Mega City 1 Judge's uniform

[twrchtrwyth]

Your opinions would be of interest to me. Most miniatures I've seen have a darkish blue bodysuit. However while reading the Complete Case Files Vol 2 there is a distinct reference to Dredd as the man in black which clearly indicates a black bodysuit.

Any supporting evidence for your vote would not only be welcome but positively encouraged. References to dialogue in the comics would be an especially interesting source.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

I'd go for dark blue. Less so due to lore reasons, but more so due to visual appeal. A mostly black figure just doesn't look as nice on the table as a blue one. You could use black as a base colour and use blue-ish tones for highlights at least.

[ShortscaleDave]

Technically it's black, the blue coming from the early use of colour, and blue being used as an easier way to show light and shade, possibly because the colours were limited too.  To be honest I would go with blue, black doesn't look right to me.  The other thing to be ocd about is whether to paint the shoulder pads yellow or gold, or one yellow, and the eagle gold.  I've seen various imterpretations.

[ShortscaleDave]

[Supercollider]

I'm a big fan of Ezquerra's take.  Black suit with muted green kit.

[FramFramson]

All of the above colours are correct. It changed over the years.

In other words, do whichever you like 

[n815e]

This is Napoleonics...   

[Ultravanillasmurf]

The text says black, the pictures say blue.

You pays yer money and paints yer figure....

Black is very hard to paint well (numerous examples appear here of well painted black).

[Andym]

Personal one for me.....it's got to be the royal blue and bright green of the 80s comics for me. That's the time I got into the comics.

[Grimjack]

Black uniform, sort of like my Royal Navy uniform which is, of course, Navy Blue.

The uniform looks dark blue in the comics as they wanted to add shading, etc. The Dredd 2012 movie has the right colour though.

For my Judges (and I just found a whole bunch of boxes and blisters from the Mongoose / Warlord era I' d forgotten I had, most of which I no longer need), I go with watered down black over a white undercoat or drybushed patches of a dark blue over black undercoat / paint colour. Both work for me.

[Dezmond]

I think you will find if you asked the creators of Dredd they would tell you the uniform colour was based on NYC Police uniform of the 70's.

So... is that Navy Blue as in Really Dark Blue or Navy Blue as in Black?

[twrchtrwyth]

I think you will find if you asked the creators of Dredd they would tell you the uniform colour was based on NYC Police uniform of the 70's.

That's the 1930s uniform isn't it?

[Wachaza]

I think you will find if you asked the creators of Dredd they would tell you the uniform colour was based on NYC Police uniform of the 70's.

Why would Brits (and the odd European) use NYCPD colours?

Surely British police were at least part of the inspiration.

[FramFramson]

Yep. The Brits had their own Megacity and Judges, IIRC.

[Westfalia Chris]

Yep. The Brits had their own Megacity and Judges, IIRC.

But the less said about CalHab and The Emerald Isle, the better.

On topic, while I painted my Judges in a strong-contrast black and yellow with only very slight dark blue highlights on the black, if I were to do it again, I would rather do them in a rich, dark Prussian or midnight blue, for a more comic book-ish effect. The gritty black from the modern, colour Ezquerra stories looks great in the books, but a bit boring on the figures.