From SimonM: Silurians by "Black Tree Design" + Children's Books Bonus (40 points)

These four 28mm scale metal reptilian humanoids are manufactured by “Black Tree Design", and can be purchased as Code DW308 Silurian from their "Doctor Who" miniatures range. "Generally a peaceful race", these Homo reptilia first appeared in Malcolm Hulke's January 1970 BBC Television story "Doctor Who And The Silurians".

Quite embarrassingly these "three-eyed land-dwellers" were actually bought from the Penzance-based manufacturer way back in July 2016, and were due to be part of a much larger Homo Reptilia force I started assembling some three years later for a "Doctor Who" aliens/monsters galactic conquest campaign using some homemade rules.

Disappointingly though, these particular models were never properly completed, and after so many years of being jostled together in a drawer, their original partial-paintjob was barely visible in places. As a result, I thought I'd re-start them from scratch and resultantly submit into this year's AHPC.

All of the miniatures were (re)primed with "Vallejo" Heavy Brown, heavily washed with "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade and dry-brushed with (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Brown. They were then treated to some strategically-placed spots of "Citadel" Biel-Tan Green in and around their heads, necks and hands, before being given a second, lighter dry-brush of (even more) "Vallejo" Heavy Brown.

The quartet's claws, which were somewhat difficult to 'pick out' at times due to some occasional miscasting in these areas, were given a coat of "Two Thin Coats" White Star and subsequently dirtied up with a generous splosh of "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade. Lastly, their 'third eye' was spotted with "Vallejo" Heavy Red and later shaded using a dollop of "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson.

Back when I was first starting to get into "Doctor Who", the only way I could 'catch-up' with Tom Baker's predecessors was to read the story novelisations by "Target Books". One such book was "Doctor Who and the Cave-Monsters", which sported a marvellous cover illustration by Chris Achilleos of the Third Doctor, a terrifying Tyrannosaurs Rex and a lone Silurian. Published in 1974, this book had a particular impact upon me as a child as it also included some wonderful black & white interior sketches of the Silurians by Achilleos too.

As a result I thought it would make an excellent subject for my visit to the Children's Books area in the Challenge Library.

Four x 28mm scale foot figure = 20 Points

Children's Books Bonus = 20 Points

Total = 40 Points

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Simon and the Silurians. Hmm. You know, that would be an excellent band name...

Seriously, great work on these venerable Doctor Who monsters, Simon. I particularly like your use of green in the recesses. I really enjoyed reading about the young Simon catching up on Doctor Who lore by reading old novelisations. That's very cool. I could see that particular book being quite scary, but then again all of us as kids loved this sort of thing (though our parents would have flipped if the knew some of the stuff we got up to). 

Great work!

- Curt