Jan’s Judgement

After 8 paintalong streams we finally finished up the 54mm Zaron Bogden from Judgement. I’ve been trying to collect as many of the still existing 54mm models from this game before they dissappear as Judgement has recently partnered up with Creature Caster and the game is downscaling the models from 54mm to 32mm and Creature Caster are resculping the existing heroes to be more in their own aesthetic. So once I run out of the 54mm models, I will be calling it a day on my Judgement collection.

Zaron was a really awesome model to work on and being able to do him as a paintalong on stream was a really rewarding project. Definetly something I will be doing again in the future

I’ve been meaning to organise and do a community paintalong for ages on my Twitch channel but never got around it! So finally I decided to get it sorted. After lots of voting and disccussionings and the like over on my discord, we narrowed it down to a 54mm scale model, something with a max spend of $50 and something with a lot of different textures, materials and the like.

I finally decided on a model from the game Judgement. The idea is that as many viewers as wanted to partake would get the model and then once a week I would stream a paintalong stream and focus on a different workup/material/etc and then we would post out WiPs in the discord.
To coincide with the paintalong I also write a full PDF guide on prepping and working with resin models: everything from trimming and sanding to pinning, gap-filling, heat bending and so on

So with the mini chosen and a frantic rush for folk to find adn get him (Zaron is now sold out in a just about all the online stores incl Judgement’s own webstore!!)

I got the PDF finished and posted just a few hours before the first paintalong stream.
The first stream focused on prepping, de-mouldslip-ing…. (?) pinning and sub-assemblies, adding mdf sub-dics and magnetising the bases for transport in a tablewar case.

With that all done on stream yesterday, today i needed to get all the priming done in preperation for next sunday’s paintalong live stream. The steps were already detailed in the PDF so I went ahead and got it done offline.
For priming I start by give the seperate pieces two light coats of Stylynrez Black through the airbrush………..

With that done, with the power of magnets and etsy bitsy tieeny tiny bits of blutac I temporarily reassembled the model ……….

With the model reassembled I then reloaded the heathen brush with Stylenrez grey primer and gave it a 3rd coat laterally shooting down at about 45degress so lighten teh areas most exposed and leave the darker recessed areas black. Once taken apart again for sub-assembly painting, this priming will serve as a handy guideline to where general light is falling and where areas are tucked away in shadow

And here we are……. nearly caught up!!!

WiP photos this time as Itchynads ( as the hellhound is lovingly called) and his Gobbo rider are what I am working on at the present!

Jaegar is another of the goblin characters and was in fact the first goblin that Judgement released. Due to some folk whining about having to build the models for Judgement and not being able to play them straight out of the box (afaik) the Judgement boys decided to try doing a PVC plastic preassembled model again and Jaegar was released. I immeditately upon getting him tried to dissassemble for sub assembly painting.
I was able to get him off the base but that was as far as I could go. The clean up was a bit of a bitch as PVC tends to ladders when you try to scape off any mouldlines and I needed to fill a few nasty seamlines.

As Itchynads is a large beast I decided to break out the airbrush again for base colour and shadow work. After laying in my base colour and adding in some shadows, I then made a slip wash from the two main colours I had used so far; arabic shadow and eclipse grey and glazed it into the shadows to increase my depth  and also to get rid of the powdery airbrush look to the foundation work,

Adding more ochre (Iroko) into the base mix I started to bring the highlights forward across the body.

I then decieded to focus on the head first adn come back to the rest of the body.

Adding more iroko and then some birch (creamy off white colour) into the mix I worked on bringing up the highlights on the face after painting the inside of the mouth.

And that;s where we are now. The face needs a little more refinement still. Once the face is done I’ll finish his teeth adn then focus on the highlights of the rest of the body. Itchynads’ skin will then be finished off with a fairly gentle sepia filter to bring it all together and add a little more richness and depth to his skin

Commission Time! A client in the states asked me to take on and paint a new pair of characters that Judgement has brought out – The Goblin Twins Bale & Sarna.
In game, while they are technically two characters and two models that can eb moved and used independently of each other, they count as a SINGLE choice for your team. There are other rules esp as to how they can respawn when killed but thats another story.

Bale (the angry looking fella) and his sister Sarna (the tweaked out looking lass) are part of the future story thread in Judgement. Judgement has a full running storyline and narrative that goes with that has multiple interweaved side threads and stories for the characters.

Cyberpunk Goblins……….. a new one on me but rock on! Cyberpunk is an aesthetic and trope that I really like but havent painted a lot of minis of. So I wanted to do them in a convincing and cyberpunk aesthetic while staying true to my more grimdark and dirty stylings.

They are quite different characters and personalities however they are both siblings and a team so I needed to include some homogenous elements b/t them while allowing them to stand as individuals characters.
I decided to tie them together with their armour and also their power sources/effects.

With Bale I decided to use an airbrish to do the basic initial workup for his armour. I dont really use my airbrush beyond priming but thought twould be a good opportunity to try and level up and push myself.

I went in with a light dirty grey off white as the base colour and then add in anthracite/blue grey shadows before sketching in some highlights with a brighter off white. I rarely use true white or true black on my minis: reserving those two shades for ultimate shadows or ultimate light reflective highlights.

Was very happy how the armour was coming along but it was jsut waaaaaaay too clean and pristine a loook for me so I thinned down (a lot) some secret weapon armour weash and glazed it onto his armour from the midtones back and then sponged on the scraps, damage and chips using smokey ink (not an ink) from Vallejo GC.

To go with the cool armour I went with a grey blue skin colour.

His energy points i went classic with a glowing pale blue using makeup brushes, glazes, makeup brushes, glazes etc to gradually build up the glows and a restained amount of OSL.

With Sarna I was able to bring more colour in as she doesnt wear as much armour as her brother. So black for her body suit to contrast with the few white armour plates (which tie her to her brother).  I still had a lot of elements on Sarna to work so I decided on using a triadic arrangement after having a look on the colour wheel. Basically  a violet, jade~ish green and dirty yellow. Green for pads and half hat, violet purple for her skin tones and yellowbrown on the boots straps.
I did her under suit in the same red as I used for Bale’s undersuit to further tie them together.

Finally I used the same workup and colours for Sarna’s power elements as I had used on her brother.

These two were an absolute joy to work on and again I really felt they helped me level up, expand my range and try new things.
As ever they were tough to pack up and send off to the client as I had grown VERY attached to them and was quite proud of the resulting pieces buuuuuuut that’s the joy of commissions!!

With Sir Marcus finished, finally, I turned to one of the original characters and models from the Judgement Starter Boxed Set.

Now while Judgement models are usually cast in resin and come in pieces for you to prep and assemble, as resin models usually do, Rakir is from the starter box and he, alongwith the two other models in the box, are a) pre-assembled (grrrrrrrr I hate preassembled models) and b) not cast in resin but are done in a kinda PVC hard plastic – better than CMON and certainly light years ahead of that Reaper Bones bollox. But it’s still some sort of PVC deriviative which means prep can be a bit of a shit as it doesnt scape and sand as easily as either resin or the plastics like what GW uses…… ABS or whatever it is.
I managed to dissassemble Rakir to some extent. I got him off his base as I prefer to do bases seperately  and removed his head and cloak which need to be gouged and then reassmbled to fit better than that had been done in the factory.

As a model, Rakir is cracking! Orc ninja like dude jumping off another lovely sculpted base that is typical of the Judgement line.

There is so much opportunity here for differnt workups and materials – old stone, flowing heavy cloth, metals, leathers and ofc green skin tones.

For Rakir’s skin I wanted to do another and different greenskin workup than I had done on the previous orcs; Sharn, Haksa and Kruul.
Rakir is an assassin so I wanted a darker more shadowy workup with some blues brought in to complement and fit in with what I was planning for his shadow cloak.  Pushing a little ‘human’ skintones into the highlights of green flesh also really help to give the model more life. Purely green skintones I find rather falt so blues into the shadow and ochres to pinks in the highlights and we’re sorted!

Overall I made sure to keep all my hues and tones more desaturated and dulled down to further emphasise the idea of his role as an assassin lurking and attacking from the shadows.
To contrast and juxtapose with how Rakir was looking and to try and make sure that piece as a whole didnt come out too dull and lifeless. I upped the colour and brightness on the base – pushing greens into the stonework adn using some bright mosses and grasses and a few more brightly coloured leaves. The brightness of the base stands out and leads the viewer up the model to the darker and more ominous figure of the Orc assassin………. I think…….. hope…….. you be the judge!

Next to come under the brush was Sir Marcus the Winter Bastard, I mean Knight. Absolutely glorious models. So full of amazing detail, dynamism and character and he nearly broke me!!

Sir Marcus, in the game is a defender class and he’s a hell of a defender at that: capable of throwing up ice walls that block line of sight for the smaller creatures such as the goblin and halfling character plus he can charge and knock opponents down with his shield.

Sculpt wise he is stunning – lotta plate armour to paint and that gorgeous huge fur pelt cloak. I love painting fur -it’s a real chance to bring in lovely subtle colours and blends. Here I decided that his cloak was to be the pelt of some huge monsterous dire wolf like creature. The trick to successful fur is to blend as you go, wet-in-wet and not pick up the dry brush. With the main fur colours down and softly blended from one to the next, we use very very thinned down layers of ink wash to deepen and add stronger shadows before picking out hightlights in successive thin layers.

Sir Marcus’ was a task. Once again I wanted a very cold and wintery palette. His clothing was done in blues and blue greys and when it was coming to his armour I picked up the scale 75 metallics and using the cobalt and emerald metallics as bases blended up the tmm. It was …….. arduous. The result was great but I had to take a 2 week break from him in the middle to refresh the mojo.

Continuing with the cold tone I made sure to keep the wood of his shield cold and drained as well. The only warmth I allowed in was in some of the ochre tones on his fur cloak as here there should be a hint of warmth to convey that idea that this was the only thing keeping him from freezing to death.

The base again was done all in cold tones with snow effects, dead winter grasses and then a few dead leaves scattered about to break up the snow and complement the orange rusts on the corpses armour and Sir Marcus’ shield tying everything together.

When it comes to miniatures n models I don’t much care for Dwarves….. not Squats (actually they can seriously bog off back to the bellys of the Tyrannids! ) however Judgement does do a couple of rather nice ones especially the angry little squirt that is Thrommel Ironbeard!!

When  prepping Thrommel he kept making me think of the Iron Hills Dorfs as Weta Workshop were portraying them……… lets see if I can find a pic……………

So with Weta amazing figures as inspiration I had a muse for Thrommel.
I wanted a darker rougher steel armour for Thrommel but one that still looked expertly wrought and well maintained.  A perfect task for the Darkstar Molten Metals Paints.

To contrast with polished metal armour elements and so he didnt look like a complete noob to the battle, I made sure to give his other materials; leathers and cloth a more worn and used look.

I kept the overall temp of the mini cold and to reflect this further went with cool and cold shades of grey on the fallen staturary on the base and added snow effects and winter grasses

The only really warmth on the finished model was on Thrommel’s skin and here while I warmed him up I wanted to give a ruddy wind blasted feel.

Overall a reallly REALLY enjoyable mini to work on

Arse….. arsey arse arses!! I have rather fallen behind in updates! Since the last update I have finished Piper, dispatched him to the client (that part hurt…. A LOT!!) and finished….. 1, 2, 3 more Judgement minis of my own, started and finished another Judgement commission and now started another of my own……

Arse

Anyways…… let’s start by seeing how the finished Piper turned out

Piper was an absolutely gorgeous model to work on. A biggie, not just bcs the Judgement minis are 54mm scale but also as there are two figures and a huge fething wall on the base!

I did the second Piper as an illusion which is beginning to take form and coalesce as being cast by the other Piper who is coming out of the wall (Actually the REAL Piper is neither of the two main figures but actually the crow perched on top of the wall 😉 )

For the obv illusion Piper I worked mostly in greyscale to give the idea of a ghost adn then used the same colours and workups as I had used on the wall Piper but just on teh outer elements like the cloak edge adn the boot. Nmm metals for the ghost Piper but Tmm for the solid Piper.

The hourglass was a new one for me. I wanted to paint it refelctive and glasey looking without having to resort to using gloss varnish. There is nothing wrong with using gloss varnish at all on glass elements to create a shine but i wanted to try and level up here and see if I could achieve the same or at least a roughly similar feel soley with paint. Did work? Well…… you be the judge!!!

And onto our next Judgement hero. This one is not actually mine but a commission for a viewer.

Piper is a half-elf illussionist who in game can cast an illusion of himself which is a blinder when other heroes try to attack him. There’s actually two minis to this figure – One is Piper himself coming out of the wall adn then there is the illusion Piper which he is casting. Have made a wee start on him  -skin sketched in, wall foundation work done adn started on his leathers.  In Judgement there is sooooooo much leather!!!

Finally got Sharn finished the other day and Nephenee…….. well….. about a month ago………ahem…… Anyways – snaz photos taken and sorted!!!
Next character up will be Piper the illussionist…..not for me mind but a commission this time.
For now though here’s Sharn the Orc Warrioress and Nephenee the Enforcer

With Nephenee all finished (still need to get photos of her done) it’s on to my next Judgement model – Sharn the orc warrioress. Sharn is my first defender class as the rest of my crew so far are mostly aggressors. Steadily working my way towards the necc 7 heroes needed for a 5v5 pick’n’ban game. But I just know i wont stop there – lol

Sharn’s metallics are all done with Darkstar paints. My usual ages steel workup of  a bronze followed by a gold followed by a steel and then dulled down with a black brown glaze. There’s a pdf on my full metals workup over in the subs-lounge on Discord.

Her skin and leathers are done with Scale 75 Scalecolour and Scale 75 F&G paints.
Working towards a more subdued ochre/green skin tone rather than the more usual comic book green orcs.

Lot’s still to be done on Sharn as I prep another Judgement mini called Piper for paint as well. Piper however is not one of mine but a commisssion piece. Gorgeous mini that I’ll pop some photos up of soon – Half elf rogue illusionist!
His model features two Pipers………. one is the real Piper and one is an illussion but which is which?!?!

Trying to catch up on my ongoing plogs! Been a wee while but have actually 3 more Judgement minis finished…… well 2 of them photographed, the third is still awaiting a photo time!

First up is the finished Kvarto who I was working on when I started this plog!! He’s all done and dusted!

Next up is Allandir the elf ranger. The model itself was a dream to work on but the base gave me a chance to really try a few new things out – moss, muddy riverbed etc. Had a lotta fun on this guy and he is now on the Judgement website 🙂

I’ve also finished another elf character called Nephenee – a scifi enforcer but havent taken any photos just yet!

Spent the day working on Kvarto’s skintones. He really is a dirty dirty fella!

Kvarto the human Pariah starts.  A rather gross sculpt with more than just a subtle wee nod to Total Recall is Kvarto and his long dead twin brother, Mr. Squidgy (not his official name btw). Kvarto is a hybrid class in the game with a little bit of aggressor and a littel bit of supporter about him.

The combo of rank old cloth and leather and battered weathered stained metal armour makes him right up my alley in terms of painting.

I used the heathen brush to get his base skin tones in – light greens in the recesses over a yellowy flesh tone to get  a sickly unclean base colour to his skin. With a basic skin colour put down with the airbrush, I switched over to hairy brush and started to refine the skin:  bringing it up with some slightly richer skin tone thin layers to make sure he looks alive rather than undead.  Next will start to bring up some skin highlights before some final shadow and recess glazing to increase the volumes and add in some patches of bruised, angry and enflamed skin and add a little more grime and unwashedness to the guy.

Here’s where he is at now

The first two of the three Judgement minis I brought back from Adepticon have just been finished and finally photographed. There’s no real WiPs for these biys as I finished them already!!

Thorgar was an absolute pleasure to paint. Monster of a mini. In game he is an aggressor…. unsurprisingly enough!

Came up with a few new workups for his metal bits – the aged bronze shoulder armour and manica and a blackened dark steel for his manacles.  Tried a new ‘old but keened’ steel workup as well for his axe. All the metals are done with Darkstar’s Molten Metals.

Lotta research for this guy re: horns and hooves. Not something I regularly paint!!

Anyways here he is,  the mighty Thorgar of Zaiqah

Just recently finished is Haksa the Orc Shaman, supporter class.

Haksa took an age to finish as he has sooooo much detail to him!! Bones n leaves n other Shamany junk all over to him. And of course a bloody totem pole that he’s hanging off – troll on a pole!

I really couldnt be arsed going the usual route with an orc and painting him green so decided to give him quite a raw blushed skin workup and cover him in tribal ritual shamany tatts. He does have a slight green glaze put to him in the shadowws n recesses but not too strong.

Gorgoeus mini to paint, pain in the backside to finish!!