Perp Walk

As I'm meandering through the backlog, there's a constant internal debate about how I can best use models. This means considering elements such as equipment, aesthetics, scale and need.

In the case of these three models, everything pointed to them joining the gangs on the mean streets of Mega City One.

Obviously, they are armed with none specific guns, which immediately points to something futuristic, with the heightened eighties vibe suggesting the heyday of 2000AD.

Meanwhile, thier slightly taller scale (without being too chunky) works okay with the Warlord Games models, and finally, already having Judge Dredd join the two Judges that came in the starter box meant that the gang members are currently woefully outgunned and reinforcements would be necessary.

These three models are all from the Grenadier Miniatures Future Wars range that I had a habit of picking up with my pocket money as a youth.

I see this extremely stylish lady as potentially being the queen bee of the street gang, a bit like Ma-Ma in the Dredd movie, but played by Grace Jones.

I've owned this model for 30+ years and only realised today that she didn't have sleeves.

This next guy screams anime bodyguard, with the over the top hair and sharp suits.

I kept things simple with the suit as I was going for something like the look of the Crazy 88 in Kill Bill.

I opted to go with blonde hair to offer some colour contrast, and lean into to the vibrant colours of anime.

This feeling was added to by the the symbol in his back that is sculpted on. I've no idea if this actually means anything, but I went with red and white to again evoke something Japanese.

The final gang member looks like he's played by Bruce Campbell, a very squared jawed fellow.

As such I went for a colour palette that suggested redneck hunter.

He also has a symbol on his back, but his had no design sculpted on it. I went for the number seven, partly because background characters in Judge Dredd often have details that make no real sense, but mainly because it was an easy number to freehand.

With Warlord Games ending the production of Judge Dredd: I Am The Law, I don't think this project will every go very far. However, at least I've ebened the odds and increased the chance that I'll be able to use all of my judges at once.

Acquired: -119

Painted: 476

Lead Mountain: 246

Judge Dredd #3: Sweet Justice

The final tutorial scenario from Judge Dredd: I Am The Law pits the entire contents of the starter box against each other in a battle royale.

We swapped out the Rookie Judge model for the Judge Dredd I painted as she didn't exactly look like 'Veteran Judge Cassidy', I've also made a slight change to the scenario as Ramirez got blown away in the last one, and so Kinsey is back for this one.

The battle is just a straight fight. The Judges are trying to take down four gangers and the High Rollers are aiming to drop a single Judge...easy, right?

This was a real back and forth fight. Initially, the Gunfighter rule of the Judges (which we'd finally got the hang of) meant that it was really dangerous to fire at them, as it should be, and it seemed like the perps stood no chance.

However, the stump gun shot and chain attack suddenly put Kinsey on the back foot, but I just couldn't finish him off. When he got back into cover and healed, it felt like the gang has lost their opportunity, especially when Matt started blowing things up.

Ultimately, the return of the ganger with the combat rifle (probably still the Diceman), who'd been severely injured early on and had spent several turns healing, turned the tide and put enough damage onto Kinsey to end the game.

All in all I feel this is a really good game. The miniatures are good and the mechanics really allow for forces mismatched in numbers to feel balanced. The Big Meg and Armoury cards are really powerful, but a limited resource that need to be used wisely. The game also offers the closest representation of a movie-style shootout (the Gunfighter rule is key to this) that I've come across in any skirmish game.

If there's a down side, the rules are a bit scattered through the rulebook and sometimes it's hard to find the bit you need. I also think that it's a game that relies on interest in Judge Dredd to drive sales as this box really does contain everything you need for a good game.

Will I pick up more of the range? Possibly...if the price is right. I'm not a massive Judge Dredd fan, but I might grab a few of the more well known characters: Judge Death, Mean Machine Angel, the Fatties, etc. I suspect I'm more likely to raid my remaining Wargames Factor Survivors to add to the Block Gang, rather than buy expensive resin models, and I'm inclined to use generic city and post-apocalyptic terrain (like the movie did) rather than start building Mega City One.

However, I like this game, and that might have an impact when I'm next passing a Warlord Games stand at a show.

Judge Dredd #2: Half-Eagle Day

The second tutorial scenario for Judge Dredd: I Am The Law sees a Senior Street Judge and a Rookie Judge ambushed by a block gang in retaliation for what happened in scenario one.

Once again, Matt was the Justice Department and I was the villainous High Rollers.

This game doesn't hang around.

This time we managed to get to turn two before it was all over and it was my turn to make efficient use of my Big Meg and Armoury cards to bum rush Rookie Judge Harris and leave Senior Judge Ramirez surrounded.

I don't think we'd properly got a handle on the gunfighter rule at this point, and I was definitely cheating with my stump gun (the ganger in pink), as she shouldn't have been able to move and shoot.

Ah well, that's what tutorials are for.

Judge Dredd #1: Sugar Rush

In a slight change of pace, Matt and I played through the three tutorial scenarios for Judge Dredd: I Am The Law from Warlord Games.

The first scenario, Sugar Rush, pits Judge Kinsey against three members of the High Rollers block gang and introduced all the basic mechanics in the game.

I took control of the nefarious perps, whilst Matt was the Law.

As you can see, the action was extremely brief as I completely overlooked the Big Meg and Armoury cards and My att didn't, dropping a Stumm Gas grenade between two gangers, knocking them out and winning the game in a single turn.

The multiple activation mechanic of the Judge meant he acted faster than the perps could react.

Nevertheless, we learned the basics in this first outing, and I learned to remember the cards.

More to follow...

Easy Rider?

In the spirit of finishing things off, I turned my attention to the only Judge Dredd miniature I currently have that wasn't painted in the last batch. Joe Dredd himself on his Lawmaster patrol bike.

The model is resin and came in two halves (front and back) with separate handlebars. The pieces went together reasonably well with a little bit of trimming, but there were some air bubbles and miscast elements on base of the back half and, more annoyingly, on the rear of the front section, so that they are actually visible. These are not major issues, but the casting is far from perfect.

The rider came in pieces and also had more issues putting together than the judges on foot, for example one of the arms came separate and I had to work to deal with quite a big gap between the shoulder pad and the body.

Additionally, this version of Dredd is a bit more spindly than the model on foot, although does have the same weird jutting jaw which although in character, ends up looking like he doesn't have a mouth. All in all, I like the model, but I feel it could have been better.

When it came to the painting, I used exactly the same approach as with the judges on foot and comic book colours make things easier, although I did do more highlighting as the flat surfaces needed something to liver them up.

I also took the time to give the Lawmaster a computer screen. I don't know whether it's supposed to be there, but given the bikes have A.I. it seemed to make sense. It also amused me to give it a monochrome screen suitable to what might have been considered high-tech in the early 80's.

Despite the flaws in the model, I am happy with how it's turned out. It certainly looks the part. It also feels like it would be fairly easy to duplicate my painting to make any more Lawmasters I get look consistent.

Once again, even if I don't play the Judge Dredd: I Am The Law very much, have Dredd on a Lawmaster increases the likelihood of me using him in 7TV:Apocalypse games.

In other news, Pete has kindly given me six plastic US troops to make the missing models I need for the next Lurkers From The Deep scenario, so I'll be getting on with them soon.

Acquired: 66
Painted: 158
Lead Mountain: 507

I Am The Law!

No, I didn't see this coming either.

As I mentioned in my last post, it was my birthday recently and I was somewhat surprised to receive Warlord Games' Judge Dredd: I Am The Law as a gift. It's not that I didn't want it, more that it has never been very high up the priority list as another new game.

However, I am, as you've probably noticed, very partial to a starter set, and so once received, it's only polite to get it painted.

My engagement with Judge Dredd is a little odd as despite being of a certain age, I never read 2000AD. I do own a couple of Batman/Judge Dredd crossover graphic novels, but my first involvement with the character was when I bought the Games Workshop roleplaying game. It came complete with mats and cardboard standees (I've always been partial to a starter set) of all the major characters, and so my involvement with the setting was through this really quite open-ended and gaming focused lens.

This means that when I read about a character, I don't know what they did and don't feel bound to repeat a certain narrative. For a skirmish game, this is a good thing.

The game comes with a number of resin miniatures, including two Judges: a Street Judge and a Rookie. I was please to find that they paint up really quickly (one of the advantages of comic book characters is the limited colour palette) and the resin responds really well to both washes and contrast paints.

There is always the need to clean up resin beforehand, but this wasn't too much of a chore. However, the Street Judge's daystick had snapped in transit, but this was easy to fix with superglue.

I'm really happy with these two, and as I painted them first it gave me the impetus to get the rest of the box done quickly. I think I might need to go back and do a white/grey line along the bottom of the Street Judge's visor to be a bit more comic-accurate.

Whilst I was painting the Judges, as I was also bought Joe Dredd himself, I decided to get him done as part of the batch. He's notably chunkier than the other two, which is a good thing given the stature of the character, and it will also help with recognition on the tabletop.

One weird feature is that he is sculpted with the typical strong jawline and frowning face. However, his lip is so high that you can't really make it out, meaning that at first glance he doesn't seem to have a mouth.

Like the Street Judge, I thing I need to add to the visor.

For the Block Gang that come in the box, I really leant on contrast paints to get them done quickly. I largely followed the colours they had been done in the studio photographs, simply because it saved making decisions on ultimately unimportant characters.

I did however, make sure that each of them had a flash of Talassar Blue as a gang colour, as it's really quite vibrant and ties the disparate group together.

Also, I've used an asphalt flock I've had for years as a simple approach to basing. I may need to seal it to prevent it coming off in time.

I've not leaned this heavily on contrast paints before, but it really did speed the job up. Specifically I've found that these kind of detailed resin models respond much better to contrast than more simply designed metal or plastic models, as there's more for the paint to flow around.

I also gave Gulliman Flesh another go, as it hadn't really been working for me in other projects, but here it worked like a charm. Again, I think it's something to do with the nature of the sculpts that has made me happier with it.

Overall, I'm really happy with the contents of the box, and the haphazard nature of Mega-City One mean I should be able to add miniatures from all sorts of sources to my collection, especially as the rulebook has stats for quite a few other characters and factions. The miniatures have a quite gangly style, matching the art in the comics, but as long as I'm selective, it should be fine.

My only gripe with the box in the model in the yellow coat. She's smaller than the other gangers and much less defined, with too much detail., In fact, she's quite similar to the Descent miniatures I painted before this. She really lacks definition and so she's my least favourite model in the box. Also, as I removed the sculpted bases from them, she's balanced on a single ankle that's almost certainly going to snap at some point.

Despite getting an influx of new models, I'm pleased to have made some quick headway. I still have Dredd on his Lawmaster to paint, but that shouldn't really take very long based on my experience with the rest of the set. I've yet to play the game, but even if I don't like it, these miniatures are ideal 7TV fodder.

Acquired: 60
Painted: 157
Lead Mountain: 502