Merry Christmas Creeps!

Merry Christmas to all citizens of Mega-City One!

This project should kick on in the new year as Mongoose keep posting me goodies. Four Rookie Judges and Judge Dekker are currently half painted on the workbench and the fatties are being stuck together...

Female Wally Squad Judge...

I've had this miniature sat around unpainted for a number of years now, IIRC she is a Shia Khan Infiltrator from Alternative Armies.

Initially I thought she would make an ideal model for The Stainless Steel Rat's beautiful psychopath Angelina but I was never quite happy with the face so decided she could do duty as a Wally Squad undercover Judge (or bodyguard or generic female ganger with gun).


I slightly converted the figure by adding a miniskirt, the original miniature as skin tight trousers but that was about it, aside from removing the integral base and mounting it on a resin industrial one.

I tried the keep the colours quite bright in keeping with the background and this provides a good contrast to the grubby base. I especially enjoyed painting the hair pink!

Next on the painting table are some Judges, I just need to do some research into getting a good effect on the metallics...

Marauder!

With my thrill levels of anticipation rising pending the arrival of my first Kickstarter miniatures I decided to re-visit some old 2000AD progs and having re-read the Marauder series that appeared in 2009 I decided that I had to have a Maruader model, even if Mongoose didn't produce one (and given the character's sole series 12 episode run are unlikely to).

If you are unfamiliar with Marauder, it is the story of orphaned Danny Falcone who is expelled from the Academy of Law in 2134AD and returns to Sector 13 to wreak vengeance on the corrupt Judges who killed his mother.

Equipped with a unique looking Hellbender Armour suit with stealth technology and an array of weapons, Falcone is certainly a distinctive looking character.

To produce the model I took a Heroclix DC Super-Adaptoid, removed the click base, smoothed the facial detail and added some of the raised detail using Liquid Green Stuff before painting.

Painting was starightforward using Sephia wash over red before addng the green line details. I think I probably spent more time on the industrial base which I picked up of eBay a couple of years back.

Overall I'm quite pleased with the result, now to devise some stats and rules for him...

Mega Bases...

I was looking for some inspiration for paint schemes for some resin industrial bases I have mounted my first figures on and came across this excellent DIY piece which I thought I'd share.

Whilst these bases have designed for 40K miniatures, the idea is simple enough to use in Mega-City One...

A Big Box Arrives...

Having been working away in Euro-Cit over the last few days I came back to find the postie had delivered a box box of goodies from Mongoose. Inside were a six of the boxsets and all the singles I ordered under the Kickstarter. Now I have to find some time to paint it all! :-)

Minty The Movie!

It seems that not only has Mega-City's greatest lawman had his own film this year but also Long Walk veteran Judge Minty (yes, him of charity fame below). There are some limited cinema showings on now, so if you get the chance check it out and report back. The trailer looks pretty good...

Bringing Charity To The Cursed Earth...

You may have seen that the Frother's UK 4th Charity Thingy has an excellent model of Judge Minty (a judge who took The Long Walk early in 2000AD history) as its donation reward.

To get hold of this excellent model you need to make a donation through Just Giving to either:

MS Society or Cancer Research.

Then send an e-mail to charitymini(at)gmail(dot)com with;:

1. Your Name
2. The address you want the mini sent to
3. Your Just Giving reference number
4. Your preference as to Metal or Trollcast or both

More details can be found here.

Judge Dredd RPG

As part of the Kickstarter, Mongoose said they'd include a PDF edition of their Judge Dredd RPG which has just turned up. At 274 pages I may be gone some time... :-)

Judge Dredd Year One: City Fathers

I've just finished reading Judge Dredd Year One: City Fathers an e-book novella written by Matthew Smith and published by 2000AD Books. 

The first is a new series of stories set in 2080AD, Dredd's first year as a Judge, it was an entertaining read, notably noir in places. The plot starts off as a seemingly straight forward case of investigating the gang murder of a Justice Department informant before expanding into something more sinister as the bodycount starts to rise. 

Overall it was a good read, a couple of quirks, notably the portrayal of clone brother Rico but nothing that can't be lived with.

From a gaming point of view that isn't a great deal in it, though a raid on a known narcotics club and the end act at the spaceport have potential. 

The raid to capture a suspect whilst confronted by random gangers who may or may not take on the Judges could prove unpredictable fun, whilst trying to capture the perps at a busy spaceport before they escape could make for a great time limited scenario.

The Toughest Lawman...

When 2000AD was launched it 1977 I was eleven years old - prime target age for this new SF comic. Unfortunately an over zealous mother threw out my original comics but I still recall some of the early stories that provided much enjoyment such as Flesh, Rollerball, M.A.C.H. 1, Robo-Hunter and of course, Judge Dredd. I still remember being captivated by the Cursed Earth storyline and waiting eagerly for each new prog to arrive at the corner shop to find out how Dredd, Spikes and, of course, Tweak were.

Despite wargaming many periods and genres and even collecting a few of the Citadel Judge Dredd miniatures in the eighties my SF interests drifted away from the kind of stories in 2000AD to that in RPG's like Traveller 2300AD and books by William Gibson, my SF wargaming owed more to Hammer's Slammers and Neuromancer, than "the Galaxy's Greatest Comic".

However, my enjoyment of Dredd and some of the other 2000AD characters has endured and over the decades I have picked up the odd graphic novel which has somewhat expanded into a rather large collection, albeit with some large storyline gaps. To fill the gaps I have started collecting the excellent Case Files series but still have yet to purchase half of those available.

So what has this to do with wargaming?

Well I fell hook, line and sinker for the Mongoose Kickstarter and pledged in at the Council of Judges level. I may now be some $300 lighter in the wallet but I will have a hell of a lot of Judge Dredd related miniature goodies coming my way over the next few months.

I am determined that these miniatures will not join 'Lead Mountain' so am starting this blog as a way of encouraging myself to paint the miniatures shown below (gulp!) as well as some  other unofficial figures from other manufacturers that can be used on the streets of Mega-City One or the rad-wastes of the Cursed Earth.

I also hope to look at some of the various storylines that have appeared in comic books, novels, audio adventures (I have the Radio One Cursed Earth series tape somewhere...) and films and see which lend themselves to tabletop recreation or as inspiration...