We have news both good and… not so good.

The good news is that the miniatures ordered from Heresy Miniatures have arrived, so I have a full complement of Doctors, from the First Doctor in the form of William Hartnell up to the Twelfth Doctor in the form of Peter Capaldi, with the official canon non-numbered Doctor (John Hurt as the War Doctor) also in my grubby little mitts.

Of course, I then realised that I had no suitable glue with which to assemble said figures, but a quick trip to my local DIY store soon solved this issue.

However, as I had decided to re-purpose the Crooked Dice Time Traveller, which I’d previously painted up as my version of the 13th Doctor as the Derek Jacobi version of the Master, seen below facing off against a Rutan;

This left me in a quandary, as I now needed a NEW 13th Doctor, as I think we can all agree that the one we did officially get wasn’t very good…

So, after discussing this with a friend, I decided to take a risk and order both Rowan and Rich Shada figures from the Chronocop range from Tangent Miniatures. I say take a risk as although the 3D renders shown on their site looked good, the actual painted examples of their figures did not fill me with confidence…

Which leads me on to the not so good news… they’re not very good figures.

The detail is very shallow, which means that unless I’m very careful when painting them, quite a bit of the detail will be obscured or lost when painting them. Having examined the miniatures closely, I believe I know what the issue here is.

Those of us who collect, paint and play with 28mm metal miniatures are used to a slight exaggeration in respect of our figures. Generally, features will be slightly bigger and more defined, so a miniature that is “true to life” would look wrong to us, as the features would less defined, the build slimmer, etc.

So, when a miniatures is designed in a digital format, whilst the detail will look great in the digital format, once this is transferred into a physical form, this can result in shallow details, which are a pain in the arse to paint properly.

If you combine this with the assumed fact (based on the striation marks on the figures I received) that the digital models for these figures were 3d printed on a plastic reel printer and not a resin printer, then used as the base for creating a mold to be cast in metal, you can see the issue can be compounded. This then results in a figure that not only has shallow detail, but also faint horizontal lines on the figure itself.

I can possibly salvage these figures, but this will take some work and when you’ve paid £5.00 a piece, you expect to be able to just give the miniature a quick clean, base it and then start throwing paint around.

So, when purchasing online from a manufacturer whose only images of the figures you are buying are digital renders, caveat emptor – let the buyer beware. From now on, unless I can see an photo of the actual figure I’ll be getting, whether resin or metal, my money will stay firmly in my pocket

Thankfully, the Time Rider miniature from the same company was sculpted old school by Steve Saleh and looks exactly as it was shown, so at least I have a new version of the Master to bedevil my version of the 13th Doctor.

My current plan is to potentially convert the below metal miniature, by removing the hat, giving him a new hairstyle and converting the portfire he’s holding into a sonic screwdriver…

The advantage of this is two-fold – firstly, it’s a 28mm metal miniature with plenty of character and attitude AND this Front Rank Figurines miniature from Gripping Beast is only £1.60.

And this Doctor has style…

Time is a slippery bugger. You look at the “spare” time you believe you have available and plan the many things you wish to achieve, only to have this time slip between your fingers, as various other tasks rear their heads.

Which is why I was not particularly active hobby-wise in the latter half of last year. Yes, I may have managed to complete my first novel, publication of which is still pending, as the literary agents I have contacted have not yet seen fit to respond, but that was about it really.

However, I do intend to at least paint some figures this year and have reviewed my Tray of Shame and replaced those figures that were gathering dust in there with other miniatures, as I felt it was about time the remaining Doctors that I have got a lick of paint, especially as Doctor Who has now returned to our screens in a more palatable version than under Chris Chibnall…

Unfortunately, I am still missing the 9th, 10th and War Doctor, as although these were ordered as a Christmas gift for myself from Heresy Miniatures (as the Cease and Desist notice issued by Warlord Games when they got the licence to produce their frankly underwhelming line of miniatures – bar the plastic Daleks, which were cool – has seemingly expired), these have not yet arrived, due to a resin explosion at Heresy, which has put his production behind.

But what if you’re new to Doctor Who miniature gaming and want to foil the dastardly plans of the many enemies the Doctor has racked up in his 60+ years of time-travelling shenanigans? Where do you go to get the necessary figures to recreate your favourite adventures? Read on, and I will tell you…

Your first port of call would naturally be Black Tree Design, whose Doctor Who range of figures covers the 1st to 8th Doctor, along with the myriad enemies and companions that appeared during the classic era of Doctor Who. The average cost of these 28mm figures is around £2.50 each, so they do represent good value, although some of the sculpts are a little lacking.

Next is Crooked Dice, as Karl Perroton who runs this company has described Doctor Who as his first love and produces miniatures that represent the more recent Doctors and companions. Currently, you can get the 3rd, 4th, 8th, War, 11th and 12th Doctors, with the recent additions of the 14th AND 15th Doctor, although the 14th is David Tennant again, so could be used as the 10th and the version of the newest incarnation of the Doctor portrayed by Ncuti Gatwa is in one specific outfit from an upcoming episode, as it has been hinted that this version of the Doctor will change outfits rather frequently. Figures are £5.00 each, so a little more expensive than Black Tree’s, but are cleaner sculpts, although the sculpt of Rory below does look like Jay from The In-Betweeners…

Heresy Miniatures have now reinstated their Doctor Who inspired figures, so you can get several variations of the 10th and 11th Doctor from them, along with probably the best versions of both Amy Pond and the War Doctor I’ve seen. Their not-Sontarans are also rather good. Price per figure ranges between £4.00 to £5.00, but they’ve currently got a sale on, so you you can get at least 25% off the RRP.

Now, if you want to properly represent a large force of Daleks, Cybermen, Silurians, Sea Devils or Autons, you could just buy multiples of the metals miniatures from Black Tree, but a cheaper option may be to take advantage of those 3D printed resin figures available from Twisted Pinnacle on Etsy. Your get 10 figures for £12.50, so this works out as £1.25 a figure. I’ve not yet purchased any of these, so can’t advise on how robust the figures are, although some feedback on the site does suggest that the Daleks plunger arms don’t always reach the customers intact, so bear that in mind if you choose this option.

Finally, we have Tangent Miniatures, who have some rather unique Doctor Who inspired figures lurking in their Chronocops range. Should you want a figure to represent the alternate incarnations of the 9th Doctor as seen in “Scream of the Shalka” (Richard E. Grant) or “The Curse of Fatal Death” (Rowan Atkinson), as well as another version of the 8th Doctor, this is the place to go. These ARE metal miniatures and are £5.00 each. They also do a range called “Doctor What”, which are more cartoony versions of nearly all the iterations of the Doctor and is currently the only place I know where you can get a version of Jodie Whitaker’s 13th Doctor, should you actually want one. From their Facebook page, there do appear to be other Doctor Who inspired figures in the pipeline, but these have yet to materialise (pun intended) on their website.

So, there you have it, a complete guide to the Doctor Who inspired figures that are readily available of the Internet. There are a few characters that are not yet available, but I have several figures in mind that will make good proxies, which a future post will highlight.

I will finish off my first post of 2024 by wishing all my readers a Happy New Year. Or rather, a Happy Who Year…

I’ll get me coat…