Galen DeMarco and Travis Perkins

Galen DeMarco and Travis Perkins from the new range of Judge Dredd Miniatures by Mongoose Miniatures.

I was quite looking forward to getting DeMarco. I like her character. However I was a little disappointed at first when the model arrived. I had hoped she would look more like this:

(shorter coat, with trims and shoulder pads, trousers that show her ankles, chunky trainers, hair style, cute face with big eyes).

Here is the original (image from Mongoose). Not much detail on Demarco:

Travis and DeMarco from Mongoose Mini's

Instead DeMarco appears to wearing a Necromunda Delaque coat (long coat with wide collar), and boots and trousers just like a Delaque. She is carrying a what seems to be a plasma pistol but without any details to it. Her head is a little boring too, flat limp hair rather the DeMarco hairstyle above, not much detail to the face.  Nothing particularly wrong with the model, just a bit bland and unimaginative.

So here is my attempt to make DeMarco look more like the comic version:

 I've tried to give the model some of the details based on the comic above. Things like the trim on the coat and trainers instead of boots. I can't get it to match completely without some heavy converting. I painted her eyes slightly large (I hate painting eyes! Too fiddly) and gave her freckles. Overall I like the final result. The gun was painted with a District 9 colours in mind, not sure if it works though. I might repaint it or even just replace it with a big ass revolver or something.

The Travis model looks great. No converting needed here. Nice and chunky and has a lot of character to the pose. He is a bit mono-chromatic, but then I couldn't think up any other way of painting a gorilla in a butler suit.

Travis Perkins

 I got the Judge Dredd rulebook through today, so I hope to get some more 2000 AD miniatures painted up soon. Then I can try them out in a game.

Old Orc Army

Wow it's been a while since I posted anything. A new job that I started in July and a hour and a half commute have meant that I have had little time to do my hobby. I still read posts, paint and buy things (can't help myself), but I just haven't had time or inclination to do my blog. But I'm determined to post more frequently.

Anyway, I was inspired by Orctober (found on this blog here: ) and started looking back at my old Orc army. Had to dig it out of cupboards and reassemble parts of it.

 I remembered it being much more impressive and painted better. After looking at it I decided to dip lots of it to repaint them. I also have about 50 goblin wolf riders and 50 odd night goblins.

Gruntas and Snortas

Orcs were the first army I truly collected so they hold a special place in my heart. When I think of Orcs I think Paul Bonner's versions. Maybe crossed with Tolkien's (from the books, not the movies so much). I loved the little illustrations of Orcs in the old Warhammer armies book (3rd edition I think?), the one which had all the armies in one book (seen here).

One of my favourite units was my boar boys. They used to strike fear in my opponents as they were so hard to kill. But the models were never that impressive. The orc models didn't seem to represent the weapons and armour I had paid points for. Few of them had spears and some didn't even have armour.

 I was inspired by the Regiment of the Renowned called Bratt's Boar Boyz (back in WD 106?). I always hoped GW or someone would bring out models like these. This is how I imagined Orc boar riders to be. A unit of screaming Orc ferocity, spears and barely controlled boar mounts (I hate the look of the plastic orc boars by the way, they barely look like a boar, and seem so simplistic as to be closer to a child's toy than a model. Why can't manufacturers make them like the pics below???)

So here's my attempt at creating something resembling Brat's Boar Boyz.

Not quite as good as I hoped. I still need an Orc rider or two and I'm not willing to spend stupid amounts on ebay to get one. I found some Marauder Orc Riders with spears that are in the back row. Models I had never seen before. One at the back has a comically large head, which is a modern GW orc head, and its probably larger than his body. I was limited by the Orcs models I could find, and the new GW Orc models are just useless. Much larger and cartoony than the old 80's orcs.
I want to change the banner for something different, the current one is a place holder. And I need to add their shields once I've painted the riders. Once I manage to get the models I need to complete the unit I hope I will find the inspiration to finish them off.

In the meantime I've been painting Judge Dredd and Necromunda figures. I'll post some more soon.