Some New Stuff from Gen Con 2011

Just a quick post to show off some of the great new minis from Mongoose for the Judge Dredd Miniature game. 


If you read my last blog post about painting Citi Def troopers for John Blanche Block you'll remember that I ended by hoping that Mongoose would do some new CD troopers. Well apparently the scryers at Mongoose heard my plea because they have created a brilliant new set of Citi Def heavy weapons troopers.

The set includes a Citi Def Trooper with a heavy spit gun and his loader as well as a missile launcher trooper with her loader. Each loader is armed with a spit gun as well as ammo for the heavies. The heavy spit gunner comes in two pieces and assembles into a dynamic yet sturdy looking model. The missile launcher trooper, also in two pieces, is a female who wears what appears to be a blast skirt and is posed in a nicely dynamic pose. One of the elements of these models that really appeals to me is the authentic 2000AD design of helmets, knee pads, etc. These troopers really seem like inhabitants of Mega City One and not just random sci-fi folks. And each figure has a raised "CD" marking which will make painting them even easier.

Also from Mongoose is a new mini of the infamous Judge Cal. Well sculpted and imperious this megalomaniacal menace to Mega City One will be a great part of an assassination based scenario. Rumors of a Judge Fish mini have also been floating around.

It was a great Gen Con this year and I'll be posting pics of the minis that I picked up as I complete them.

Citi-Def Squad for John Blanche Block

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.

Maybe next time we'll get some Citi-Def troopers from Mongoose that really look the part.