Monday 23 September 2019

"No Eyes, No Hair, Just Stares."

"Men. Creatures! Made in the factory!"
This 28mm scale metal model is manufactured by “Black Tree Design", and can be purchased as part of the DW1013 - Autons boxed set from their "Doctor Who" miniatures range. "Automatons animated by the Nestene Consciousness, this 'race' of life-sized plastic dummies “remnants of the Silurian race” first appeared in Robert Holmes' January 1970 BBC Television story "Spearhead From Space".

The featureless figure was undercoated with "Vallejo" Heavy Blue, drenched in "Citadel" Drakehnof Nightshade and subsequently dry-brushed with (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Blue. The Auton's belt-buckle and hand-gun barrel were then 'picked out' using some "Citadel" Ironbreaker, and its neckerchief with "Vallejo" Heavy Bluegrey. Both of these areas were later shaded using a little "Citadel" Nuln Oil.
"Terror has many faces in 1949 - some great and some small."
The factory floor dummy's hands and face were treated to a layer or two of "Vallejo" Heavy Skintone before being washed with some "Citadel" Reikland Fleshshade. Finally, its fingers, nose, mouth and eye ridges were 'highlighted' with some additional lines of "Vallejo" Heavy Skintone.

With the latest addition to my ever-increasing collection of "Doctor Who" miniatures by "Black Tree Design", I have suddenly found myself spending a considerable amount of my time re-basing a number of old(ish) "West Wind Production" models. These figures belong to the Oldham-based company's "Secrets Of The Third Reich" range, and have suddenly acquired a new lease of life as a result of me suddenly wanting to return to 'Weird War Two' after quite a considerable break.
"MI-13 is the United Kingdom's answer to enemy super science and occult activity."
Indeed, up until very recently, the last time I used some of these models in anger was when I first got hold of the "Konflikt '47" rule-book by "Warlord Games". This time round I'll be returning to an updated version of my homemade rules "M.I.S.S.", but found myself needing to 'upgrade' a fair few of the soldiers from their original 25mm stands to my much preferred 28mm lipped circular bases; a change I started to implement a handful of years ago.

As a result I have found myself scraping away the 'water-logged' sand, grit and flock from the bases of a British Sniper, a few British Paras and Gas-Mask wearing Commandos carrying Bren light machine guns. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I've also taken the opportunity to 'touch-up' a couple of the paint-jobs as well, albeit this was predominantly due to my damaging the figures during 'Operation Relocation'...

18 comments:

  1. pretty badass. evil looking mercs u got there

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  2. The auton certainly looks like he means business.

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    1. Cheers Phil. I'm definitely pleased with how he's turned out. Nice simple paint scheme, so hopefully I can crank out the rest of his Nestene brothers once I find them!!

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  3. You have been busy. Nice work Simon!

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  4. I like the Auton, nice job. Why does he need to wear a boiler suit though? Those weird war 2 models look nice and rebasing is a tricky thing to do so good luck there. I enjoyed your MISS rules enormously so keep refining them old boy!

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    1. Cheers Undercoat. The Auton is a guard at the plastics factory where the shop dummies are made, so he's wearing what the floor staff used to wear. Thoroughly enjoyed yesterday too, and hoping to have a BatRep or two up featuring the mins very soon.

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  5. I do like those West Wind sculpts, very interesting.

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    1. Thanks Michael. They've certainly seen a lot of action over the past few weeks, with much more to come.

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  6. It's great to see you getting back into WWW2, just when I'm about to. Consequently, I'll be following your progress with great interest. I do like the West Wind SOTR range.

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    1. Cheers Bryan. I'm not sure I'll be painting anything new tbh, but certainly I'm now keen to get my old "SoTR" minis re-based and on the tabletop once again :-)

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  7. Great work on the Auton Simon, Some great rescuing of your WWW2 models as well

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    1. Thanks very much Dave. Good to get some old stuff out for a game.

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  8. Good to see those Tommies again. I like your weird war stuff, so look forward to seeing a new lease of life for them.

    Automiton certainly fits the bill. Weren't they in that Eccleston series too?

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    1. Cheers Dai. I'm hoping to get some big BatReps done on the Weird War stage over the next few weeks, so lots more re-basing to come.

      Yep. The Autons returned for the first episode of 'Nu Who' :-)

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  9. The Auton looks great and you've managed a stunning figure from a rather bland looking sculpt - love the blue !
    It's always good to revive a previous project with minimal effort - I approve thoroughly.

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    1. Thanks very much Joe. As a test piece I was really happy with the Auton, and now just need to dig the others out to finish off the faction. Lots of "Weird War Two" re-basing and BatReps to come :-)

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