When I was a child watching Doctor Who, I was fascinated by the idea that in the future the Doctor would undergo his twelfth and final regeneration into the thirteenth Doctor, and I would be there to watch it. THAT FUTURE IS HERE! NOW!

This is Warlord Games’ rendition of the Thirteenth Doctor, in miniature form. Technically Jodie Whittaker is the fifteenth regeneration, or infinity-eth regeneration, but whatever the canon is she represents that magical point I imagined with wide-eyed wonder when I was a child.

The Thirteenth Doctor is a very much an incarnation of the current trend for realistic proportions and subtle details. Compare the head-to-body ratios or the chunkiness of the clothing folds with the earlier licensed Doctor Who ranges above and you can see how the times they are a-changin’.

The details are too subtle at points on the Thirteenth Doctor, with areas like the shirt’s neckline just one coat of paint away from disappearing entirely, or her hands ending up cast as amorphous stumps you have to freehand the fingers onto. Some of the more recent unofficial Doctor Who-inspired ranges, (like Crooked Dice’s or Heresy Miniatures’ shown below) have a better grasp of how to design a modern miniature with detail that cast well and is fun to paint.

But enough dwelling in the past and back to the present day – let’s talk about the TARDIS!

This TARDIS is a single piece resin casting that comes moulded in a fetching blue colour. It’s an iconic British spaceship that connected with something really deep down in my childhood. I painted it with a subtle woodgrain effect on the doors (similar to the wooden Trebuchet featured in the recent Patreon tutorial), using Vallejo Model Colour Heavy Blue as the starting colour.

The TARDIS miniatures suffers from visible build lines in the roof that betray the fact that the master was designed in a computer. And, like the Doctor, the sculpted detail is dangerously subtle – the “FREE FOR USE OF PUBLIC” notice is scarcely there, and won’t pick up a shading wash. Worse yet, the entire piece has undergone the moulding process at an angle which means the castings are skewed into a parallelogram shape.

Despite the flaws, I am really pleased to have painted these icons of British science fiction and have them available for games.

Coming soon! More heroes that ride around in blue boxes. Ninjabread out!

Time to kick off my collection of Doctor Who villains!  Presenting Omega, the Time Lord who decided to name himself after his exam grades.  It’s the Gallifreyan equivalent of “F Minus”, which now I say out loud does sound like a good rapper name.

MC F Minus in da house, rappity rappity rap.

This miniature is the 1983 Arc of Infinity incarnation of Omega.  I’ve eschewed the bone and black scheme he was seen in the show, and went for a glowing red scheme – referencing the crimson bubble of time he became trapped in immediately between The Three Doctors and Arc of Infinity.

The classic pitfall of single-colour miniatures is it’s hard to understand the overall form.  To counter this I’ve lightened the red as it rises on the miniature, to draw attention to the chest and helmet.

Arc of Infinity Omega.

The helmet design of the miniature isn’t too close to the show, missing the bauble on top and having different placement of the pipes.  The sculpt does capture the puffiness of the jacket nicely.  I’d like to paint another version of the miniature to match the incarnation on the show, the freehand on the cloak would be a fun challenge.

Omega and the Fifth Doctor.

Because he wears an evil cape and ostentatious helmet I thought it only fitting to give him a more dramatic base with a big slab of rock.  He now towers over his foes and becomes the master of ceremonies in any scene.

Omega’s minions lead the Doctor at gunpoint across a quarry.

I’d also like to paint a third version with a headswap from the Fifth Doctor miniature to represent the Arc of Infinity scene where his helmet peels off and reveals he’s become Peter Davison thanks to the bio-data extract he stole on Gallifrey.  But there’s plenty of other Doctor Who villains to get to.

I’ve got a soft spot for Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor. Probably because his run on Doctor Who started with a couple of very strong science fiction stories – Logopolis and Castrovalva. And I think Earthshock is the definitive Cyberman story. So I started my new collection of 28mm Doctor Who miniatures with him.  It’s the first time I’ve painted a representation of celery in at that scale.

“Books! The best weapons in the world!”

The miniature was originally produced in or after 1996 by Harlequin Miniatures, and that company regenerated into Icon Miniatures and then regenerated again into Black Tree Design.  I remember buying some in the mid-1990s when the Invasion Earth game was being haphazardly stocked by the geek shop in the centre of Manchester – the Coliseum.  I’d like to collect the 1980s Games Workshop range of Doctor Who figures too, but the Harlequin ones are much more readily available and have a much bigger range of monsters and aliens to pit the Doctor against.

I really enjoyed painting his stripey trousers and cricket whites.  There’s another version of the figure actually holding the bat which I’ll treat myself to at a future point when (if) I’ve found some other cricketeer figures.  It would be the first time since being eleven-year-old nerd I would feel comfortable playing wargames on my Subbuteo Cricket pitch.

Doctor Who through Time and Space

The wonderful thing about Doctor Who is that this one figure can be used alongside most of my other wargames figures.  He marries historical and science fiction, and even at a pinch fantasy.  I can stick him with my ex-Citadel Normans to recreate scenes like The Time Meddler or The Real Herewad – though neither involved the Fifth Doctor.  (Perfect excuse to buy the First and Sixth Doctors as miniatures though.)

“Careful now, you’ll have someone’s eye out with that.”
The Doctor supervising some peasant archers in 1066.

Games Workshop’s early Imperial Army figures are suitably generic to stand in for future soldiers.  I can use these Warhammer 40K figures as the Guild of Adjudicators from the 28th century as seen in Cold Fusion.

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only Warhammers.
The Doctor supervising the peacekeeping force in 2766.

So, what next?  The Doctor Who universe has all sorts of weird and exotic aliens.  I’m going to focus on the Fifth Doctor’s adversaries and companions next so I can play out my favourite episodes in the medium of wargames.