Tuesday 16 January 2018

Rogue Trader - Robo-Dog / Judge Dredd - Mega Hound

Welcome back, today I have something really special for you a miniature that has long been a holy grail to me for a long time.


Robo-Dog / Mega Hound - side


Robo-Dog / Mega Hound - side


Robo-Dog / Mega Hound - front



The Robo-Dog is a Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader 2nd Flyer miniature, I have only ever seen it in two places, the original flyer and the Judge Dredd Slaughter Margin offer sheet.  You got 5 Mega Hound miniatures with the offer I really wish I purchased these.

It has the appearance that it was sculpted by Bob Naismith but if you know better let me know and due to lack of info on it's tab it must have been 1986 or before.  I really love the dynamic pose of this miniature, charging forward like a trained attack dog, I would not be surprised if comic art was copied as 2000ad stories often featured robot dogs.


I pondered for a long time on what colours I was going to paint this miniature, would I go blue like my Adeptus Arbites dog, codex grey of the Imperial Army eventually I drew inspiration from the silver spikey armoured ‘Shrike’ character in my favourite sci-fi novel series Hyperion Cantos, read them if you can, I recommend the Audible audiobook while painting you will not regret it.

Last thing about this miniature is that it does have a variant, I positive this miniature is a resculpt of the Slann Warhound from the Warhammer Fantasy Battle 2 Edition scenario 'The Magnificent Sven', examing the two it appears the the Slann Warhound's fur was filed off and rigid angles filed in, the mounth was plugged leaving the teeth largely intact and a some plates sculpted on here and there.




Judge Dredd Slaughter Margin Offer Sheet
Slaughter Margin - Paper Character Tokens


What stats could you use for Rogue Trader and Judge Dredd I here you ask, I would go with a small Walker robot from the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue trader rulebook page 119, not too tough and only one wound so a little scary in close combat but killable. (see below)


Walker Robots Page 119

The Mega Hound Stats from the Judge Dredd Slaughter Margin book. (see below)

Mega Hound Stats


It's much better miniature than the accompanying Imperial Assault Trooper / Slaughter Margin 'Mek'.




I have loads of the Mek miniature as it eventually made it's way into the Imperial Army blister packs, here is my current one painted for Judge Dredd, I am hoping to paint one or two more to a better standard for the Imperial Army.


Imperial Assault Trooper / Slaughter Margin 'Mek


thanks for dropping in,
J

Thursday 30 November 2017

Citadel Judge Dredd Perps Part 8

Borag Thungg Earthlets,

Here are my latest offerings from my quest to paint all the Perps from the 1985-87 citadel Judge Dredd miniatures range.

These miniatures are again all from the JD3 Perps and Muties range with a Slaughter Margin character thrown in for good measure.

First up we have the incorrectly named 'Lorien Speck' whose name tag says 'Frank Zit', Judge Dredd fans may well remember him from as 'Big Frank Zit' the leader of the Zits gang and the Judge Dredd story 'West Side Rumble' 2000AD Prog 434 1985 who battled it out with the Sharks gang before Justice Department broke up their juve rumble.  It's nice to see another miniature who is a carbon copy of the comic illustration, it makes it much easier to spot any irregularities. Oh yeah it true 1980's fashion he is armed with Nunchaku which 1980's boy didn't make his own?

For those of you are thinking who was 'Lorien Speck then? He was a Tom Selleck look-alike featured in the Blockmania story 2000AD Progs 236-244 1981 in the lead up to the Apocalypse War epic.

Big Frank Zit (Lorien Speck) - front

Big Frank Zit (Lorien Speck) - back

2000AD Prog 434 Judge Dredd: West Side Rumble

Next up we have 'Zuggy Spotz' another incorrectly named miniature and again his tag reveals the true name, he is 'Crazy Joseph' another member of Big Frank's gang the Zits appearing in 'West Side Rumble' 2000AD Prog 434 1985, check out the comic image above.  At first I thought he was a Red Indian when I found him in my Judge Dredd miniatures box as looked like he fitted in with my Slaughter Margin Red Indians.

I think Zuggy Spotz was a Mega Block name in a Judge Dredd story somewhere but I haven't the time at the moment to trawl through every issue to find it, well not today anyway.

Crazy Joseph (Zuggy Spotz) - front

Crazy Joseph (Zuggy Spotz) - back

Next up we have 'Vid Crew Sound' a miniature from the Judge Dredd Slaughter Margin campaign set, at first I thought this miniature was another of those rare unique miniatures for this range (no variants) as I had trouble identifying his makeup but eventually I found one while prepping a variant it jumped out.  Unlike most of the Slaughter Margin set he looks nothing like his cardboard token (see below) and the sculptor has fashioned a Japanese/Nippon head on him, I suspect Naismith.  It was pointed out by @nergling on twitter that he was holding a 'nice corn on the cob', it is supposed to be a boom mic for anyone confused :D

Vid Crew Sound - front
Vid Crew Sound - back

Judge Dredd Slaugther Margin Campaign tokens

Lastly we have 'Brother Obee' of the 'Mutie Brotherhoodin the Cursed Earth saga progs 65-66.  Also Kelv is a variant of this miniature. I have already painted all the members of his gang, MorgarBrother JobeeBrother GomorrahMutie with BazookaMutie in Dress and Squid Face.

This completes the JD3 Muties code for me.
Brother Obee - front

Brother Obee - back

And finally I finished off a Ground Zero Games SL-09 COLLATERAL DAMAGE PACK Child as every Judge Dredd scenario is going to need some collateral damage (don't tell the wife I am painting these). I have loads of these from 15+ years ago almost finished and size they fit beautifully with the Oldhammer Citadel Miniatures before the scale creep.


GZG Child holding teddy bear


Splundig vur Thrigg
Hope you enjoyed another visit
J

Friday 17 November 2017

Rogue Trader - Mercenaries Part 2

Hello, I hope you enjoyed my last blog post featuring some of the RT502 - Mercenaries, I am trying to keep the momentum going between this project and my quest to paint all of the Citadel miniatures Judge Dredd Perps which is going well but is going to take another 2 years or so with the interruptions I have planned like completing the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader 1st Flyer March 1987 miniatures and a personal favourite of mine the Slocombes Warbots and SFD Robots which are still sitting in their blisters waiting to be opened for your enjoyment (photos will be taken to upset the collectors, is that a form of trolling?  😆) so bear with me.

You can see how some of the projects are getting on in my Gallery.

Anyway first up today is 'No-Face Fargo' from the RT502 - Mercenaries code who started life as a Imperial Light Trooper on the Warhammer 40,000 (Rogue Trader) 1st Flyer March 1987 and another miniature depicted in the rulebook, a variant of the 'Imperial Garrison Trooper/Kylla Condotti' 1st Flyer/RT502 -Mercenaries miniature who's tab says 'Low Tek Trooper' in the case of 'No-Face Fargo' he has a blank tag label so I reckon he is the later sculpt of the two, the infamous Imperial Assault trooper/Judge Dredd Mek shares the same head.  
The major appeal to a lot of Rogue Trader fans is the sculpted on back pack which was the norm in the first releases and many fans would love to see this done again. I went for a palette of blues for this miniature designing my own Imperial navy uniform and imagine him with his mask in a low gravity/oxygen boarding action.

No-face Fargo - front

No-face Fargo - back

Imperial Garrison Trooper - Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader Rulebook page 67




and it's time for some Abhumans







Secondly we have 'Shorty' the Halfling eventually the nickname Ratling became the norm for these guys, another one of the RT502 - Mercenaries usually for this code not sculpted by Bob Naismith I believe but I don't know who yet.  Complete with Judge Dredd style boots, elbow/knee pads, mithril/mesh shirt and a bolt pistol that is the size of a bolter for this character, his helmet is an excellent sculpt and was a joy to paint, I need to mention the cooking pot and spoon on his backpack too even Space Halflings need breakfast, elevenses, and brunch before tossing 'the one nut to rule them all' into the fire.


Shorty the Halfling - front
Shorty the Halfling - back








Lastly we have the infamous 'Beastman Trooper Gaxt' from the 1987 first Rogue Trader Imperial Army code, semi dressed in army uniform maybe because his beastman side cannot be tamed as he goes topless with studded armbands, carrying an autogun, a really cute chain knife or short sword and has a weirdstone dangling from his belt.  Many W40K gamers have created some really amazing Imperial Guard Beastmen units over the years and it all started with this guy.


Beastman Trooper Gaxt - front

Beastman Trooper Gaxt - back





It appears that the games/miniature designers at Games Workshop know how dear we still hold 'Gaxt' to our hearts and there may be money in it (cynical?) so have churned out a Necromunda Beastman Bounty Hunter for all you fans out there. (p.s. I am loving their new direction, I even purchased Silver Tower, is there a new golden age coming?)





Thanks for looking I hope you enjoyed, now get following 😈
J

Thursday 21 September 2017

Rogue Trader - Mercenaries


Hello, with the good wife still away in NYC I am making the most of the painting and blogging time, you will not see this much activity a week from now so lap it up my friends.

As you know I completed my first major project sometime ago, I have still got finish it off some proper photography on this project but it is done, it's sister project was the RT502 - Mercenaries and although I cherry picked and painted 'Old World Jack' and 'Inquisitor Augustus' some time ago, this small code has been nagging me for some paint for a long time, so I am currently 10 miniatures in to a 16 miniature code, easy eh? funnily enough I do have most of these painted already as Catachan jungle fighters for Warhammer 40K 2nd Edition but I couldn't bothered to strip them as they are half decent may need just a spruce up.

All the RT502 Mercenaries were sculpted by Bob Naismith except 'Shorty' and 'Iron Bonce the squat' (not sure when?) and released in White dwarf 95 in 1987 thanks to Axiom's blog post which confirms these are Bob's sculpts, I have used plenty of greys on these guy's to make them look like Imperial Army deserters and added some variations like Desert uniforms. 

Many of these characters appeared in illustrations in the Rogue Trader Warhammer 40,000 rulebook so where possible I have took a snippet shot of them.

The characters like 'Sarge' Rockhard remind me of the cool characters from films like The Dirty Dozen and Cross of Iron, along with the comics the designers would may have grown up with like Warlord, Battle with their Rat Pack story drawn by Carlos Ezquerra of 2000Ad Judge Dredd fame who appears to often base his main character on James Coburn. I think Colonel Schaeffer's last Chancers are direct descendants of these influences.  

Anyway onto the miniatures, enjoy!


First up we have a much loved miniature 'WorldBurner' illustrated in the Rogue Trader Warhammer 40,000 rulebook (and somewhere else I think), appears to have some sort of assault uniform and weapon.


Worldburner - front

Worldburner - back


Worldburner - RT Rulebook page 172

Worldburner - RT Rulebook page 126

Next up we have 'Plundering Pete', same uniform as Worldburner, maybe some sort of ranking on the shoulder of his bandolier, I painted him up as a renegade Tallarn guardsman.
Plundering Pete - front

Plundering Pete - back

Is this Pete - RT Rulebook page 109
More Pete from the RT Rulebook


'Abbadon' is a repurposed miniature and first appeared on 1st Flyer March 1987 as a 'Ground Combat Trooper' but it as this miniature is tagged IPC and dated 1985 so it fairly obvious from appearance that this miniature is a Rogue trooper Souther that never made into the '8' miniature JD10 & 11 code. It's not the best sculpt so I don't know if that was the problem or that the code could not be an odd number for packing purposes, JD10 & 11 are both 4 distinct characters.


Abbadon/Souther - front

Abbadon/Souther - back

Next we have 'Mad Morris' storming ahead with his Lasgun, I had to do this one in Imperial Army colours, dynamic pose, his outfit quite typical of the Imperial Army so definitely a deserter.

Mad Morris - front

Mad Morris - back

'Hacker Harris' really reminds me of Philthy Animal from the heavy metal band Motorhead, with his wild hair and cut off jacket, he appears to have the same head as the Space Marine Captain Huron Grimm the face of this miniature was tough to paint you really need a bendy brush and a dentist mirror to get into the eyes due to the positioning of the head.


Hacker Harris - front

Mad Morris - back

'Space-dout Sam' is a 1st Flyer March 1987 miniature 'Imperial Heavy Infantry' that like the others didn't fit with the direction the Imperial Army was going in so found it's way into the Mercenary code, he has heavy battle armour with side deflector shields and a really great sculpted on flight pack which was a joy to paint.

Space-Dout Sam/Imperial Heavy Infantry - front

Space-Dout Sam/Imperial Heavy Infantry - back


'Sarge Rockhard', who appears to have the same head as 'Plundering Pete', uniform reminds me of the Chainsaw Warrior so I went for a similar colour scheme, I really had to fight the temptation to paint him with a cheesey 'The Sweeney' Robbers mask.


'Sarge' Rockhard - front

'Sarge' Rockhard - back

'Sarge' Rockhard - RT Rulebook page 221


'Iron Bonce' the squat, another 1st Flyer March 1987 miniature first labelled as 'Space Dwarf' encased in a full battle armour together with flight or power pack (whichever you prefer), what's not to love about this miniature, although the first wave of squats are cute, I wish more of these were made, maybe it is proto exo-armour he is wearing?, it's much nicer than the horrid fantasy squat exo-armour of later years. Note he has the 'M' insignia that appears on several Rogue Trader miniatures and may have it roots in 2000AD's Rogue Trooper.

Iron Bonce the Squat - front

Iron Bonce the Squat - back
Iron Bonce - RT Rulebook page 59


Pirate is another 1st Flyer March 1987 miniature but this time the sculptor has removed the sword and scabbard of the C Series Fighter 'Cedric' and replaced it with one of the weapons used on the citadel Judge Dredd ranges, this miniature never got reproduced anywhere else. I went for the glam look of the 1980 Flash Gordon movie, reds and golds complement his camp outfit.

1st Flyer Pirate - side

1st Flyer Pirate - other side

1st Flyer Pirate - front




Thanks for looking I hope you enjoyed, all comments mean a lot to me
J