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So, last weekend I got a copy of 'Engines of War', the new Doctor Who novel by George Mann, which details an adventure for the 'War Doctor' as played by John Hurt in the run up to the last day of the Last Great Time War (in deference to various other spin-off novels, I feel I should add that other great time wars are available).

It was an enjoyable read although I have to admit I found the overall result rather lacking. It felt that a lot more could have been done with some of the ideas and that it didn't really capitalise on being a *time* war. But that's just my opinion and I'm not going to do a detailed review here.

One thing that did capture my attention however was the idea that the previously mentioned 'Skaro Degradations' were alternate versions of what the Daleks might have been dragged from their respective time lines for use as cannon fodder by the 'prime' Daleks. As I've got a whole folder devoted to alternate Daleks, this is something I can properly get behind. That said . . . only one type of Degradation really sparked my imagination - a three legged, egg-shaped Spider Dalek. Three days hard modelling and, well, the result speaks for itself. I've never been entirely sold on the idea of Spider Daleks - it's always seemed a rush for a cool image that doesn't account for the basic conception of Daleks as *tanks* that will just roll right over anything in their way. However, as a distorted alternate version of the Daleks, I can kind of see it working.

Another type of Dalek mentioned that isn't a Degradation is the 'Temporal Weapons Dalek', which is effectively a SWD with a demat gun instead of a normal socking great cannon. Rather than simply vaporising you, this gun will erase your entire timeline from history, making it so you never existed and leaving only the space where you once were. Nice. The cover of the book just shows a SWD cannon photoshopped on to a Time War pepperpot, but I smoothed the lines out a bit and modelled the cannon more on the Gallifreyan demat gun shown in 'The Invasion of Time'. I'm not yet entirely sold on the result. I think I need to break up the panels on the cannon base a bit more and maybe make the barrel more fussy.

The final new type of Dalek makes up a little cult called the Eternity Circle, whose purview is designing temporal weapons. They built the TWD and they're basically Not Very Nice even for Daleks. And by one of those moments of dumb coincidence that are a gift to the fan artist, they have a blue and silver colour scheme not a million miles off the one I used for my Time War Dalek Time Controller. One swift recolour later and here we are.

Oh, and filling in as an extra Degradation is a recoloured and slightly tweaked Ron Turner Dalek doing its level best to look serious and intimidating.

All of them are likely to go through tweaks before I upload the Orthos, mainly because doing this has made me realise how outdated my Time War model has gotten, especially the dome. Also, I think the EC Dalek and the TWD's badges are scaled too large. Will have to fix that too.

The Daleks belong to the Terry Nation Estate, Doctor Who to the BBC and this particular brand of spider Dalek and the Temporal Weapons Dalek were thought up by George Mann.

Description
So, last weekend I got a copy of 'Engines of War', the new Doctor Who novel by George Mann, which details an adventure for the 'War Doctor' as played by John Hurt in the run up to the last day of the Last Great Time War (in deference to various other spin-off novels, I feel I should add that other great time wars are available).

It was an enjoyable read although I have to admit I found the overall result rather lacking. It felt that a lot more could have been done with some of the ideas and that it didn't really capitalise on being a *time* war. But that's just my opinion and I'm not going to do a detailed review here.

One thing that did capture my attention however was the idea that the previously mentioned 'Skaro Degradations' were alternate versions of what the Daleks might have been dragged from their respective time lines for use as cannon fodder by the 'prime' Daleks. As I've got a whole folder devoted to alternate Daleks, this is something I can properly get behind. That said . . . only one type of Degradation really sparked my imagination - a three legged, egg-shaped Spider Dalek. Three days hard modelling and, well, the result speaks for itself. I've never been entirely sold on the idea of Spider Daleks - it's always seemed a rush for a cool image that doesn't account for the basic conception of Daleks as *tanks* that will just roll right over anything in their way. However, as a distorted alternate version of the Daleks, I can kind of see it working.

Another type of Dalek mentioned that isn't a Degradation is the 'Temporal Weapons Dalek', which is effectively a SWD with a demat gun instead of a normal socking great cannon. Rather than simply vaporising you, this gun will erase your entire timeline from history, making it so you never existed and leaving only the space where you once were. Nice. The cover of the book just shows a SWD cannon photoshopped on to a Time War pepperpot, but I smoothed the lines out a bit and modelled the cannon more on the Gallifreyan demat gun shown in 'The Invasion of Time'. I'm not yet entirely sold on the result. I think I need to break up the panels on the cannon base a bit more and maybe make the barrel more fussy.

The final new type of Dalek makes up a little cult called the Eternity Circle, whose purview is designing temporal weapons. They built the TWD and they're basically Not Very Nice even for Daleks. And by one of those moments of dumb coincidence that are a gift to the fan artist, they have a blue and silver colour scheme not a million miles off the one I used for my Time War Dalek Time Controller. One swift recolour later and here we are.

Oh, and filling in as an extra Degradation is a recoloured and slightly tweaked Ron Turner Dalek doing its level best to look serious and intimidating.

All of them are likely to go through tweaks before I upload the Orthos, mainly because doing this has made me realise how outdated my Time War model has gotten, especially the dome. Also, I think the EC Dalek and the TWD's badges are scaled too large. Will have to fix that too.

The Daleks belong to the Terry Nation Estate, Doctor Who to the BBC and this particular brand of spider Dalek and the Temporal Weapons Dalek were thought up by George Mann.