Judge Dredd Sovs from Mongoose

Before current license-holders Warlord Games started to tear up the Judge Dredd gaming world, Mongoose Miniatures had the license and raised a little Hell of their own. One thing they did was a massive Kickstarter campaign back in 2012... the last of which was still being delivered in 2018!

Anyway, back at that time Conscript Perry was a backer of the Kickstarter and asked me if I wanted to share in his support. Did I! I ended up getting a bunch of stuff from the campaign, including these Sov/East-Meg "Apocalypse War" Judges that just hit the painting table. Above is Judge Officer Gagarin.

Here's Senior Judge Drago. Some notes on painting: pads and helmet trim are Mephiston Red washed with Red Ink, with Nuln Oil applied around the edges. Black bodysuits were highlighted a dark grey. Gloves, boots and ammo pouches are Catachan Green highlighted with Camo Green. Speaking of the ammo pouches... I know that in the comics, you sometimes see these coloured red, but I thought they looked better in green matching the gloves and boots. So there.

Judges Tretiak and Federov.

Judges Markov and Kozlov.

The Karpov MF7 Sentenoid in its full glory... this is a pretty cool model.

"Drokk! Satellat!"

The Satellat... a sentient helper-robot-drone that assisted Orlok in introducing the Block-Mania virus into Mega-City One's water supply, prior to the Apocalypse War. TMI???

Lastly, here's some of the group posing alongside a Rad-Sweeper, the main Sov armoured vehicle used in the Apocalypse War. Readers will note that the Rad-Sweeper is represented by the T-640 tank I built, converted and painted for my FuturKom force, years ago... funny how these things can cross over!

Fourth Painting Challenge Entry - 28mm System Troopers from Pig Iron

"System Troopers" from Pig Iron Productions - 28mm Troops

After Sylvian landed huge points bomb in the Challenge late last week (like 400 points of stuff!!!), I felt a bit desperate to get something up on the score board over the weekend. I've been away for over a week, but lucky for me I had some primed figures sitting around which had been waiting in the pending pile for ages - and hammering out figures like that is part of what the Challenge is about, after all, right? So here are 10 "System Troopers" from Pig Iron Productions. These came off the painting table while watching the first round of the NFL playoff (go Chiefs!) (update - stupid Vikings!!!).

Heavy armoured troops for our sci-fi battles

If you follow this blog, or sci-fi gaming generally, you have surely seen the "Kolony Militia" range from Pig Iron on a gaming table somewhere - not least with us. Dallas has an excellent collection of them serving his "FuturKom" forces. That range is, I expect, the best-known one from Pig Iron, but they offer several. Pig Iron is home to some of the nicest, chunkiest, full-of-character 28mm sci-fi stuff out there. The ranges are small, but have some pretty decent overall composition and completion to them (as opposed to others who released three figures and wonder why the sales don't roll in, but I digress). I really enjoy painting the Pig Iron figures - nice, proper, heavy, chunky metal figures, the way wargames figures are supposed to be!

A view showing the back packs

These "System Troopers" are the heaviest of the heavy infantry (in fact, I think I stole that line directly from Pig Iron) - heavily armoured, carrying huge, frigging guns. The sculpts are brilliant - the armour gives a sort of exo-skeleton sense, without being all encompassing/enclosing. These heads are not the standard "System Trooper" heads - they are the "Inner Guard" heads from the "Kolony Militia" - there are many head options to choose from with these figures and I thought these heads looked spookier.

Red helmets to set the fire team NCOs apart...

I had painted a small group of these figures years ago - might have been the first or second Painting Challenge, actually, but before sci-fi figures counted in the race. I had a bunch more primed and ready to go back in that initial 2012 rush, but I moved on to other projects, etc. etc. and these have been sitting there, primed and ready to go, gathering dust in my hobby pile for years, until I got home yesterday, was spooked by Sylvain's huge entry, and broke out the paints!

Always like the officers to be pointing at something...

The chaps in the red helmets are NCOs/section leaders. The rest of the fellows are regular grunts. As a group, I think they can represent all sorts of factions, ranging from ominous mercenaries acting on corporate interests to the heavy infantry of a futuristic science fiction army. And they can certainly line up with Gün Schwarm, that enlightened body of hard-working soldiers...

Regular troopers - even the "basic" guns look really heavy, working well with the sculpts

Some variety on the backpacks as well

There is a large round spot on the back of these helmets, and I painted these lense-style. I think of them as part of the armour's "Decision Making Assistance System". The online DMAS helps the System Troopers stay in touch with HQ, know where to direct their fire, understand that orphanages make great firing positions, and realize that asking questions about the morality of their overall orders will have a negative affect on their own existence...

Close up showing the "DMAS" on the back of the trooper's helmet...keep focused, now, trooper!

Some more points for my sci-fi duel, but still not enough...

There are 10 figures pictured, but one of these pre-dates the Challenge, as he was being used as a model to make sure I matched the colours the best I could, so this gets me 45 points. Even with these points, I'm still eating Sylvain's dust... hopefully I can bear down and go full-Millsy this week to get some more stuff ready for next weekend...but in the event I don't, I'm wondering what kind of figure Sylvain will want me to paint...on the other hand, still a good, long time left in the Challenge, so we'll see what comes next off the painting line.

Battle Report - 28mm WW1 In Greyscale, 28mm

Is that 28mm WW1 in grey scale? Yes - it is.

I am very fortunate to be part of an amazing gaming group here in Winnipeg, and one of the things I enjoy the most is when one member of the group all of a sudden rolls out with some awesome project and you get to game it on the table.  I remember when Dallas suddenly rolled out with his FuturKom lads, and Mike F suddenly revealed an awesome force of modern Russian Federation troops (something we need to hit the table with soon...).  It's cool to see new project, new inspiration, new ideas.

The 6'x4' table - the lock is at the bottom, and the bridge towards the top

The Entente's objective - the locks

German Uhlans scout things out

Fawcett Ave "founding director" Curt C - proprietor of the Analogue Hobbies blog - was always a master of this - new, awesome projects were common on Fawcett Avenue.  Although he now lives a few hours down the highway, he has not lost his penchant or passion for very unique, very ambitious and very compelling hobby projects that look really f***ing cool.  Who else could convince me to paint 40-man 28mm Napoleonic infantry battalions? His latest project is 28mm WW1 in grey scale, and we got play this game when he visited Winnipeg a couple of weeks ago!

German Uhlans charge the Belgian armoured "car"

The Belgian Minerva armoured "car"

The Uhlans confront the Minerva

Lone survivor of the Uhlans' crazy charge

I lack the coolness or cultural depth to explain Curt's motivations and inspirations for this undertaking, but the photos you see in this post speak for themselves - and Curt articulated it very well when he first introduced it - see here. Curt is not one for half-measures with his projects, and he is whole-hog on this one.  Troops, terrain, everything. Bottom line is that we got to have an awesome game earlier this month, one the group will certainly remember for a while.

Most maneuvering early in the game is with blinds - you can see the Entente ones taking position, while sinister Kaiser-loving blinds move up from the opposite table edge at the top of the photo

A view of the blinds from the German side

We played using "Through The Mud And The Blood" rules.  The scenario was set in the closing stages of the early phase of WW1 - armies on both sides were driving to the sea in 1914.  Belgium, desperate to hold the Germans back, was flooding its own countryside to slow them down.  The scenario imagined and encounter between the leading elements of both sides but with slightly different goals - the Germans were out to capture a bridge over a Belgian canal so they could try and turn the Entente flank, while the Entente troops were out to blow open a canal gate to continue with the flooding.  These mutually exclusive objectives would lead to carnage on the table...

German HMG team

Dallas, Frederick, Dave and Mike F would play the German side.  Kevin H and Byron M joined me on the Entente side. Curt ran the scenario with his customary meticulous attention to detail and well-developed, multi-layered plot.  The card-driven rules system seemed to lend itself well to narrative development as well as engagement in the game.  We would maneuver using blinds at first, which would be revealed either through spotting, or if they decided to shoot or take a similarly unmissable step that would single them out.  Cards determined if reinforcements came, and provided the chance for any revealed characters to add some extra oomph to attempted actions.

French troops occupy the buildings in the village - the flash of colour represents an officer

Another view of the French position

The rules revolved around the idea of "big men" - in this case unit leaders.  They are ranked at a certain level, with higher ranked leaders able to order more troops, or add more "oomph" to attempted actions.  The units themselves had two actions once activated, and could be either firing or moving, or attempting both.


Some jocks occupy the woods - that would not work out well for them...

The scenario imagined the ground already covered with mud, shell holes from earlier fighting, and a layer of water from previous flooding efforts.  So it was SLOW going.  Both sides moved along and reinforced as the cards allowed.

Germans move toward the village

Early on the Belgian Minerva armoured "car" made an appearance, as did some German Uhlans.  The Germans managed to charge the Belgians, and succeeded in knocking out the vehicle! A quintessential early WW1 encounter.  A French HMG ensured the Uhlans would not live to brag about it, however.

Germans take cover in a church grave yard

Another view of the German advance - Highlanders in the distance

Eventually it became clear that we would not be able to make it to our objective - too much mud, too many Germans!  I managed to set a French squad up in the ruins of the village while the Germans advanced along both sides of the canal.  Byron set a squad of hard hitting Highlanders in a forward defensive position in a shattered wood, while Kevin drove his Belgian infantry and dog-led HMGs toward the locks.

Germans under fire in the ruins of a church - the "spray" markers represent shock on the unit

Both sides ultimately contacted (I was needling/nagging everyone to drop the blinds and "reveal" themselves) and soon the battle was joined. My French troops and Byron's jocks were driven back by the weight of German fire, but eventually settled into defensive positions that the Germans could not unlock.  Kevin led the Belgians in a brave and futile advance/charge up the village side of the canal, but the weight of German fire was too much.

Kevin H leads the Belgians in a brave charge...

The charge goes pear-shaped, and the Belgians are driven back

In the end the battle was a draw.  The Germans got nowhere near the bridge, and we were nowhere near the canal gates.  Both sides stuck in the slow going, confused battle, fighting to a draw with serious losses on both sides...sounds like WW1 to me.

Highlanders have fallen back to a better defensive position, supported by the French HMG

These photos don't do Curt's WW1 project justice.  I encourage you to check out his blog for more pictures of the various stuff he has painted (examples here and here).  This stuff looks unreal when you see it up close.  Just contemplating all of that relativity for the different gradients etc. makes my head hurt, but Curt has pulled it off.  It's really something, a totally cool and unique game! It was just great to have the chance to play with these awesome figures and terrain.

French troops, supported by Belgian HMG team

Thanks again to Curt for running such a magnificent game, and to the large number of Fawcett gamers who came out to play.  I hope Curt can visit Winnipeg again soon!
**UPDATE - I added some photos from Dave V.  Thanks Dave!

Battle Report - Binary Outing for Binary Petroleum

Newly painted figures get ready for action earlier this week

A couple of weeks ago, in one of my many hobby distractions, I started in on some excellent 28mm near-future sci-fi models courtesy of Frank Hammond. I had finished the models this week (there are 24 of them in my initial batch) and Dallas was kind enough to get them involved as part of our regular game this week.  For fun we used the new Bolt Action rules - intended for WW2, they adapted quite easily to the science fiction setting.

These old 40k Storm Troopers bolstered the Frank Hammond troops

For a scenario we decided to pull the good, hard working folks of Binary Petroleum - last seen in our 6mm FUBAR games - into the 28mm setting.  A group of character models would represent a well-meaning Binary Petroleum survey team, set upon by some FuturKom Motor Fuzileers.

The FuturKom Legions - an awesome collection from Dallas

FuturKom motor pool - note the dreaded T-620 in the foreground...

My Frank Hammond troops were blended in with some vehicles and additional bits from my 40k collection - one of the main reasons I had applied my blue paint scheme to the infantry was so I could merge them into my large collection of Imperial Guard stuff.  In all we had three infantry squads with APCs, one marksman, one MBT and an officer.  One of the squads, represented by Imperial Guard storm troopers, was an elite veteran team. The Kommulists had a near-identical lineup - three squads in APCs, a T-340 and the dreaded T-620! The Kommulists had extra armoured power in contrast to our better infantry.  Dallas took command of FuturKom and I rolled with the PDF forces.

These 40k characters represented a Binary Petroleum survey team...I find they match up well with that role

A BP representative gives an on-site interview...

The members of the BP survey team were spread across the table as objectives, and the goal was to try and capture as many as possible.  Once the game ended, Dallas and I would roll a D6 for each survey team member recovered - whoever rolled highest would recover the valuable survey data as to which areas of the verdant colony world were ripe for transformation into tar-fuel pits.  Oh - and some of the survey team members would maybe be saved too, which was BP's "official" goal...

This BTR-700 was no match for the main gun on my tank - too bad this was the only thing my tank managed to hit...

The T-620 commands all before it - the power of Kommulist industry...

The game moved at a good clip - Dallas and I each moved to grab some team members, but Dallas was more efficient with his movement.  I had some early success punching holes in his APCs, but he was able to knock out my tank before I could get to his (I blew key rolls to help that along...) and this would put the balance of firepower toward FuturKom for the rest of the game.

PDF fire-teams open up on the Kommulists

I didn't help my cause by getting my APCs all bottled up near the middle of the table.  Sure, my infantry had cover, but they couldn't get anywhere useful.

This APC was knocked out and made for a bit of a traffic jam for me - and a good back drop for a live hit from the reporter

Motor Fuzileers under fire - note the "rescued" BP survey team member being spirited away in the background

Still, we got our licks in.  Two of the FuturKom squads were lit up, and we took out all of their APCs.  On the other hand I lost an entire squad, two APCs and a tank.  By the end of the game Dallas had recovered three survey team members, and I had "saved" only one.  It was a win for FuturKom.  I'm sure the Galactic Central Policy Committee has already reviewed the information as to which areas would make the best spots as they plot "Grozny 4"...

Burning BTR in the centre of the table - see how Dallas squeezed that APC along the table edge? Darn it!

Bolt Action showed once again to be the current "it" rules.  They adapted very well to our setting and allowed for a quick and efficient game.  They are miles beyond the current edition of 40k in terms of quality, enjoyment and representation - I recommend you give them a try!