The Four Doctors

My wife and I are big fans of Doctor Who. Like many Americans her 'first Doctor' was the Fourth, played by the great Tom Baker. I go back slightly earlier to the end of the First Doctor in William Hartnell's tenure. We have a number of 28mm figures of the Doctors along with some of the Companions, but lacked four of the Doctor's incarnations along with two familiar recurring characters.

This lack has now been rectified.

From l-r, First, Second, Fifth and Seventh Doctor. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart keeps a wary eye on the sneering Master.

These are Black Tree Designs sculpts. I took advantage of their winter sale to order the four missing Doctors, along with the formidable Brigadier and the dangerous Master. Black Tree's excellent service saw my order taken on Wednesday to arrive on Saturday. Good stuff!

The castings are clean and crisp, with little flash. The sculptor did an excellent job of capturing the faces, from Hartnell's cunning smirk through Troughton's frown, Davidson's cavalier charm and McCoy's inquistiveness. The Brigadier is the essence of Nicholas Courtney's military alter-ego. The Master is perhaps the weakest rendition, looking more like a vampire than Roger Delgado or Anthony Ainley.

I'll clean off what little flash there is, remove the Slotta bases (which I don't like) and give them all a good soak before painting. Once done I'll glue them to bases of clear plastic.

Just before Christmas I took the plunge and ordered the 15mm Romano-British starter army from Splintered Light Miniatures along with a set of twelve villagers. All in all, a busy start to a new painting year.