THE LAP OF HONOUR - PART ONE

A bit of background. I’ve been making these batches of monsters, per Doctor, for years now; starting with Sylv in 2014 and finishing with Troughton in late 2019. The plan was always to finish with a ‘lap of honour’ - a few from all the Doctors to round things off, so I started on that during lockdown.

How has it taken this long? Partly real life - work upheaval, deaths in the family, partly other customising commitments (commissions). I also took time out half way through to do a Jodie batch. But mainly because every time I was near done, I’d think of another few customs to bung on the list! In the end, I had to draw a line - there are still a few I’m planning, but I’ll tackle those down the line.

I’ve also done a wedge of human customs featuring printed heads from Etsy designers but it never feels quite right tooting my horn about those as my work. I’ll still post those pics, but separately and mentioned as such, as they still involved a bit of work sorting the bodies.

The aim was to complete a few customs per Doctor (barring Jodie, whose run I tackled midway through this process anyway). So in no particular order…

The Seventh Doctor

It feels appropriate to start here - kitbashing McCoy monsters was what started me customising all those years back. And given Character Options haven’t made much of a dent in the era since, there was still plenty of unfinished business.

The Tetrap was the first figure I ever attempted - i was happy with the head (which I’ve casted a copy from here) but not much else. So I always planned a new stab at it. Body is the Tennant Cyberman, which has good arm articulation, allowing for the addition of wings, which my original sorely lacked.

This happened almost by accident - I bought a printed Mel head, which came with a bonus Chimeron baby. So I decided to make an adult to babysit her! Base is Captain Jack, with everything else sculpted over. Shiny gloss finish as per the screen costume…

This on the other hand was always on the list - it’s a ridiculous design, but I always like Who when it swings for the fences! 

I stopped short of designing all 3, but I thought I needed a God of Ragnarok. The skirt base is a solid piece - putty sculpted around a foil and tape core. The upper half is an Axon male, heavily sculpted over. I had the figure done years ago, but kept putting off the faff of building his seat - this is built from bits of lego, sculpted over and textured.

I don’t normally like designing human faces - the uncanny valley is hard to get past. But with a character like this, I decided the face paint would do a lot of the work for me, and that it would be worth trying. Base figure is a Cyber android - the right angle hand is actually really useful for the Chief Clown’s flourish. Head comes from McCoy with the mouth area resculpted - I think the white paint helps sell it well enough, but I’m not sure I’d have got away with it in flesh tones.

I’d done a normal and Ancient Haemovore the first time round, but I was always disappointed not to have tackled the more monstrous version of the standard version, so it’s been on the list for a while. Body was a Scarecrow, with tunic details and head sculpted over. I now have a decent trio, which will probably hold me (unless I decide to make the lady Haemovore). I also took the opportunity to rework the Ancient One’s head a bit, as the original was showing its age somewhat.

 A few bonus customs with head (and pet) parts purchased as 3D prints, although I did mod the Mel head somewhat. 

 And finally, a revised ‘everything in my collection’ shot for the McCoy era… 

The Fifth Doctor

Next up is terms of figures originally tackled, the Fifth Doctor.

This was the first ‘Lap of honour ‘ figure I tackled, way back in lockdown. It’s a goofy looking dragon, but there’s actually a lot of nice work in that costume, so it’s a shame it didn’t work better. Figure is a Cyberman, with lots of additional sculpting - the head was built up with parts from a model dinosaur kit. Most of the work went into the ‘cape’ - it’s a separate piece, made from strips of plasticard taped into shape and then sculpted over. It sits on his shoulders quite nicely, so I’ve never bothered glueing it on…

The Ergon is another design that looks quite good in photos, but then falls apart when you see it wobbling round the screen in action. I forget the base figure used - a standard male, as he didn’t need any special articulation.

This was a fairly late addition to the ranks - it’s a great looking costume, but I think the amount of work put me off… The base is a Nemesis Cyberman, mainly for the big cricket gloves. Body details sculpted on (in mind-numbing detail) with some of the detailing made from thin strips of plastic glued into place.

I’d made a Tractator back in the day, but it was another one I wanted to take another swing at, with slightly more heft and more streamlined articulation.

A few more humanoid characters using 3D printed heads (nice to have some companions for Davison)

And the newly enhanced group shot…

The Tenth Doctor

I didn’t tackle many Tennant era customs the first time around, as Character had done such a decent job tackling the ranks - just a Santa, Cybershade and Tritovore. But there were still a few gaps that needed filling… 

Chantho was a simple enough job - a Martha figure with slightly elongated jacket, and alien head details sculpted on top - the most fiddly bit was adding the little extra mandibles.  

The Abzorbaloff was created for a custom competition (no idea how it would have placed, as there was seemingly no winner announced!). So I wanted to add a few extra touches. The base body was, appropriately, a Slitheen, with a load of bulk sanded off and some height taken out of the legs. Head was a Hartnell, heavily sculpted over.

I also created an alt head with tongue sticking out (I’m less happy with that one), and a removable Ursula head to show off his absorbing abilities!

Huge Tennant collection pic here - not comprehensive, as I didn’t pick up every single figure from the era. I also seem to have customised my Martha without replacing her, so will have to pick up a spare. And I’ve forgotten to include the Wasp. I’ll amend this when I get a moment…

The Second Doctor

Going way back to the 60s… I tackled a load of Troughton figures the first time out, but with such a monster heavy era, there’d always be more to do.

I love the Chameleon design - it’s really frustrating we never get to see it in motion, but the photos that survive are excellent. This was a simple enough sculpt job, with the only complication being a lack of colour reference material - I ended up using the colour scheme from the animation, if not the design.

A quick edit to add some variety to the Martian ranks - extra bulk sculpted over the existing noggin.

I enjoyed making the White Robot first time around, so his retro stablemate was an obvious choice. In this case, the screen version helped out by eliminating elbow and knee joints from the costume (though I kept the knee joints on mine, sculpted over as much as possible.

A few more print-enhanced humans… 

And a bulked out Troughton collection.

The Sixth Doctor

And finally for this set, back to the 80s for the Colin Baker era. I feel I hit most of the obvious choices the first time around, so it was only a question of mopping up.

This was a simple job - obvious resculpt of the head section, though I did also add a bit of heft round his midriff to match the TV version’s look!

The other missing link was a Mogarian. Base was an Axon male, with the puffy overalls and helmet sculpted over. Trickiest bit was probably picking the various metallic shades for different parts of his outfit.

Valeyard custom, with 3D print head and Timelord figure base (as done a million times elsewhere!)

And a complete Colin collection. I hung onto my original Stike custom, as I think the officially released one works just as well as Varl.

More to come, hopefully very soon!