Onomatopoeic Expression Of Delight At Soft Furnishings.

I suppose in some ways it was kind of reassuring that, back when Dr Who finally returned to out screens, the first proper new monster was a bit a rubbish. The Autons were a classic we were all familiar with. The Geth were just ghosts and/or zombies. And Whilst the various weirdoes from The End Of The World were at least aliens they were more bystanders than proper, full on MONSTERS.

No, the first proper shot we got was with the Slitheen. They were big and real and actual villainous bad guys. With a 2 part story to roam around in and everything. And whilst perhaps that particular couplet was the highest point of the revival, it really wasn't all that far down the list either. I mean, I'll take a tired and overplayed fart gag over a bloody love ship any day.

One of the things I think they really got right in that story was the design of the aliens. They're distinctive and original and actually a bit creepy. I've always liked them from a purely aesthetic standpoint if nothing else. And luckily for me the world of Doctor Who miniatures is a strange morass of murky trademark infringement and minor but legally binding differences.

Say hello to the big eyed aliens produced by CP Models. Now, whilst they may LOOK quite a lot like the Slitheen I should point out that they're really not. Technically they're Raxacoricofallapatorians.

Of course they need to be from some family or other. And I suppose if I'd painted them orange I could have made them Blathereen. But honestly I haven't watched enough Sarah Jane Adventures to get away with that. So I decided that these boys are all from the Nottheen family. Because I happen to find that funny.

These are actually really nice minis to paint. They come with seperate hands and heads, which does allow for a certain amount of mixing and matching. Once they're assembled painting is actually quick and easy. It's just a question of building up whatever colour you want their flesh to come in and the touching in the eyes and claws. And since they're all NAKED you can bust out the big brushes.

Since I went for green that meant a dark green base coat, and then building up to a lighter tone with highlighting. A wash of green ink, a few more highlights and then bone for the claws inked with sepia. And lo, I had the makings of a criminal gang. But if I was gonna have a gang, I'd need a boss. And there is something I've wanted to do with a Raxacoricofallapatorian ever since day one.

Meet Babyface Nottheen, intergalactic gangster extraordinaire. The great thing here of course, is that the mini used a base is in fact the child version. There's something about the idea of an angry pygmy space mafioso that really appeals to me for some reason.

The real challenge for this piece was altering the hand to enable it to hold the tommy gun. I sawed all the fingers off, filed the stump down a little, and then pinned the severed fingers back on with longish pieces of wire. Once they were attached like this I could freely bend them into place. And let me tell you, it's tricky to work out how to make a hand that doesn't really have a thumb grip anything.

Once I'd got the shape of the hand worked out I could then fill in the bare wire with green stuff to create new fingers. Which actually worked quite well, despite me having no talent whatsover for sculpting. Then I attached the gun, filled in around the handle a little and started giggling to myself. The head was filed down a little and the hat pinned in place. I already had one kicking around my bits box as I'd gotten a couple of hat sprues from Black Cat for another project. Which was handy. To find a tommy gun I turned to ebay and eventually found a weapon sprue manufactured by Reaper. Which was additional expense and delay, but I couldn't really not do it.

So there we have it, the Nottheen gang in all their disreputable glory. I suppose one day I really should figure out the Dr Who miniatures game and see about playing them.