Judge minty

..and here's pictures of the judge minty miniature.

I don't know who painted this one, but that's awesome!

Judge Minty

I was lucky enough to get one of the last few Judge Minty miniatures. They're made for charity and can be yours for a donation. Awesomeness!!

http://warlordgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=6761

Shop signs

I made some shop signs and stuck magnet strip from fridge magnets on the back, so they can be switched around as needed. Happy with the results and plan to make a bunch more.

The white bits sticking out the bottom is masking tape.

Future car finished

I finally finished the future car by Fujimi. It's larger scale so I took out the seats and added 3 small seats and used 40k IG for the passengers and driver. Looks like space corp or similar division. Ideally I would have painted Eagles on the shoulders but I can't do free hand.

Arbites (judges)

I saw this cool blog about how a guy made some arbites for 40k/necromunda which, no coincidence, look extremely justice department. They'd make great space corp, again no coincidence.

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?372846-Collecting-an-Adeptus-Arbites-Army-Space-Police-Enforcers

Hover car

This is a hover car I converted from a 1:35 scale Future Car by Fujimi. It's still a work in progress, but you get the idea. The guys (space core?) in the car are 40k imperial guard. The eagle is also 40k. I just need to paint over the extra eagle head to make it exactly the same as a Justice eagle (coincidence?). The lettering is from some gundam transfers I bought for this purpose.

Mega City Undercover 2

This is a gripping read about the underbelly of mega-city. It's quite dark but has great ideas for RPG hooks.

Campaign

The start of the campaign went interestingly. The a member of the Simian Supremacists stole a box of evidence from the back of a law master. He was chased down and, after resisting arrest, was gunned down.

Subsequent games added bonuses to the winning faction. The allows players to come and go without affecting the flow or balance.

Looking forward to more campaign games.

Assault on Sector House 13.

Brit Cit Judges

Played a bunch of games today using Brit Cit judges.

They play similar to the MC1 judges but their gun has only two different rounds, Armour piercing and Standard execution. The Inspector has Armour 4 instead of 5 but is a good shot.

We played a variation of the Scrawl war scenario where the street gang had to scrawl 4 out of 8 markers and the judges had to clean 4 out of 8 markers. It was close, but the markers were in a convenient place for the street gang to scrawl, but they suffered heavy casualties.

Hobby Before I Die!: Judge Dredd - Ape Gang Vs Iron Stan!

Hobby Before I Die!: Judge Dredd - Ape Gang Vs Iron Stan!

Very cool blog with fun pics and ideas.

Ladders

Made a bunch of ladders to make the Judge Dredd Miniatures Game  more multi-leveled. Square bases from fantasy miniatures, ladders ripped off cheap fire trucks from 100yen shop (pound shop / dollar store). Free standing and versatile.

Demonic Cabal

After a bit of trial and error with this faction in the Judge Dredd Miniatures Game, I found a list which works, assuming I roll well.

Make the leader a hero and add a point onto Will, so he gets the bonus while summoning. Take 4 Cabalist minions and spend the rest on lesser demonic pacts. They have Armour 3 and can fly 10" per action, so are quite handy.

Deploy all cabalists and the leader together in cover, as far away from the enemy as possible and try summoning every turn.

Often, due to the unpredictable nature of dabbling in the occult, demons will fall under the enemy's control. This can get a bit confusing when there are 4 or more demons on the table. To make it clear which is which, and also because I don't have enough Mongoose demons, I use some plastic Cthulhu miniatures which I bought from Yellow Submarine. They're for a board game I think. I then painted some blue and some red. Problem solved.

Endless City

London will be getting its first Mega-City style "Block" called Endless City. It'll be 300 meters tall and contain parks, shops, entertainment and be its own Eco-system with a hollow middle and ramps connecting opposite sides.

Marvelous!

More Miniatures

I got a few more Justice Department miniatures, including Judge Cal with Judge Fish and a GW version of an SJS Judge, which is smaller than other miniatures. I like having miniatures of different proportions. It reflects the natural variation of human sizes. Wargames Foundry make miniatures with varying statures, and genders.

ThunderChild Miniatures

I saw this great photo today of what is clearly The Cursed Earth!

By ThunderChild Miniatures.

Munchkin Expansion

Out soon, a 15 card Judge Dredd themed expansion for Munchkin Apocalypse. Here's the official blurb about Apocalypse..

In Munchkin Apocalypse, every possible natural (and unnatural) disaster has happened . . . or will happen during the game. You are a rugged survivor in a world full of people – and things – that want to kill you and take your stuff. So do it to them first!

City of Dredd

For those interested in Mega City or planning on running a game in that setting, there's a great resource that documents locations mentioned in the Dredd comic, with a wealth of information.
It's available from www.lulu.com for a small fee. Well worth it.

Another superb resource, and a good read, is the Worlds of Dredd. Again, this is available from Lulu, and describes locations outside of Mega-City, both on Earth and beyond!

Miniatures

Several companies make and have made miniatures for Judge Dredd. Currently, Mongoose Publishing make the best selection in collaboration with Warlord Games. (Mongoose Riot Judge below)

Another company that makes Judge Dredd miniatures is Wargames Foundry. These are slightly bigger, although can give a realistic variation in height and weight between characters when used alongside other companies' miniatures. (Wargames Foundry Texas City Judge below)

Games Workshop used to produce Judge Dredd miniatures in the good old days. Like other metal miniatures from those days, they're noticeably smaller, and I would use them in games as Rookie judges, cadets or Jimps (judge impersonators). No pics of those yet. They're in my painting queue.

Pat Wagon

I received a Pat Wagon, made of solid resin with metal extras, from mongoose. This was from the Judge Dredd Miniatures Game kickstarter 2012. I totally wasn't expecting any vehicles. Every so often I receive random JDMG miniatures in the mail. It's cool!! That's the best kickstarter I've ever done.

I'll probably paint it black with red highlights, like the one in the rulebook. Not sure how to do the Justice department logos. I can't paint them and I have no transfers (decals).

Holiday Purchases

I cleared out the local Waterstones bookshop and bought..

- Rogue Trooper Case Files 4. I don't have 1 - 3 yet though.

- ABC warriors short stories

- Judge Anderson Psi Files 4. I have 1 - 3, so I'm current with that series ;-)

- Bendatti Vendetta. An impulse buy, but it's 2000ad!

At a nearby charity shop I picked up 4 "annuals" for a super low price.

Happy!

Judge Dredd Board Game

Yes!! I just picked up 2 copies of the Games Workshop board game. Cheap from eBay because they're incomplete. I'm merging the two so I have a complete game with extras.

The two games are slightly different. One has a board consisting of 4 pieces that jigsaw together. The other is 2 pieces that fold in half. The cards are slightly different sizes too.

Looking forward to trying it out.

I'll probably use miniatures instead of the meoples provided.

Hondo-Cit

The island nation of Japan exists in the world of judge dredd and has become a giant mega-city called Hondo Cit. Many of the stereotypes of today's Japan are present in Hondo Cit, like the institutional organized crime, the degradation of women, the obsessive cleanliness, the pop-culture, but this has been mixed with much more traditional tropes like samurai, ritual suicide, martial arts and medieval weaponry.

The occasional giant robot or reptile makes an appearance too.

Hondo cit is also famed for its high tech gadgets and weapons, much of which ends up on the black market in other mega-cities.

It must be mentioned that the Hondo cit judges are issued Tendo Staves and Hover Bikes, which actually work as they're supposed to.

Stories set in Hondo city have the Manga feel without the "Anatomically Incorrect Schoolgirls". I approve.

Block Mania

Block Mania is a board game by Games Workshop that reflects one of the storylines from Judge Dredd in 2000ad.

A block is a huge building, hundreds of stories high, that contains shops, parks, grav chutes, everything a citizen could need. Boredom and high unemployment cause violent riots, often between rival blocks.

Protagonists include gangsters as well as the Citi-Def from each block fighting side by side.

Each player takes control of a blocks resources and tries to crush the opposition before the judges arrive and cart everyone off to the cubes.

It's possible to use miniatures from the Judge Dredd a Miniatures Game / Gangs of Mega City One, and there's an extension so 4 people can play instead of just two. Needless to say, I have that too (Mega Mania, Games Workshop).

One of these days I'll bring it to my gaming club.

City Bottom

City bottom is mentioned many times in the comics and is comprised of the old city ruins, land marks, rivers and all. Instead of being re-built, it was just built over.

There are many ways to reach city bottom. Just keep going down, past the sewer system, til you get there.

It is inhabited by "troggies" - mutants who used to be human, aliens and other individuals hiding from the law.

Food is, of course, scarce so cannibalism is perfectly natural here.

The tank in the first picture is a Landraider - the original featured in the first long running Judge Dredd story "Cursed Earth" (looking at you Games Workshop).

Another Great Mantic Display

This is another great example of what's possible with the Mantic scenery. I wish I had an airbrush and knew how to use one.

It has an underwater feel to it.

Mantic Terrain

This summer, when I fly back to the UK, I'll be picking up a massive box of Mantic terrain. While patiently waiting I've been thinking about paint schemes.

The industrial grey look looks great, but has been done. I did my H-Hanger in grey and I don't regret it. However I want to vary it up a bit. Use different colours to give a more run-down commercial/residential district feel. I saw a couple of really good ideas:

Both very impressive and the kind of look I want to go for.

I'll add some military buildings later, for the judges, including the Dust Tactics bunker and maybe a GW Bastion to go with the Justice Depaetment Aegis Defence Line I painted up.

Terrain Companies

Recently I saw some very Mega-City style buildings on this website:

http://www.wargameterrain.co.uk/index

The round apartment block is perfect!

It's a bit pricey though and I will be picking up a massive box of Mantic Terrain this summer.

Anyway, here's a pic of the City Block I was talking about.

If I had a bunch if these stacked up, I'd be a happy man.

They do some other good stuff too.

Another company that does great resin terrain, pre-painted too, is Tablescape. My finger did hover over the "buy" button for several minutes.

http://www.tablescape.co.uk/Catalogue/Catologue.htm

I love their urban barricades and barrels.

Great stuff! And the pre-painting is well done too.

Another item on my wish list is the Mega City highway system by Warmill, made of MDF.

http://www.warmill.co.uk/

It has supports to lift it above the city, and on-off ramps, junctions, everything!!

Fire Truck

After stealing the ladder off this cheap kids toy for terrain, I decided to have a go at making a Justice Department fire wagon.

First I filled in the windows with plasticard and covered up the holes. I then added a shovel at the front, from a different toy, and smoke launchers, from a Games Workshop kit, and a water cannon made from a straw and a bit from another toy.

Primed grey it actually looks like a model kit, not like a toy anymore.

I painted with watered down black and then added details and weathering.

I was happy with the results. It's not fantastic but fine for the tabletop.

Judge Dredd Role Playing Game

Last year I started making a Judge Dredd setting for Savage Worlds. I put a lot of work into it, but it wasn't turning out the way I wanted. I had to make up too many things - all of which needed play testing. Then it came to me..

It had been right under my nose the whole time. With some tweaking I could use the rules for JDMG to make a RPG.

Why? There are already three Judge Dredd RPG rule sets on my shelf (Mongoose and Games Workshop). I like simplicity and it doesn't get much simpler than savage worlds or the JDMG. I also wanted the players to be perps, not judges. Perps are much more varied and fun to play.

So how did I tweak the JDMG rules to make an RPG? 

Firstly increasing the Hits of everything, so characters and NPCs didn't always die from one wound. Then I changed the weapon damage to a die size (d4, d6.. Etc) so there was some randomness.

Introducing a Streetwise stat was necessary for intelligent type checks.

From Savage Worlds I borrowed the Bennie system because it's fun and makes for some really heroic moments.

I also had to tweak a lot of Talents so they applied both in and out of battle.

A new group of Talents was introduced representing Knowledge (eg Knowledge Gangs, Knowledge Mechanics). These are added to Streetwise checks when appropriate.

Players can choose from any non-justice Department hero in the book, except high level characters like The Angel Gang.

More to follow. It's still a work in progress.

3 story building

The building for Dust Tactics - Operation Cerberus (formerly produced by Fantasy Flight) is absolutely fantastic. It clips together without glue, is robust and has nice detail. It also comes with ledges made of thick card that slide in easily.

If you buy two or more sets, they slot together. It can be re shaped too.

First, I decided to glue together the flat pieces, so there would be much less to assemble. The corners remained unglued, as did each level.

After a disastrous start, due to an extremely powdery white spray primer, I primed the whole thing white. Then I used Bestial Brown to paint the brickwork. Tamiya weathering (soot) was used on the external plaster work to give it character, highlight details, and to hide the bad paint job.

Lastly I dry-brushed the bricks with Leather-brown.

I was pretty happy with the results.

With the building in that shape, there was a spare door piece. I decided to used this to provide access to the roof.

I used some spare bits of textured plasticard to make a doorway. I filled in the gaps with green stuff (Tamiyas green stuff is white). The door, of course, is exactly the right size to fit across the alcove.

No stairs were provided, so I decided to make some which miniatures could stand on.

Taking a lot of off-cuts of foamboard, I started with a base of 6x9cm and build it up, 3 layers per step, until it reached the next floor.

It looked a bit shabby, so I covered the sides with plain plasticard, glued sprue supports to the corners to cover up the shoddy workmanship, and stuck squares of textured plasticard on each step - making sure they were 3.5cm squares, so they overhang.

A bit of green stuff in the gaps and it was starting to look nice.

The floors I made from textured plasticard, primed white and hand painted black checked. The same design on the stairs, although they were primed grey.

Now I need to make furniture.

By the way, the stairs, roof and all floors are easily removable.