"l'm Sure We Can Reason With Them."

"Want to bet on it?"

These three 28mm scale Uranian Royal Guards are produced by "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" and can be brought either individually or as part of the four-figure set SKU: DEAL 367. Sculpted by Ernst Veingart, the miniatures are clearly inspired by the mask-wearing minions who escort a certain American football star to his execution in Mike Hodges' 1980 science-fiction movie "Flash Gordon"

Undercoated using plenty of "Vallejo" Heavy Red, the legionnaires were drowned in "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson and heavily dry-brushed with (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Red. I then 'picked out' the troopers' footwear and belts using some pure "Citadel" Abaddon Black, before applying a little "Vallejo" Gunmetal and "Citadel" Nuln Oil to their firearms.

"Black Tree Design" WIPs - These Mechanoids have been primed, base-layered and shaded

As with the squad's previously-pigmented leader, I later gave all the soldiers' gloves a layer of "Vallejo" Dark Vermillion and shade of "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson. Lastly, I dabbed some "Vallejo" Gold across each model's belt buckle and death mask, and subsequently darkened these areas down with a splash or two of "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade.

With my latest "Flash Gordon" models made tabletop ready, I have turned my attention to five Mechanoids I ordered directly from "Black Tree Design" way back in August 2020. Originally, I had planned on buying quite a few of these classic "Doctor Who" monsters, as they were initially 'sold' to the British Broadcasting Corporation's viewing public as a serious rival for the hugely-popular Daleks. But upon arrival I found the multi-piece castings to be disappointingly small when compared to their television and comic book appearances during the mid-Sixties.

"Games Workshop" WIPs - These Space Marines are having their metallic areas 'picked out'

Resultantly, I've simply powered through them so I might attain my annual 500-point target for this year's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge (AHPC) - on paper at least, seeing as I decided to depart the event early. Once completed I might still pick up a few more of the somewhat rough-looking models, as I'd rather like to paint them in the predominantly red and blue colour schemes some of the modern-day fan art seems to favour, and at least then field a semi-reasonable size of them.

Finally, I'm about halfway to finishing all the metallics on three plastic Sons Of Horus space marines by "Games Workshop", which I plan to complete within the next few days. I've yet to dry-brush the traitors' "Vallejo" Gold shoulder-pads, knee-pads and belt buckles - always the messiest part of my technique for painting them - but once done I can then focus on simply cleaning the miniatures up whilst simultaneously picking out the odd breathing tube or power cable...