"Warlord Games" Open Day - Part Two: "Doctor Who" Miniatures Game Preview

"I'm the Doctor and this is Ace. You must be with the military."

Continuing my account of my recent visit to the "Warlord Games" Head Office site at the Lenton Business Centre, Nottingham, where the company provided its customers with a "whole day packed with previews, gaming, demos, tours and game designer... talks", I was also able to find out about some future developments" for the "Exterminate: Miniatures Game". Indeed, I was not only able to simply browse at some of the stand-out, soon-to-be-released "Doctor Who" display models in a glass cabinet but had an opportunity to watch studio painter Kirsten Williams carefully progress a handful of figures taken from Ben Aaronovitch's October 1988 televised four-parter "Remembrance of the Daleks". 

Foremost of these models was undeniably a sculpt of Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor carrying the unwieldy-looking gizmo he assembled so as to save his companion at the start of Episode Three; "It works. It works!" The detail on this miniature is simply breathtaking, with Williams' mind-blowing paint-job picking out every line in the Time Lord's heavily-patterned trousers, scarf, tie and cardigan.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Group Captain is expecting us."

In addition, its interesting to see "Warlord Games" finally produce an incarnation of the Time Traveller actually armed with a weapon, as opposed to just waving about his sonic screwdriver or standing in an iconic posture, such as Peter Capaldi's "Hell Bent" guitar-carrying stance. I appreciate that there have previously been some criticism of the Doctor's role within what has been described as a "fast-paced tabletop" battle-game, so I'm personally really pleased to see such a dynamically-posed Gallifreyan leading the charge for a change.

Equally as enigmatic are the sculpts of Ace, Sergeant Mike Smith and The Girl. There was arguably little chance that the Time Lord's travelling companion was ever going to appear in any position other than wielding her famous super-charged baseball bat. However, it was encouraging to see the traitorous Smith menacingly cradling his machine-gun so tightly, as well as the Dalek's innocent young pawn standing mid-zap rather than simply just standing with her hands in her pockets (or skipping)...

"Now I've not taken to seeing things. At least I don't think I have."

Just as exciting though was the significant sight of a substantial number of Second Doctor themed miniatures, most notably one based upon Patrick Troughton's incarnation and a large Yeti from the 1968 serial "The Web Of Fear". Firmly holding his Five Hundred Year Diary, the detail found upon the 'Cosmic Hobo' is excellent, whilst the fur upon the Great Intelligence's shaggy robot looks made for dry-brushing. One can only hope that the Abominable Snowmen will be available separately from Professor Travers (seen at the show but not photographed), possibly in some form of battle-pack like the Sontarans, and that perhaps one will be sold carrying their web-guns. 

Somewhat surprisingly, whilst there were some splendid models of companions Ben Jackson, Polly Wright, Zoe Heriot and Jamie McCrimmon on display, there wasn't a trace of Victoria Waterfield. Nonetheless, the inclusion of the Royal Navy Seaman and Professor Brett's Secretary means that there will shortly be some companions suitable canon-wise to team-up with the "Gale Force Nine" resin figure of the William Hartnell's First Doctor.