Foundry 2000AD Pack - Dredd, Mean Machine, and Johnny Alpha

Further to the recent Dredd-mania afflicting the residents of Conscript Towers, I've just finished three models from the late, lamented Foundry 2000AD range. These three - Judge Dredd, Mean Machine Angel, and Johnny Alpha (the Strontium Dog) - (as well as Slaine) were packaged in a "2000AD Preview Pack" that I was fortunate to pick up on an eBay forum. I'm not a big fan of Slaine (or more accurately, I can't think of a game to use him in) so I've left him unpainted for now.

First up, Judge Dredd. By Grud, this is a nice model! Chunky but finely detailed, it's a perfect Dredd I reckon. As nice as the new Warlord sculpts can be, this one just blows them away. Metal > resin/plastic, plus the detail and heft are just awesome.

"Old Stoney Face" indeed!

One of the main reasons I wanted to pick up the Foundry pack was to get a Mean Machine model. Yes, Warlord makes him too, but you have to buy a box of half-dozen characters to get him, and Mean was really the only one I wanted from that box.

An excellent sculpt here as well, down to the detailed "dial" on his forehead. He really just seems like the kind of dude that would pair a denim vest with jeans, doesn't he?

Here's weird-eyes Johnny Alpha himself. I've always been more of a Dredd fan than Strontium Dog, but I thought it'd be good to have a model of Johnny handy nevertheless as the two did meet once or twice in time-travelling crossovers.

Johnny, of course, is a mutant Search/Destroy agent ("Strontium Dog") - basically a bounty hunter who tracks down criminals for pay. Johnny's weird eyes are the source of his mutant ability to see through walls and read and influence the minds of others. It's not all X-Men in the S/D world though - most mutants aren't super-powered, just weird looking! Strontium Dogs are pretty much all mutants too, as the S/D lifestyle is too dangerous for normal humans. There are exceptions though, such as Wulf Sternhammer (Johnny's sidekick and apparently a Viking transported forward in time)...

Time travel is kind of a thing with the Strontium Dogs, as Johnny wields a multiplicity of time-based gadgets, and has even travelled back in time to apprehend a criminal from Mega-City One and (of course) to capture and bring Hitler to trial in the future.

I have to say that it was super-fun to paint these three. Nothing beats Foundry models when they were on their game and as noted metal always ALWAYS > resin. Looking forward to getting these guys out in a Judge Dredd game for sure.  BOK!!!

More Dredd: Cadet Judge plus Chief Judge Cal and Retinue

The one (only?) advantage of being forced to stay home is that it has increased production of painted figures here at Conscript Towers. Fortunately I'd just received a mail order from Warlord Games and along with some Bolt Action Americans (which have also been painted and will be the subject of a future blog post), Stallard & Co sent me a Cadet Judge from the Judge Dredd range.

The box includes a Cadet mounted on a Lawmaster Mk 1, which is significantly smaller than the MK 2 that comes with the Dredd and Anderson box sets. I love the aesthetic of the bike and rider, looking like the Cadet just pulled up to a crime scene, or is conversing with a civilian or another Judge.

The bike is a super little model, cast with separate handlebars and shotgun holster. It painted up fast and the casting was particularly conducive to edge highlighting, which I seldom do nowadays...

Since in the game rules, Lawmaster bikes have AI and can operate independently of their riders, I didn't glue the Cadet in place.

Looks good eh??

The box also includes a Cadet Judge on foot. While both models are composed of Warlord's new resin-plastic material, it works much better on vehicles than on foot figures. The Cadet Judge's daystick was warped and wavy, so it was cut off and replaced with a length of wire from the hobby box.

Another pretty nice model from the modern Dredd range.

And now for a throwback to "The Day the Law Died"! This group of models depicts Chief Judge Cal and his retinue of SJS Judges and bloodthirsty alien Klegg mercenaries from 2000AD progs 89-108.

Judge Cal was the power-hungry (and apparently insane) boss of the SJS (Special Judicial Squad - basically Internal Affairs for the Justice Department) and took the Chief Judge's chair in a coup d'etat, supported by his Praetorians in the form of the SJS.

Mongoose made two SJS judge models - one male and one female. Although they're cast in metal, I was able to convert the pose of the leftmost model slightly.

I should also note some potential controversy regarding the SJS uniforms... as 2000AD strips were in black and white only, it's not super-clear whether the SJS uniforms were navy (as we presume regular Judges wore) or black... likewise the eagles and buckle badging could be depicted as silver or gold. I've copied the colour scheme depicted on the excellent Sho3box blog, which is a great source for 2000AD/Dredd painting inspiration.

"Slicey-slicey, oncey-twicey, claw and fang'll kill Dredd nicely!"

Another key to Cal's successful usurpation of power in Mega-City One was his employment of the Kleggs, alien mercenaries who worked for Cal and were paid in... meat (you can see where this is going)

These are also Mongoose castings from the Kickstarter and, truth be told, aren't very good, with lots of awkward flash and miscast areas. To be honest I was pretty lazy cleaning them up too so don't be too hard on them.

"Meaty-beaty, chop 'em neatly, death or glory no retreatee!"

The leader wields a pretty fearsome cleaver as well as the standard Klegg rifle.

The weird rocket-thingies on their backs are straight from the comic, but I have no idea what they are supposed to represent.

Front-and-back of the Klegg trooper. Mongoose apparently made another version of this model that had a better looking rifle, but I haven't been able to track one down yet.

Kleggs have reappeared in subsequent Dredd storylines as well. Notwithstanding my tepid enthusiasm for the rhyming football-chant mania that informed Dredd stories in the late '70s, I actually quite like the look of the Kleggs. In fact, I have even bought some other not-Kleggs (Khurasan's Garn)! So I am a Klegg fan... I just wish these ones were better cast and offered some variety in poses.

Now for Warlord Games to give us game stats for Cal and the Kleggs... I think that gaming the insurrection against Chief Judge Cal would be fun indeed!

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!

Judge Dredd Battle Report, or Why Greg Hates "Special Dice"

"This is Hyundai McKesson for Mega-City Channel 7 News with Judge Fraser and rookie Judge Gregg near the Jane Goodall Block, where Jane Goodall Citi-Def members have been going ape for the last few hours..."

Last week I set up our first game of Judge Dredd, the new 2000AD-comic-themed miniatures game from Warlord. I've always been a huge fan of Old Stony Face and the insanity that is Mega-City One, so I have jumped into the new JD with both feet... at the very least, it'll give some renewed impetus to paint some of the OLD Dredd models I still have from the last miniatures incarnation - Mongoose Models' "Gangs of Mega-City One". But anyway...

Here's the 4x4 table set up for the game. The story: Jane Goodall Block Citi-Def has been running an armed exercise in an industrial area of the city bottom, and complaints about gunfire and general arsing-about have been received by the Justice Department. As the JGCD has previously been warned, this incident has escalated to Judge intervention and a Pat-Wagon was dispatched with Judges Fraser (a Veteran Street Judge) and Gregg (a rookie Judge) aboard.

We pick up the game with the two Judges in the middle of the table and the Jane Goodall forces (Eureka Miniatures' excellent "Boiler-suit Apes") about to spring an ambush...

Jane Goodall squad leader and female 2IC lurk...

...while the Gibbon squad waits under cover. The JG apes had to deploy at least 12" from the two Judges and out of their line of sight.

Heavy spit gun with two-Gibbon crew.

The view from the other side of the table.

In his first activation, the JGCD squad leader targeted Judge Gregg, causing some injuries... another ape also activated and put her out of action even before she could activate, herself! Conscript Greg notably failed to roll a single "Shield" result on any of his Resist dice :-(

Disappointing development for the Justice Department side, but Judge Fraser activated next and Conscript Mike had a cunning plan...

He took a Double Action to run, then played the "Crazie" card to take another immediate Charge action, catching the rocket-launcher-toting gibbon flat footed... a light beating with daystick put the Jane Goodall Blocker out of action.

The sensitive simian hearing of the Jane Goodall Blockers picked up the approaching sound of sirens...

...knowing that a Lawmaster bike was on the way, the simians shifted around to Overwatch the road entrances.

On the next Justice Department chip, Street Judge Burch appeared on his Lawmaster bike... the Justice Department also played a Big Meg card - Weather Control. The random dice came up with a snowstorm!

While the simians blazed away with their heavy spit gun, they failed to stop the bike... and Judge Burch dropped them with his Lawgiver pistol.

On his next activation, the simian on top of the power building (top centre) shot at the Lawmaster, immobilizing it! Greg's lousy die rolling continued...

Meanwhile, Judge Fraser was under attack by gibbons with spit pistols...

... and it was not going well. :-(

The simians in the middle moved up towards Judge Burch...

Who had dismounted from his now-immobilized Lawmaster bike.

The gibbon on the rooftop moved towards the middle of the roof and took a "Hunker Down" double action to rid himself of an injury marker.

However, in true Dredd fashion, Judge Burch activated and played a "Ricochet" Armoury card, allowing him to bounce a Lawgiver round off the tower and into the rooftop simian, ending his gibbon adversary in true comic-book style. Nice one!

But in the middle of the table, the Jane Goodall squad leader broke cover...

...while behind Judge Burch another gibbon lurked!

The simian squad leader blazed away at the Judge, who used his "Gunfighter" trait to shoot back and wound the ape, who was himself killed in a volley of Bike Cannon fire.

Judge Burch was finished off by a backshooting gibbon, of all things, and we called the game at that point, with only an immobilized Lawmaster left on the Justice Department side.

The objects of Conscript Greg's fury... a set of extremely uncooperative special dice supplied with the game. The faces bear three explosions (denoting hits), two shields (useful when making Resist (save) rolls), and one special symbol - the 2000AD logo, needed to make tests against a model's Cool characteristic. Greg never seemed to get any traction with these, as his rolls always came up with exactly the symbols he didn't need.

In the end, it was a pretty fun game, and for a first try I reckon we got 80% of the rules right. Drawing chips for activations is a fun mechanic, but we saw the downside in this game with the severely outnumbered Judges having a tough time. I think in games with a more even number of opponents it'll work even better. I've got my East-Meg/Sov Judges and Sentenoid (from the old Mongoose kickstarter) primed up and once they're done it'll be time for some Apocalypse War gaming!