Sunday 30 October 2016

"The War With The Dead Has Reached Its Third Night."

"Don't they know how many corpses there are in the world?"
This 28mm single-piece metal model of a Zombie Mistress is made by "Mongoose Publishing" and could be bought, until very recently, as Code JD20051 from the "Judge Dredd Miniatures Games" range sold by "Warlord Games". Calling upon her dark psychic powers, the Zombie Mistress can both "raise the dead and command them to fulfil her every whim", thereby keeping "the Justice Department off balance for weeks."

Despite predominantly being clothed with a raggedly skirt and flowing cloak, I initially underocated the undead sorceress with “Vallejo” Iraqi Sand and “Citadel” Thrakka Green. This 'undercoating' technique allowed me to see all of the sculpt's detail and identify which areas needed to be painted what colour. As I wanted to try and give the 'zed hag' a grungy dirty look I selected "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna for her skirt and gloves, Heavy Skintone for her decaying skin leotard and Heavy Red for her tattered cape. All these areas, along with her White skull knee-pads were then treated to a generous wash of "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade.
"A... A walking corpse! How do you stop - "
With the zombie's clothing finished, I then applied a combination of "Citadel" Ironbreaker to the razor-blades disconcertingly attached to the fingers of her handwear, and to her ankle armour. Finally I dirtied up her face with some more Strong Tone Quickshade and 'pikced out' her lifeless eyes with "Vallejo" White.

In many ways the Zombie Mistress is my least favourite of the Mega-City Undead range which 'Mongoose Matt' had produced. This dissatisfaction is largely due to the fact that the character didn't actually appear within the pages of "2000 A.D." and therefore isn't official "Judge Dredd" canon in my books. But it's also based upon the fact that the miniature 'headlined' the Zombie Horde $6,000 stretch goal which finally convinced me to pledge big in the company's October 2012 "Judge Dredd Miniatures Game: Block War" kickstarter; a fund-raising project which has astonishingly managed to actually outlive the "Judge Dredd" licence for "Mongoose Publishing"...
"Pick your target and shoot for their heads!"
My final contribution to Zombtober 2016 is another 28mm walking cadaver which has been assembled using plastic pieces taken from the "Mantic Games" "Kings Of War" Zombie Swarm and the metal 'bitz' found as part of "Warlord Games" Mega-City Zombie Horde pack. Painted 'in the main' using my combination of “Vallejo” Iraqi Sand and “Citadel” Thrakka Green, the zed's colourful clothing was created using "Vallejo" Turquoise for his tattered trousers and Verdigris for his tiny shoulder-pad. These areas were then washed with "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade and "Citadel" Reikland Fleshshade respectively.

I had recently been hoping to significantly expand my Mega-City One Undead Horde by picking up a few of "Warlord Games"  Zombie Horde Conversion Packs, but as their license for "Judge Dredd" has reached its end and the company "are currently planning the future for its range and game and re-negotiating our agreements with the brand owners", I thought I'd pick-up four Zombie Judge models from "Mongoose Publishing" to disassemble instead. Sadly, I've only so far been sent one of the models I paid for, with Matt Sprange stating that he is "very low on stock across the whole Dredd range at the moment" and only having "two Zombie Judges left" as a result...
Mega-City One Undead WIPs - These models have been primed in readiness for the next zombie breakout...
Unperturbed, I have subsequently taken a modelling knife to the Zombie Judge I have so far received from 'Mongoose Matt', and used pieces of it in order to convert a few more "Mantic Games" zeds into undead Mega-City One citizens. Initially I had simply planned to do a head-swap with one of the plastic "Kings Of War" sculpts. However whilst cleaning the Zombie Judge's gloved hand of flash the entire part broke clean off. Having examined the poorly-cast miniature, its metal is rather crumbly and gritty, so I have drilled the offending metallic fragments out of the broken piece and simply super-glued it onto the arm of a third brain-eating cadaver.

24 comments:

  1. I have to say that I rather like the Zombie Mistress, she sounds like she has a Necromancer quality to her. It must be all very frustrating about the Mongoose licensing debacle and I'm guessing that there might be a tad of panic buying going on. Anyway another wonderful Zomtober for you, Simon bravo Sir.

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    1. Thanks Michael. Very much appreciated. I don't think there's actually much wrong about the Zombie Mistress sculpt tbf, its just her background which irks me. I'd hope by next Zomtober the "Judge Dredd" licence will be sorted and that I'll be able to expand my Mega-City One horde by a few more.

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  2. Do not fret about the Zombie Mistress not being seen in JD, Each Mega city as so large there must be more than appeared in the eponymous story. Every one of the figures looks good to me.

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    1. Cheers Clint, as a grungy ensemble of undead brain-eaters I think the Zombie Mistress certainly makes a good-looking lead model. Plus she could always be the star villain in a future BatRep ;-)

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  3. I rather like the Zombie Mistress, too!

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    1. Thanks Gordon. The Zombie Mistress is certainly getting some love on this post :-)

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  4. Awesome entry for the final week and what a lovely miniature!

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    1. Cheers Simon, and thanks to you and Leon for putting Zomtober on the map for another year :-)

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  5. Well done on completing all you set out to do for Zomtober, Simon. I like what you're doing with your spare Zombie Judge. Those new conversions look ace.

    We do appear to view the Zombie Mistress very differently. I like her a lot. I think she's a great sculpt. It also doesn't bother me that she's not official canon. This means I can mould her into a formidable opponent of my own creation. She is going to be a real thorn in the side of my Judges when I start my JDMG campaign. I have big plans for her and she will be a central and recurring villain in my campaign.

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    1. Thanks very much Bryan, I'm glad to have reached my goal too, and am already looking forward to next year's Zomtober when I hope to add to my Mega-City Undead horde :-)

      I certainly don't feel the Zombie Mistress is a bad sculpt but her non-canon background, and 'involvement' in the promotion of the "Judge Dredd" Kickstarter both irk me. I'm really looking forward to seeing what becomes of her in Vampifan's World of the Undead, and as I say in another comment, I wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't play a part in one of my own BatReps at some point.

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  6. A good end and a great collection of figures. But before you start planning next years zomtober, don't forget a little thing called Mo'vember first.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Cheers Roger. I've already put up my Mo'vember banner in the top right corner of this blog, and will be trying to paint up some more "Frostgrave" minis. Indeed, I've already assembled, primed and photo'd the first wave of "North Star Military Figures" I hope to get painted over the next few weeks... as well as one or two surprises ;-)

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  7. I think she's lovely dude, but understand your reasoning for being irked. I must admit your patience over the JDKS project has been far greater than mine would have been

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    1. Thanks Andy. There are certainly plenty that have vented on the comments Ref "Judge Dredd" KS, and I must confess I did so myself after discovering s "Partisan" Stall selling some of the minis I hadn't yet been sent - because they weren't supposedly ready yet!! Very frustrating as you can imagine, and the reason why I rarely do KS projects these days.

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  8. Very nicely done Simon, and a great Mega City One Zombie collection. :)

    You have far more patience than me considering that in 4 years the JD KS has not been completed, and with Mongoose even surrendering the license in that time.

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    1. Cheers Leon. Much appreciated, and a big thanks you and Simon for leading the Zomtober charge once again :-) The "Judge Dredd" Kickstarter is a painful one, but not, sadly, my worst experience of KS... One day I may even be able to talk about "Torn Armour".

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    2. JD and Torn Armor? You have been unlucky mate. :(

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    3. Thanks my friend, I do intend to buy suitable proxies for "Torn Armour" one day, as the box is still sat untouched in a cupboard somewhere, and the gameplay vids they posted made it sound like a really fun "Narnia" type game.

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  9. That Zombie mistress is quite a big miniature, it appears? Or is that just the viewing angle - I'm not sure?

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    1. The Zombie Mistress is somewhat taller than the others as she is levitating and her cloak touches the ground. Differing scales is one of the curses of the "Judge Dredd" line tbh as a number of different sculptors were used in its making.

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  10. Woo! Zomtober at Fantorical is over and yet... it continues on.

    Lovely submissions mate. Zed Hag is still kinda cool looking even if she's not canon. It's good to have someone directing the undead otherwise they'd all just walk into walls and stuff, right? :)

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    1. Thanks Dai. I do plan to paint up my Sabbat the Necromagus at some point, who leads the Undead in "Judgement Day". As for the Zombie Mistress, she'll certainly be at the forefront of my zeds for the time being :-)

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