JD11 - The Traitor General

Good evening, this draft has been hanging around for ages so I thought I better complete it for your enjoyment. Today we have the Traitor General from the 1985 Citadel Miniatures 2000AD Judge Dredd Range, code JD10, this guy is one of my favourite miniatures not only because of his burnt grotesque appearance and being Rogue Trooper's arch nemesis in the comics but because of the lovely Rogue Trader miniatures he helped spawn, in typical fashion of the Rogue Trader range using the original sculpts from the Judge Dredd range and many others as a base. (have you spotted the Gothic Horror ones yet? I will show you another time) The infamous Imperial Inquisitor Augustus would be just another miniature without a face if the Traitor General hadn't give him that hideous head or the imperial Official would be weapon less if the Traitor General hadn't let him have an arm, I could go on, you don't realise these things until you are painting a miniature and you think 'hey! where have I painted these legs before...' 
He still about if you are interested read 'Hunted' in fairly recent 2000Ad progs,  anyway enough rambling here he is.

The Traitor General - front

The Traitor General - back

The Traitor General - front

The Traitor General - side

The Traitor General - back

The Traitor General - other side

I also started testing colour schemes for my Imperial Army miniatures, I was trying to achieve the colours from the original adverts but on closer inspection I think the miniature painters just used one grey, I used about 5 vallejo model colour grey's :D 

Imperial Army 'Trpr Davey' - Test miniature - front

Imperial Army 'Trpr Davey' - Test miniature - back

Thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed
J

Judge Dredd - The Dark Judges

Greetingsss!, as you can see my side project of painting all of the 1980's Citadel Miniatures Judge Dredd Perps got derailed for a week while I was reading the massive pile of 2000AD progs mounting up on my bedside table, I absolutely love the story of 'Cursed The Fall of Deadworld', especially the colouring and it got me going through my collection of Judge Dredd Complete Case Files (as the comics are in the loft) and reading any story featuring the Dark Judges, this lead to me rummaging through my Dredd miniatures box and fishing out the Dark Judges for a paint job, now I have painted these characters many times over the years and I have never been pleased with the outcome, I remember my enamel versions and they were dreadful, anyway the Fall of the Deadworld's dull art inspired me to have another go so here you go.

The Crime isss life, the sssentenssse is paint!

Judge Death

Judge Fear

Judge Mortis

Judge Fire

Hard work for me, hopefully enjoyable for you, now back some Perps

thanks for popping by

J

Space Marine - Mark 1 Thunder Armour

Hello, something a bit strange for me today, if you are a twitter follower you may have noticed that one night I got a little bored and wanted to do something a bit different so I dug out a resin (Finecast) Space Marine in Mark 1 "Thunder Armour" from the Armour Through the Ages set that Games Workshop released about 3 years ago, why a Finecast and not the metal equivalent? well I wanted a quick start minimal prep, as you are well aware resurrecting your Oldhammer miniatures takes time, stripping, cleaning up oxidation, etc, etc I wanted an immediate start and prepping this one took about 5 minutes.

I believe this was designed by John Blanche, sculpted by Jes Goodwin and released in 1990. There were two versions of this miniature, this one is armed with a primitive bolt gun and sword, the other a Power Axe/Pole Arm type weapon.

I really wanted to achieve a Techno-barbarian feel and went with Imperial Roman palette, plenty of browns and tans while leaving the shoulder pads black to tie him in with the small Flesh Tearers project I have on the backburner.  I was going to stick on a proper old school metal back pack but it looked to small and didn't sit right so I went with the one supplied and as it was also resin it took 2 minutes to magnetise with tiny rare earth magnets, this modification made it a lot easier to paint. 

Space Marine in Mark 1 "Thunder Armour" - front

Space Marine in Mark 1 "Thunder Armour" - back

Space Marine in Mark 1 "Thunder Armour" - magnetised power pack

Background from White Dwarf 129

More Thunder Armout fluff from the Lexicanum:

Mark I plate was developed by the techno-barbarian factions that dominated Terra prior to the Emperor's ascendancy. When the Emperor began his conquest of Earth, the "Thunder Warriors", the proto-Space Marines which formed part of his retinue, were armoured in the same way as the soldiers of the other warlords. A thunderbolt and lightning symbol was displayed on the breastplate of warriors loyal to the Emperor - this was the personal badge of the Emperor in those days, predating the Imperial Aquila which only became the symbol of the Imperium much later. The emblem gives the suit its common name – "Thunder Armour."
Thunder Armour was not an enclosing suit and offered no life support functions, being unnecessary while the fighting was confined to Terra and the similar environments of Luna and Mars. This early armour was produced on a completely local basis and as such individual suits varied heavily and their exact designs were often a matter of personal taste.
The main part of the armour is the massive powered torso which encloses the chest and arms. Coiled energy cables beneath the armour plating transmit power from the power pack on the back to the arms, greatly increasing physical strength by a factor of between 3 and 4 times. Since fighting on Terra during this period was primarily close-quarters, the strength of a warrior's chest and arms was of paramount importance. The legs of this armour Mark are typically not power-armoured at all, but are enclosed in tough padded breeches. The best-equipped warriors sometimes wore armoured greaves and armoured boots, and such additional protection was common amongst the Thunder Warriors.
As with all powered armour, the power supply is contained with a notably bulky back-mounted unit, most of which is taken up by cooling systems designed to prevent the entire armour design from overheating.
Although it is very rarely used in the 41st Millennium, some suits of Thunder Armour are maintained for ceremonial purposes.

This ancient style of armour is noticeably noisier than later Marks. 

Space Marine in Mark 1 "Thunder Armour"

First advert featuring the Mark 1 "Thunder Armour" from White Dwarf 133

Games Workshops re-release as Finecast 'Armour Through The Ages'

Space Marine in Mark 1 "Thunder Armour" - Variant 2

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed this miniature.
J