Judgement Day

It has been a few weeks since my last blog post, but the fires of industry have been burning and Konquest has a new playmate – Judge Judy!

Judicator source - www.Privateer Press.com

Assembly

I eagerly awaited the release of the Protectorate Colossal and set to work building it as soon as it arrived, similarly to Konquest she was built and painted in several sections:

· Base
· Legs and lower torso (rear skirt detached for painting)
· Upper torso (head and shields detached for painting)
· Left arm (hand detached for painting)
· Right arm (hand detached for painting)
· Missile pods

Building and painting in sections is something I find easier, especially with large scale models such as Colossals, simply holding such a heavy and large base for several hours can be difficult as well as getting a good paint job in all the nooks and crannies should it be assembled as one.  Conversely holding a section, an arm for example, to paint can be awkward too as laying it down can ruin paint work, or you might accidentally get finger prints embedded into soft, drying paint so choosing the best method is quite tricky!

Conversions

Perhaps the first thing you’ll notice about my Judy is that I converted the flame thrower weapons.  I really disliked the ‘machine-gun jubblies’ look, as well as the impracticality aspect of the weapons themselves; i.e. they wouldn’t be able to be effective weapons where they were positioned.  Therefore I decided to re-position the flamethrowers on the arms, behind the hand, allowing them to stand proud of the vambrace armour and be seen.  The flame throwers sit quite easily here and I just added greenstuff to extend the inner armour and make the join as seamless as possible.  I contemplated filing down the ball part of the flamethrower and adding some tubing, but this would all be hidden by the hands once they were glued in place.  To hide the two concave socket joints where the flame throwers should sit in the Judicators upper torso I used two spare plastic Errant shields that I didn’t use and had kept in my bitz box.  I angled the concave sockets slightly to accommodate the two shields and filled the void with greenstuff.  Below are a couple of photos of those conversions for your reference:

Gap filling, pinning and filing

The Judicator had a lot of flash as well as gaps which needed filling.  Reading various internet forum posts this had been an issue for some people, however it was pretty much what I was expecting so I wasn’t overly bothered myself.  If you are following this article prior to building your own Judy, it is best to leave the gap at the top of the upper torso assembly and greenstuff it later.  It is hard to explain but if you dryfit the metal and plastic pieces it is apparent that they don’t fit as they should and a 3-4mm gap is inevitable!  Also the siting of the missile pods is awkward and this will inhibit how dynamically you can pose the arms, the shoulder pads will interfere if they are rotated too much.  It is also definitely worth taking the time to pin the big joints and those that are weak, such as the arms to body as well as the upper and lower torsos.  As I painted the rear ‘skirt’ separately it had to be pinned also, if glued in the initial assembly I suspect it would be ok without a pin, just that gluing painted parts to painted parts yields a weaker bond.  Also another good tip is to pin the missile pod doors, the contact here is tiny so lots of patience is recommended, oh and a small drill bit!  A few of the WIP shots below show the positions of the main pins as well as up close details of the paint job in sections:

Base WIP, showing pins for feet

Legs and base complete

Upper torso complete 1

Upper torso complete 2

Painting

As indicated above I found it easier to paint the Judicator in several discreet sections and worked from the base upwards.  The colours for the Judicator were exactly the same as previous articles, the gold being the first stage, given the messy nature of drybrushing and washing.  One small change was my daylight lamp decided to go kaput and I ended up purchasing a new lamp, the new lamp has a ‘white light’ and has a tube rather than a bulb.  The light I bought is designed to aid partially sighted people and it has the effect of showing imperfections in painting up.  Basically it has improved my layering because it shows up the different shades more harshly, therefore you end up making closer, less harsh shades and under normal light the layering looks more seamless.  It is kind of like when you take a flash photo of a model and it makes it look a bit naff!  I did quite a lot of highlighting of the gold plate with P3 Solid gold on most of the protruding gold leaf and embellishments as well as the gold rivets, this was augmented by a lot of black ink lining, the latter is absolutely painstaking, it takes ages and needs a really steady hand, but the delineation between two surfaces looks so much neater and makes the model stand out - definitely worth the time IMO.

Below are a series of photos of the finished Judge Judy:

Judge Judy in action

So with Judy getting her paint job I had a couple of opportunities to playtest her.  I chose to field her with Feora2, the pair seemed destined to fit together, heck I think Feora features quite strongly in the Colossals book fiction!  My thoughts on Judge Judy is that she is a great piece for the Protectorate and enjoyable to play.  The Judicator has great infantry clearing skills as well as being able to kill any heavy target in the game.  Feora2 augments the Protectorates already great ‘jack buffing abilities by giving Judge Judy 2” of much needed extra speed, whilst buffing Feora’s armour with the Escort spell.  The bond adds that extra melee attack or boost, but more importantly grants Judge Judy continuous fire on all of its weapon systems allowing the missile pods to cause more havoc than you would believe against infantry.  Feora2 also has the Ignite spell which grants Judge Judy +2 STR to her melee weapons giving a frightening number of very accurate high P&S attacks.

I’ve run the Judicator at 50 points and 35, it seems like a squeeze at 35 but quite do-able: 50 points however gets you all of the toys…  I found that a Reckoner is a welcome addition to the Battlegroup as its Flare helps to counter the Judicator’s Inaccurate rule when shooting high ARM, low DEF targets, clearly the Hymn of Battle, aiming and boosting to hit all aid accuracy further.

A couple of examples of where Judy has passed judgement were as follows:

Infantry:  Carpet bombing high DEF Satyxis Raiders who were immune to blast damage, basically they ignore the AOE blast, but are susceptible to the continuous fire.  Similarly any unit of high DEF or stealthed infantry can be targeted by Judy from a considerable distance and the inaccurate rule really doesn’t make any difference so she can be quite focus efficient.  The free focus can be used when fishing for solos or UA’s to boost the damage and hopefully kill outright or maim sufficiently for the continuous fire to finish off in the opponents next Maintenance Phase.

Hard target (from range):  My Judy combined its firepower with a Reckoner and Battle Engine to judge Mulg, the two fully boosted rocket pods were shooting at an effective RAT7 plus 3D6 and damaging at POW16 plus 3D6, with all the buffs.  With the new SR2013 destroying enemy objectives from afar will be another strong use.

Hard target (melee):  My Judy had the opportunity to judge a Kraken, the Cryx Colossal, receiving four focus, the Hymn of Battle and under the Ignite spell it just didn’t seem fair.  In the last example I had received a charge from Kraken and lived, though had dice gone my opponents way then Judy would likely have been destroyed.  In another game I had the opportunity to judge a Conquest, but had to trample over half a dozen infantry to get there.  I did have the ‘alpha strike’, but even with Battle and Ignite three bought attacks simply wasn’t enough and it was Judy who was judged!!!

YOU will be judged!!!