"All Quarks Report To Flying Saucer."

"All Quarks R-E-P-O-R-T!"

These three 28mm scale metal models are produced by “Black Tree Design" and can be purchased as Code DW211 Quark from the Penzance-based company’s "Doctor Who" miniatures range. Described as being "able to use their guns to kill directly, stun, electrocute, communicate and to power up objects", the robots made their first appearance in Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln's August 1968 BBC Black & White Television story "The Dominators".

Originally, I did contemplate pigmenting this trio of automatons a little differently to the pair I've previously put a brush-tip to, so as to mark them out as the brutal rebel Quarks who would break away from their Dominator masters and attempt to invade the Earth in 1968 (as per the "TV Comic" story "Invasion of the Quarks"). However, as they were already well on their way to completion, following an unsuccessful attempt to get them on the tabletop last year, I eventually decided to stick with the predominantly silver colour scheme I had previously used.

"Black Tree Design" WIPs - Two of the seven Robo-Men primed in preparation for the AHPC

Resultantly, each figure was pulled from one of my many hobby drawers, dusted down, and checked for any chips or other signs of wear or tear I might need to 'touch up'. The miniatures had previously (probably) been primed using "Vallejo" Black Surface Primer and then given a coat or two of “Citadel” Ironbreaker. They had all also been shaded with "Citadel" Nuln Oil, and dry-brushed with (more) Ironbreaker to help bring out the rather soft-looking detail on their rough casts.

To better tie them in with their two predecessors I used some "Citadel Nuln Oil" to both darken down their internal areas around each sculpt's folding arms, and 'cover' the odd smidgeon of "Vallejo" Gunmetal I applied to 'mask' any unsightly dinks or paint splatters - which they'd presumably received whilst stood in my painting queue at some point. In order to tie this all together, I also gave their rectangular bodies a delicate dry-brush of (more) "Vallejo" Gunmetal.

"Black Tree Design" WIP - One of four identical Silurian sculpts re-undercoated for the AHPC

The tiny rectangular areas beneath the Quarks' sensory hemispheres were 'picked out' using a combination of “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey and “Citadel” Nuln Oil. Whilst I used some "Scalecolor" Speed Metal for each robots' sensors for “detecting changes in heat, light and motion”. These triangles were later shaded with “Citadel” Nuln Oil and lightly dabbed with (more) "Scalecolor" Speed Metal so as to imply tiny nodules on each area. Finally, I painted the models' directional crystal beam transmitters "Vallejo" White, washed them with "Citadel" Nuln Oil and dry-brushed them with (more) "Vallejo" White, so they would look a little crystalline.

With these somewhat diminutively-sized figures finished, I have additionally 'hooked out' seven "Black Tree Design" Robo-Men and a quartet of Silurians from the same drawer. The Daleks' "wholly obedient slaves" come in two similar poses, and were immediately earmarked for the upcoming Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge (AHPC). As for the reptilian humanoids, these had previously been primed and shaded, so I did briefly consider working on them now. However, all four miniatures had areas where their metal surface was once again showing though, so I've simply re-undercoated them in "Vallejo" Heavy Brown and set them aside for the AHPC too...