Saga" in a few weeks time. Admittedly, I've gone slightly off-track by incorporating a couple of Ghosts and Elshara the Banshee into the mix, but these plastic models will actually prove useful test pieces for a potential future Nighthaunt host I have in mind for "Age Of Sigmar" by "Games Workshop"...

20 comments:

  1. Nice work on the bodyguard. I like the blue of the Hong Kong robots looking forward to seeing more progress on them.

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    1. Thanks very much, Simon. All the preliminary work is now finished on my Fembots, so its time to do the weapons/heads etc and get them varnished before a BatRep or two :-)

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  2. So much to admire here, Simon. What a great selection of figures you have on show. I'm well behind on painting my own collection of "Doctor Who" minis but that will change and I'll be looking to your posts for inspiration on painting my Draconians. You've really nailed the colour scheme here.

    I'm very pleased to see you making progress on the Honk Kong Killer Fembots. Sorry to hear about your injury but most pleased you were able to rescue the damaged figure.

    I'll be very interested to see how your "Dungeon Saga" figures compare with the ones painted by Roger. He has set a very standard for you to follow.

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    1. Cheers Bryan, I do try and contain a mixture of manufacturers whenever I can. "Warlord Games" are killing it currently, imho, with their incredible release schedule surrounding both "Doctor Who" and "Strontium Dog" - It's so hard to keep up, and add all the stuff "Games Workshop" are also selling, I'd suggest impossible.

      I'd like to think my drilling incident was very much serendipty, but I'm going to have to wait until i see whether the paint scheme for my Fembot leader will pan out. Fingers crossed.

      Roger has set a very high bar indeed with his "Saga'Tember" paint-jobs so far, and certainly convinced me that some additional undead figures wouldn't be a bad idea. I'm hoping some straightforward dry-brushing will help bring out the skeletons and possibly then encourage me with my another Undead army I have in mind ;-)

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  3. All over the place here! Love it!

    Draconian looks spot on. Pertwee was my fav Doc (Of the series I was exposed to) and I seem to remember my young teenage self watching the Frontier in Space on VHS from the library.

    Fembots are slim sculpts too. Perhaps try a manual pinvice drill if you're currently trying with a dremel and perforating your flesh? XD

    Dungeon Saga is simple fun. I enjoyed the games I got to try out in the starter set with a friend. The baddies were my fav sculpts in the game and I'm glad you are working on them first. The heroes though I wasn't so impressed by - that silly barbarian sculpt especially.

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    1. Thanks Dai. I've a few more Draconians to finish before I've enough for both a "Doctor Who: Exterminate!" faction and a force for my homeset rules. So they'll be more to come. I don't think they're hard to paint with my colour scheme, just a bit time-consuming.

      I did use a pin vice on my Fembots, but couldn't get the hole large enough for the head's spur to drop into, hence the larger drill just to enlarge it :-[

      Tbh I'm not really a fan of many of the "Dungeon Saga" sculpts as they're supposedly interchangeable with "Kings Of War" but seem much slimmer in scale than the ones I own for my Undead army. I do though quite like the dwarf. But again, he seems a bit slighter than his "Kings Of War" brethren - at least in my eyes.

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  4. Great work on the Draconian Simon, the fem bots are coming on, if you need to widen a hole with a drill bit that doesn't fit in the pin vice do it by hand, less damage, just takes longer.
    nice progress on the undead as well

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    1. Cheers Dave, I'm hoping to get all the Fembots finished over the next week or so, but have some more "Blood Bowl" on the tabletop currently. I should also have a few of the "Dungeon Saga" minis finished before long too :-)

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  5. A great mix of minis. The Draconian looks great, nice paint job. Those Fembots are nice sculpts and I hope your finger is ok? I agree with you about the Dungeon Saga sculpts. They are okay, but not in GW league at the moment. Mantic are improving though as their Walking Dead models are superb! A very diverse set of minis and a nice read with my morning cuppa.

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    1. Cheers Undercoat. I'm looking forward to getting the Fembots finished and on the tabletop tbh. I've got some ideas for a few BatReps which could be fun. As you say, the "Dungeon Saga" sculpts aren't great tbh and are proving hard to get motivated about sadly.

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  6. All good stuff Simon, the Draconian is spot on as usual, though I was never a fan of the "short" costume much preferred the long "skirted" version more.

    Perhaps I'm being thick here, but I've read the text twice and looked at the pictures and cant spot your conversion? what did you add from your "bits box"? Lovely figures all the same.

    Nice to see you advancing with your Dungeon Saga mini's, have to say I rather like some of the figs myself (not the skeletons, as you'll see!), have to agree about the "skinniness" of the figures though, and yes the Barbarian is a bit of a daft sculpt!

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thanks Roger. I need to do a few more Draconians before I have enough for a complete "Doctor WHo: Exterminate!" faction, so a few more are planned.

      I hadn't actually realised but the photo doesn't show my converted miniature's back, hence you can't see the backpack or equipment bitz I've glued on her. I'll ensure a better pic is shown when she's finished.

      I hope to have a "Dungeon Saga" posting ready for later in the week, and finally get some figures on the tally sheet :-)

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  7. Looking forward to the Dungeon Saga post. I found the skeletons to be a bit of a chore, and they just feel a little too fragile for my liking. I do love the ghosts and Elshara, though...can't wait to see what you do with them.

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    1. The skeletons don't seem half as thick as the other Undead "Mantic Games" minis I own for "Kings Of War", which is a real disappointment as using them for my army was one of the main reasons I went in with the Kickstarter in the first place.

      Great work on your own "Dungeon Saga" models :-) Link: http://angrypiper.com/?p=2683

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  8. I do like your colour choice for your Draconians, they do appear vey alien-like - and being large models helps too, though I can't help thinking of "Shall we dance..."

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    1. Thanks Joe. The Draconians' TV costumes were tremendously detailed so for my own sanity's sake I've gone for a fair less complicated colour scheme. Plus I've plenty more similar miniatures to dance with yet before the faction is complete ;-)

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