"Kamelion Is A Tool Of An Earlier Invader Of Xeriphas..."

"...And instrumental in my escape from that benighted planet."

This 28mm metal model of a Gelsandoran android is produced by “Black Tree Design" and can be bought from their "Doctor Who" range as code DW534 Kamelion. Freed by the Fifth Doctor "from the Master's control and invited... to join the TARDIS crew", this "first non-humanoid companion since K9" was created by Terence Dudley and made his BBC Television debut in the March 1983 story "The King's Demons".

The robot was initially undercoated with "Vallejo" Black and subsequently treated to a couple of layers of "Citadel Ironbreaker". The figure was then liberally washed in Nuln Oil, before being roughly dry-brushed with (more) Ironbreaker. Finally I picked out Kamelion's transparent brain pan and stomach-based power cell with a combination of "Vallejo" Black Green, Heavy Khaki and "Citadel" Biel-Tan Green shade.

"The Lord Of The Rings" WIPs - Two Nazgul and a mounted Mouth of Sauron

With less than a calendar month until the Ninth annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, I have been rather busy scouring through my collection of boxes, drawers and bags of unpainted miniatures looking for any thing especially suitable for the event's "Lord Of The Rings" theme. Fortunately, I have clearly attempted to build up a sizeable horde of second-hand "Games Workshop" models in the past, and resultantly have been busy assembling and basing, or at least re-priming, a number of the range's classic metal miniatures.

Alongside a rather nice-looking mounted sculpt of the Mouth of Sauron, which pleasingly only needed a couple of watered-down "Vallejo" Black coats to mask its ghastly previous paint-job and have him ready for the start of the AHPC, I have also discovered a pair of named Nazgul on foot to add to my gaggle of Ringwraiths. I know little about the background to the Dark Marshal and the Shadow Lord, but both are wonderfully dynamic figures and look so much more interesting than the normal heavily shrouded incarnations seen throughout director Peter Jackson's film trilogy.

Sauron WIP - The Necromancer has been re-assembled and re-primed ready for the AHPC

Similarly, I was delighted to uncover a small plastic tub containing the separate parts of J. R. R. Tolkien's main antagonist himself, Sauron. Perhaps somewhat bizarrely, I was never a fan of "Games Workshop" and their insistence on producing small 'vignette' sets for their "Lord Of The Rings" miniatures range. The Dark Lord Sauron boxed set, containing the arguably useless prone forms of Elendil and Isildur, is a case in point, so presumably I spotted a complete Sauron being sold separately at a show's stall somewhen...

To be honest though, it's taken a fair bit of work to put the Necromancer back together again, as his original paint-job was not only poor, but contained lots of powdery putty which I have had to scrape off his joints so as to create better bonding surfaces for the super-glue. I've also taken the liberty of pinning the weighty model together with wire, just to ensure he doesn't fall apart again as he presumably once did when first assembled.