Just a quick post to show my recently finished Citi-Def squad for either Gangs of Mega City One or the newer Judge Dredd Miniatures game. I picked up two sets of GoMC1 as well as one of the Street Gang expansions for 5.00 a piece about three years ago at Gen Con. I figured that the minis would be useful for random sci-fi bad guys and they were a good price overall. I've been using them as examples on several blog posts but never sat down to finally paint some.
Here's what I learned from working with these minis:
They are not very well thought out at all.
Although I love the idea of modular miniatures based on the Judge Dredd comics these minis really don't capture the design style of 2000AD. Sure they have knee and shoulder pads and some of the guns look like they should but the biggest issue is that they don't want to go together in a way that looks good at all. Trying to get these Citi-Def troopers to look like they are actually holding their spug guns correctly was going to take a lot more time than I was willing to invest. And the poses are very static overall even if you use the various arms and leg combinations.
One thing I do like about them is the inclusion of two helmeted heads in each set that can be used to make Citi-Def troopers so I set about making some for my first city-block The John Blanche Block. Even this proved to be a bit more work than I cared to put into them. The mold lines are brutal and the previously mentioned wonky parts fit made them a pain to assemble.
I painted them in red as that always seemed to be Blanche's favorite color when he was painting for Games Workshop. I was planning to do more text painting on them, which is one of my favorite stylistic ideas from the Dredd comics, but honestly I couldn't be bothered. So they get a quick CD on the helmet and then off to the Block War.
As a fan of Bob Naismith I'm not sure what caused these to end up so badly. Mongoose seemed to have some plastic production problems with their Starship Troopers line as well so I'm going to assume that Mr. Naismith turned in lovely sculpts that were changed drastically in the casting.
As a fan of Bob Naismith I'm not sure what caused these to end up so badly. Mongoose seemed to have some plastic production problems with their Starship Troopers line as well so I'm going to assume that Mr. Naismith turned in lovely sculpts that were changed drastically in the casting.
Maybe next time we'll get some Citi-Def troopers from Mongoose that really look the part.
Considering how disappointing those GoMC1 plastics are (I have been staring at my sprues for years but they never looked like they are worth the effort) you have done a really good job.
ReplyDeleteIt never occurred to me to use those figures as Citi-Def. While the sculpts may not capture the feeling of Mega City 1 gangers very well, they certainly look the part as uniformed Sunday soldiers.
Good stuff.
Oh my word, those are really quite dreadful minis. You've done a sterling job with them but I can see why you got disheartened. Pretty much all nose and knee pads
ReplyDeleteI'm also a big Naismith fan and have picked up some of his old sculpts and his new Mantic stuff. I would say he is very much a sculptor of extremes, like a Hollywood actor that makes great arthouse, critically aclaimed films, mixed in with horrible turkeys.
He does have a tendancy to produce the odd figure with VERY chunky, ugly details, but I've personally seen him sculpt some beautiful bespoke zombie heads at Mantic open day in about 5 minutes, so not sure what the explanation is.
Nice PJ though
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