I decided that I needed some “beat cops”, some “thin blue line” for my upcoming games.
I wanted a more familiar, more relatable type of cop than the Mega City One Justice Department figures that I already have table ready. Similarly, that ruled out my Arbites/Enforcers from a few years ago as they are too heavily equipped for what I was wanted.
That said, I was hoping to have what I started calling my “Patrol Enforcers” gel with those particular Arbites/Enforcers/space cops. That way I could use them as Arbites/Enforcers in a SWAT/riot police force, alongside my space plods.
Thinking about this led me to try out the Warhammer Crime series of audiobooks while I was chopping up and gluing back together the various other things that I have been working on.
As the Warhammer Crime books are hard-boiled, noir detective stories set in various areas of a continent sized, grimdark sci-fi city with elements of Blade Runner, Mega City One/Judge Dredd, Robocop, Soylent Green and just about any hard bitten cop story that you ever heard of, it fired my imagination up. If the toy soldier themes that I have worked on over the years appeal to you, then there is a good chance that these books will too.
As a result, having some gritty, flawed, street level human Five-Oh figures became a necessity rather than a maybe.
The obvious place to start was to dig out my old Grenadier/Future Wars Mark Copplestone sculpted peelers from the nineties and fire a few out as quickly as I could.
And after those maybe an Enforcer Bulwark… oooh and a Zurov…
Of course, painting this first batch of Copplestone Cops reminded me that at some point in 2022 I had decided to paint a number (about 16 I think) of my existing, non-law enforcement themed Copplestone sculpts, but had never blogged them or anything like that.
These figures come both from the 1990s “Future Wars” range (which has had multiple owners over the years) and from the more recent “Copplestone Castings” takes on a militia or post apocalyptic survivor or “stalker” theme. I painted them because:
1) I have liked the sculpts for a quarter of a century or so,
2) I had bought all of the miniatures over the years so the project wouldn’t cost me anything right now and,
3) I wanted some figures to use in “Terminator Genisys Miniatures Game“, “Zona Alfa” and “Insurgent Earth“.
Of course, after taking some dodgy photos of them when I was finished, I had never got around to taking the better photos of them that I kept putting off. So the dodgy images are going in here, along with some other lovely Copplestone sculpts that they will very likely end up squaring off against soon.
The Copplestone sculpted “Future Wars” figures are currently available from Forlorn Hope Games, EM4 Miniatures, and Mirliton Miniatures. Updated, reimaginings of many of those sculpts, plus other newer designs are available from Copplestone Castings. In case I haven’t made it obvious, I think that you should buy some or all of them, paint them and play games with them.
To my geeky delight (and not inconsiderable surprise), the finished fuzz look pretty sensible alongside the amoured Enforcer metals sculpted around the same time. The fully armoured models look a little bigger and more imposing, as they should, but the proportions match pretty much perfectly. The colour schemes tie them together very satisfactorily. I suppose sometimes good things do happen to relatively good people and their morally ambiguous toy soldiers.
I plan to paint some more flatfoots-in-spaaaces this wekend, so I’ll aim to post them up here ASAP, po-po photo quality be damned!
Thanks for reading!
Filed under: Miniatures | Tagged: 40K, 40K Skirmish, Arbites, Citadel Miniatures, Copplestone Castings, Cops, Cyberpunk, EM4 Miniatures, Enforcers, Forlorn Hope Games, KillSampleProcess, Mark Copplestone, Militia, Mirliton Miniatures, Post Apocalyptic, Resistance, Sci-fi, Terminator, Terminator Genisys Miniatures Game, Zona Alfa |
sho3box 
Gorgeous mate, looking forward to (hopefully) giving these feds the slip in just a handful of weeks!!
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Thanks, Alex! The dodgy photos don’t do the old Copplestone sculpts justice. I’m working on a few more in prep currently, and the prospect of getting them on the table for a few games feels like hobby bucket list material.
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Oh, wow, they really do the job. I think I still have a few of those Copplestone gems, they have aged quite decently. What a fantastic work you have accomplished here!
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Thanks Suber!
Over the last few years I have come to the conclusion that, broadly speaking, the nineties is my favourite era for metal 28mm models. The sculpting tends to be better than some of the older figures, and the designs tend to be less cluttered with extra detail than some that came later. The proportions from that era tend to be what I am looking for in a gaming model too.
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Fantastic – I love the Copplestone sculpts myself and you have done a great job with these. I’ve also been meaning to try the Warhammer Crime novels at some point..!
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I’m not particularly a crime novel afficionado Warburton, but after thirtysomething years I can categorically say that I am a fan of the 40k setting. As much as anyone who got into the setting when it started in the late eighties, I have seen a lot of cop/crime/private investigator themed TV shows, of various quality levels. Again, I wouldnt say that I am a cop show afficionado, but I’m familiar with the tropes.
When you combine those elements together a certain way, you get trope heavy, gritty, noir science fantasy that really appeals to me. If that sounds good to you, then I think that giving the first book a chance may well be worth your while.
As for Copplestone sculpts, I don’t need to preach to the choir: if you “get it”, then you know why those figs have extra appeal to me.
Thanks for the feedback!
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I’m coming at it from exactly the same point of view; I don’t read crime novels (generally) or watch cop procedurals, but I think a gritty noir version of 40k would be cool.
And yes Copplestone: say no more!
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Looking great. I think I owned several sessions of those Copplestone minis at various points in the early and mid 90s; they influenced my tastes in setting for years afterwards.
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I think that it was someone on the Tales From the Maelstrom blog who said years ago that they regarded the Copplestone Future Wars figs as companion pieces – or even honorary members – of the Rogue Trader era 40k figure range. I also tend to think of them like that. Certainly the concepts that insp[ired those models were part of the melting pot that became 40k.
Thanks for the feedback Argentbadger!
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Amazing paint jobs on these.
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Thanks Mark!
Classic miniatures and a straightforward, but pretty iconic colour scheme is a winning recipe I think 🙂
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Appreciate that – it’s more challenging than uniform color schemes for sure.
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Love the Copplestone stuff – you’ve really made them look as good as they deserve here! One day I really need to get mine painted. If only I was playing something where they’d fit I’d have the motivation!
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Thanks Azazel!
They are clean, classic old sculpts, from a production era that I am particularly fond of. They are all win.
I got these on to the table for a gaming weekend recently, with some other new paint jobs, but haven’t taken any even half decent photos. I might get around to taking a few pics over the next couple of months. I really should.
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