“Robodogs Are Mechanical Canines…”

“…That are often used as attack dogs.”

These 28mm scale metal models of some Robodogs were produced by “Mongoose Publishing” and formed part of my rewards from the company’s 2012 “Judge Dredd Miniatures Game: Block War” Kickstarter. Only one of the now long out of production (OOP) figures formed part of the company’s Renegade Robots boxed set, so I’m not quite sure how I came to own two of the figures – albeit the aforementioned Kickstarter’s infamously long method of dispatching multiple deliveries may well have caused me to be sent a second sculpt in error, or as a freebie (in lieu of my patience across the years).

Seemingly inspired by the classic “Judge Dredd” story “Rabid”, which featured in Issue 289 of the British comic book “2000 A.D.”, and was written by Alan Grant and John Wagner (writing as T. B. Grover), the mechanical killers actually took a little while to assemble due to them being multi-part castings. Once the pair’s separate hind and fore legs were super-glued to each torso though, they were soon primed in "Vallejo" Grey Surface Primer before receiving a double-helping of "Scalecolor" Emerald Alchemy.

"Warlord Games" WIPs - This Command Stand has had all its soldiers' trousers base-coated

I then shaded the Robodogs using "Citadel" Biel-Tan Green, before dry-brushing them with (more) "Scalecolor" Emerald Alchemy. To somewhat break-up the monotony of their all-green colour scheme, I subsequently decided to ‘pick out’ their tails and teeth with "Vallejo" Gunmetal and “Citadel” Nuln Oil, as well as apply a combination of “Vallejo” Heavy Red and “Citadel” Carroburg Crimson to their eyes.

In addition to my latest entry for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge (AHPC), I’ve spent a little time working on the 15mm plastic American Civil War Command strip which came free with Issue 393 of the magazine "Wargames Illustrated". I wanted to give this particular line of infantry a few layers, so as to help me gauge how best to paint the officers and drummers found on the Epic scale Napoleonic British soldiers I pre-ordered from “Warlord Games”.

"Battletech" WIPs - This Panther is slowly having all its metallic parts 'picked out'

For starters I strongly doubt I’ll be gluing such figures in future straight onto the front of their bases, as I’m finding it quite difficult to apply paint to some of the models without repeatedly catching the upright banner-bearer. This has already caused the pretty fragile pole to partially break a couple of times, and despite some quite copious amounts of plastic glue, I’m not confident I won’t have another accident in the near future. Indeed, I’ve even badly bent one of the end riflemen due to mishandling the base whilst ‘attacking it’ with my brush-tip…

Lastly, I’m working on the first of two (more) German War Walkers using a couple of “Catalyst Game Labs” models. These plastic “Battletech” miniatures will be added to the Luftwaffe force I aim to field for the opening scenario of my Weird War Two campaign using some homebrew card-based rules. This first ‘salvo’ will see a combined British-French expeditionary army trying to bolster Poland in their efforts to hold off both the Soviet and German invasion forces.