Doctor Who Companions: Nyssa and Romana I

Continuing the work on Will's Doctor Who collection...

These two are characters come from late in the 4th Doctor's run. Nyssa and Romana I.

Romana (I) was a female Time Lord who travelled with the Doctor for a few years. She was played by two actresses: Mary Tamm (Romana I) wanted to have a tough woman as a counterpart to the Doctor. However, most of her stories made her a damsel in distress. She was later replaced by Lalla Ward (Romana II) who played the character lightheartedly giving Romana a playful aspect. Romana is one of the characters many fans are hoping will return to the show.

Nyssa was a scientist from another planet who was to be a one-off character but who enventually stayed on as a companion. I will admit to prefer Romana to her as she did was drowned in that massive amount of companions (sounds familiar?). Unlike the modern "Fam," Nyssa's background and training as a scientist gave her something different (until the much-reviled Audric showed up).

I did not realize how uneven her eyes were until I was done... :(

Doctor Who Minis: The 4th Doctor

After finishing work on Will's Tau army, he handed me some "surprise minis". When he pulled out that white USPS (US Postal Service) box, I was a little wary. What was he going to pull out there? It took only a second for me to recognize the models.

Is there someone more Iconic as Doctor Who than Tom Baker as the 4th Doctor? Okay, okay, David Tennant. But is there anyone else? Okay, I can give you Matt Smith... But is there anyone else? No. No, there isn't. His big floppy hat, the scarf, the jacket, the smile, the jelly babie.

This miniature from Black Tree is awesome and capture the energy of the character perfectly. If I am truly honest, I dreaded painting him because I was afraid of not doing a good job. But the end result looks awesome. The scarf came out great and full of movement. Really proud of this guys

[Tau] Will's Commander

These Tau are a commission I did for my friend Will. Last I painted tau was back around 2002 or 2003 when I lived in Quebec City.

The commander of a Tau army, if they have a crisis suit immediately made me think of a Gundam. When Will gave me the "80s cartoon" I immediately knew what his commander would look it. It would be a Gundam.

I took pictures with an RX-78 I bought in Japan. The final work is much to my liking. I really liked it.

I put my old '03 commander... Will definitely got the best of this one!

[Tau] Will's Shadow Commander

These Tau are a commission I did for my friend Will. Last I painted tau was back around 2002 or 2003 when I lived in Quebec City.

This is a stealth suit commander. I chose to paint him in a muted version of all the other stealth suits. The colors are very muted with the cream (white) serving as an accent. I never saw this model before and really liked it, the dynamism make it exciting while not having a million different trinket hanging everywhere. I think this guy is my favorite of these new Tau models.

[Tau] Will's Heavy XV-88 Suits

These Tau are a commission I did for my friend Will. Last I painted tau was back around 2002 or 2003 when I lived in Quebec City.

Now when Will gave me that whole army, he told me he wanted a color palette based on the classic cartoons like Mazinger.

As I looked at these guys, I kept thinking these guys I thought the first batch looked like a trio of guitarists, like Iron Maiden... After chasing away that idea from my mind, I decided to paint them using a blue base roughly inspired by the GMs from Gundam. The end result was much bluer, but they look cool.

The other group with the missile-launcher arms were painted in green, using the Zaku from Gundam (one of my favorite Mobile Suit of all time). The two are posed next to a Zaku I bought in Japan in 1998.

[Tau] Will's Stealth Suits

These Tau are a commission I did for my friend Will. Last I painted tau was back around 2002 or 2003 when I lived in Quebec City.

The Stealth Suits are always some of the coolest models in the Tau army. They remind me more than a little of the elementals from Battletech, units I always thought were interesting.

I painted the two units using different "cammo": one is a more typical green and the other follows the marine theme I used on many other models.

Finally, my original conversions for stealth suits. Although the painting not great... I still love this conversion... The pulse rifle used to make "wings" and large cannons.

[Tau] Will's Crisis Suits

These Tau are a commission I did for my friend Will. Last I painted tau was back around 2002 or 2003 when I lived in Quebec City.

These guys were painted by using some of Gundam's GM mobile suits for the Earth Government, with whites and reds. The scheme formed a sort of alien camouflage that I really enjoy. These were fun to paint.

After the suits, I put some of my '03 Tau. The difference is mind boggling.

[Tau] Will's Devilfish

These Tau are a commission I did for my friend Will. Last I painted tau was back around 2002 or 2003 when I lived in Quebec City.

A devilfish! I will admit I has NO idea what color I wanted for it. So I left it in the back as I worked on the other models.

It was only later that I decided to use a mix of the colors of all the infantry units, so he could chose which unit would get the transport. The end result is a ecclectic mix that works.

I added a picture of my 2003 devilfish at the end for comparison. My style has definitely improved with time.

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[Tau] Will's Breachers

These Tau are a commission I did for my friend Will. Last I painted tau was back around 2002 or 2003 when I lived in Quebec City.

Now this is a unit I never knew about... Breachers. They are fire warriors with carbines. Nothing overly exciting as a painter. Different helmets, bah.

Now one thing that upped the game was that Will added these gun blast from GF9. This was something different and exciting. My original idea when I got these minis was to paint a bluish fire.

I decided to go with a "marine" theme and paint these in blue/dark blue with red and white highlights. As I selected ith blue scheme, I had to change my direction for the blast and go with a regular yellow/red/black flame.

The blasts made gave the unit a "blast" of color (see the pun there?) that made them fun to paint as a unique unit.

[Tau] Will's Drone Army

These Tau are a commission I did for my friend Will. Last I painted tau was back around 2002 or 2003 when I lived in Quebec City.

A collection of drones! Each drone is different on purpose so they can be identified and recognized.

I put my own drone, which were pretty monochrome...

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[Tau] Will's Fire Warriors

These Tau are a commission I did for my friend Will. Last I painted tau was back around 2002 or 2003 when I lived in Quebec City.

The basis of every army is its infantry. I often joke that the Tau Empire was the only empire that was won by retreating. Their fluff is cooler than the implementation.

For this unit, I chose a fairly dull and simple color scheme: shades of green with a light green. Highlights were made with red and white. I made them have a dirty and grimy appearand for their weapons. The result is pretty effective.

With them here is a commander figure that gets attacked to the unit. For added contrast, I made him cleaner, less grimy that the troopers.