Unlike me, VAL-8 is programmed for endless toil.
For reasons never fully explained in the Judge Dredd stories, robots have free will, including personalities that are pretty human. Robots are also treated as second class citizens, presumably as they are in many ways the direct cause of the 90% plus unemployment in Mega City One. That treatment resulted, as mistreatment of robots always does, in a robot uprising, in this case led by the homicidal Call-Me-Kenneth.
The details of how the MC1 socio-economic environment is supposed to function and how that impacts the manufacture, employment and subsequent rights of machines are a bit hazy. The important thing as far as I am concerned is that the stories regularly feature robots with silly names and very human behaviours.
VAL-8 is a model from Pig Iron Productions that I got in a trade from Mikko over at Dawn of the Lead back in 2013. Its not an officially licensed robot from the Dredd setting, but it fits into this project nicely. An average (robotic) Joe, doing his thing.
L to R: Pig Iron Productions robot, Mongoose/Warlord Renegade Servo Droid.
The colour scheme for this model is intended to tie it in with another servo-droid miniature that I painted recently, although that particular ‘bot has decided that he isnt going to put up with servitude any longer. This scheme differentiates the servo droids from the construction/demolition ‘bots in the Construction Crew that I worked on earlier in the year.
More robots or maybe mutants from me next time, but in the interim #30 in this series will come from Mr Saturday.
Filed under: Miniatures | Tagged: 2000AD, 2015, Dredd, Judge Dredd, Judge Dredd Miniatures Game, Judgement Day, Renegade Robots, Robot, Sci-fi |
sho3box 
Excellent! Great to see it finally get some paint, you did a good job on him too.
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Thanks Mikko!
Its a fun little model and quite useful in NPC roles in various games I think. It was good to finally get to it.
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Poor robots. They should have given them no self-awareness and implementation of the laws of robotics ;). The colour scheme really works well. Good contrasts with the off-white and the glowing eyes really provide a focal point for the viewer. Do I see the murder robot from Futurama in the last shot :D?
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Yep, thats a not-Roberto model that I painted during the Summer, a fun little side project 🙂
I get the feeling that before any one knew it was happening, the artificially intelligent lifeform genie was out of the bottle in the Dredd universe. But thats just a comic book, nothing like that is likely to happen in the real world. Its not like the robots and the cockroaches will be the only survivors in real life…
Thanks for the feedback daggerandbrush!
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Considering how Star Wars pointedly evades the issue of droid rights and autonomy, it’s no wonder a semi goofy setting like 2000 AD plays pretty fast and loose with it. Lots of potential for Thatcher era social satire though.
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Thatchers Britain is reflected quite a lot in Dredds world, with the character (and the system that he represents) moving from being typical 70s UK boys comic anti-hero to an oppressive symbol during that time. Think “Miners Strike” (although that took place a few years after Call-Me-Kenneth took things into his own digital manipulators).
A bit like the established notion of “Alien Town” in Mega City One, the writers seem content to just work with that fact that the robot phenomenon exists and generate stories around it, rather than get too involved in the “how”. Apart from the exploration of the mutants the subculture that has possibly been examined most is that of the “uplifted” genetically modified apes. Recent Dreddverse stories by Dan Abnett (“Insurrection” and “Lawless”) have each explored the apes, robots, mutants and aliens a bit more too.
Your questions always get me waffling NSA, thank you for the feedback 🙂
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Great stuff Cheetor. I really like this sculpt, all laden down with his gear. The painting as ever is spot on!
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Thanks axiom. Its a fun model. There is a variant model too. I think that I will track it down and the pair would make a fun miniature baggage train of sorts.
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Truly lovely, you make simple things look gorgeous.
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Simple things are gorgeous already Suber 🙂
Thanks for the feedback!
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Love job mate, now go & do a robot uprising game as I think it the least you can do for those poor downtrodden fallows.
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Its true and even better, I now have enough robots painted to make it look like a small rebellion, rather than some sort of fracas outside a robot bar.
Ill get right on it…
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Nice job dude, a worthy addition indeed. Hey, just a thought, he might look like an average robo-Joe doin’ his thing, but what’s in that box eh?? 😉
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The box contains pictures of the factory where he was made, a travel adaptor and charger, 3-in-1 oil for his lunchbreak and maybe… just maybe… a Rasterblaster RB-32 heavy spitgun 😉
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I like this sculpt, he seems to be hurrying to his next job in a series of endless tasks. The scheme works great on him too, he fits right in with your other JD work very nicely.
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The pose and some of the design reminds me a little of the robots in the “I Robot” movie. Not the Apple styled robots that featured as the next generation of robots coming up, but the much more interesting looking robots that were seen vigorously performing all sorts of duties at the start of the movie.
The sculpt captures that taken for granted, hard working trope very well. It does fit in with the others nicely.
Thanks for the feedback.
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Nice work as always, and I like how the paint job helps it fit in so nicely with the renegade.
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I enjoy tying miniatures from several sources together with a colour scheme. It works pretty well here so I might continue the scheme into other similar robot designs in future.
Thanks for the feedback Lasgunpacker.
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Nice work and a well-executed colour scheme on a model that I am not familiar with (or the line it comes from).
I always loved the robots from Dredd, clearly an image of the down-trodden masses everywhere. We don’t need to know where they come from, that way they can represent anyone/everyone.
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Thanks Andrew. The scheme is simple but works pretty well. Its important for my output rate that I dont engage in too many projects that get me bogged down technically, so the painting level shown here, where I am most comfortable with in terms of output vs quality. Its fairly representative of most of my toy soldiers.
The robots in the Dredd setting are a large part of the appeal to me too. The fact that they are replacements for humans in a very literal way (using cash registers with robotic hands rather than actually being a cash register or using regular looking, handheld jackhammers while doing roadworks etc) has interested/puzzled/amused me since I first read the comic.
You are entirely correct about the ‘bots representing just another flavour of “everyman”. They are victimised, interrogated, mugged and generally oppressed just as much as any other group in the city.
The robots are a key difference between the 40k and Judge Dredd setting from a miniature painting POV, I get a kick out of painting them.
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Great painting job as always.
I really like the “mini in its everyday life” picture that always accompanies your new work. Definitely adds to the believability of your Universe/Imagi-world.
Fun stuff
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Thanks Guiscard.
I was talking to a buddy about this recently. I love the gaming part of the hobby and I love the painting part too, but its those day-in-the-life shots that represent the best parts of the hobby distilled to me.
Im not a great photographer, but I am slowly improving and generating a mood by setting up my dollies in their make believe environment satisfies many of my frustrated film director urges. Im glad that you like them as your games are always an inspiration in that regard.
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