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.

Status Markers

There are a few status' in the Judge Dredd Miniatures Game which need keeping track of, so I made generic counters for this and other games.

Photoshopped, printed on card then laminated.

Map

It's a big wide world out there, and the same goes for the Judge Dredd universe. Anything is possible in mega-city, but that's the tip of the iceberg. Each city has its own particular character and architecture. The expanses between the cities are dangerous, but populated with mutations and contagions from your worst nightmare as well as some odd-ball characters eeking out an existence.

The fun doesn't stop there. There are a limitless number of planets, many populated with all manner of aliens.

If you can think of it, it's probably out there.

I remember when I was a child and Rogue Trader (Warhammer 40,000) first came out. The possibilities were endless. I got creative with my toys and scratch built plenty of things. A far cry from today's 40k where everything is very limited (if they don't sell it, it doesn't exist).

Judge dredd has re-sparked this creativity I had when I was a child.

Billboard

I made a free standing billboard from a train carriage (from an old train set), cut in half then each piece placed on their ends and stuck together. The ladder on the right is from a cheap toy fire engine (they've been so useful), and the top was the under carriage from a train car (train set again:). The support is a piece of sprue stuck with green stuff.

It was spray primed black, dry brushed with bolt-gun metal and the poster was photoshopped and printed onto label paper.

Can you spot Mean Machine in the photo?

Convenience Store

My friend donated this great convenience store. The chimney on the top right is also a button that slides the doors open. The scale is perfect!

I roughed up the flat surfaces with an abrasive (sandpaper works), added a larger plasti-card billboard on the front, stuck with green stuff, and covered up the front windows with paper (prep for spray priming).

The billboard was supported using sprue attached with green stuff.

The front was paved using off-cuts of textured plasticard.

I added a ladder (from a 1 pound fire engine) and a tyre barrier from cheapy cheap toy cars.

I primed it black. I didn't touch the inside, as the shelves full of stock look great.

Then I over brushed the brickwork with brown and painted the roof and pavement with adeptus battlegrey.

The sign and posters were photoshopped.

Mega-City has a convenience store!!

Demonic Summoning goes bad

Played a totally awesome game of Judge Dredd, Bazza's Boneheads the street gang (models made by Wargames Foundry) vs the Demonic Cabal.

My boneheads made their way to the local Noodle Bar on one of their routine shake-down and patrol circuits.

Meanwhile a notorious group of cultists had broken into an abandoned church. The perfect place for summoning demons.

As everyone knows, summoning demons is tricky business and requires a lot of luck (a lucky roll on the dice). Unfortunately for the Cabal luck was not on their side.

A class II demon materialised and immediately attacked the ring-leader, killing him instantly. The others were also dealt with in short order, ending the game in 2 turns. Bazza's Bobeheads didn't need to lift a finger and watched from across the street, laughing amongst themselves.

Due to the abrupt and gory end of the last game, we tried again with exactly the same results (same dice roll).

This happened 5 more times! We decided Bruce, my opponent, had been the victim of a gypsy curse at some point in his life. His dabbling in the occult days are over :-)

VW Beetle from Brit Cit

Yes! It's a WWII VW Beetle 1:43 scale or thereabouts. My wife suggested the Union Jack - anything goes in Mega City! Anyway I'm going to paint my Brit Cit judges soon.

I spay primed it black, hand painted the roof Codex Grey, then White. Painted the red first using Red Gore (dark red), then the blue (dark blue). I finished off the flag by using a lighter red and blue to make it pop.

Hall of Justice

A friend of mine, also building Mega City terrain, asked me about the Hall of Justice. Specifically, what it looks like and what's inside. This is what I sent him (copyright owned by Rebellion, Mongoose and others)

First, the one from the 2012 Karl Urban film. Imposing, blocky, near-future..

Next, some versions of the comic Hall of a Justice. Futuristic, rounded, massive eagle sculpture.

I also found this is one of my Judge Dredd Roleplaying Game books. The Justice Department guide published by Mongoose. Lots of great detail. Apologies for the bad photo.

This version is round and includes guns.

Train set re-purposed

Still on the terrain theme. Someone donated their old, beaten up train set to me. I was very impressed with the level of detail on the cars and instantly saw the potential. Even though their scale is 1:72, so too small to be used as a train, any plastic with molded detail can be re-purposed with some imagination and a bit of paint-work.

I took off the wheels and the under-carriage (keeping both for other projects - see billboard in later post), added a ladder to one (remember the fire engine), some old tyres to another (super cheap toy cars are great), and spray primed everything black before added colours.

I dry brushed with "Boltgun Metal" on a couple of pieces and a brass metallic paint on the oil tank. Then I used Tamiya weathering on everything.

Currently I'm posting pictures of things I've already completed, but when I reach "current" I'll post more detailed "How-to" information with photos of each stage.

Fire engine potential

Incidentally, I just found this photo of the fire engine that the cab came from (see last post). Just goes to show what's possible with a bit of imagination. I kept the molded panels from the rear of the truck for future projects.

Truck

The trailer piece is a kids transformers toy. The cab I cut from a kids fire engine toy. I filled in the windscreen with plasticard and painted it. Turned out good and now there's a decent sized truck in mega city.

Mega City signs

These were toy signposts. Re-painted and with posters printed on label paper.

Noodle Bar terrain

There was a distinct lack of noodles in the Mega City sector, so using an old dried squid container and a bunch of plastic bits, I made a noodle bar! The roof, made of the lid and some plasticard, is removable and provides cover. The counter, made of foam board and plasticard, is also removable.

The bowls and chopsticks are made of bits of Games Workshop Imperial Guard, and spare bits of Tamiya tank. The aircon unit is made from a transformers toy.

Posters made in photoshop.

Mega City progress

I had a day off and felt like playing with my toys. I'm very happy with the vehicles, terrain and Warboards I have assembled or collected so far. Mega-City is looking more and more convincing.

Deadzone Crates

Mantic sells some great 'random' supply crates for their Deadzone game. They're going to make great random things for the streets of Mega City. I just need to assign consequences for each symbol.

Warboards

Last year I Kickstarted these urban gaming boards called Warboards. They arrived! Each in an individual carry box, reversible and with different designs. I got enough for a 6'x4' urban table and a smaller "battlefield" and "space hulk" table.