These three 28mm scale metal miniatures of some X-Commandos are manufactured by “Crooked Dice Game Design Studio” and can be found within the company’s Heroes and Allies product line as SKU: DEAL 72. The 'blister' actually contains four figures "equipped with body armour, Department X badged berets and either Pistol, MP5 SMGs or SLR/FN Rifles."
Having assembled the soldiers by attaching a mix of male/female heads to their torsos courtesy of a little pinning and super-glue, they were each primed "Citadel" Abaddon Black and enthusiastically dry-brushed with "Vallejo" Heavy Charcoal. I then 'picked out' each troopers' hand-weapon using some "Vallejo" Gunmetal, and their shoulder and beret badges with a couple of dollops of White. Both of these areas were later shaded using "Citadel" Nuln Oil.
As I wanted my figures to resemble 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 their aforementioned badges predominantly white, rather than attempt to painstakingly 'sketch in' the red cross upon a blue background which the Department of Extraordinary Affairs uses as their top secret organisation's emblem.
In addition, I changed up the palette on the X-Commandos' uniforms by painting all their hip-holsters and leg straps in "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna, as opposed to the Heavy Charcoal I had used in the past. This arguably gave each soldier a little more contrast than the all-black 'official' colour scheme used by both "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" and their modern-day U.N.I.T. counterparts, even after a "Citadel" Nuln Oil wash. It did mean though that I felt obliged to go back and re-paint the fourth squad member I'd previously pigmented.
Each miniatures' flesh was treated to my usual standard combination of either a "Vallejo" Heavy Skintone layer splashed with "Citadel" Reikland Fleshshade and final highlight on the fingers/cheekbones with (more) "Vallejo Heavy Skintone, or a mixture of "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna with "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade. Lastly, I applied a little "Vallejo" Heavy Red and "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson to both the ladies' lips.
Following the completion of the X-Commandos, I have made some initial progress on one of the company's Federated Security Mutaints in an effort to experiment with the technologically modified minion's pale zombie-like flesh. Plus I've layered, shaded and then 'Zenithal highlighted' my model of N-Rage by "Kitbash Games" so as to test my recently opened "Vallejo" Fluorescent Orange...
I did originally think that these commandoes were from Dr. Who's unit pals, mostly becuase "department X" only rings distant bells in my mind.
I;m pretty sure theses guys could be used for either genre with only afficianadoes of either baulking at the idea,
They look great and the detialing is superb !
Nice job on the commandos, looking really good.
What is that mutaint based on then? Like the contrasting dark grey bits you have done.
Can't wait to see N-Rage done as very interested in the fluorescent paints and how they turn out.
Great work on your Unit trooper Simon, is that all of them completed now ? Great progress on all the others, was never a fan of the mutants, with the lump of gum stuck to their heads, but that's a personal taste
Nice work on the X commando's, they are nice looking figures, should work well as UNIT troopers (though in my day UNIT were always dressed in green 😉
The Fedsec mutant is coming along well,, that is one scary looking woman! Wouldn't want to bump into her in a dark corridor!
I'll be interested to see how you get on with your fluorescent orange experiment too.
Cheers Roger.