"The Third Eye Glowed A More Brilliant Red For A Few Seconds..."

"...And Doctor Quinn crumpled to the floor."

These four 28mm scale metal models are manufactured by “Black Tree Design", and can be purchased as Code DW308 Silurian from their "Doctor Who" miniatures range. "An intelligent bipedal race of reptilians that ruled Earth before humans", these classic monsters first appeared in Malcolm Hulke's January 1970 BBC Television story "Doctor Who And The Silurians".

The entire quarter were undercoated with "Vallejo" Heavy Brown, thoroughly washed with "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade 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.

"The Lord Of The Rings" WIPs - This Black Númenórean just needs his cloak finishing

The Silurians’ claws, which proved somewhat difficult to 'pick out' at times due to some occasional miscasting in these areas, were given a coat of "Two Thin Coats" White Star and subsequently dirtied up with a generous splosh of "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade. Lastly, their 'third eye' was spotted with "Vallejo" Heavy Red and later shaded using a dollop of "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson.

Having completed my latest contribution to the Fourteenth Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge (AHPC), and collected an additional bonus 20-points for tying my entry in with the Challenge Library's Children's Books section [as per the broadcast adventure's novelisation "Doctor Who And The Cave Monsters"], I have started to make some significant in-roads on the dozen Black Númenóreans I quite recently bought from "eBay". Due to my dislike of 'batch painting' I have unsurprisingly split the "fearsome" figures into two smaller-sized units, and now they've been primed, base-coated, shaded and dry-brushed, narrowed them down into identical pairs.

"The Lord Of The Rings" WIPs - This Black Númenórean just needs his cloak finishing

These supposed 3D printed proxies are bound to cause a little controversy as having scrutinized the sculpts closer, the manufacturer has quite possibly just somehow scanned the old "Games Workshop" miniatures and then digitally tidied-them up - as some details, such as the models' sinister teeth aren't present on my versions, despite being clearly visible on the now out of production (OOP) official models. However, as I don't have any of the metal or "Finecast" originals, nor am willing to pay a whopping fifty quid to own one second-hand, I can't say for certainty.

This ethical conundrum has definitely curtailed my enthusiasm for the project though, as I absolutely don't agree with the re-casting of other manufacturer's figures. I suppose some might say that as the Black Númenóreans are no longer available to buy, and the products are clearly advertised as being "not [an] official product", then there's an element of acceptability in this instance..? But, I for one, see this as being part of a bigger problem where so many unlicensed or rather 'fan-art' 3D prints are flooding the hobby, and some sellers may well be sailing far closer to the wind than others...

This posting and many others can now be viewed on the main "Fantorical" website.