Mega City Justice Department: SJS Judge Slocum

Special Judicial Squad Judge Slocum

Judge Slocum was a member of the SJS (Special Judicial Squad: Justice Department internal affairs) under the then head of the SJS, Judge Cal. When Cal took over the Department he used the SJS as his personal retinue.

Slocum had qualms about how Cal behaved and eventually ended up aiding the resistance. But being a Judge, Judge Slocum should have never left things get that far in the first place.  Therefore his ridiculous end at the hands of the by then totally off the rails Chief Judge Cal was somewhat deserved.

Slocum is a Foundry figure and like much of the rest of the range, is a little bit more cartoony that I would like.  Nonetheless the Foundry figures are more crisp than the Mongoose Judge figures and a little more satisfying to paint as a result.  Slocum really needs to find a more practical way to carry his daystick than in a boot holster though…

Mongoose SJS, Foundry Slocum and Mongoose Street Judge

Of note here is some scale comparison between Slocum and the Mongoose SJS figure that I painted up a little while ago.  The Mongoose SJS figure is the shortest Mongoose Judge that I own.

Slocum on the other hand is a tall figure from a different, slightly larger range which also gains another couple of millimetres from its integral base.  The end result is that the height (and to some extent the proportions) are compared at extremes in this case.

The differences between the two bother me only minimally. When stood together Usual Suspects style the differences are as apparent as they can be and yet are still within acceptable parameters for me. Spread out on the tabletop there is essentially no discernible difference.

I actually like elements of the size difference, as the pair of SJS Judges remind me of various duos from crappy buddy cop movies, “Ponch” and “Jon” from CHiPs and “URL” and “Smitty” from Futurama.

Mega City Justice Department: Med Judge

Med Division Judge Trapper

Another Judge today, this time from Med Division.

Like Tek/Tech Judges, how these guys uniforms are represented in the stories is not really locked down. As it varies from artist to artist to colourist a lot of leeway is available to anyone painting one of these Mongoose figures.

I chose to go with green rather than yellow shoulder pads, inspired by recent Boo Cook artwork (above).  This also helps to distinguish the Med Judge from the Tech on the tabletop.

I decided to paint the big syringe/cattle gun/medical doohickey that the figure wields yellow to tie in with the rest of the Judge palette.   I have included the blue, red, green and yellow colours in some capacity on every Judge that I have painted so far.

Tech, Med and Riot Judges

For comparative purposes, the Med guy is shown in context with some other auxiliaries above.  The first two are Mongoose while the Riot Judge is from Foundry.  Note the slightly chunkier build and integral base which adds some height.

Mega City Justice Department: Judge Hershey

Judge Barbara Hershey

Judge Barbara Hershey has had a long history in Judge Dredd. Probably the third most recognisable Judge (after Dredd and Anderson and just above Giant or the likes of McGruder I reckon) she is one of the enduring characters in the strip.

Hersheys career brought her to the highest Justice Department office, that of Chief Judge. Unlike the majority of holders of that role she left it while retaining a pulse, rather than posthumously like most of the previous holders. She was succeeded by the current Chief Judge, Dan Francisco.

I have always liked the character of Hershey since I first read stories that featured her when I was a kid. At the time I found it unfamiliar that a stern, sexy female character was not being played as a love interest for the main character. While that fit the context of the story (with all MC1 Judges being both celibate and virgin) it was still of note to me as a kid.

Like most of the other Foundry 2000AD figures, Hershey is portrayed in a more cartoony fashion that I would like, with some peculiar proportions (and that eagle pad is completely bananas: its huge and may be the least ergonomic looking representation of an already odd looking piece of attire that I have ever seen).

Chief Judge Hershey

The figure has quite a big head, with what is to my mind an adequate but not stellar representation of what the character looks like in the strip.  I also probably emphasised the lines on her face a little too harshly, which maybe make her look a little too haggard.

But with the haircut, uniform and stern expression it is undeniably Hershey, which gives me a little kick.

I painted Hersheys uniform like any of the rest of my Judges. As I get older I am having more and more trouble painting eyes due to the gradual deterioration of my own eyesight and my reserves of patience getting smaller and smaller. This is my excuse for Hersheys somewhat wonky eyes.

Mega City Justice Department: Judge Cal

Chief Judge Cal & Deputy Chief Judge Fish

Judge Cal became Chief Judge via questionable means and subsequently reigned over Mega City One for one hundred days in “The Day the Law Died!”.  Unsurprisingly, Dredd led the resistance that eventually toppled Cal.

Loosely based on the Roman Emperor Caligula (and in particular the seventies BBC mini-series starring John Hurt it appears) Judge Cal was insane, to the extent that he appointed a goldfish as his Deputy Chief Judge.  The abode of Judge Fish is also pictured above.

Robes of Office

Cal comes from a early stage of development for both Dredd and and his environment.  The story told in The Day the Law Died is very old school, very seventies boys comics.  As such its pretty goofy and tough to read over thirty years later.

Nonetheless Cal is a classic Dredd villain.  The character also presented an opportunity to paint an entertainingly screwy model.

Cal doing his thing

I painted Cal using the same palette as the rest of my Judges.  I added a beauty spot to Cals face as I thought that it fit the narcissistic character well, but I dont think that he was ever depicted with one in the strip.

Although I was tempted to add the suggestion of Judge Fish swimming around in the fishbowl, I decided not to.  It would have been far too easy to screw it up.

Seasonal Delays

 

As often happens at this time of year (to me at least) my toy soldier output is slower than usual right now, so no new pictures of my stuff today.  Boo.

This more haphazard state of affairs is likely to continue until mid-September I suspect.  While I will likely get some stuff ready to post before then, I cant really be sure of when or what.

I have a lot of projects trundling along, with another batch of Judge Dredd related stuff close to finished and loads more of those in the pipeline.

Scenery wise I have some more bits and pieces coming up for Standard Falls, with plans for sci-fi city stuff also going on.  I will be sticking with the post-apoc scenery for a while yet though as I want to get that entire terrain set finished before I get stuck into any other scenic stuff.

I *should* be a bit better organised with photos and all that jazz ready for next Wednesday.  Fingers crossed.