Judge Dredd -- Prepwork

When I acquired this figure, it was with the intention to have it hit the painting bench in short-order. And it looks like it will, 'cause 90% of the prepwork is now behind me.

This post will highlight some of the things learned from this exercise: part cautionary tale, part reflections.

The casting quality as I noted was--IS--excellent. As I mentioned in my review, what is of greater concern is that the assortment--and there were quite a few!!!--of surface-trapped air bubbles could/would be overlooked by the hasty and/or inexperienced modeler. As most of you know, I bake all my resin figures prior to commencing work, and this is a critical step to defuse--or rather detonate!--any potential "bombs" down the road. With this figure, I also ran a thin "wash" of glazing putty dissolved in MEK over the entire figure, so there were no remaining secrets! 

The samples of the figure I saw all had a surface sheen to them, which hinted at the possibility of trapped air. While there were quite a few, it was not an inordinate amount. Still the numbers could have been reduced considerably with the use of talc as a pre-casting mold-prep. It appears that they used a mold release, hence the sheen, but mold release does not necessarily break small bubbles. And I will take this opportunity to underscore the importance of washing all parts in warm, soapy water before applying any paint!

In any event, working the air bubbles gave me time to appreciate--and study!--the design and fit of the pieces.

The fit overall is excellent; but careful examination and diligent dry-fitting will yield all but seam- less joins. The importance of this is underscored by the most important revelation of the process: this figure will be painted by-and-large unassembled! The fit is certainly good enough to warrant such an approach, but I personally do not like to paint like this. Nevertheless, the subtle, fairly deep undercuts resulting from the high tolerance fit virtually demand unassembled painting. Respect the company's efforts on our behalf and you will be amply rewarded!

I could probably have this ready for priming in less than a week, depending on the free-time at my disposal. Realistically, I would say mid-late March.

Stay tuned. . .