"I Will Prepare An Attack Squad."

"None of the humans can guess our true purpose."

This 32mm scale metal miniature of a Sontaran is sold by “Warlord Games” and can be purchased as part of the Nottingham-based company’s "Sontaran Squad" five-figure boxed set. Resplendent in the blue-armour costume redesigned by Neill Gorton this latest incarnation of the “militaristic clones” made his first appearance in the April 2008 BBC television story "The Sontaran Stratagem".

Initially primed with a double coat of "Vallejo" Black, the bulbous-headed humanoid had his battle armour, belt and helmet treated to a layer of Gunmetal Blue before having them shaded in "Citadel" Nuln Oil. These areas were then dry-brushed with (more) "Vallejo" Gunmetal Blue for as long as it took for the metallic Model Colour paint to provide the sculpt’s ridges with a discernible silver shine.

"Doctor Who: Exterminate!" WIPs - These four Sontarans are already half-way finished

The Sontaran’s space suit was pigmented using “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey, and then washed with some watered-down “Citadel” Drakenhof Nightshade. As a final step (or three) I subsequently tidied up the “Vallejo” Black base coat on warrior’s large laser-rifle before carefully dry-brushing it with Heavy Charcoal, and darkened the eye slits on the alien’s helmet with a tad more Black…

Having finished this figure I now have enough models (posed holding their firearms low-down in front of them) to utilise the “Sontaran Bodyguards” Recruitment Card on my “Doctor Who: Exterminate!” Battlefield, and need only paint one last diminutive extra-terrestrial warrior to complete a functional Sontaran Faction under the command of Staal ‘The Undefeated’. However, ideally I’d like to play some larger games against my significant forces of Daleks, Cybermen, Zygons and Sea Devils, so plan to paint four more of the clones in a single batch and therefore be able to deploy two three-miniature strong “Sontaran Patrol” units, alongside the General and his bodyguards, as part of a formidable four Recruitment Card sized Faction whenever a scenario permits it.

"Doctor Who: Into The Time Vortex" WIPs - A Cyberman, a defeated Dalek and the Cyber Leader

Interestingly, these'll probably be the last of my "Warlord Games" Sontarans which I'll be undercoating using "Vallejo" Black, as I think I'm missing an opportunity to paint them up even quicker by simply applying Heavy Bluegrey over the entire figure straight from the start. In addition, I've taken the time to pick out these warriors' black belt communicators, rather than leave them "Vallejo" Gunmetal Blue as I've done in the past.

Lastly, I making some significant headway with the six Cybermen models I own from "The Tomb Of The Cybermen" boxed set, and now just need to give them a dry-brush of "Citadel" Ironbreaker before settling down so as to 'pick out' all their piping. I have also begun finishing off a handful of partially-parted Daleks I have had hanging around my painting table for a while now, including a heavily damaged drone objective marker.