Judgement Day Post 35 - Odysseus Jones

The Judgement Day project that Cheetor and I were working on has moved into the background over the last couple of months as other projects have drawn our attention. It is not dead, however, as both of us are Judge Dredd nuts and we'll invariably come back to add models to our collections. There are several new Sov sculpts I have an eye on, for example.

So, with that in mind, we've decided to make the project more casual. We are keeping the numbering system that we were using to see how far this may get over the years. It's also to keep everything under the Judgement Day umbrella. It won't be tag though, so I or Cheetor may submit 3 minis in a row before the other adds in a new model, for example. Here, after something of a pause, if Judgement Day 35, Odysseus Jones, undercity gang member.

This latest entry for Judgement Day is a mini close to my heart, from Mark Copplestones' phenomenal Future Wars range. You can still get many of these mins from EM4 and Copplestone Castings. They are a teeny bit small compared to today's minis, but that bothers me not a jot, as they are an exceptional range.

This fellow spent many years fighting across the gaming tables of my youth. Leading a motley crew of outcasts and criminals, Odysseus fought across cities, death worlds and drifting cargo ships. Eventually he was retired to storage, and has been there ever since. So it was very satisfying INDEED to rescue him from stasis and finally paint this 28mm hero of my gaming days of yore. Given a new lease of life, I expect Odysseus to appear everywhere from the darkness of Mega City One's undercity to the urban sprawl of a Rogue Trader hive world in the next few years. 

He just needs to get the old gang back together.

Judgement Day Xmas Break

Cheetor and I have agreed to take a short break from the Judgement Day project.  With various other commitments at this time of year, we reckon that February first is a good time to pick things up, so Judgement Day #35 will be posted on that date.

Cheetor has a swanky array where you can see all the entries for Judgement Day so far here.

Hopefully you will join us in February for more 28mm Dredd items (although there will be other items here in the meantime too)

Thanks for your enthusiasm for the project in 2015!

Judgement Day Post 34 - Private Raimi

This week Judge Williams gets someone to boss around as the first member of his squad is painted. Private Raimi of Bruce Campbell block Citi-Def front and centre.

The idea of roving groups of legalised militia toting lots of guns and not so much training or discipline seemed crazy when I was reading 2000AD as a kid. These days, not so much.

I agonised and procrastinated over the colour scheme for these guys, finding, in the end, some photos of American riot police and early 20th century American football gear that gave me some ideas. I've made Raimi a little haggard, as I enjoy painting haggard faces, and I've set this group up as an Apocalypse War resistance unit to face off against my Sovs.

There are several interesting sculpts in the Citi-Def box, not least the sarge, so I'm looking forward to adding to the squad.

Next week it's back to Sho3box for post 35.

Judgement Day Post 32 - Undercity Alpha Werewolf

We head below city bottom this week to the undercity. A less well know denizen of the old cities are the werewolf packs. Dredd himself spent a little time running with the wolves during one of his undercity excursions during 'Cry of the Werewolf'. Originally caused by a convenient radioactive compound, the wolves are one of the many dangers lurking in the undercity.

This particular fellow is an alpha, as he is enormous. The 'giant werewolf' from the Citadel Night Horrors range. He comes with a separate head, so some fur sculpting was required to give him a mane on the back of the head and neck. He also has his junk out. Fair enough. 

I wanted to go a bit further than a grey or black wolf, so I tried a little patterning on this guy. I'm happy with how it turned out, making what could be quite a plain mini into something a little more interesting.

The alpha, Prager, is the start of a group of unsavoury undercity dwellers I'll be adding to over the next while. Sho3box will be back next week with more Judgement Day.

A blast of dog breath alerts Judge Williams to danger.

Judgement Day Post 30 - Judge Williams

This week sees something of a red letter day in my submissions for Judgement Day. An actual judge. It was a real treat painting him, and seeing the familiar colours of the Mega City One judiciary come together as the paint went on only added to the enjoyment. I see a lot more judges in my painting future. I may even give old stoney-face himself a go.

Judge Williams here is not the most by-the-book judge, but several commendations for insane bravery have kept him off the Titan shuttle. He is currently kicking his heels as Bruce Campbell block judge, and it time he will lead an Apocalypse War resistance unit with the BC Block Citi-Def. His faithful boomsti... I mean lawrod will come in handy. It'll be...

...groovy.

This also defines my approach to any zombies for Judgement Day. It's deadites all round.

Next I'll be painting up one of my favourite denizens of the undercity. In the meantime Sho3box will be back next week as Judgement Day continues.

Judgement Day Post 28 - Undercity Terrain

This week, with minutes to spare, we have the beginnings of my under-city terrain set. Judge Williams will be along presently, but I want to take my time with him, especially after watching episode one of Ash vs Evil Dead, which was pretty damn great, incidentally.

Anyway, I have little in the way of sci-fi terrain, and I decided I would concentrate on the under-city of Mega City One. Concreted over and left to decay, the under-city is the abode of mutants, troggies and werewolves. You heard right, werewolves. So, this was as good a time as any to kick it off. These pieces are from the Mantic Mars Attacks range, pretty much prefect for urban ruin. As I intend to paint up plenty of Martians as well, this set will get plenty of utility for modern and near future settings. The modular buildings from the same range are bang on too, and will give me a few multi-storey ruins. I painted these pieces as rusty and dirty, and it gave me a chance to try out some sponge weathering without too much pressure. I like the random effects sponge give, I'll certainly be using it more. Once again the GW technical paints proves their worth. I love you, Typhus Corrosion and Ryza Rust.

I think I'll soon add a chem pit, and start looking about for some terrain mats. There are loads of great ones out, so I'm sure I'll find something to match. Course, I'll eventually need some denizens too, so troggies and werewolves are definitely on the list down the road.

Sneaky Orlok is sneaky.

As always, Cheetor will be back with more Judgement Day from Sho3box next week.

Judgement Day Post 26 - Judge Death

This week see the final addition to the dark judges, Deadworld's chief judge, Judge Death. He's probably my favourite Dredd villian, and he's dropped enough one liners over the years to show that he's definitely got more of a sense of humour in him than his brothers. It's probably the rictus grin. His recent outing in 'Dreams of Deadworld' portrays him in a much grimmer light, but still, he's ma boy.

He might be an undead mass murderer...

This sculpt of Judge Death is TINY. He and his lieutenants are 25mm really, but it's still my favourite sculpt of the dark judge's leader. He was quite straightforward to paint, even if I kept finding parts of the model I'd missed sorting during cleanup. Nothing like taking a file to an almost painted mini.

... but Judge Death loves a comfy seat.

With Judge Death finished, that completes my dark judge project. I'll no doubt pick up the Mongoose spirit forms, and probably the Foundry versions too, but that's for another day. Next up I think it's time I took a crack at an actual judge. Judge Williams, to be precise. Bruce Campbell's block judge.

Ssssssssorted.

As always, next week it's back to Cheetor at Sho3box.

Judgement Day Post 24 - Judge Fear

Phew! That was close. I really thought this was the one that was gonna get past me, but no, Judge Fear just makes it in time for the deadline.

My fears were groundless. Ahem.

Oh, Judge Fear...

This week sees another of the dark judges painted, the Citadel Judge Fear. It's not my favourite of the old dark judge sculpts, but like Fear himself, I can't help but like it despite it's failings. His ankles in particular gave me a nightmare. Removing his tab and pinning them to the base was akin to trying to decide which wire to cut before the timer reached zero and the bomb went off. Steady hands.

Judge Fear is the no-fun-but-you-have-to-bring-him-cousin of the dark judges. ALWAYS first to get smashed up, and a bit jealous of his brothers cooler powers. Plus: mantraps? A shrunken head on his belt? Bat wings on his helmet, which also has a little door he opens to scare you?

He's fantastic, isn't he?

Individually scaring everyone to death. That's gonna take awhile.

We got even more evidence of Judge Fear's loser status in the recent Dreams of Deadworld series in 2000AD. I just can't help rooting for him though. He tries so hard, bless him.

With Fear done, that brings the brothers up to three. I bet you can't guess who's next on the painting table? Next week it's back over to Cheetor in the continuing game of Dredd tennis.

Judgement Day Post 22 - Judge Fire

This week it's one of the dark brothers, Judge Fire. The dark judges remain my favourite Dredd villians by a mile. I'm enjoying the 'Dreams of Deadworld' series in 2000AD immensely at the moment, and it put me in mind to come back to my set of the Dark judges and get them finished. These are the Citadel version from the mid 80's. Small, but full of evil.

I wanted Fire to look like a blackened corpse that's burning internally. Fire can be tricky to get right, but I'm pretty happy with the result. Lots of washes and glazes over a bright yellow base was the order of the day, including a white wash for recesses where the heat is most intense. I also painted some highlights on his body to give the impression of heat emanating from within, like a burning coal. This also served to guide the eye to areas that would be lost amongst the black. Fiery toenails for the win. Luckily there were plenty of nice examples in the most recent Fire artwork to use for reference.

With Fire done, that's half the dark judges finished. It would be a crime to not go ahead and complete the set, so expect more from Deadworld's finesssst next time.

Thaank Grud you're here Fiire, I'vve been sssooo lonely...

Judgement Day Post 20 - War Marshal Kazan

This week sees Judgement Day reach post twenty. It's been a fruitful collaboration thus far, with over four months of weekly submissions increasing our respective collections. This week, to conclude my East Meg One project I give you the main man himself, War Marshal Kazan.

Siberia for you, and you, and you...

Kazan is a pretty hilarious mini, for a murderous dictator. He's sending everyone to Siberia with that finger. Everyone. The sculpt is a fair bit more buff than the character in the comic, and that moustache...

Apparently Carlos Ezquerra (the artist who worked on the Apocalypse War series) gave him that little moustache as it was quite popular with fascists during the Franco years in Spain. It gave him a chuckle, as it gave me one when I was painting it. The tache, the weird shades, the white crew-cut, he's just fabulous, and manages to totally pull it off. The fact that he's a total bastard helps his cred too. I can't wait to get him on the gaming table.

Kazan presses the 'invade' button repeatedly

With Kazan finished, that concludes my East Meg One project. I now have a hearty group of Sovs, enough to give me options when picking a force. There are at least two new Sov minis coming down the line, which I will certainly be adding to the collection once they are released. For now though, here's the whole gang.

Ahhh... finished.

So what next? Well, There are some Citi-Def waiting to oppose the foreign invaders, and Mortis is looking very lonely in the cabinet all on his own...

Back to Cheetor next week!

Judgement Day Post 18 - Karpov MF7 Sentenoid

Today's Judgement Day submission is the Karpov MF7 Sentenoid. Deployed to support the Sov invasion of Mega City One, this robot was a mainstay of the Sov forces during the Apocalypse War, one electrocuted Mega City One judge at a time.

I've been ticking away at the Sentenoid for a while now. It comes in eleven parts, and I pinned the hell out of it. It required minimal clean-up. It's attached to the base by only two of the four legs, so pinning was the only way. I wanted to go nuts on the base too. The Sentenoid takes up very little of the actual base, so I had plenty of room for a dead Mega City One judge and some Apocalypse War paraphernalia. The truly devoted might recognise the leaflets scattered about the base.

It's a very nice model when it's all together, and surprisingly large. I also tried out AK Interactive's Fuel Stain effect on some of the vents and such. It's a nice oily, glossy finish. A little hard to see on the photos, but it adds another level of interest to the model. They are oil-based, but that's no real impediment. They do a great range, so well worth checking out.

With the Sentenoid finished, that completes the Sov Invasion box minis. Here's the whole gang:

There's only one more Sov left in my radar now, the main man himself. I've been looking forward to getting a brush at him for some time now.

Next week Cheetor gives us his latest slide of 28mm Judge Dredd fun.

Judgement Day - Orlok the Assassin

This week's Judgement Day offering is one of my favourite bad guys from Judge Dredd, Orlok the assassin. Orlok was an East Meg One agent who poisoned the water supply of Mega City One, leading to the mass outbreak of block mania, the precursor to the Sov invasion. He also killed Judge Giant. Yes, Orlok is a massive jerk, but he's one of the few who can go toe to toe with Dredd in a fist fight. A must have for a Sov collection really.

Suck on that Dredd.

I had a bit of a conundrum with Orlok's colour scheme. I was not in love with the colour scheme of the outfit the model is based on. Here's the original:

Nope.

While I like my comic character miniatures generally to follow established colour schemes pretty closely, I wasn't going to go down this road with Orlok. He just didn't seem like a bright and lively kind of guy. He doesn't give you a fair chance to reach for your gun, he just shoots you in the head. More than once, in all likelihood. So, I had a look at the Mongoose version:

Double Nope.

No joy there either. That hair...

So in the end I went for a pretty modern looking scheme, with a worn leather jacket and boots, black trousers and gloves. I put most of my time into the face. Orlok has a very distinctive scar, and I accentuated it a tad to make it more of a point of interest. As the gear is very modern day, (If we ignore the rolled up sleeves. Orlok is so hard he can roll up leather sleeves.) I also added the smashed Judge's helmet to anchor him back into the Judge Dredd universe.

Next week it's back to Cheetor for another dose of Judgement.

Judgement Day - Sov Judge Officer Пашков

A slightly more substantial offering this week, Sov Judge Officer Pashkov joins the ranks of the East Meg One judiciary. Since senior judge Gogol's recent defeat by the resistance, it was only a matter of time before a card carrying member of the Dictatorat was sent to restore order and discipline.

I haven't painted a human face in a while, so I enjoyed painted Pashkov's features immensely. I made him slightly haggard, as he is on active duty on the front lines after all. All that stress, and the possibility of running into Dredd would make anyone prematurely grey.

The Dictatorat in action. Solid guys all.

With Pashkov finished I've now completed all the judges from the Sov Invasion Force box. The only remaining model from the set left to do is the sentenoid robot. After that, Kazan and Orlock are available as a blister pack, and that then exhausts the Mongoose Sov models available. I have seen a Sov psychic model based on the senior judge, but I'm unsure when it will be released. I'll be picking that up pretty quickly to add to my Sov forces once it's released.

Next week it's back to Cheetor for more Judgement.

Judgement Day Post 12 - Sov Satellat

This week I'm throwing up a cheeky submission for Judgement Day. The very tiny Sov satellat. This was originally intended to be an addition to a larger submission, but there you go. I could bore you with various excuses about life annihilating hobby time over the last week or two... so that's pretty much what I'll do.

Taking excuses as read, let's look at the wee satellat. The satellat is most associated with agent Orlock, East Meg One's finest assassin/saboteur/master of espionage, and instigator of the block mania outbreak that preceded the Apocalypse War. This little robot has gotten Orlock out of a couple of scrapes over the years, with a loud BLLLLEEEEEEEE! to warn out approaching danger.

This little fella has already seen action on the tabletop, causing much irritation to Cheetor's Judges in our initial skirmish. You can read about that here. Speaking of which, the Sovs are now at league strength. Here's a shot of the whole squad.

There are several more members of the league to be added yet, but it's pretty satisfying getting them to a gaming size force. More (and most likely more than a tiny robot head) Judge Dredd fun from Sho3box next week.

Judgement Day Post 10 - Senior Judge Gogol

Senior Judge Gogol is my latest submission for Judgement Day. He gives my merry band of invaders a leader to order them about. Gogol is actually named for a character featured during the Apocalypse War series in 2000AD, albeit one with a very brief appearance. Gogol barely managed a stroll around the grand hall of justice before Dredd gunned him down and impersonated him in order to assassinate the brainwashed chief judge Griffin.

Dredd casts off Gogol's stolen cape to off the boss.

I think Gogol deserves some fun on the tabletop to make up for getting done in by Dredd. He's already been at work ordering his judges into the fray. More on that shortly, and you can also head over to Sho3box to hear the coverage from the Imperialist Western perspective.

Gogol and his squad stalk the ruins of Sector 13.

As always, next week it's over to Cheetor for more Judge Dredd miniature fun.

Judgement Day Post 8 - Judge Борзилов

Phew. With literally minutes to spare, Judge Borzilov is completed. This flame-throwing nutter fell due on a week replete with heavy work and family commitments, with a trip to A&E thrown in for good measure. (Not to worry, all is well.) Regardless, Judge Borzilov steps forth ready to incinerate those who dare oppose the Dictatorat.

I like this sculpt. He carries the oddest looking flamethower I've ever seen. Those gloves of his must be pretty well insulated. It looks very Carlos Ezquerra, organic and no straight lines anywhere, but to my knowledge he never drew one for the Apocalypse War series. I wanted to give the hint that it gets a lot of use, so I gave it some heat damage with sepia, purple and finally blue washes the closer to the end of the barrel I got. I highlighted the very edge with silver to show where it has burned clean.

I adjusted his legs to suit the base and give him a tad more movement. Paul had a fine idea for an addition to the bases that fits perfectly with the Apocalypse War, but that'll have to wait for a future mini.

This brings my tally to four Sov judges. Time for some leadership methinks. Next week it's back to the Sho3box for more Dredd fun.

Judgement Day Post 6 - Judge Александров

This week sees another Sov join the fray. Judge Alexandrov is bringing a little heat to the party. Armed with a large carbine, this judge is the first specialist to join my little invasion force. My Judgement Day posts are quite Sov-centric at the moment, soon there will be enough for a playable force. Then the invasion fun can really begin.

I added a little more to the base this time. In the back you can see a smashed Mega City One judge's helmet, no doubt blasted off it's former owner by high calibre shells meted out by Alexandrov here. I've plans for adding a few more Dredd-themed basing bits to some of the other Sov models, especially on the larger bases.

Goddam stub guns.

There are a lot of nicely themed forces playable for the Apocalypse War as well as judges. Citi-Def units and Apocalypse War resistance units are both appealing, with a nice urban camo scheme perhaps, though the khaki and black sometimes worn by American riot police is pretty good too.

And then there were three.

 Next week it's back over the the Sho3box for more Dredd-flavoured fun.