Doctor Who - The Fourth Doctor.

Some 'good guys'. Predictable but of course it had to be the Fourth Doctor up first. Tom Baker was 'my' Doctor and still my favourite to this day. I do have a soft spot for Jon Pertwee though, especially the Earth bound UNIT stories! More on him later.

Companions were -

Sarah Jane Smith
Harry Sullivan
Leela
K9
Romana I
Romana II
Adric
Nyssa
Tegan Jovanka

Here we have the Fourth Doctor and his first companions, Sarah-Jane Smith, Harry Sullivan, Leela and K9. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart makes an appearance but is yet to get a splash of paint...

"Jelly Baby anyone?"

Leela, the Doctor and K9.

Leela was the daughter of Sole'. She first appears in the 1977 serial, The Face of Evil, where she was a warrior of the savage Sevateem tribe, who were amongst the descendants of the crew of an Earth ship from The Mordee Expedition that crash-landed on an unnamed planet in the far future. The name of her tribe, "Sevateem", was a corruption of "survey team". Although the Doctor at this point was content to travel alone, Leela barged into the TARDIS and continued to accompany the Doctor on his journeys.

Although Leela was a primitive, she was also highly intelligent, grasping advanced concepts easily and translating them into terms she could cope with. Despite the Doctor's attempts at "civilizing" her, however, Leela was strong-willed enough to continue in her savage ways. She usually dressed in animal skins, and was armed with a knife or a set of poisonous Janis thorns which she did not hesitate to use on people who threatened her, much to the Doctor's disapproval. Leela frequently demonstrated a highly accurate sense of danger.

Leela, the Doctor and K9.

Although Jameson's eyes are naturally blue, as Leela she initially wore red contact lenses to make them brown. However, the contact lenses severely limited her vision, and producer Graham Williams promised her she could stop wearing them. To explain the change in-story, writer Terrance Dicks wrote a scene in the 1977 serial Horror of Fang Rock in which Leela's eyes suffer "pigment dispersal" and turn blue after viewing the explosion of the Rutan ship.

In her travels with the Doctor, Leela faced killer robots, murderous homunculi, the Rutan Host, and the Sontaran invasion of the Doctor's home planet of Gallifrey. It is during this final adventure, The Invasion of Time that she meets and falls in love with Andred, a native Gallifreyan, and decides to stay behind to be with him. The first K-9 remains with her.

Sarah-Jane Smith, the Doctor and Harry Sullivan.

Doctor Sullivan is a commissioned Surgeon-Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, who is attached as medical officer to the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, the military organisation to which the Doctor acts as scientific advisor. He is first mentioned (though not seen) in Planet of the Spiders, when the Brigadier thinks the Third Doctor has gone into a coma. The Brigadier calls "Doctor Sullivan" and asks him to come to the Doctor's laboratory, but tells him not to bother when Sergeant Benton wakes the Doctor by offering him a cup of coffee. In the next serial, Robot, after the Doctor's third regeneration, Sullivan is called in to attend him, and ends up travelling aboard the TARDIS with the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith for several subsequent adventures.

Harry, the Doctor and Sarah Jane.

Harry is rather old-fashioned and stereotypically English in his attitudes. Somewhat accident-prone, he once claimed he was always trapping his nose in the doors of Portsmouth barracks. He often employs slightly archaic language — for example, referring to Sarah Jane affectionately as "old thing". He is nonetheless depicted as possessing great bravery and a "can-do" attitude, adapting well to the many strange situations in which he finds himself. He can, however, also be quite clumsy and unsubtle, once leading the Doctor to declare, in a moment of frustration, that "Harry Sullivan is an imbecile!".

Harry's last regular appearance is in the season thirteen opener Terror of the Zygons, which had actually been made at the conclusion of the twelfth production block and held over to start the following season. At the conclusion of this story he chooses to return to London by train rather than by TARDIS with the Doctor and Sarah Jane, who continue their adventures without him. He does, however, reappear three stories later in The Android Invasion, both as the original Harry and an android double. This is the character's final appearance in the programme. Harry is also mentioned in the story Mawdryn Undead — the Brigadier tells the Fifth Doctor that he was "seconded to NATO" and was last heard of "doing something 'hush-hush' at Porton Down."

Leela. "Enjoy your death as I enjoyed killing you!"

Sarah-Jane Smith. "Call me old girl again and I'll spit in your eye!"


Surgeon Lieutenant Harry Sullivan. "Harry here is only qualified to work on sailors."

K9. "Affirmative Doctor."

Leela, the Doctor, K9, Harry and Sarah-Jane.

As is typical with me, I have yet to do the bases...

All figures are Black Tree / Harlequin.

Doctor Who - Sutekh Shall Be Free!

First up we have Sutekh from"The Pyramids of Mars"

"Your evil is my good. I am the Sutekh the Destroyer. Where I tread I leave nothing but dust and darkness. I find that good."

Sutekh, also known as Sutekth the Destroyer, was an evil Osirian who planned to destroy all life in the universe. He feared all forms of life which might one day challenge his hegemony, and so became the destroyer of all living things.

"You pit your puny will against mine? Kneel!" 

In a Victorian Gothic mansion, strange things are afoot. The master of the house, away in Egypt, has been replaced by a sinister Egyptian. Cloth-wrapped Mummies roam the grounds, killing people. Beneath a pyramid, the last of the Osirians - Sutekh the Destroyer - waits to be freed, to at long last bring his 'gift of death' to all who live.

Sutekh and some of his servant robot 'Mummies'.

These are some of my first painted Doctor Who miniatures. I am hoping to try out the Pyramids of Mars scenario at some point but I still need to paint up the 'Minion of Sutekh' and at least another couple of robot Mummies. The Doctor and a small choice of Companions are currently in progress!

'Marcus Scarman' aka The Minion of Sutekh and robot Mummies observe the corpse of Namin. Gutted.

I have to source some suitable figures for Marcus and Laurence Scarman, Dr Warlock, Collins the Butler, Ernie Clements and the evil Namin, plus a handful of extras for the last part of the scenario set in Egypt.

The Cast

The Doctor and Companion
Sutekh
Marcus Scarman
Laurence Scarman
Dr Warlock
Collins
Ernie Clements
Namin

All figures are Black Tree / Harlequin.

Wild West - 7th Cavalry.

7th Cavalry Regiment, dismounted.

The 7th Cavalry Regiment is a United States Army Cavalry Regiment, whose lineage traces back to the mid-19th century. Its official nickname is "Garryowen," in honor of the Irish air Garryowen that was adopted as its march tune.

Following its activation the Seventh Cavalry Regiment patrolled the Western plains for raiding native Americans and to protect the westward movement of pioneers. From 1866 to 1881, the regiment marched a total of 181,692 miles (292,342 km) across Kansas, Montana, and the Dakota Territories.

Cthul-Who.

So, here's how it is. Cthul-Who. The Doctor and his Companions, along with the brave troops of UNIT (1970's of course) under the command of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, combat the combined dark alien forces of the Daleks, the Mi-Go, the Cybermen, Shan controlled Autons, Sutekh and the Serpent People and the true 'Masters', the Great Old Ones.

As I have now reached a point that I am happy with on my main projects of late (see Gjallarhorn and A Project Too Far) I am now planning my next ones for the new year.

I have been picking up various 7TV books and useful figures for some time now and have recently been bitten with the 'Spy-Fi' bug. Add to this my obsession with all things Lovecraftian, especially the Strange Aeons game and my recent discovery of the Doctor Who Miniatures Game (thanks Matt) I thought, why not combine all three? Of course I still want to pursue each game individually but the potential for cross-over seems really great fun to me! I am sure I am not the first to think it but the idea of the Doctor battling with 'Sea Devils' allied with Deep Ones really appeals...

First up, my small selection of figures for 7TV - a mix of Copplestone and Crooked Dice.

The Good Guys.

The Bad Guys.

Yep, definitely pretty Bad. But wait 'til you see the next guy...

My recent Black Tree / Harlequin purchases include the obligatory Davros below, plus a small army of Daleks, Ogrons, Cybermen and Autons. A good smattering of 'Doctors' and companions plus a few extras from Crooked Dice and Hasslefree, plus a handful of UNIT troops round out the good guys. Of course, it has to be 1970's UNIT - they have that great 70's 'Action Man' look, carry classic L1A1 SLR rifles and wear the distinctive tan beret with the round UNIT badge. I am thinking of topping up my small Black Tree force with a few Gripping Beast Mo-Fo British soldiers, that have a nice generic look to them and could be used for lots of periods, even from the 1950's to the 80's. A horde of spear armed Deep Ones might stand a chance against them.

"...AND THROUGH THE DALEKS, I SHALL HAVE THAT POWER!" 

As far as other figures go, this can lend itself to a great variety. Rob (GM) has a fair few of the Doctor Who minis already (get painting Rob) and the ZM has loads of Cthulhu monsters. Spy-Fi and pulp figures could also be used (such as pulp types in Pyramid of Mars) especially Artizan. I would think you would only need a handful of UNIT troops, no more than 20 odd. Scenery and terrain can be pretty generic and multi-purpose, one of my favourite things! The time travel aspect opens it up very nicely...

Davros and some mean looking Ogrons.

A veritable horde of Daleks.

Cybermen.

The Minion of Sutekh and some Robot Mummies. Where's Sutekh?

Prof. Kettlewell, the Master and Weng-Chiang.

What next? Lots of painting I guess.

Further thoughts? How about Tintin meets Cthulhu???

Guillermo del Toro's next film? Or not.

Tintin, Snowy and Jolyon Wagg.

Citadel Newsletters 87.

This next selection moves deep into the realms of slotta-based miniatures...

First up is one of the big 'fold out' style of the new releases for Spring 1987. On this one we have a load of Orcs, some rare Paranoia figures, a chariot, a balrog, some Blood Bowl (all the rage again?) and my favourite bit, the Regiments of Renown. I managed to get hold of a load of these, including a few boxes of Bugman's Rangers ("Mhinz Abier - Z'yor Rond"), the Knights of Origo, Harboth and his Black Mountain Boys, the original Menghil Manhide's Dark Elves and the High Elf Cavalry. My mate had a load of the Lizardmen, Mad Mullah Akland's 'Death Commandos, Grom's Goblin Guard, Oreon's Wood Elves and the Lothern Elf City Guard. He also seemed to have countless Chaos Monks, known then as the Dark Disciples of the Red Redemtion. Unfortunately he sold all of these off - wish I had made an offer now...

The next selection is tagged 'July 1987'. This has some great minis on it starting with Dwarf Villagers, another set I wish I had bought. We also get some Gothic Horror figures, some Elric troops, Snotlings, Feudals / Men at Arms, Skeletons, Chaos Dwarves (I hate this concept...) some Skaven, Zoat, Goblins and Chariots. I wouldn't mind some of those Perps for Robs Dredd game.

Last up for this batch is the Summer 1987 Newsletter. Up for grabs here are more fighters, some great Norse Dwarfs, Barbarians, Skeletons, some cannons and bolt throwers, a load of villagers (always useful), Rogue Trooper minis, Goblins and an 'Adventurers Cart' (I gather Otherworld Miniatures will be releasing one at some point). Of most interest to me (at least for the moment anyway - see below) are the set of plastic Daleks and Cybermen. I would love to have got these! £4.95 for the lot too. Probably would cost that for one now...

As for the Daleks and Cybermen, my next project / obsession is the Doctor Who Miniatures Game, so 20 each of them would be fab! I am gradually picking up some Black Tree Design figures for this, usually when they are reduced. I am slowly putting together a nice force for this, when I have some painted I will post some pics.

Well, that's it for this lot. I found a few more of these the other day but have yet to scan them. Hope they are of interest!