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