“Benny The Bat Strikes Again!”

“Rich Pickings! Slumber on, Dodo!”

This 28mm scale metal model of a Bat Burglar was produced by “Mongoose Publishing” and formed part of my rewards from the company’s 2012 “Judge Dredd Miniatures Game: Block War” Kickstarter. The now long out of production (OOP) figure was later made available by “Warlord Games” as Code JD20164, and could also be bought alongside a Vid Reporter as the Nottingham-based manufacturer’s Mercenaries blister JD103.

Clearly inspired by Benny The Bat from the old black & white “Judge Dredd” comic strips in “The Daily Star” newspaper, the miniature was initially primed with two coats of “Vallejo” Heavy Blue, before being liberally shaded with “Citadel” Nuln Oil. The criminal was then dry-brushed with (more) “Vallejo” Heavy Blue and had his boots, gloves, chest straps, jet-pack and hand-weapon all layered in “Citadel” Abaddon Black.

"Mongoose Publishing" WIPs - The Bat Burglar was primed, shaded and dry-brushed

The burglar’s jet-pack and firearm were subsequently given a lick of “Vallejo” Gunmetal and washed with plenty of “Citadel” Nuln Oil. Finally, Benny had his bare face treated to a combination of “Vallejo” Heavy Skintone and “Citadel” Reikland Fleshshade, and his Terry Thomas moustache ‘picked out’ with a few strokes of Abaddon Black.

Despite trying to predominantly stick to the palette of the model’s ‘official’ paint-job, I did feel that the perp’s attire should be much less eye-catching than the bright red ‘arrest me now’ chest straps “Warlord Games” seemed to prefer on their figure. In addition, I didn’t fancy the light-coloured boots and gloves favoured by artist Ron Smith in his March 1983 story panels, especially as John Wagner and Alan Grant’s script doesn’t depict the villain as the luckiest of individuals.

"Battlefront Miniatures" WIPs - The soldiers are slowly having their tiny details picked out

Alongside my latest “Mongoose Publishing” miniature I have also completed four more 15mm German soldiers for my Beach Defence Grenadier Company. However, as my latest Weekly Challenge, randomly chosen via a deck of playing cards, dictated that I was to paint even more 15mm-20mm miniatures over the next seven days, I thought I’d simply crack on painting a second large gun unit and complete the entire (minimum strength) German 12cm Mortar Platoon.

To be honest I am a little disappointed in this particular plastic kit by “Battlefront Miniatures” as the figures for each team appear to consist of precisely the same four poses. True, I have enough of the rule-set’s large bases to at least make the layout of the two teams a little different from one another. But I’m already finding things a little monotonous painting exactly the same sculpt twice in quick succession…