Big Trouble

I manage to sneak a little bit of time here and there to slap paint on miniatures.

This judge from Warlord/Mongoose is probably the worst of the judge figures from the line.

I apologize to the sculptor if you are reading this, but this was just an awful figure and is the perfect example of Mongoose's willingness to accept just about any sculpt to include in this line, resulting in the variable quality that was a hallmark of their Judge Dredd game.

Straight from the Robot Wars

This big fella is from Dust, published by Fantasy Flight when I bought it.

These come pre-painted in a monochrome green.  I decided to repaint it.

It sat on my desk sort of half-finished for years before I got tired of looking at it there and put it in the 'finished' pile.

Judge needs a bigger gun

Gift for a Fellow Fan

Being a Dredd fan in the U.S. is not always easy...  I am a late fan (since around 2013) and don't subscribe to 2000ad, preferring to read the collected works in graphic novel form.  There is an American publisher of the Complete Case Files, but for nearly all the other releases I rely on ordering from the U.K.

In particular, I've been picking up select copies of the Mega Collection from Hachette, but they are not available for sale in the U.S.

Long story long, I couldn't find an issue of the Mega Collection and asked the 2000ad community if they knew of a source I could order from.  That's when one of the members offered to pick up a copy and send it to me.  This was a very nice offer.

In return for the kindness, I wanted to send something to show I appreciated it and came up on the idea of painting up a Dredd as thanks.

Crowd Control

Sometimes things get out of control in Mega-City One and the citizens get rowdy in massive numbers.

Let's take back control.

This Riot Judge, from Warlord/Mongoose, is carrying a riot foam projector.  Riot foam can be sprayed on crowds, where it then hardens and makes it nearly impossible for them to move.  Easy to handle angry cits when they can't all rush you at once.

This is a decent model, although it seems like one of the older ones of the line.
Foundry also makes a riot foam Judge.  I am considering picking it up, although it is carrying a foam projector that is significantly different from this one, which means it isn't a must-buy for me.

Sometimes you're not interested in making arrests.  Sometimes the situation calls for something deadlier than riot foam, yet also much heavier than a Lawgiver.

Perhaps it is a horde of zombies, or the walls are overflowing with mutie scum from the Cursed Earth...

That's when you'll be looking for the nearest rotary cannon. 

This is another Warlord/Mongoose model, with some nicer sculpting than a lot of the earlier pieces.

With this guy, I tried a less-subtle grey highlighting of the black than I normally do, to try to bring out more detail.  I'm not sure I like it.

MCHiPs

Earlier this year, I posted about finishing up the Banshee from Warlord/Mongoose. 

Looks familiar... yet shinier.

A friend was looking it over and he suggested that I add gloss varnish to the outside, to make it look more like a car's finish, rather than keeping the matt coat that I already had on it.

I can almost see myself  reflected on the hood.

I also figured it was time to getting around to painting the judge that came with the car.

You, over there!

The model is well cast and sculpted, but there are details on it that aren't right for a MC street judge.
The right shoulder pad is not an eagle and the helmet is wrong.

The model will still make a nice addition to my collection.

Together again.

Student Becomes The Master

The Mongoose/Warlord line is hit and miss with sculpting and casting quality.
Some of the models are just so very nice, while others are not so great at all.

I think these provide a good example of the variety.

Judge Tutors are judges that have been badly wounded in the line of duty and have been offered positions at the academy, to teach cadets.
The Tutors were instrumental in overthrowing Chief Judge Cal, as he hadn't hypnotized them into blind obedience the way he did with most of the other judges.

The casting here is average, with some lines.  The sculpting is off.  His anatomy is a mixture of incredibly muscular and also frail.  The pockets on his belt have flaps or not, have buttons or not.  The bionic arm just sort of ends and it's not clear if that is a hand or claw or miscast.  The number of folds in his draping armor goes from four in the front right to a mysterious three once his shoulder is crossed, but this doesn't happen on the left shoulder.  There are other things I think make it not so great.

The female cadet (perhaps America Beeny), on the other hand, is a clean casting and decently sculpted.

My only complaint is that her badge should be a half-badge, but that's passable.

Judge cadets frequently go on patrols with judges to gain experience, or conduct investigations under a judge's tutelage as part of class assignments.

The entire Sector House, thus far.

Undercover Judgers

These Foundry detectives make for decent Wally Squad judges.

Dos por Dos, Manos de Azule

These two Foundry models are of unknown origins and have unknown motivations.  Are they judges, corporate security or mafia hitmen?

Fast and Furious

Got this Judge Dredd Banshee Interceptor car for Christmas.

It is from Warlord/Mongoose, part of their Judge Dredd line.

It's sort of the Judge Dredd version of the Batmobile.

The car is primarily made of resin, with some metal add-on parts.  The wheels and exhaust ports are metal, the rest is resin.

The casting is generally good.  The undercarriage of the car has some problems, but nobody will ever see that.

There were some pieces of flash  that needed to be removed from the body, but it was otherwise not needing cleanup.

He's a Regular Riot

These two Mongoose/Warlord judges are an improvement over the street judge featured previously on this blog.

Riot Judges specialize in riot control (as one might guess).

Smash you Americana-style

This miniature is a much better sculpt than some of the others, closer in quality to the Wargames Foundry Dredd that I have painted up.

The casting quality is on par with what I've come to expect from Warlord, which is to say decent but not great.  This guy had some mold slippage that is still evident in places on the model.

This second model isn't bad, either, although it's got some sculpting oddities.

He's got two lawgivers and looks suitably intimidating.  Some of the uniform parts, such as the badge on his chest, belt pouches and device on his helmet could have better implied detailing, while the guns don't quite match each other (but close enough that it will hardly be noticed.
The sculptor tried to convey musculature under his uniform on his torso, but it ends up looking unnatural.
Not to be too down on this guy, because I don't think he is all that bad looking overall, but I'm also not a big fan of feet resting on things as poses for miniatures.  Here his foot is on a skull of some kind.

All-in-all, a good pair of Justice Department judges.

A Dredd-ful Post Title

I am a recent Judge Dredd fan.  As an American, Dredd was not something I was readily exposed to when  I was younger.  There was the Stallone movie, of course.  I think it's sort of a fun movie, now, but it didn't inspire me to seek out Judge Dredd.

I am Da Law

Then in 2013 I saw Dredd with Karl Urban and that got me interested.  I was already starting to collect miniatures to do a sort of Blade Runner/Neuromancer/Ghost in the Shell sort of thing.  Nothing had quite gelled yet and I watched Dredd on cable one night and instantly got interested.

How is this movie NOT getting a sequel???

I've been reading the collected comics ever since and collecting miniatures for a Dredd setting.

For this first Dredd post it seems only appropriate to include the main guy, himself.

This model is from Wargames Foundry, from their 2000AD line.  It is a "heroic" 28mm miniature, which means it's about 32mm tall and chunky.  That seems appropriate for Judges, especially Dredd.

As you can see, this is a well sculpted miniature.  The eagle on his right shoulder is a little much, but it's not entirely out of line with some of the comic art.  His lawgiver is the older 'MkI' style.

He's based on a 25mm wooden/mdf base.  I used Milliput to smooth out the transition from the wooden base and the integral base and flocked it.

This next Judge is from Mongoose Publishing and Warlord Games.  It's not such a good model.  The sculpting is crude and the features are a mess.  I believe this is an older model from the line, back when Mongoose was making Gangs of Mega-City One rather than the current Judge Dredd Miniatures Game they now produce with Warlord.

Fortunately, this is not the best example to show, there are some really quite good miniatures in the line.
This line has variable quality to it.  Some of it is amateurish, some of it is top quality. 

I based him on a 25mm wooden base as well, this time topping that off with tiled styrene cut to fit.  I removed his slotta-tab so that he could be pinned to the base instead.

Side-by-side, the quality difference stands out.  It looks like the Foundry Dredd was the model for this Judge, the poses are so similar.

This Psi Judge is also a Mongoose/Warlord one.  It's got some issues (stubby fingers and the elbow/knee pads aren't so hot), yet it is a significant improvement over the previous model.
My photography isn't the best and the skin tone is quite dark, so the facial features are not evident in this picture as well as they might be.  I like the way her face is sculpted.
I used a darker yellow on her shoulder pads than I did on the other two Judges.  I am not sure which I like more.

I've painted up a number of models for this project so far and continue to complete more.  In the future I will post more of my finished models and my thoughts on them, as well as terrain and other related stuff.