Saturday, 31 August 2019

"One Day They Will Awaken…”

"...And reclaim their world."
These two 28mm scale metal models are manufactured by “Black Tree Design", and can be purchased as Code DW315 Silurian Attacking from their "Doctor Who" miniatures range. Placed “in suspended animation, deep below the surface" of prehistoric Earth, these “remnants of the Silurian race” first appeared in Malcolm Hulke's January 1970 BBC Television story "Doctor Who And The Silurians".

Both of the reptilian humanoids were undercoated with "Vallejo" Heavy Brown, thoroughly washed with "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade and dry-brushed with (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Brown. They were then treated to a few splashes of "Citadel" Biel-Tan Green in and around their heads, necks and hands, before being given a second, significantly lighter dry-brush of (even more) "Vallejo" Heavy Brown.
A Yeti armed with a Web-gun (in grey fur) provides covering fire against the Nimon
The Silurians’ sharp claws were given a coat of "Vallejo" White and subsequently washed with Strong Tone Quickshade by "The Army Painter". Finally, their 'third eye' was spotted with a combination of "Vallejo" Heavy Red and “Citadel” Carroburg Crimson, whilst their normal eyes were ‘picked out’ with Abaddon Black and ‘tidied up’ with some “Vallejo” Heavy Brown.

Sticking with “Black Tree Design” I recently paid another visit to the LVL Up Gaming Store in Bournemouth so as to play a couple more games of ‘Doctor Who” using my homemade rule-set "M.I.S.S." This particular ‘stopover’ proved especially useful as it provided us with an opportunity to play-test a few faction rules I wanted to add to the various extra-terrestrial races currently vying for universal domination in our ongoing “Doctor Who” campaign.
The mighty Myrka is felled early by Sutekh's gift of death, as the Silurians are slaughtered
Our first battle involved the Nimon fighting the Great Intelligence and a gaggle of its robot Yeti. Fought across a 2' x 3' debris-inspired tabletop populated with a couple of forests, a pair of pools, and some small futuristic buildings, the confrontation ultimately ended in a tightly-fought draw, but gave us the opportunity to utilise the Nimon’s (new) ability to siphon off part of their opponents’ health (or rather energy in this case) so as to regenerate some of their own.

In sharp contrast the second conflict between Sutekh’s mummies and the Silurians ended in a complete massacre, with the Osiran’s ‘once a game’ ability to bring Sutekh’s “Gift of Death” to a single wounded enemy model (regardless of whether it had any remaining health left) felling the mighty Myrka very early on. This devastating loss enabled the robot mummies to fearlessly close in upon the Silurians knowing they had a distinct advantage when fighting them hand-to-hand, and soon the tabletop was littered with dead reptiles…

8 comments:

  1. Nice job. They are a bit piggy looking or is it just me?

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    1. Thanks Simon. I suppose the snout does look a bit piggy. They're pretty spot on for the old Seventies costume though, so one of the better "Black Tree Design" sculpts imho. I do much prefer the later costume redesign myself though :-)

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  2. Great work on the Silurians Simon, you've captured the reptilian feel really well.
    Sounds like the addition of the new faction rules as added another dimension to your games

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    1. Cheers Dave. I think the new faction rules worked really well, as you can only do so much to give forces a different feel with a stats line. Sutekh's mummies are especially deadly now, as literally they're going to kill one of your minis if they can get a wound in - and that seems to balance up their slow hand-to-hand combat abilities.

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  3. I like the Silurians, the Porky Pig look never detracted me back in the 70's

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  4. These remind of the original Minifig Orks that also had pig-faces, which I thought were excellent, just like these !
    Sounds like your campaign is also gaining momentum

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    1. Cheers Joe. The campaign is indeed gaining momentum with some five games to be played before the next turn is finished. I'll be covering most of them as brief AARs but hope to do one featuring the Silurians as a full on BatRep.

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