Mega City One is an unforgiving and dangerous place. Gangs and organised crime syndicates exert an iron grip on the towering block precincts and the common citizenry know all too well to maintain a low profile.
The Judges aren't much better. Step out of line and you can expect a swift daystick to the spugs. Push your luck and you're in for a long stay in the Iso-Cubes...
Every once in a while some brave (delusional, or drugged up) soul, bucks the trend and says enough is enough. Making a stand against the tyranny of crime and judgement eroding their freedoms, they take up arms, mask their identity and take their own brand of justice to the streets.
For many of these lone vigilantes fame is brief and judgement is final. But every once a while, a legend is a born, a true hero of the people. A hero the gangs learn to fear and a hero the Judges learn to respect...
But one fateful night, Stan's life was to change forever.
The motive itself was unclear. Maybe Stan had enemies in high places. Maybe he'd slept with one too many gangster's molls... But as he stepped out of his luxury hover cruiser and onto the red carpet of Mayor Blore's 'Industry Awards Gala', what was clear was that Stan's entourage had been hit by a relentless rocket attack. The thundering explosions blew Stan high up into the air and blew his legs into the hotel foyer...
Not for the first time, Stanley's incredible wealth came to his rescue. From the shell of a broken body, the best surgeons in Mega City One spent months rebuilding the man. And re-build him they did. Stan would become twice the man he ever was before...
For once in a long, long time, his mind was clear. Rather than use his wealth for capitalism and personal gain, he would use it to fight for justice as a champion of the people. He had purpose.
His purpose was justice. His aim was vengeance. His will was iron.
He was IRON STAN!
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In reality, the choice of Lone Vigilante for a Judge Dredd 'gang' was born out of necessity rather than choice. I'd spent a fair few weeks pouring over the JDMG rules and the various gangs that were on offer and the Cursed Earth Desperadoes were the gang that interested me the most...
However, the clock was ticking - The games club were looking to run a few JD starter games and I had less than a week to get a gang together. To have any chance of hitting the tables, I'd have to choose a small, elite force with minimal figure count... One figure to be precise!
I had a rummage round my old figures for anything that could work as a suitable super hero type, but nothing really jumped out. Then my eye was taken by the cape on the space marine sniper scout model. This looked like an excellent starting point. The bionic legs were next, along with a 'power arm' from an old mech-warrior figure...
These bionic bits helped to give the guy character and it wasn't long before a suitable 'origin story' behind Iron Stan began to form in my mind... Clearly an unashamed parody of Tony Stark ;)
To help make the model look a little less marine like, I filed down some of the original surface details and added some additional plating in the form of up-turned Imperial Guard shovel heads...
The list for my Lone Vigilante would see Iron Stan equipped with a laser gun (cunningly incorporated into his gauntlet) and a jet pack. To represent this, I plundered the Imperial Guard bits again and used an up-turned heavy flamer fuel tank. I really like how it gives the model a retro rocket man look...
The main body of the shield was made from 0.65mm plasti-card sheeting. Once the basic shape had been cut out, it was scored down the centre line to give it a slight ridge with which to divide each half of the shield. The 'I S' initials were formed up using lengths of rectangle-end plastic rod. With a bit of filing to smooth off the edges and joints, the final piece came out looking pretty cool :)
Paint wise, the model was given a straight up metal look for the body parts and a good ol' red, white and blue combination for the cape and shield...
I'm very pleased with how Iron Stan has turned out and whilst the 'Lone Vigilante' wasn't originally my first choice of JD gang, I'm really glad circumstance intervened!
Until next time ;)
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