JUDGE DREDD

Judge Dredd is the British comic character created by Carlos Ezquerra and John Wagner for "2000A.D." a weekly children's comic that has run from the late 1970 to the present day.

There have been two film adaptations of the world of Dredd, one in 1995 starring Sylvester Stallone and one in 2012 starring Karl Urban.

"JUDGE DREDD" 1995

I made this costume for a convention run by the Film and Television Model Club back in the late 90's. I based the helmet on an old motorcycle helmet that was clad in plastic card to give it the distinctive Dredd look. The shoulder pads we constructed from a Corex base (Corex is that corrugated plastic that they make estate agent signs out of and is useful stuff to have around) with polystyrene ceiling tiles for the eagle and shoulder pad. The uniform I made from scratch from a knitted jersey materiel. The costume was amazingly uncomfortable to wear as the width of the shoulder pads meant getting through doors was particularly difficult. This highlights that what works well in comics and films wouldn't work in real life. They realised this for the 2012 film version and designed a uniform that was comic like but much more practical.

"DREDD" 2012

WHen they decided to have another bash at the world of Dredd they took into account the many complaints that the first film garnered, mainly revolving around the removal of Dredd's helmet (something that was never shown in the comics) and redesigned the Judge uniforms into something that looked practical but still kept the iconic nature of the comic version.

The helmet I made from papier mache over a balloon, then added cardboard panels to get the shape, then more papier mache over the top. I used craft foam to add the detail and painted with acrylics. The movie helmet is very weathered and I painted my replica to show this.

The uniform is made up from a leather body suit with a sleeveless armour jerkin over it. For the leathers I used my old leather trousers and coat and decided to use Correx again for the armour panels over a pleather jerkin,

Weathered up they looked good and were also light enough to be wearable. The shoulder eagle and armour are much reduced in this version being just shoulder pads with the design embossed on them. I used the old balloon and papier mache method again with the detail cut out of craft foam.

Dredd also wears elbow pads and knee pads and these I made from craft foam over hand made pads. A belt and holster finished the outfit and the Lawgiver, Dredd's sidearm, was fashioned out of a toy gun brought from a budget store.

The finished costume is quite comfortable but a bit hot to wear due to the leathers underneath but does look quite imposing and Judicial.