"Come On, Look Lively."

"Up the pace, go on. We haven't got all day now."

This 28mm scale metal miniature of a female X Commando is manufactured by “Crooked Dice Game Design Studio” and are part of the company’s Heroes and Allies product line. "Lead by the flamboyant Doctor Hugo Strange," the pistol carrying member of Department X is one of many military specialists "tasked with protecting Britain from inter-dimensional, otherworldly and plain strange threats."

Having assembled the soldier by attaching her head to the torso courtesy of a little pinning and super-glue, she was primed "Citadel" Abaddon Black and enthusiastically dry-brushed with "Vallejo" Heavy Charcoal. I then 'picked out her hand-weapon using some "Citadel" Ironbreaker, her shoulder and beret badge with a couple of dollops of "Vallejo" Dead White, and her hip-holster in Heavy Charcoal. All of these areas were later shaded using "Citadel" Nuln Oil.

"It's not a person, damn it, it's a Borg!"

As I wanted my figure to proxy the U.N.I.T. troopers depicted during the April 2008 Doctor Who television story "The Sontaran Stratagem", I shied away from leaving the Commando's headware all-black and instead pigmented it using a combination of "Vallejo" Heavy Red and "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson. I also left her badges predominantly white, rather than 'draw in' the red cross upon blue background which the Department of Extraordinary Affairs use as their top secret organisation's emblem.

I painted the miniature's flesh using my standard technique of a "Vallejo" Heavy Skintone base layer, a splash of "Citadel" Reikland Fleshshade, and finally a highlight on the fingers and cheekbones of (more) "Vallejo Heavy Skintone. Lastly, I applied some "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna and "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade to the soldier's hair, as well as a little "Vallejo" Heavy Red and "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson to the lady's lips.

"Wizkids" WIPs - An Abominable Snowman, Black Canary and Proteus

Besides finishing the first of my Department X combatants, I have also completed the last two Borg drones I own by “Modiphius Entertainment”. These well-detailed resin figures had the same palette applied to them as the rest of my Borg Collective, and takes my cybernetic extra-terrestrial tally up to twenty two, including a Borg Queen and Locutus of Borg...

Long-time suffering readers of this blog will know that around about this time of year I usually apply to enter the Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, and having successfully done so, I am once again beginning to prime a plethora of models for the event. Unlike my previous attempts though, I thought I'd try to use the opportunity to focus upon a particular backlog of figures I'm struggling with, so resultantly have started undercoating a number of "Heroclix" miniatures by "Wizkids".