The Meknificent Seven and Friends - 2014/10/26 Meks and Mercs (p.16)

[Westfalia Chris]

It doesn't hurt that I just read a couple issues of Judge Dredd.
(I know they're 'progs' in the UK, but these were the Eagle reprints from the US, so I'm using the term issues. I have lots of issues. Just ask my wife.)

Personally, I always considered the "Prog" terminology rather dated and laboured, and not in a charming, "zeerusty" way - very much like I think that "youth lingo" never works beyond the decade a book was written (Clockwork Orange, I'm looking at you). Obviously, as someone pointed out on a blog, "Dredd was written for 11-year old British boys and not for aging comic book fans" (slightly paraphrased).

That said, I am absolutely positively surprised how good Dredd actually can be. My previous experience was the Stallone movie first, then some of the 1990s comics (sans Bisley, which may be a reason I didn't take to those), and I didn't get into the 1970s and 1980s stories until ca. 2010. Then I recently got the PDF collections and by Drokk, those are good. Especially if you got a Wagner/Smith or Wagner/Bolland team-up.

[Michka]

I was fortunate enough to have a buddy who read Judge Dredd back in the early 80's. I started picking up the Titan collections from my favorite comic book store in my early teens. (Showing my age here.) I always think of Brain Bolland's art when I think of Dredd. Other artists have done a fine job on the character, but no one does a better Judge Dredd then Bolland.

Then again I might be biased. He is my favorite artist. Has been since Camalot 3000. 

[Mason]

Lovely additions to the project, Chris.
 

I really like the way that you are repurposing non-Dredd stuff for this, especially when you go 'finding' cool stuff like that Volgan Kill-Bot in your leadpile.

Kudos!
 

[cheetor]

Yet more cool stuff.  Minty is particularly nice, but I love the Kleggs.  I have two of the not Hammersteins that t I got somewhere (I painted Bil and Ben on them as a reference to an image in Khronicles of Khaos, itself a reference to childrens TV) but I havent seen the guy with the huge cannon before.  He looks very cool, but the weapon really should have "genocide -->" written on the barrel

I wasn't too clear in using "size" as I had the overall bulk and dimensions in mind. It is noticeably larger, though, and the heads are different in style, but I think they could work together. That said, despite the deplorable lack of poses, I think the Mongoose models are the better choice in that case, especially considering the scarcity of the old Kleggs and their price, I assume.

If you want imposing, go for the Mongoose figs. Those are very much like those in the comics when it comes to "threatening".

Do you have the Grampus model that Foundry made?  Its one of the better Foundry 2000AD figures and he really is huge - a little like how big the first Foundry Hammerstein is - he dwarfs the Mongoose figures.  I picked up two of the Citadel Kleggs recently and I find that there is something satisfyingly comic-book-y about the huge size disparity in the three ranges.  I find it oddly endearing.  The Kleggs vary in size from issue to issue in the Cal stories anyway: they come in all sizes.

I never worked out what those things that look like rockets on their backs are though.

Personally, I always considered the "Prog" terminology rather dated and laboured, and not in a charming, "zeerusty" way - very much like I think that "youth lingo" never works beyond the decade a book was written (Clockwork Orange, I'm looking at you)

The Drokk/Stomm/Dok/Jovis/Grud stuff in the Dredd strips have been rather self consciously re-embraced over the last ten or fifteen years or so.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt.  I still enjoy the ridiculous nonsense that Tharg spouts though, the "Splundig Vur Thrigg", "Quaquam blag", "Grexnix" stuff.  I assume that it was a sort of reaction to the "Excelsior", Marvel Bullpen Stan Lee stuff in Marvel books, but with a vaguely Black Adder feel to it.  A "Krill Tro Thargo" beats a "No  prize" any day

Especially if you got a Wagner/Smith or Wagner/Bolland team-up.

Wagner Bolland is the fan fave I think, but the strips that most immersed me in Mega City 1 as a kid were drawn by Ron Smith.  Definitely my personal favourite.

Have you ever read the Daily Star Dredd reprint stories?  Nearly all Ron Smith artwork and daft future crime stories crammed into half a page.  Pure condensed Dredd.

A bit of a waffle there, sorry.  A fifteen page thread on 2000AD miniatures will do that to a fella though.

[Westfalia Chris]

Yet more cool stuff.  Minty is particularly nice, but I love the Kleggs.  I have two of the not Hammersteins that t I got somewhere (I painted Bil and Ben on them as a reference to an image in Khronicles of Khaos, itself a reference to childrens TV) but I havent seen the guy with the huge cannon before.  He looks very cool, but the weapon really should have "genocide -->" written on the barrel

Har har! Nice idea. I've got the tax collector and the bots somewhere on my list, although I am leaning more towards using medium-sized Warjacks from Warmachine for Bil and Ben (haven't found a suitable one yet, though). Excalibur's website is still online (Linky to the "Droids" section), although I must say that they are quite pricey nowadays considering the age and the increasingly spotty mould quality. Also, you may want to check with them before ordering as they recently seem to have undergone some reorganisation and were at Crisis under a different company name ("Kontor 13").

Do you have the Grampus model that Foundry made?  Its one of the better Foundry 2000AD figures and he really is huge - a little like how big the first Foundry Hammerstein is - he dwarfs the Mongoose figures.  I picked up two of the Citadel Kleggs recently and I find that there is something satisfyingly comic-book-y about the huge size disparity in the three ranges.  I find it oddly endearing.  The Kleggs vary in size from issue to issue in the Cal stories anyway: they come in all sizes.

Yup, now that they are painted I am quite happy with them. I haven't got the Grampus figure, although I want to get it at some point, and I have seen a comparison pic somewhere - huge indeed.

I never worked out what those things that look like rockets on their backs are though.

I thought they were indeed some kind of retro-burners, considering the manner of their entrance ("BEHOLD... THE HORDES OF KLEGG!") in the comic.

The Drokk/Stomm/Dok/Jovis/Grud stuff in the Dredd strips have been rather self consciously re-embraced over the last ten or fifteen years or so.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt.  I still enjoy the ridiculous nonsense that Tharg spouts though, the "Splundig Vur Thrigg", "Quaquam blag", "Grexnix" stuff.  I assume that it was a sort of reaction to the "Excelsior", Marvel Bullpen Stan Lee stuff in Marvel books, but with a vaguely Black Adder feel to it.  A "Krill Tro Thargo" beats a "No  prize" any day

I guess it depends on who does the writing and how much restraint they display. More of an "occasional expletive" to break up the "Captain Exposition" parts, and for that it is eminently suitable (although "Madre Grud" sounds a tad bit awkward).

Wagner Bolland is the fan fave I think, but the strips that most immersed me in Mega City 1 as a kid were drawn by Ron Smith.  Definitely my personal favourite.

Love the Smith stuff. Incredibly detailed at times, and those over-the-top poses and facial expressions crack me up - Bolland has an exquisite style for people, machines and scenery, but his faces are a bit less lively IMHO. And don't get me started on "Citizen Snork". After the second part, I was in stitches.

Have you ever read the Daily Star Dredd reprint stories?  Nearly all Ron Smith artwork and daft future crime stories crammed into half a page.  Pure condensed Dredd.

I'm afraid not - although if the "Somewhere in Mega-City One, a council of criminals is plotting the perfect crime" stories are anything to go by, it sounds like a lot of fun.

A bit of a waffle there, sorry.  A fifteen page thread on 2000AD miniatures will do that to a fella though.

Honestly, as long as we stay on topic, I think a bit of nostalgic waffle may be allowed. With a side of selective retention syrup, please.

[Michka]

This may be an odd recommendation for a visual medium like comic books and miniatures. If you can find the Big Finish full cast dramatizations of Judge Dredd, they're great. It's amazing to hear someone use "drokk" or "for Grud's sake" out load and it works. The voice of Dredd is fantastic. 

[cheetor]

Har har! Nice idea. I've got the tax collector and the bots somewhere on my list, although I am leaning more towards using medium-sized Warjacks from Warmachine for Bil and Ben

Makes sense.  The tax collector looks like he is lifted straight from the Administratum section of a 40k rulebook.

I thought they were indeed some kind of retro-burners, considering the manner of their entrance ("BEHOLD... THE HORDES OF KLEGG!") in the comic.

That must be it (its been a while since I read The Day The Law Died).  Destined to wear retro rockets forever due to their first appearance, like the kid in the Transformers cartoon who wore a hard hat for three seasons because he first met the Autobots on an oil rig.

Love the Smith stuff. Incredibly detailed at times, and those over-the-top poses and facial expressions crack me up - Bolland has an exquisite style for people, machines and scenery, but his faces are a bit less lively IMHO. And don't get me started on "Citizen Snork". After the second part, I was in stitches.

I scanned a Smith Daily Star strip to go with my post about my painted "JImp" a couple of years ago.  Its a reasonably representative example, with cheesy humour, OTT facial expressions and what I regard as the definitive Judge uniform and equipment style (in some respects more than Mike McMahon, Colin MacNeil) and Brian Bollands versions).  The strip is here.

Maybe those strips wont be your cup of tea, but I think that the slices of Mega City life that they contain are definitive in many respects.

...Big Finish full cast dramatizations of Judge Dredd...

I have almost bought those a number of times, but always baulked at the last minute.  Simon Pegg voiced Johnny Alpha in the Strontium Dog versions I think.

[Westfalia Chris]

Makes sense.  The tax collector looks like he is lifted straight from the Administratum section of a 40k rulebook.

Yup, and the carapaces of the bots look straight off a plastic warlord titan from Space Marine.

I scanned a Smith Daily Star strip to go with my post about my painted "JImp" a couple of years ago.  Its a reasonably representative example, with cheesy humour, OTT facial expressions and what I regard as the definitive Judge uniform and equipment style (in some respects more than Mike McMahon, Colin MacNeil) and Brian Bollands versions).  The strip is here.

Maybe those strips wont be your cup of tea, but I think that the slices of Mega City life that they contain are definitive in many respects.

Groan. Maybe those are hampered by the newspaper format - I'd suspect it is hard to do Dredd as a one-pager. That said, TCCF#6 contains a six-page story that expands on the Jimps concept (within the setting of the "Mega City Top Criminals") and is quite an outrageous gag reel of mishaps and mayhem.

...Big Finish full cast dramatizations of Judge Dredd...

I have almost bought those a number of times, but always baulked at the last minute.  Simon Pegg voiced Johnny Alpha in the Strontium Dog versions I think.

That sounds quite nice, must take a look if you can purchase them outside of the UK.

[Westfalia Chris]

Another week, another update. Some minis, some terrain this time.

First, a squad of Vicky Pollard Block's Citi-Def (Mongoose, all). Good casting on these, decent enough sculpts for my tastes. Don't quite know what came over me with the pink-and-lime uniforms, but it was actually fun to paint.



Second, a lazy-ass attempt at an H-Wagon to act as a terrain piece for Rescue type scenarios, or for airfield/landing pad assaults.



The model is still a bit too recognizable (a Jedi starfighter from a local model store's clearance bin), although I do like how it came out a bit "stealth-fighterish". One of those H-Wagons circling the city during Block Wars to provide surveillance, or trying to intercept East-Meg nukes. I've actually done a second attempt using an SW Landspeeder (also from the cheapo bin) as a base for a more pudgy one, but that one suffered several painting accidents (primer reacting with the factory paint job, coats pitting, varnish silvering) and may have to completely redo it before it is halfway presentable. Should teach me to try an easy route rather than building the damn thing from scratch.

Anyway, some prettier things in the shape of terrain. More or less generic scifi stuff, and its primary uses will be cyberpunk and Judge Dredd, hence the preview here; I'll do some more shots once I get more pieces assembled and have the opportunity to photograph a proper layout in daylight.

A sample baseboard:



I've got two of these finished and material for two more. Size is 20x20 inches (50x50cm) as the material (Grey PVC hardfoam) only comes in metric sheets 50cm wide (and 3mm thick). It is rather resilient, although scratch-prone, which is not too bad for a concrete surface which I wanted to represent.

The surface is scribed into a 4x4" grid using a steel awl, with some slabs getting cracks; the whole thing is painted using a foam paint roller and various shades of thick acrylic paint (anthracite, medium gray) plus some washes on top.

Eventually, I want to do 1.5 square metres (6 modules) and am considering to have some with recessed road surfaces; unfortunately, this would double the already considerable cost (a square metre costs about 25 Euros) for a second, black panel to be mounted beneath the grey layer. Will have to think hard about it, but the material is superior in many ways to MDF, so at the moment, it is well worth the expense. Still, an overall concrete surface matches my impression of Mega-City one, with the roads being elevated (see below) in this part of town.

Next, some refinery pieces from a Technolog Oil Refinery kit I had lying around for half a decade. An awful lot of work, but pleasantly cartoonish; the immediate inspiration was the Mega City One oil depot from the finale of the Robot Rebellion story line, which will obviously require many more pieces to look convincing.



Finally, an elevated road. This also features 3mm PVC as the road surface, with sides and bottoms made from 6mm XPS polystyrene foam. I've so far constructed two sections of 5x20", with three XPS support pillars which are separate and hold both a single or two sections steady without slippage. This may work as a central board-divider (and I will add some extra modules to allow for use on imperial-sized boards (i.e. 48" wide), maybe also a turn once I figure out how to best create the curve.



That's it for today! I'm finalising my building concept ideas at the moment and may get to build a prototype next week. The main issue right now is how to best convey a "vertical" impression while keeping the playing area accessible and the items compact enough to facilitate storage.

[Mason]

What an update!
 

Whilst the VP gang look lovely (great colour combo) the scenery is stealing the show,
Those raised roads are perfect and just scream MC-1 to me.
 

Great stuff, Chris.
 

[Doomsdave]

Even if it doesn't look like an H-wagon it still looks cool.  Very stealth fighter.

[OSHIROmodels]

Cracking stuff Chris, love the direction the terrain is taking 

If you're looking for building height there are my Akira flats, and although they aren't officially released yet if you fancy one send me a pm 

cheers

James

[Westfalia Chris]

Cracking stuff Chris, love the direction the terrain is taking 

If you're looking for building height there are my Akira flats, and although they aren't officially released yet if you fancy one send me a pm 

James, very kind of you. I didn't want to be a bother, what with all your busy going-ons at the moment, but those really look the part, and it is actually very close in height what I was looking into. I'll get back to you on that once I do the "Hondotown" district of MC-1.

At the moment, I am leaning towards the scenery sets built for the 1995 Dredd movie. I'll put up another post later today with my concept sketches and talk about the design idea. Could be a good idea to hear if it is actually bull before I commit to the building part.

[OSHIROmodels]

I must admit, I really liked the '95 version of MC 1. Kept the comic book feel but could be a nightmare for gaming 

cheers

James

[Westfalia Chris]

I must admit, I really liked the '95 version of MC 1. Kept the comic book feel but could be a nightmare for gaming  

Exactly. Back when I was still living in Hull (yadda yadda 1st-hand experience of derelict/block war/juve perps to get it out of the way ), I went to a comic book fair and found the Boxtree "Making Of" book of that movie for a pittance, and there was quite a bunch of very useful info in there.

The main point that got me thinking was that they built the set for the Block War on the Shepperton backlot to a height of ca. 6 metres (18-20ft, judging from the photos) and used CGI (and some matte art, it appears) to "extend" the buildings beyond that. So I thought, one could build the bottom part of the buildings and "imagine" they extend beyond their actual height; in addition, one could prepare "shallow" (ie only 2-3 inches deep) sight-blocker facades to be placed at one side of the table to give the impression of a large block-type building.

Also, I decided to eliminate some of the obstructions found in the movie sets (e.g. traversing tubes, girders and stuff) and only build a couple as separate pieces which one could remove to facilitate figure movements.

The table plan is something like this:



The left design follows the more "traditional" approach with separate buildings scattered around the table, which is 40x40"; building areas are to scale, so most buildings would be mounted on an 8x8" base (which would also facilitate cross-usability with a 40k Cityfight table my brother built recently (designs, materials and construction advice by yours truly)). This gives a rather crowded layout, but the disjointed placement is IMHO not truly evocative of MC-1.

The right design follows the Shepperton Lot idea by forcing the centre of the table into an "alleyway" shape by placing the elevated road to the north end, acting as a visual border (but not for movement, since figures can move beneath the roads without issue); beyond the road, a Block facade of some 10cm depth has been placed. The south end is made up by similarly-sized buildings, leaving a larger surface area in the centre which could be further reduced by scatter terrain. Also, some elevated walkways may connect individual buildings, pending a satisfactorily stable assembly method.

As for building designs, I envision something like this - more 1970s and 1980s in design, not too futuristic but Scifi enough to work for MC-1 in a convincing way.



The general idea, if using the "Shepperton" approach, would be to leave back walls removable to allow access to the buildings; also, one could construct an 8x8" area building in two sections of 4x8" which could then be either used as table edge facades or as a joint building placed free-standing on the table.

Finally, some design ideas. Common features are numerous balconies to replace the table surface lost by the buildings' footprints, coupled with strong vertical elements to convey the height aspect.



The main problem will be getting a working compromise between large structures, accessibility and maintaining enough playing surface to allow for medium-size skirmish games (20-30 figures per side, eventually).