"Each Section Was Led By A Corporal..."

"...Armed with a Sten submachine gun."

This 28mm metal model is from the "West Wind Productions" "Secrets Of The Third Reich" blister B-SOTR04 Sten-B. However, rather than use the miniature for Andy Cooper's "Weird WWII game", this British soldier will actually form part of a (Regular) Infantry Section for "Konflikt '47" by "Warlord Games". Indeed, the figure will actually represent the section's "high quality" NCO, armed with a trusty submachine-gun.

The Tommy was initially primed using "Citadel" Doombull Brown and washed with an old pot of "Citadel" Devlan Mud. Once dry the infantryman's weapon, boots and large ammunition pouch were pigmented in "Citadel" Abaddon Black, whilst his bullet proof vest was painted using some Calthan Brown. In addition, I 'picked out' the infantryman's gas mask filter with a dab of "Citadel" Knarloc Green too.

Space Commander Travis wonders what could possibly lurk behind the closed hatchway

Both of these areas were darkened using (more) "Citadel" Devlan Mud. Finally, I 'spotted' the Corporal's eye-goggles with a combination of "Citadel" Ironbreaker and Nuln Oil, before applying some "Vallejo" Heavy Skintone and "Citadel" Reikland Fleshshade" to the soldier's hands, ears and neck.

With my 500-point strong Great Britain And The Commonwealth army almost completed, I managed to make another visit to the LVL Up Gaming Store in Bournemouth so as to play-test some cooperative rules for my homemade brew entitled "M.I.S.S." On this occasion I brought along some figures taken from my old collection of science fiction miniatures by "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio", and some cardboard sections from the first edition of the Alien Versus Predator Board Game by "Prodos Games".

Supreme Commander Servalan sacrifices her Federation Troopers to the hungry space mutants

The scenarios we played involved Supreme Commander Servalan and Space Commander Travis leading a boarding party of troopers on board a Terran Federation Science Station which had suddenly ceased communicating with Star One. Needless to say, this was due to an alien viral infection getting out of control and turning the laboratory workers into nightmarish blobs of disease-ridden death.

We managed to get in five games during the afternoon, four of which we won, and one of which turned into a total bloodbath, as the mutated scientists devoured everyone in sight, including the noteworthy Section Leader Klegg; who up until this point had somehow managed to survive every exploration of the space station. Hopefully, we'll get some more games in next month, as I hope to add the Liberator's crew, some event cards and additional scenarios to the "Blake's Seven" proceedings...

"One Does Not Simply Walk Into Mordor."

 "It's Black Gates are guarded by more than just Orcs."

This 28mm scale "white metal figure" of Sterling The Wandering Knight is produced by “Lucid Eye Publications” and can be bought from the company's "Toon Realms" range as an adventurer "for use with The Caverns of The Frog King Adventure Module." Sculpted by Steve Saleh, I have painted him as Boromir, the eldest son of Denethor II, so as to be able to field him as a 'Lord Of The Toons' Hero (Single Model Unit) for “Dragon Rampant” by "Osprey Games".

Originally primed with two layers of "Citadel" Abaddon Black,  the older brother of Faramir was treated to two coats of Ironbreaker before being drenched in Nuln Oil and dry-brushed using (more) Ironbreaker. I then 'cleaned up' his shield with some additional "Abaddon Black" and treated his sword hilt and helmet to a combination of "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna, Gold and "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade.

The Thing and Black Panther make short work of an alien warrior and some stalkers

The High Warden of the White Tower had his face initially 'picked out' with some "Vallejo" Heavy Skintone, and was subsequently washed with "Citadel" Reikland Fleshshade before receiving some "Vallejo" Heavy Skintone highlights. Finally, his belt was given a lick of "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna and Strong Tone Quickshade by "The Army Painter", whilst his feathered plume was pigmented "Vallejo" White and later splashed with Pale Grey.

I'm hoping to attend the LVL Up Gaming Store in Bournemouth at least once a month this year, and took advantage of my most recent visit to trial some quickly thought homemade rules for H.R. Giger's aliens. Initially I had panned for the slavering extra-terrestrials to face off against an increasing number of "Marvel Comics" most famous superheroes, but rather embarrassingly forget to bring the Avengers statistics with me.

The Human Torch lights up the alien menace with a series of fireballs

As a result, we had to settle for a series of smaller-sized skirmish games across an industrial furnace complex which arguably far better suited the super-powered long range abilities of the Fantastic Four (and Black Panther) than it did the somewhat faster, but vulnerable at a distance Xenomorphs. Fortunately, such disadvantages didn't stop some 'stand out' moments occurring within our games, such as The Thing charging straight into the nearest alien warrior and relying solely upon his thick brick hide to protect him from the creature's acid blood, or the Black Panther dispatching a gaggle of nightmarish stalkers only to then later succumb to his close combat injuries.

Perhaps the evening's biggest star though was Johnny Storm, whose 'untouchable' flight ability definitely helped Mister Fantastic's super-group keep the aliens at bay whenever they seemed likely to break through the line of heroes through sheer weight of numbers. Able to fly almost within touching distance of the Xenomorphs, the Human Torch repeatedly whittled down the fast-approaching warrior drones with a hail of fire-balls, and certainly gave me food-for-thought as to how I could better balance flying units within my homemade rule-set "M.I.S.S."...

"We Didn't Leave Earth To Be Safe."

"Seal all inner doors! Mother, any additional ammo on board?"

These three 32mm scale resin "Prodos Games" miniatures of H.R. Giger's Aliens are from the company's "Alien Verses Predator: The Hunt Begins" board game, but can also be purchased separately as AVP Alien Infants. Each model comes in a number of separate pieces so as to provide numerous different poses, and resultantly caused me a little head-scratching as to which way their wonderfully-detailed tails should be attached.

The "hostile, deadly and numerous" extra-terrestrials have their tail spines protruding out of the top of their lethal appendages according to the photograph of the company's officially painted models, and this seems to fit with the motion picture versions too. However, I have also seen numerous versions of the kit where the tail has been super-glued the other way round too; a position which seems to be particularly popular with those hobbyists wanting to have the tail rearing up from behind the Alien like some sort of stabbing venomous serpent.

"What happened here?"

In the end I went with the second option, as I actually felt the resin pieces themselves literally bent far more favourably with the spines pointing down. Although even this 'safe option' didn't stop one tail from snapping in half when I was trying to re-position it in order to ensure my future handling of the figure on the tabletop was more manageable. Indeed, with hindsight I believe that one of the reasons I may well have held back from painting these miniatures for so very long was due to my concern over (mis)handling them...

I initially gave the Alien Infants an undercoat of "Citadel" Abaddon Black before simply dry-brushing each model with "Vallejo" German Grey. The Stalkers were then washed with "Citadel" Nuln Oil before I applied a second, significantly lighter dry-brush of "Vallejo" German Grey over the figures' more prominently raised surfaces. Each mouth was painted using a combination of "Vallejo" Gunmetal Grey and "Citadel" Nuln Oil, whilst their head carapaces were treated to a final thick coat of Abaddon Black.

Dungeon Wall Tile WIPs - The 3D printed piece has been primed, washed and dry-brushed

Having previously painted several "Horrorclix" versions of this iconic monster, it is clear that the "Prodos Games" sculpts are infinitely superior, if not a little less robust. This has meant that despite my application of the same recipe the "Vallejo" German Grey appears far more visible to the naked eye than it does upon the "Wizkids"models; presumably because there are significantly more ridges on the newer miniatures for the pigment to sit upon.

Lastly, on the sound recommendation of PulpCitizen ("Eclectic Gentleman Tabletop Gamer"), I have purchased a large room's worth of "Dragonlock" 3D-printed tiles from the Ebay seller "3D Horizons". These somewhat hefty 'plastic' pieces are apparently sold "under agreement from Fat Dragon Games" and will hopefully form the start of an entire dungeonscape to rival that of any produced by "Dwarven Forge" and at a significantly cheaper price; albeit I obviously have to paint my own parts up...

"We Found And Destroyed The Enemy."

"Ogrons. They're a form of higher anthropoid."

These 35mm tall "pewter" models of three Ogrons are manufactured by “Warlord Games” and are designed for use with the Nottingham-based company's "Doctor Who: Exterminate!" miniatures game. Living "in scattered communities on an unnamed planet on the outer fringes of the Milky Way, far from the central spaceways", these "hired mercenaries" first appeared in the January 1972 BBC television story “Day Of The Daleks”, and were employed as "police officers" in "an alternate 22nd Century".

Originally undercoated using two layers of "Citadel" Abaddon Black, these figures were all heavily dry-brushed with "Vallejo" Heavy Charcoal and had their trousers layered using some Heavy Brown. The "low-intelligence, ape-like hominids" then had their shirt sleeves painted with Iraqi Sand and their belts, straps and wrist bands layered with Heavy Sienna. All of these areas were subsequently washed with "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade.

Tenth Doctor and Daleks WIPs - Early days yet for all three primed miniatures

I then moved on to some of the Ogrons' more fiddly parts, and applied a combination of "Vallejo" Charred Brown and "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade to their hair and arms. I also dry-brushed some additional "Vallejo" Charred Brown across each brute's furry face and hands, but washed these facial areas with "Citadel" Nuln Oil in order to darken them quite considerably. Finally, the primate-looking aliens had their disintegrator guns 'picked out' with Ironbreaker and Nuln Oil.

Sticking with "Warlord Games" and their "Into The Time Vortex" miniatures range, I have started work on two more of their plastic Daleks. I've previously already finished a couple of black-headed drones in order to help distinguish them from the all-gold Kaled Mark III Travel Machines I usually field as part of a simple "Dalek Patrol". However, "Warlord Games" have since released the Recruitment Card for the actual "Emperor's Guard", so I now need a third dark-domed Skaro mutant if I want to use a unit specifically "dedicated to protecting the Emperor Dalek at all costs."

Alien Infants WIPs - These large resin extra-terrestrials have been primed and dry-brushed

In addition, I thought I would also make a start on the three Daleks required for the "Cult Of Skaro", as well the "Gale Force Nine" resin Tenth Doctor model I recently got for Christmas. I plan to differentiate my Dalek Thay by pigmenting his fender dark silver, instead of being my usual pure black, and my second David Tennant figure, by giving him a dark brown suit, as opposed to the blue one I've previously painted; thereby perhaps allowing me to use him as the Human-Time Lord Meta-Crisis version.

Lastly, in trying to help clear up my painting space as part of the Partially-Painted Pledge Challenge, I have finally put some "Vallejo" German Grey 'highlights' on three Alien Infants by "Prodos Games". These multi-part resin "Alien Verses Predator" figures have been sat languishing away on my table for close on two years, having been purchased directly from the Warwick-based company's stall at "Salute" 2016 as part of a semi-large pre-show order.

"...And They're Gonna Come In Here And They're Gonna Get Us!"

"Oh yeah, sure! With those things runnin' around? You can count me out."

These five 32mm scaled resin "Prodos Games" miniatures of H.R. Giger's Aliens are from the company's "Alien Verses Predator: The Hunt Begins" board game. But can also be bought separately as AVP Alien Stalkers. Each model comes in a number of separate pieces, presumably in order to provide different poses, and are predominantly designed to be positioned somewhat forward facing, as if they are moving at speed. However as I wanted the Aliens to stand a little more upright than advertised, I simply repositioned their limbs in order to make them lean over less.

"Let's just bug out and call it even, man!"

I initially gave these "different kind of animal" an undercoat of "Citadel" Abaddon Black before simply dry-brushing each model with "Vallejo" German Grey. The Stalkers were then washed with "Citadel" Nuln Oil before I applied a second, significantly lighter dry-brush of "Vallejo" German Grey over the figures' more prominently raised surfaces. Each Aliens' mouth was painted using a combination of "Vallejo" Gunmetal Grey and "Citadel" Nuln Oil, whilst their head carapaces were treated to a thick coat of Abaddon Black.

The "Alien Verses Predator: The Hunt Begins" board game comes with another ten Aliens in the shape of Infants, which I hope to have finished within the next few weeks in order to use for "Zombicide". However if you want to get a proper feel for all the miniatures within the game then I'd strongly recommend visiting "The Angry Lurker" and seeing all of Francis' hard efforts; as he's painted all of the figures which come with the box set already.

"Pulp Figures" WIPs - Just some inking to do on the Hooded Minion

With Bob Murch March drawing to a close, and my latest three Evil Hooded Minions simply waiting for their grass flock to dry, I thought I'd try and squeeze in some painting on a final few of the sculptor's "Pulp Figures". As a result I have finished block colouring the tenth (and last) of my Cultists from Bob's Weird Menace range and made some more progress on a couple of miniatures I've still outstanding from his Kojar And The Forest Tribe packet; a Tarzan-inspired blister which currently is currently only available as part of the Heroes & Personalities catalogue.