Once Department X Is Committed..."

"...The X-Commandos go in."

This 28mm scale metal miniature is made by “Crooked Dice Game Design Studio” and can be bought either as MINI 178 X-Commando 1B or as part of the company’s SKU: DEAL 66 X Commandos 1. Sculpted by Ernst Veingart, the model comes equipped with body armour, Department X badged berets and an SLR/FN Rifle.

Having assembled the soldier by super-gluing a metal male head to its torso, the figure was primed "Citadel" Abaddon Black and enthusiastically dry-brushed with "Vallejo" Heavy Charcoal. I then 'picked out' the trooper's hand-weapon using some "Vallejo" Gunmetal, and their shoulder/beret badges with a couple of dollops of Dead White. Both of these somewhat circular areas were later shaded using a little "Citadel" Nuln Oil.

"We'll have a ship full of Klingons who think the war is still going on."

As I plan to have all of this range of miniatures 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 his 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.

Furthermore I changed up the palette on the 'official' X-Commandos' uniforms by painting all the miniature's hip-holster, ammunition pouch, and leg strap in "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna. This hopefully gave the soldier a little more contrast than the all-black colour scheme used by both "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" and their modern-day U.N.I.T. counterparts - even after this 'leatherwork' was sploshed with a "Citadel" Nuln Oil wash.

"A Klingon ship, the P'rang, is on its way."

Alongside this latest addition to my ever-increasing collection of fully-painted figures by "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio", I have also managed to rattle off two more Kurgun S-3 Scout spacecraft by "Fat Dragon Games". These vessels were created using some "Bambu Lab" Matt White PLA (Polylactic Acid) on an A1 Mini 3D Printer, and can be purchased as an STL (Standard Triangle Language) file as part of the "Battlefront Valkyrie" Starter Set.

The single-piece spacecraft were printed using a 0.2mm nozzle, with a 0.1mm layer height in order to minimise any striation lines on the finished miniatures, and were predominantly painted in "Vallejo" Heavy Green and "Citadel" Biel-Tan Green. However, the (not) Klingon ships were then carefully dry-brushed it with (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Green, and had their warp nacelles pigmented using a combination of "Scale 75" White Alchemy and "Citadel" Flesh Tearers Red.