"Department X Only Takes The Best."

"Greyhound Sixteen to Trap One. We've found something."

These three 28mm scale metal miniatures of some X-Commandos are manufactured by “Crooked Dice Game Design Studio” and can be found within the company’s Heroes and Allies product line as SKU: DEAL 72. The 'blister' actually contains four figures "equipped with body armour, Department X badged berets and either Pistol, MP5 SMGs or SLR/FN Rifles."

Having assembled the soldiers by attaching a mix of male/female heads to their torsos courtesy of a little pinning and super-glue, they were each primed "Citadel" Abaddon Black and enthusiastically dry-brushed with "Vallejo" Heavy Charcoal. I then 'picked out' each troopers' hand-weapon using some "Vallejo" Gunmetal, and their shoulder and beret badges with a couple of dollops of White. Both of these areas were later shaded using "Citadel" Nuln Oil.

"Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" WIPs - A Federated Security Mutaint

As I wanted my figures to resemble the U.N.I.T. troopers depicted during the April 2008 Doctor Who television story "The Sontaran Stratagem", I shied away from leaving the Commando's headware all-black and instead pigmented it using a combination of "Vallejo" Heavy Red and "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson. I also left their aforementioned badges predominantly white, rather than attempt to painstakingly 'sketch in' the red cross upon a blue background which the Department of Extraordinary Affairs uses as their top secret organisation's emblem.

In addition, I changed up the palette on the X-Commandos' uniforms by painting all their hip-holsters and leg straps in "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna, as opposed to the Heavy Charcoal I had used in the past. This arguably gave each soldier a little more contrast than the all-black 'official' colour scheme used by both "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" and their modern-day U.N.I.T. counterparts, even after a "Citadel" Nuln Oil wash. It did mean though that I felt obliged to go back and re-paint the fourth squad member I'd previously pigmented.

"Supers Unlimited" WIPs - N-Rage has been primed, shaded and highlighted with "Vallejo" White

Each miniatures' flesh was treated to my usual standard combination of either a "Vallejo" Heavy Skintone layer splashed with "Citadel" Reikland Fleshshade and final highlight on the fingers/cheekbones with (more) "Vallejo Heavy Skintone, or a mixture of "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna with "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade. Lastly, I applied a little "Vallejo" Heavy Red and "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson to both the ladies' lips.

Following the completion of the X-Commandos, I have made some initial progress on one of the company's Federated Security Mutaints in an effort to experiment with the technologically modified minion's pale zombie-like flesh. Plus I've layered, shaded and then 'Zenithal highlighted'  my model of N-Rage by "Kitbash Games" so as to test my recently opened "Vallejo" Fluorescent Orange...