“I Am Locutus Of Borg.”

"Your life as it has been is over. From this time forward, you will service us."

This 32mm scale resin miniature of Locutus of Borg is produced by “Modiphius Entertainment” and can be found inside the company's eight-figure strong Iconic Villains boxed set for “Star Trek Adventures”. “The Borg designation forced upon Starfleet Captain Jean-Luc Picard after his assimilation in late 2366”, this intended “spokesperson for the Human race” made his first appearance in the June 1990 “Star Trek: The Next Generation” televised story “The Best Of Both Worlds”.

Having re-based the Borg Queen’s “equal counterpart” onto a 28mm lipped circular plastic base, the figure was primed with two coats of “Citadel” Abaddon Black, heavily dry-brushed using some “Vallejo” Heavy Charcoal” and later much more lightly dry-brushed with “Citadel” Ironbreaker. This technique allowed me to provide the assimilated Picard with an all-encompassing metallic-looking highlight, plus gave me an opportunity to properly see all the cables, ribbed tubing and metal implants which snaked about his body and populated his bald head.

Captain James T. Kirk stands alone against Locutus of Borg

I then applied some extra “Citadel” Ironbreaker to Locutus’ mechanical Borg arm, much of his facial circuitry, and on several of the wires coiling around his legs. These areas, along with my original dry-brushing, were subsequently tidied up using a little more “Citadel” Abaddon Black and shaded with Nuln Oil. In addition, his armoured stomach coverings were ‘picked out’ using a combination of “Vallejo” Heavy Charcoal and “Citadel” Nuln Oil.

According to “Star Trek: The Next Generation” make-up artist Michael Westmore, the Borg’s paler skin demonstrated that “as humanity was drained away so was the colour of life”, so I was keen to give Picard the selfsame necrotic look I have used for all my Borg. As a result I layered his face with “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey, washed it with “Citadel” Nuln Oil and finally added some extra dabs of “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey to the man’s nose, cheek and brow.

"Black Tree Design" WIPs - This Auton has been primed, shaded, and dry-brushed

With Locutus now mostly finished, I applied some “Vallejo” Dark Vermillion to his electronic eye-piece and shaded it with a spot of “Citadel” Bloodletter. I also managed to ‘squeeze’ in a few dabs of “Vallejo” Dead White into the Borg’s eyes, and tidied the surrounding sockets up with either a smidgen of “Citadel” Abaddon Black or a little line of “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey.

With such a detailed miniature now 'in the books' I have begun work on a much more straightforward pilot piece by "Black Tree Design". This Auton is from the infamous company's "Doctor Who" range, and is hopefully the first of a somewhat large faction I'm planning to progress featuring both the Nestene Consciousness' life-sized factory-floor plastic dummies and their more 'friendly-faced' variants manufactured at Farrel Autoplastics...