The end and new beginnings of Dredd

[Ulfhednar]

I found the dodgy fembots / cyborgs that put me off, it was the Scotia Grendel Urban War Syntha Artemis Biomechs, quite different to the Statuesque Hong Kong ones that are more mannequins than naked human and so much more classy.

Finally found all the figures I need it's just a question of if they scale with Warlord Dredd, which I'm realising is a bigger problem than I thought. East Riding Miniatures slicks (as ghoulish goons rather than Necromunda type gang) and interpol would work great (as Brit-Cit citi-Def or just belonging to a different Meg 1 block) if they're not too big (and I shall see, already ordered some Slicks to try).

CP Models do some great civilians:


A few of Gringo's40's Triginta Zombie hunters would give some gritty quality to my Badlands community.


Scotia Grendel Void 1.1 Vasa marines would make a great 10 man henchman group for a Gotham type villain, or as a posse for the Argentina or Vatican Judge. And these Nexus Cyclos troops from their Kryomech range would be perfect for East Meg grunts (paramilitary but not too much, still very sci-fi urban), and they have 18 of them in different poses, apparently a decent mix of male & female, with sensible hvy weapons and everything. Would work as a gang too, and maybe even as GI's (or General Marines or something cuz of their different boots & guns), for Rogue Trooper. (edited - ordered a few now to test them out).



Scotia Grendel even have armed civilians (militia, perfect if they scale). I shall try and find the proper threads for these manufacturers and ask there too, but does anyone know how scotia grendel Void 1.1 Vasa Marines, their Urban war stuff, and their Kryomech Nexus troops scale to Warlord Dredd? Also how CP models and those Gringo's zombie hunters scale?

edit - and this desert 'charmer' from Resinaplanet (despite their name figure in metal) for a bit more badlands character / wastelands style diversity.

[mcfonz]

I only have the odd mutant from the Judge Dredd range as I was disappointed by the judge I received I didn't invest in any more.

I do have some of the old Void militia:


I have other ranges I can scale them up to if needed but thought a space marine is pretty well known.

[Ulfhednar]

Excellent thank you :-) The Scotia Grendel figures are perfect style for Dredd and have stuff you could use for loads of things, but I saw this on the net that made them look big



L to R: Scotia Grendel (Nexus Marine), em4, Fenryll, Hasslefree, Copplestone Castings

But then your picture suggests they'll be fine and they do look excellent. I think best thing is I'll get a few Scotia Grendel from the various ranges just to see (and they have to much to offer if they work out), it's not only height it's the chunkyness, Warlord Dredd are slim and vampy and you really need to see them alongside other figures to tell. Once I've done my investigating (and maybe got a camera phone) I'll do a thread saying what works and maybe posting comparisons.

[Dags]

Thanks, again, to everyone who has made enquiries about the Judge Minty miniatures - £155 has gone to Cancer Research as a result

I got the signs cast on Friday and those ones will be in the post first thing tomorrow morning- thanks for your patience

All the bases have gone now - eBay is probably your only hope but there are still a couple of resin Mintys and metal Aquilas left

Cheers all

[Ulfhednar]

There's a metal Judge Minty with sign & resin base on ebay right now, I believe from someone associated with Mongoose (and a really decent guy), as it says probably only one for sale anywhere in World.

[Ulfhednar]

Biker gangs? Look no further than infinity. Haqqislam bikers.



What about Klegs? Anybody got some good proxys for them? I did find what they call Krokodar, on the Mierce Minis web site. They might take a bit of work with GS to clothe though.....

I'm definitely doing biker gangs but later when my finances have recovered :-P

Re Klegg proxies, like I said before personally I don't think the jumpsuit uniform or its colour matters as I think that just related to Judge Cal and them being uniformed for Meg 1 as his troops. I did come across these for Kleggs from Khurasan miniatures, the range is 28mm but don't know how much bigger than that these are (as in being Klegg sized), they're apparently based on dinosaurs rather than lizards or crocs but look viable (especially as troops are made out of 2 kit bodies so lots of variation). Would still require modding though as you'd need to chop the tail off, unless you're happy for them to just be some kind of Klegg relation. There's maybe lots of versions on Planet Klegg with the Kleggs just the most evolved / least primitive, just like various species of predator dinosaurs were very diverse while still related & similar, just like Kleggs have obviously related, similar but still different Klegg hounds.

[twrchtrwyth]

Regarding the judge I was talking about earlier, he's from the Mega City judges boxed set, and it's the one with one lawgiver not two, d'oh again. I got the set on ebay without box and undercoated. The reason I asked for a picture is that the sculpt seemed rather crude and there is a big bit of metal coming out of the hand and gun. I tried to take some pics to illustrate and you can see them below. I started to think whether it could be a recast or is this the crappy type of sculpt some have mentioned. What do you think?





On a plus note, I just won Don Uggie, Fast Eek and Joe Bananas on ebay.

[mcfonz]

Ulfy, thought I would throw a couple of links at you for more inspiration:

http://www.macrocosm.co.uk/product-category/macrocosm/the-resistance/



http://heresyminiatures.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2&zenid=b82bcb85d1ee73648887246304bd2d93

The heresy troopers might make good cit-def stand ins as well. Plus the various other sci fi characters as crims etc.

Also, with scotia grendal, it's worth noting that they have miniatures from different ranges - that SG miniature is not from the same range as the void miniatures so may scale a bit differently. Also worth noting the integrals on those compared to some in that line up that don't.

[Ulfhednar]

From what I've seen the ones sold off on ebay recently that have been undercoated black were mainly from a seller called Baronoir or something, who is connected directly to Mongoose. I think it's his own personal stuff, I'd assume they're top castings as they'll be from early moulds and he'll have picked out perfect ones. I've had some from him undercoated in black and they've been perfect in terms of the detail being present. However he's not necessarily a pro-painter so maybe hasn't cleaned up some models enough before undercoating. Of course it may be from someone else entirely.

In general the casting can be a bit here or there. The vast majority I've had have been perfectly good, but then a few others have had malformed hands or lacking detail, and a few with quite a lot of flash, the riot judge with baton can be bad for it and lawmaster wheels, which is a nuisance because of the tyre tread detail.

On your picture, that straight protruding angle going from gun to hand below the trigger finger (maybe joining onto 3rd finger) definitely looks like a piece of flash, I have 2 of those figures, one 2nd hand that's been paint-stripped and it's like it's had a light blackwash and shows the detail really well and looks right without that extra bit yours has.

The sculpting on the back of that hand & gun is slightly crude but it has a lot going on with hand ridges and stuff, it's almost like scamping like they do in comics like you see in Dredd to imply & give a sense of stuff in motion. Other than that bit of flash your model looks fine (but I'm no expert).
  
I'd still try and check with someone who has a well painted one though if you can, and regardless it's maybe worth paint-stripping (with detol?), then light blackwashing it to bring out the detail to really see and then clean it up from scratch. It looks a good one in every other respect, but if you do clean it up and decide it's still no good I will have a spare of that and a quite a lot of other various judges & stuff going on bazaar in a week or 2.

[Ulfhednar]

Wow that priest is brilliant I'm definitely getting that, he'll go with the Sand People that I'm going to be doing a tribe of for hardcore Cursed Earth. The troopers are excellent too, but I can't think how to fit the gas-masks in, with them in quite tidy clothes (so not Cursed Earth vagrants), with so many others like Citi-Def not having gasmasks. It's a problem the other way for Rogue Trooper, almost all gasmasks just go to filter, there's very few with air tanks and full NBC suits like Norts or Southers.

A few with gas-masks is great though and I'll get a couple, and from the Lead Adventure shop too, theirs are really excellent.

Re Heresy do they scale ok with Warlord Dredd (which I've realised is a lot like Crooked Dice Time Lift Security in scale and in being slim), if so I'm definitely getting that Inspector crew, they have loads of nice figures, the ship crew look brilliant (a bit original Battlestar Galatica Viper pilot), little robots, Tiny Tank ganger with rocket launcher, and even a few from Firefly for my Badlands town. Though the Firefly crew are very cartoony, they've not done Haylee any favours. Delighted someone has done her though and the figure is fun, if scale is ok she's getting recruited.

[Ulfhednar]

In case anyone is interested, there's an old box of Paranoia robots appeared on ebay, for crazy money but if price is no problem they reckon they're rare. Includes the 3 mini-bots that ended up in Dredd, but also 3 other robots. Can find it on ebay searching for Mongoose miniatures.



And in case anyone missed it, you can get alternate versions of holo suits from rebel minis in America (called Earth Force Widowmaker's, but they're the original version from Starship Trooper), offer the potential of East Meg holo suits & have nobbly knees like the paldrons on the Foundry old Citadel inquisition that would work as East Meg SCS / KGB. Since exchange rate recovered a bit the price is ok.



They have what could be mk1 holo's too in same knobbly knee style.



I guess from the old Mongoose Starship trooper range, they appear to have some good troops too that would do for a Citi-Def unit



Or for getting slaughtered by Aliens

[twrchtrwyth]

Scurv, want to sell one of those boxes?

[Ulfhednar]

There's one of those Gangs of Mega City boxes as new on ebay right now for £30, intact sprues and card buildings & everything. It's tempting (as is making bespoke units out of various plastic sprues) but I'm going to try and stay away from gaming plastic miniatures.

If Scotia Grendel Kryomek Cyclos Infantry scale with Warlord Dredd I'm totally sorted for East Meg now, I could have an entire army of East Meg convict grunts the Soviet Judges had sentenced into their invasion force. I'll find out in a day or 2 when the couple of blisters I ordered to test turn up. If they don't work I'll just park East Meg for now and concentrate on gang war (and for later cursed earth and separately badlands).

I totally agree it can't be too military and still be right for Dredd but then it's hard to find non military with a decent enough selection to give variance & still in some kind of uniform / consistent style. And still be metal :-) Yes modding pads (and boots) would be a big help and it's something I'll try. I did get a zombie conversion pack with a sprue of pads in, can probably work something up from that, though I think the green stuff would be better if I can, look less stuck on.

If the Slicks I ordered from ERM scale though, then I'm not only sorted for sinister goons but also ERM's non military Interpol should scale too & would make a good Citi-def squad. I don't really expect them to scale well though, which is why I was looking at other Mongoose figures like those former Starship Troopers Rebel Games have taken on.

re sci-fi civilians, CP models have 5 excellent ones that would do for Meg 1, if they scale, I'll know in a day or two.

edit - having said that though if the Meg 1 sprues were available at a decent price I'd get some & use them, at least as more civilians but the few boxes that are about are rare enough to work out as expensive as lead. There's definitely a gap in the market for urban sci-fi that nothing at least current really fills, at least as a range rather than odd figures. I guess there is though, just not necessarily that scale with Warlord Dredd.

[Ulfhednar]

:-) I know where he got them from, I found a thread on some American forum from 2012 when these were first discontinued and they were being sold off for $1.24 per box. For about 2 or 3 days, until a few people bought big volume so they increased the price to $5 a box! So there was definitely big volume picked up at low prices by some people, and they cash in on ebay, in this case so everyone was a winner.

I think they'd be worth maybe £15 a box, for the curiosity, card buildings, makes them roughly £1 a figure and good for conversions or civilians. There's still boxes available for that kind of money in America but not in UK, and by the time you've paid the shipping you're back up to about £30. It's also off-putting how many comments there are about how impossible the type of plastic was to work with, how brittle and how resistant to almost all glues (most seem to have resorted to super-glue as plastic glues weren't working, and that's brittle over time too). Instead for £10 (assuming they scale & I've ordered them so will find out, but GOMC1 were apparently a bit small compared to the metal Dredd figures so scale maybe wasn't perfect anyway) you can get 5 excellent metal Meg 1 civilians from CP Models, plus a very cute Star Trek female crew member with a scanner who'd work as lots of things (I think in my case probably as Colonel Whites Aide de Camp / nurse).





^ I think this one looks like that Karl Urban who played Dredd in the last film, very cool to have him as an extra in your games as a civi. Maybe he's on his phone to his agent to find out why he isn't playing a lead role Judge.

[Ulfhednar]

The old Mongoose I'd definitely bite for are the metal Citi-def they did for GOMC1. From what I've seen searching google it was a 4 man unit, some or all hvy weapons, plastered with the CD logo. I picked up the command group blister (officer, medic & 1 trooper) a few weeks back from a shop in France that had it buried in old stock and they are excellent figures, although I've not opened that blister yet as if I can't make up the unit (they are very much in a certain uniform) I'll keep it sealed as a collectable as it's definitely very rare (at least still sealed on card).

I picked up a sealed carded blister of 3 metal Judges too, I think originally for GOMC1, then transferred to Dredd Miniatures game (are all Judges that later appeared in other box sets or blisters) but this blister has different artwork on the card to the normal Dredd miniatures, the plastic dome is again glued to the card like the Citi-Def one is and its printed label states they are a promotional pack. In time I'd guess all this OOP / promotional / obscure stuff is going to get very collectable (like the Citadel stuff has), but I still think the majority of the Dredd miniatures are going to be put back into production by someone, probably Warlord. They're too good, there's too many that weren't retailed for long enough or at all, too many already invested in the range and would buy more (as the rapid selling out of stock in the fire-sales demonstrated, although that's saturated the market for a bit so now prices on ebay are poor, suggesting demand / sales would be low initially if the range went back into production till that glut of dumped stock had worked through & the market had repopulated) and maybe I saw a clue the other day. The Judge Minty that was last sold off on ebay was from someone connected to Mongoose, and in the description they made a point of saying out of the range, that figure is and will always be rarest because along with it being originally limited it would never be produced again, maybe implying that the normal range or at least some of it might be.