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Here is a Black Tree sculpt from their remarkably extensive and comprehensive Doctor Who line. This was DW420, Professor Kettlewell, but I've repurposed him as a mathematical genius visiting Miskatonic from Howard University. I love the hair. Bonus points if you recognize the equations! He looks like he cares for his abstruse and rarefied mathematical theorems, his coffee, and jaunty bow ties, and that's about it. The shabby suit and body language really help sell the character. Brainstein here is one of my favorites.

So as some of you may know I'm making a diorama! This will be slow going for a while as I get the materials and then it should be full steam ahead. I've started by procuring another copy of the "telephone box" since I don't really like the first one I did a few years ago. It's not awful but not up to my standard for a Christmas present.

So I hear Paizo's got this new game, Starfinder, up and coming. And I am not sure what to think. Pathfinder filled a need; I tried 4th Edition D&D, and did not much care for the radical changes after several years of 3.5. Pathfinder was just an extension of the d20 system, and worked well as a generic fantasy game ... that, as splatbook after splatbook and so forth, grew steadily less generic. Still a fine game, although it begins to show signs of splatcreak*, as the sheer amount of rules pile up. Makes sense they'd want to expand their base of gaming; a one-game company is vulnerable to changes in the market, and D&D has finally gotten its head on straight. Time to seek out new life and civilizations... if only to stay competitive. But I dunno. First science fiction RPG I ever played was Traveller, which did an amazing job of distilling the basics down to three little booklets in a box, which seems to be how things were done, then. We had combat, we had spaceships, we had computers, find a ship, find a crew, find a job, keep flying. It worked. (I will not discuss Gamma World or Metamorphosis Alpha; while I enjoyed 'em, these were more postapocalyptic and less space opera, and this is hard enough to keep on track as it is). Another game, Space Opera, was interesting and fun, although waaaay too in love with its rulesset; as I recall, you could burn a whole gaming session just creating a character. Which I guess was a little better than Traveller, where you could accidentally get killed before your character entered PLAY, but Space Opera's extra crunchy rules were a bit much, even for the times. I enjoyed Star Frontiers, once TSR finally got off their duffs and designed a neat space opera setting, although I took it kinda personally that they did not include a starship design or purchase system, or for that matter much of any information about space travel other than "buy a ticket." What, Traveller could do it, but you can't? They were up front enough, though, about the fact that they'd be out with a separate boxed set that would include the starship rules... eventually. And they did. Aaaand that's where we take a sharp left, because Star Frontiers was the last generic science fiction space opera I ever played. FASA quickly came out with a licensed Star Trek game, set during the TOS era, because that's all we had back then; Next Generation was still years away. Still remember the one adventure we played as Klingon officers, who wound up blowing up the ship due to a complex web of backstabbery... but I digress. Not long after that, they also came out with a licensed Doctor Who game, which preoccupied us for a while, as there were a hell of a lot of VHS tapes to track down to keep up with the setting! It did have the advantage of spreading across all TIME, as well as space... although we took a break when West End Games's Star Wars came out, because to a nerd-child of the seventies, the history of mankind breaks down into pre-SW and post-SW. After all, you never saw any Planet Of The Apes RPGs, did you? Hell, I still have a copy of Leading Edge's Aliens RPG around here somewhere; it was fun, albeit rather sketchy, as it was based entirely on the two movies in the Alien franchise as of 1988... had plenty of information about Weyland-Yutani, the Space Marines, the Aliens... and nearly nothing else... Which brings us to now. As I said above, Pathfinder filled a need. But there are a great many licensed science fiction games now. Firefly is still going strong. A new Star Wars game still circulates, albeit unsupported due to licensing. A new Star Trek game is in the works, assuming its maker ever gets it out of playtesting, and the current Doctor Who game still seems to be selling. Is there a place now for a generic science fiction setting? Will it appeal to people who've never tried Pathfinder? Or does the current market favor established licensed science fiction settings where one can watch a movie or three and get an idea INSTANTLY about the world and how it works? Opinions? Ideas? Rants?

As the 2016 Frostgrave campaign wrapped up, I've started working on my new wizards. Or at least possibilities for my new wizards. The now out of production Ecclescake (9th Doctor) and Doctor Payne (War Doctor). I started by cleaning them up and assembling them, and tonight I used Reaper's brush on primer followed by a brown liner wash. These are really great sculpts, and I'm sad that Heresy had to stop making them.

These are two official, licensed Doctor Who figures from Black Tree Design: DW405, Zygon, and DW424, Zygon advancing. The Zygons are sneaky shapeshifting aliens who sometimes make an uneasy alliance with humans. In classic old Doctor Who they are mucky brown-beige things. In New Who they are more purply and speckled, and not always evil (although they look it). All of Black Tree Design's line is from Old Who. These are very much old-fashioned stuntmen-in-rubber-suits aliens. Nevertheless, I painted these up more in keeping with the New Who colors because I think they are prettier. The paint job is pretty simple, and I would have called it a speed paint, except it was four months between when I started and finished them. WIP thread here.

I LOVE this figure! This is Kate Stewart, daughter of Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, the long-time character on "Doctor Who" played by the late Nicholas Courtney. Played by Jemma Redgrave, she is the head of scientific research in UNIT. (Crooked Dice is one of those places that plays coy with minis, so they call her "Department X Cuckoo") I love this figure because I love the character, but also because it is a terrific mini of a middle-aged woman of authority, suitable for a prime minister, president, or other important female-type person with dignity. She reminds me of some of my older relatives and certain executive and presidential women I have met. I did not take pictures of my basic prep: gluing the mini to a base (I am dissatisfied with my gluing so far but I think I have an idea how to improve it in future), priming thinly with Titanium White, and washing with Burnt Umber. I was so excited to get started on her I painted her face and hair straight away. This is a new approach to blonde hair for me. I mixed quite a dull color from Raw Sienna, Burnt Umber, and Titanium White, and it seems to have avoided the brassy look some of my blonde hair has had. I also have been noticing, looking at people, that you rarely see such a made-up eye with dark liner all around as is often painted on minis. Watching the actress, who has very dark eyes, I noticed that she had quite a dark line of lashes above her eye, but almost invisible below. So I am trying that as a look.

These are two Zygons, classic shape-shifting monsters from the British cult TV show "Doctor Who". They are genuine, licensed by the BBC, official, NOT knock-offs from Black Tree Designs: DW424 (Zygon Advancing) and DW405 (with raised hand). Zygons have appeared both in classic Who ("Terror of the Zygons", 1975) and in new Who ("The Day of the Doctor", 2013, and "The Zygon Invasion" / "The Zygon Inversion", 2015). Black Tree's sculpts are all old, dating to the '90s, and only cover the earlier period of the show pre-hiatus. These Zygons are based on the rather rubber-suity original series versions. First I primed them white, washed them with Burnt Umber, and mixed an unattractive flesh color for them, with a redder version over their suckers ... or whatever those are. IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT BLACK TREE DESIGNS: They have a line of 25mm "Doctor Who" minis covering the classic old years of the show, from the first through the eighth Doctors. They are not too bad -- except for the female companions -- and they have a lot of classic monsters. HOWEVER ... Every time I have ordered from them the order took ages to reach me and every order that arrived was botched. If you don't mind the risk of having to chase things down for several months, it is nice to be able to get genuine Daleks, Cybermen, etc.

My husband gave me some birthday minis from Crooked Dice, which specializes in British TV and movie homages. This is a set (also available individually) of the "Doctor Who" characters Madame Vastra, a Silurian (reptile) warrior, Jenny, her human wife, and Strax, her Sontaran (sort of a potato-head alien) butler. Pix here: http://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/doctor-who-the-snowmen-christmas-pics-4.jpg https://whopix.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/doctor-capaldi-and-the-paternoster-gang.jpg http://pa1.narvii.com/5704/791b803116d02377cad782133ef2dae592fb2bd2_hq.gif It's ... a very silly show, and I adore it. I don't think these are official miniatures. They are called "Time Lost Investigators" in Crooked Dice's catalogue. Madame Vastra has an alternate head of a Victorian human woman if you're looking for a Victorian lady wielding a katana, and Strax has an alternate head of a bulldoggish butler with big sideburns, if you're looking for a solid, somewhat short butler. I did my usual prep on these: Remove flash, epoxy to bases, prime white, wash with Burnt Umber. Then I began painting. I did fairly complete jobs of Strax and Jenny's faces. Madame Vastra's head is only blocked in. I mixed this green out of Hansa Yellow, a bright lemon yellow, and a tiny dab of Carbon Black; it's one of my favorite unexpected green recipes. Here's a shot of the group together. Jenny looks a little tall, but maybe it's because Madame Vastra is lunging.

Good news for Doctor Who fans. http://doctorwhominiaturesgame.com Warlord Games is absolutely delighted to have secured the licence to produce a miniatures game based on the BBC's enormously popular TV series, Doctor Who (back on BBC One on September 19th!). So delighted we might just have a celebratory jelly baby. As lifelong Doctor Who fans ourselves, we are extremely pleased to have the chance to bring this iconic series to the tabletop with a game system you all know and love as well as the official range of miniatures to complement it. The licence covers not just the latest series of Doctor Who but encompasses all of the Doctors, their companions and their foes. So, expect to see Sea Devils as much as Weeping Angels, Leela as much as Martha Jones, and a long, brightly coloured scarf as much as a fez (fezzes are cool, by the way...).

This is one of Crooked Dice's many classic British television homages. Crooked Dice calls him "Hugo Solomon (New Version)", but he is pretty blatantly the actor Jon Pertwee, who played the third incarnation of the Doctor in "Doctor Who" from 1970-1974 (with a return guest appearance in 1983). Whoever the sculptor is captured an amazingly close likeness. I painted up the figure, however, not as the Doctor but as a weapon-shunning magical-academic type for Shadowrun, the cyberpunk game. Although I was trying to paint the figure as not-the-Doctor, between the player's clothing color choices and the highly accurate portrait sculpture it totally looks like him. Well, with rather darker hair and blue-violet iridescence in his hair and on his cloak. Somehow it just seems to make him look more like the Doctor. WIP thread here.

These are three different miniatures representing Jon Pertwee's Doctor from "Doctor Who". Pertwee played the third incarnation of the Doctor from 1970-1974, with a guest return in 1983. So there's a cute story here. My husband is playing a sort of an academic in a Shadowrun game, someone a little flamboyant but not into weaponry or the usual Shadowrun visual tropes. I mentioned that the Doctor would be a pretty good proxy for that sort of thing, and he found me Crooked Dice's unofficial (but a very good likeness of) Jon-Pertwee-as-the-Doctor figure (as well as a good number of other Crooked Dice figures as a gift). The character won't be painted up quite like the Doctor (although as it is turning out the resemblance is pretty strong). So to satisfy my slightly pedantic interest in having a figure of one of my earliest favorite Doctors to go with my Reaper Bones police box, and also to have a couple of figures to test things on, I pulled out two Black Tree Design miniatures of the third Doctor that I bought last year. So I have here three completely different miniatures of the third Doctor: a modern 28mm unofficial, fairly realistic and dynamic one, and two 25mm licensed and official but somewhat cartoony and more static Old School ones. Here they are based, primed, and washed with Burnt Umber to bring out the details. The faces are only roughed in, but I think this might be the only picture I took of them all together where you can see the wibbly-wobbly scales. I very quickly fixed up the faces. I think an argument could be made for the Doctor wearing gloves, but I prefer bare skin for his hands. I am trying to give the Shadowrun not-Doctor darker hair. I painted darker hair on the other two too, because I've found it makes a more realistic-looking undercoat for grey hair. I lightly brushed a little light brown over the Shadowrun not-Doctor's hair and mixed up a transparent cold not-quite-black from Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna and washed it over the parts of his outfit which will be black. I find I prefer blacks to be made from multiple layers of dark transparent colors rather than solid opaque layers of a single color. So there will be more colors added to this clothing.

I'm a long-time fan of Doctor Who, and have had a number of the roleplaying games over the years. The problem has been finding figures for it. Not necessarily exact figures, since that's tricky. But close enough. I gather that Black Tree Design has the rights to market Doctor Who figures from before the reboot, so all of them up to Dr. #8, Paul McGann. They also sell companions, friends, enemies, monsters, and the TARDIS. It sounds good ... except ... First off, the sculpts are kind of so-so, much of the time. Their TARDIS looks a tad wobbly. It's a little hard to tell because the site only has small, low-resolution pictures of their figures. I've also heard poor reports of their customer service and reliability. If anyone with actual experience with them could weigh in I'd be most appreciative. As far as I know no one is making official 28mm miniatures for the newer Doctor Who series. I wish they would. I hear that issues of the tie-in fan magazines in the UK sometimes come with premiums like little armies of plastic Daleks, but I'm not sure how easy such things would be to find on this side of the Atlantic. There are some people making close-enough figures and props. For the TARDIS, model railroad supplier Hornby makes a police box. Hasslefree sells a historic model in resin, as does Fenris Games. You have to paint the fiddly bits on them yourself. Or get these decals from Company B miniatures (scroll down the page to see them), which fit the Fenris model, and possibly the Hasslefree one as well. Heresy Miniatures has a group of figures which are very close to the newer Doctors and a few companions here. Between these and Black Tree Design one can have reasonable figures for all of the Doctors and most of their major companions (but not Rose, Mickey, Martha Jones, Captain Jack, Donna Noble, or Clara, or any of the New Who monsters). Of course no one has minis for the really unmistakeable trademarked characters, which is fine by me. I wouldn't want pirated minis, and not-quite Daleks sound really silly. But I am interested to know who is marketing minis that are pretty close to the spirit of Doctor Who characters and monsters. And if there is any word on getting better sculpts for the classic ones.

My husband gave me a number of Doctor Who-related miniatures for my birthday and I've started painting them up. They include figures for Jon Pertwee's Doctor and the Brigadier, so when I noticed that this figure, Bombshell Babes #10019, "Dr. Helen Salinger", looked an awful lot like the Pertwee-era companion Liz Shaw it just seemed natural to throw her into the mix. I've already gotten her a bit off and running. I glued her to a base, primed her white, and washed over her with Burnt Umber. I've already painted her face, hair, and glasses. Liz Shaw doesn't wear glasses so I've painted them as sunglasses. Her hair is a new experiment. I had felt that the blonde hair I painted on earlier figures was too yellow and brassy, so this is a much more subdued, colder brownish-grey mix. I believe it contains Titanium White, Raw Sienna, and Burnt Umber and there might be a dab of Carbon Black as well.

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-36370997 He was also in James Bond films and "Doctor Who".

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1067367405/pinball-arcade-doctor-who I only just found out about this, it's already live. Farsight Studios, creators of The Pinball Arcade, are raising funds to digitize the Doctor Who pinball table. I thought this would interest a few people here. I wanted to add that there's a particular commenter on this one who is on every Farsight KS and pledges to go on about some fraud or somesuch. Normally I don't weigh in on such matters, but in case somebody is thinking of pledging but sees that as alarming, Farsight has delivered every single time. They're no fly by night op, they've been at this a while. I've never figured out what that dude's beef is, but it strikes me as unwarranted. Just an FYI if the Who table seems attractive but you're concerned about delivery. Unless their studio burns down, they'll come through.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/xenomurphy/16424818798/?rb=1 A TARDIS interior made of Lego, all used straight as-is, so far as I understand it. Nicely done.

So which of these blue spray paints would you use on a rather large Tardis model? http://www.liquitex.com/us/shop/paints/professional/spray-paint/36093/

Hello everybody! I am enjoying so much this little project (triggered by Jasper's SciFi Challenge!) that I decided it would be better to make it a spin-off thread of my main compiled WIP thread. Instead of talking a lot, I will take you through the pictures. First, I had an idea. Doing a round-base diorama, with the TARDIS center, the Doctor and Amy Pong (two minis I have from Heresy Minis) on opposite sides, like covering each other backs, defending the TARDIS. Some more details are planned, but you will learn about the later. So the most challenging part, building a somewhat accurate TARDIS. First, some research and sketches: Then, refining the sketches comparing sizes and overall scale with the minis: V1 was more accurate to the real thing, but too "thin" for mini scale. So I beefed it up and chose better measures, in line with my materials. V2 was the definite plan. The whole family helped out in the cutting and shaping of the TARDIS yesterday. Base and square "plates" are cardboard, side and other details will be plasticard, and corner posts are pine square stick (for arquitectural models). Sides were first cut in with the Dremel, the polished up with the xacto knife: Lower squares were covered with thin cardboard (like from cardboard bases): I had stripped up an old computer, and had some leds, switches... so with the help of the innards of a small, toy flashlight, I wanted to make it light up. Adapting one led for the roof beacon: More details, plus using electric wire copper cut to size and a LOT of patience for the window frames: A pic I snapped to remember how the cables were connected. I had to remember my old electronics classes until I got two leds working out of the same switch. The LED depicted is a white led going inside the TARDIS to light up the windows. The switch is going to the base, and I used foam carved out to house the wiring and batteries. To allow for easy removal of the piece, I adapted a connector. To help reflect light back, the inside faces were covered in aluminium foil. The inclined roof was a challenge, all four little triangles cut up and glued. So lacking the Police sign and putty to fill in the seams and polish it up, here it is! The wires that pluck into the connector: Sitting on the base: And switch on: Hope you like it so far! C&C welcome. PS: Oh, I am also playing with plaster, got some dental grade one, and prepared the actual top layer of the base:

Heresy Miniatures Nerdlord II and Emily Lake, on a styrofoam/cork/plaster base. Scratchbuilt TARDIS (not as clean as I would've liked, but the camera is a harsh mistress). C&C welcomed and appreciated.

Last September graphic designer and computer animator Billy Hanshaw uploaded onto Youtube a as a demo to show off his animation skills. Mr. Hanshaw's animation takes an Escher-inspired symbolic approach, showing turning gears in a clock, an infinitely spiraling clock face, and the Seal of Rassilon melting off the Doctor's pocket watch. Steven Moffat spotted it and liked it so much he arranged with the artist to base the new season's credits on it.

Just saw this on my feed on Facebook from a couple friends and I just had to share this with folks here, since this is right in our wheel house. How to turn Barbies into Doctor Who Weeping Angels

I still remember the day he came, to save us all from the Zombie Apocalypse. His blue box appeared out of nowhere. It made a great deal of noise. Regrettably, zombies are drawn to noise. His intentions were good. But the problem was just too... dark, I guess... for him to deal with. It ended about like you'd expect. Weirdly enough, though, the situation led directly to the destruction of the Dalek Incursion of Cestus III...

This is the best offically BBC sanctioned fan-made video of clips from Doctor Who I've ever seen. It's by someone called Babelcolour. There is literally something from every episode through 2011 (yes, even the lost ones). The music is a witty mix of the Doctor Who theme and "Sweet Dreams Are Made of This" (they call it "Whorythmics"). And the sound clips are marvelous. EDIT: My link was wonky. Please scroll down to post #3, where Argentee kindly put in a working link. The link may be a little funny. My ipad refuses to let me watch Youtube on Safari, instantly bouncing me to a special Youtube app which will not let me copy the web address of where to get it. But I got to this video by first linking to its comments page, which seems to have bypassed that particular annoying feature, at least temporarily. Until I tried to reload the window, whereupon I had to play "Load Safari and try to close that window in the split second before it loads the Youtube app instead. Close Youtube and repeat until you are fast enough." I hate the ipad Safari Youtube policy.

I have been a Doctor Who fan for a while, starting as a kid with Tom Baker on PBS, and I recently began watching more of the Classic Who than I had ever seen - until about two months ago, in fact, I had never seen a single Hartnell or Torughton era show. But now that I'm going back and watching everything - and I do mean everything - I thought I'd make myself useful and make sure the whole world knew my thoughts on each Serial I watched. I've been going for 10 Episodes now, Beginning at Serial ONE (Back in the Hartnell Era), and I'm having a good time with it. If you care to follow along, I hope to post a Serial a day for a while, and then slow to 2-3 Serials a week during busy times. anyway, without further ado - My Blog - the Weak Unclear Force! Bonus points* to people who tell me they appreciate the title. *Points void where prohibited.

Just got home from Christmas with the fiancee's family. Her sister hooked me up with the T.A.R.D.I.S. https://plus.google.com/u/0/108048511179156444489/posts/SX3Y6YjTAve That's right, it lights up and plays the sound. It's a 4-Port USB 2.0. http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/9223/?cj=true&cpg=cj&ref&CJURL&CJID=1909525 BOOYAH! What interesting NERD Gift did you get?