7TV: Doctor Who vs Frankenstein

One of my favourite things about tabletop gaming is that moment when your brain asks, ‘What if...?’

What if Sherlock Holmes investigated Innsmouth? What if Robin Hood robbed the Death Star? What if the Fourth Doctor turned up just as Victor Frankenstein was about to tear a hole through space and time?

Most games would look at you funny, except for glories like A Very British Civil War.

However, 7TV simply says, ‘Sounds like a great episode.’

That freedom is exactly why I've decided to give 7TV a proper outing, and I honestly can't think of a better first game than ‘Doctor Who versus Dr Frankenstein.’ Now, I could have opened proceedings with a default scenario, but I’ve decided to create a bespoke scenario I've called The Rabentor Rift.

What is 7TV?

If you've never come across it before, 7TV is less of a traditional wargame and more of a toolkit for recreating your favourite television shows and films on the tabletop. Rather than building armies around historical periods or tightly balanced factions, you cast your production like a TV episode with heroes, villains, henchmen, monsters, weird gadgets, and ridiculous plot twists.

It actively encourages cinematic storytelling over tournament efficiency, and for me that's a big part of its charm. My wargames interest has significantly moved away from tournament play or even the simple ‘line up and fight’ style of game into a desire for objective based games with strong narratives.

The game is built around ‘Ratings’ rather than points, so instead of worrying whether every unit is mathematically optimal, you're putting together a cast that simply feels right. Every game should end up looking like an episode of television that somehow escaped onto your gaming table.

Which, frankly, sounds much more fun than another perfectly balanced mirror match.

Why Doctor Who vs Frankenstein?

Doctor Who is wonderfully flexible as a narrative setting. The Doctor has fought robots, mummies, Cybermen, dinosaurs, Vikings, vampires, Romans, Daleks and giant maggots (made of bubble wrap of course). Throwing Frankenstein into that bonkers mix barely raises an eyebrow.

The scenario I’ve designed starts in Rabentor, Switzerland in 1820, where Dr Frankenstein believes he's finally discovered the secret of creating life. Unfortunately, he's completely wrong.

The machine he's painstakingly assembled isn't generating life at all. It's tapping into an ancient alien containment device buried beneath the village, slowly forcing open a fracture in space-time.

Cue impossible temporal shenanigans!

The TARDIS materialises.

Out steps the Doctor, Sarah Jane, K9 and a UNIT detachment led by Lieutenant Lethbridge-Stewart, racing to stop history literally coming apart at the seams.

Meanwhile Frankenstein, entirely convinced he's on the verge of conquering death itself, has absolutely no intention of switching the machine off.

It's exactly the sort of glorious crossover that feels right for 7TV.

Building the Cast

One of the nicest surprises during preparation was discovering the 7TV StudiosCasting Agency

Rather than trying to squeeze existing profiles into the characters I wanted, I was able to build completely bespoke cast cards that matched the feel of everyone involved. The 7TV rules include methods to do this, which I used in building these bespoke character sheets. It would be nice if the software did this validation for you, but it’s still a great resource.

I chose MY Doctor (Tom Baker) and gave him some characterful tricks.

Sarah Jane (my wife’s favourite companion, she’s the real Dr Who fan in our household) is included as the capable investigative companion.

K9 brings his usual mix of utility and laser-based problem solving.

UNIT soldiers provide plenty of dependable firepower. Now of course, my soldiers are equipped for 1880, rather than 1820, but that matters not a jot when ‘timeywimey’ nonsense is involved!

Across the table Frankenstein is supported by his Monster, the Bride, stitched-together zombies and a wonderfully unpleasant pair of assistants in Mia Krempe and Igora the Brain Gatherer.

The whole cast came together remarkably quickly, and seeing everyone's personalised cards printed out really helps sell the illusion that this is an actual lost TV serial from somewhere in the multiverse.

Using My Collection

Perhaps the biggest surprise of this project was realising I barely needed to buy anything.

Like many hobbyists, I have a growing collection of terrain that spends most of its life looking decorative on shelves.

The fantasy medieval buildings I scratch-built for the game Guards of Traitor's Toll turned out to be great for representing a secluded Swiss village in 1820. Add some barrels, crates, walls and a graveyard, and Rabentor required no additional effort to construct.

The centrepiece, naturally, is Frankenstein's Engine of Life sitting in the middle of the town, surrounded by scattered objectives representing alien components hidden throughout the village.

It's always satisfying when existing terrain gets to play a completely different role from the one it was originally intended for.

Finally Giving Some Models a Job

Perhaps my favourite part of the preparation has been finding an excuse to use miniatures that were never actually bought for gaming.

We've all done it.

You see a fantastic sculpt, paint it simply because it looks cool, proudly place it in the display cabinet, and then never touch it again.

For most of the models I’m using for this game, these were bought my Dr Who loving wife, who picked them up from Crooked Dice and Bad Squiddo at Vapnartak in York. I painted them for her and they live on our boardgame shelves for most of the time.

For this scenario I’ve raided that display shelf with absolutely no shame whatsoever.

These characters originally painted purely for display are suddenly starring in their own television special, proving that almost any miniature can become useful if you're prepared to write a slightly ridiculous scenario around it.

Honestly, that's one of the most fun parts of 7TV. Stop worrying whether a model belongs to the ‘correct’ faction, just cast them in a starring role.

The Scenario

The battle itself revolves around five objectives spread across the village.

Four represent pieces of ancient alien technology hidden beneath Rabentor. Depending on which side reaches them first, they're either helping stabilise the growing rift or feeding more power into Frankenstein's machine. Only after securing enough of these objectives can the stars finally interact with the Engine of Life itself.

For the Doctor, success means shutting down the alien containment system before history is rewritten.

For Frankenstein, success means triumphantly activating the machine, blissfully unaware that he's about to erase his own village from existence.

It feels wonderfully thematic. The supporting cast race around solving problems while the stars build towards the inevitable final confrontation at the heart of the battlefield. Exactly as a great season finale should.

Roll Camera...

That's probably my favourite thing about this entire project.

Nothing here was designed by chasing the strongest list or the latest competitive meta.

Instead, it all started with a silly idea.

Could Doctor Who fight Frankenstein?

Could I use terrain I already owned?

Could display models finally get their moment in the spotlight?

Could I create something that felt like a forgotten Saturday evening adventure serial?

The answer to all those questions has been a very enthusiastic ‘yes.’

Whether the Doctor successfully seals the temporal fracture or Frankenstein accidentally destroys reality itself, the important thing is that the table will tell a memorable story.

And really, isn't that what great wargaming is all about?

 

Tbc

 

 

Konflikt '47 - USA Showcase

There’s something wonderfully chaotic about the world of Konflikt '47.

It takes the familiar battlefields of World War II and twists them into a diesel-soaked nightmare of giant walkers, experimental weapons, and supernatural horrors.

For me, that blend of history and pulp sci-fi is exactly what makes the game so much fun to collect and paint.

I recently purchased the Konflikt '47 Starter Set that includes the core of an Axis force and a USA force. While I have a German army for Bolt Action, in WWII games I’ve never much been interested in the USA, so it’s an interesting option for me to consider.

In this post, I wanted to showcase my starting USA force, a project that I’ve expanded from the Starter Set models into a 1500pt army. With both this USA company and the Axis force, I decided to focus on specific Konflikt ’47 units rather than bring across my Bolt Action units.

It took me a while to start on the Konflikt ’47 figures as I needed to absorb some of the lore of the setting to decide on a paint scheme. Folk online has a wide variety of takes and interpretations for their colour schemes, and this being a ‘Weird World War II’ setting you are mostly unconstrained by realism. The temptation is of course to stick closely to the late war US uniforms, which is something I’ve not painted before. So I purchased a MiG Ammo US army uniform paint set and got stuck in.

The USA are an organisation that has moved beyond the real-world forces into a Christian Nationalist crusading army, but I didn’t want to bring any overtly religious iconography into the paint scheme. So, I stuck to a realistic olive drab tone across the board. The box art paint schemes include bright ‘red, white, and blue’ patriotic pauldrons, which is something I intended to avoid. However, painting these dark green initially, I changed my mind and went for a slightly more muted but none-the-less ‘star spangled’ approach. I think it was the right decision.

I’ve tried to keep each unit visually cohesive on the table, with olive green predominating. The USA use Rift-tech Tesla weapons, and these appear to be glowing blue. I stuck with painting them in that colour as it contrasts well with the green, and is visually distinct from the green glowing Axis weapons of my other force.

Whether you’re already deep into Konflikt ’47 or just curious about the game, I hope these miniatures provide a little inspiration for your own hobby projects.

Firstly, the group shot, all 1500pts assembled. I’ve yet to play so I’ve no idea if this is a good force in terms of winning games, but I tried to assemble a variety of weirdness to try out!

It consists of three platoons.

Assault Platoon

• Platoon Commander (Firefly)
• 2x Firefly Airbourne Squads (6) with super-SMGs
• 1x Rifle Squad (6) with ATRDs (anti-tank rockets)

Heavy Support Platoon

• Platoon Commander
• 3x HMG Teams

Armoured Walker Platoon

• Grizzly Medium Walker
• Linebacker Jump Walker

Armoured Platoon

• M4A9-T Sherman with Tesla cannon

Here’s the group shot with the whole company assembled so far.

Here is the boss. I’ve yet to name him but he is a Firefly character with a Tesla jetpack and super-SMG. I gave him ‘Guts’ as a skill which seems appropriate for a leader of a US force.

The Fireflies are highly mobile, hard-hitting but fragile core troops for the USA, very much in the mould of the Rocketeer pulp sci-fi character. As you can see here, up close my painting is crude as I go for speed over perfection. I call my painting technique ‘slapdash’. But at arm’s length on the tabletop is does the job.

Rounding out the assault platoon is a small unit of basic infantry. I figure the mobile US forces still need some grunts to hold objectives. I kept these basic but did add some anti-tank rockets in for a bit of extra punch.

For heavy support I went fully into a heavy machinegun deployment as it seems to synch up with the US ‘Arsenal of Freedom’ special army rule that favours rapid fire weapons.

Next is the armoured walker platoon, led by this Grizzly medium walker. This was a Warlord resin kit and was a real pig to assemble. Firstly, Warlord uses highly aggressive mould release for their resin kits, and you must REALLY scrub them clean to get paint to adhere. Even so I missed a few spots! Also, there was a lot of flashing to clean off, and the upper deck part was severely warped. Even with hot water and bending I couldn’t get it to fit and ended up having to chop it into four pieces to get it to fit on piecemeal. These walkers are tall, and so to get them to fit into my storage boxes I left the tope halves separate, using powerful magnets to connect them. It has the bonus that the top halves swivel!

Next it the Linebacker light walker that comes in the Starter Set. This was a very good quality plastic kit so much easier to assemble. Oddly the pilot modelled into the cockpit is super small. While these models are 28mm scale, that pilot was barely scaled for 15mm! I used a 28mm head to upscale it a bit though, which took some trimming and finagling to get it to fit once I’d put the clear plastic back into the canopy. I painted the cockpit full red to represent a red-light soaked fighting compartment which covers any embarrassment.

  

 

Finally the armoured platoon rounds things out with a Sherman Tesla tank. Again, a nice easy plastic kit to assemble, but the Tesla turret is resin, so needed heaps of soap to clean it off again.  Also, the power rig on the back of the turret is metal, making the turret heavily unbalanced to the rear. I’ve kept it unattached so that I can swap out for another turret if desired.

Overall, a fun force to assemble and paint. I’m looking forwards to throwing them at the Axis on the table.

Konflikt '47 - Axis Showcase

There’s something wonderfully chaotic about the world of Konflikt '47.

It takes the familiar battlefields of World War II and twists them into a diesel-soaked nightmare of giant walkers, experimental weapons, and supernatural horrors.

For me, that blend of history and pulp sci-fi is exactly what makes the game so much fun to collect and paint.

I recently purchased the Konflikt '47 Starter Set that includes the core of an Axis force and a USA force. While I have a German army for Bolt Action, in WWII games I’ve never much been interested in the USA, so it’s an interesting option for me to consider.

In this post, I wanted to showcase my starting Axis force, a project that I’ve expanded from the Starter Set models into a 1500pt army. With both this Axis company and the USA force, I decided to focus on specific Konflikt ’47 units rather than bring across my Bolt Action units, although I did fall back on some heavy weapon support teams from that sister game.

It took me a while to start on the Konflikt ’47 figures as I needed to absorb some of the lore of the setting to decide on a paint scheme. Folk online have a wide variety of takes and interpretations for their colour schemes, and this being a ‘Weird World War II’ setting you are mostly unconstrained by realism. The temptation is of course to stick closely to the camouflage patterns of the late war Germans, but I don’t like that pattern and find it a struggle to paint it well. As the Axis are an organisation that has moved beyond the real-world German Third Reich forces and represent a mix of national troops, all under the command of the mysterious ‘Green Vault’, I decided to lean into the obvious ‘bad guy’ colours of grey, black and, as a restrained accent, red. I also decided that they ‘rift-inspired’ commanders would have muted green in their schemes too. So for this force I went with grey vehicles, ‘feldgrau’ (field grey) power armour, and similar feldgrau colours for any infantry. For the Axis glowing sci-fi technology, I fixed on a bright green and it contracts well with the grey and runs with the Green Vault idea.  

I’ve tried to keep each unit visually cohesive on the table, reinforcing the idea of an organised, monolithic army.

Whether you’re already deep into Konflikt ’47 or just curious about the game, I hope these miniatures provide a little inspiration for your own hobby projects.

Firstly, the group shot, all 1500pts assembled. I’ve yet to play so I’ve no idea if this is a good force in terms of winning games, but I tried to assemble a variety of weirdness to try out!

It consists of three platoons.

Assault Platoon

• Stahltruppen platoon commander (rift master)
• 2x Stahltruppen (3) with assault rifles and panzerfausts
• 1x Stahltruppen (1) with 2 LMGs
• 1x Nachtjaeger (4), hideous mutations of man and beast

Heavy Support Platoon

• Platoon commander
• MMG team
• Medium mortar team

Armoured Platoon

• Panther X with Schienenkanone (platoon command vehicle)
• Puma X with Schwerefeld projector
• Vogelspinne (recce walker) with AT gun and autocannon

 

First up, His Nibbs, the overall commander. I’ve yet to name him, but he’s a master of the Rift. Wearing Stahltruppen power armour he’s effectively a walking light tank, immune to most normal small arms fire. I’ve gone with one red pauldron to denote a command figure. He wears a green coat over his armour to denote his membership of the Green Vault.

The Stahltruppen power armour infantry are similarly impressive, able to walk though rifle fire with impunity. This unit are the support team with LMGs, and sport black pauldrons to show their heavy weapon status. Although I modelled these with panzerfausts, I didn’t include the upgrade with this unit.

The Nachtjaeger are hideous mutants, whose DNA have been fused with bats and worse. These are made from some old metal ‘demon’ models I found in one of my ‘bits’ boxes. No idea where they come from, but they seemed appropriate for the unit. They needed some wings though, so I made some leathery skin flaps from sprue goo. It seems to have worked out OK. I have a feeling a unit of four won’t be too useful but it’ll do for a start.

The heavy weapons platoon has been drafted in from my Bolt Action early war German force. I may upgrade them to proper Konflikt ’47 models later but they’ll do for now. 

Finally, the armoured platoon. My Bolt Action armies tend to be light on armour as I prefer early war and infantry heavy forces in WWII gaming. But I figured I’d lean into the late war tank jamboree with some of the interesting sci-fi vehicle variations. 

It Panther-X has a Rift-tech energy based Schienenkanone, which I think has the capability of punching through its target to his others behind. It was a lot of fun to paint, and although I wanted to use transfers to mark it up the Zimmerit surface left few locations to apply the decals!

 

Puma X with Schwerefeld projector was similarly quick, easy and fun to build and paint. I did some crude ‘lightning’ effects on the projector ball. They’re a bit rough up close but look fine on the table.

 

Lastly, the Vogelspinne reconnaissance walker, which was actually the first vehicle I painted, as its in the Starter Set. It was tricky to build and the legs seemed a bit fragile so I based it up to give it a bit of stability.

Overall, its been a fun project to start. I’m hoping to get it to the games table in the next week or two. We’ve played a fair bit of Bolt Action so we’re familiar with how that works. It’ll be interesting to see you the pulp sci-fi rules for Rift technology work to change the game.