Hendybadger

Remember a few weeks ago I set out on two Challenge  Well one is complete for the deadline, but alas the other not quite (some other stuff may have gotten in the way as you may have noticed!).

Well I did complete Painting Challenge 1: Hendybadger Vs. Pulp Citizen/ Hendybadger Vs. Doc Cosmos Throwdown!

You saw my Doc Cosmos here, and now Hendybadger joins him! I enjoyed painting the little fella, especially as is it is so rare that I could not afford to mess it up, but being so small with tons of character details made it a bugger to say the least!

Hats off to the Galley Wench, aka Mrs Hendybadger for getting this little critter created as the perfect Birthday gift for her hubby, the great and dear Hendybadger. Now if HB know what's good for him, then the Galley Wench will be immortalized in miniature... ;)

I was really honoured to get one of these, and it is going to take pride of place in my collection. Thanks Hendybadger and Galley Wench, this means a lot to me. I hope I have done it some semblance of justice in the painting.

Pulp City Open Beta Is Here (Almost!)

One of the new cards!

Sometime today, the Open Beta version of Pulp City *should* be launched.

The downloads should be available from the web-site (web-site link here) later today, so please check it out.

So what is it about? What is this Open Beta? Well this link to some recent Editorial Eyes can give some background as to how we got here.

In a nutshell however we are recreating the Pulp City rules; we hope to make them as action-packed as ever, and hopefully more so. We hope we have made a faster and more stream-lined game with some really fun and cool features. We wanted to rebuild the game so that players did not have to study walls of Action text to play, but instead using some basic 'building block' mechanics can quickly and intuitively get into the game.

From testing we feel it plays faster. There is a lot of depth from team selection to how you use your models, and it will soon be clear there is no perfect formula as to what models you choose (although Leaders and Powerhouses will be key to most play-styles in my opinion!).

The Open Beta is a no-frills document (the full rules with lavish lay-out, art and fluff will follow later this year), designed to allow players to pick up what is happening and dive in. My understanding is that other companies have done something similar to keep their players informed of where things are moving.

So if you play Pulp City or want to give it a try, look for those downloads later today!

Doc Cosmos

Not a Pulp City mini, but a super of my own design, sculpted to fit in with the Pulp City line, Doc Cosmos has taken a while to be painted from original concept, to sculpting, to casting and to me painting this version.

The mini was sculpted  by James Van Schaik.

My friend Hendybadger and me set ourselves a Challenge, to get our commissioned minis painted before the end of January (see here for the original Challenge post).

Doc Cosmos is a hero I conceived a few years ago, and was very loosely inspired by a Golden Age hero. He originally went by the name Doc Stellar, but I found that a character in Big Bang Comics had that code-name, so a change was required.

The planned colour scheme was red and blue, but I switched to red and black shortly before starting to finish him off in earnest, and I think the combo is effective.

The face probably needs a bit more work, and a bit more will be down, but I am happy overall nonetheless.

He will be getting some 'house rules' I reckon to be used in some Pulp City games at some point, but for now I am proud that he is painted.

Welcome

A big and hearty 'welcome aboard' to Brummie, who I have sort-of known through some fora (shared interest in Zombie minis for a start), and whose blog can be found here: Brummie's Wargaming Blog (click for link).

Of course the world being a funny place means we live near other and never realized  Hopefully Brummie and me can get some games of various types in at some point. Thanks again Brummie for signing up, and please check out his blog.

On the Pulp City front, we are getting ever closer to the Open Beta launch so I will post about that when we get to it.

Pulp Monsters Editorial Eye(s) & Progress

Maciej has published the second in a series of Editorial Eye posts as we march towards the Open Beta phase of the Pulp City update: Pulp City Supreme Edition.

The article can be found here (click for link), with a preview of a Supreme slated to appear later in the year.

On my own progress, I am diving into the Doc Cosmos vs. Hendybadger Challenge, so hopefully that remains on course.

Night Fright & Leech (WiP)

These have been in my 'to do' pile for quite some time. What held me back for a few months was figuring out how I wanted the sky-board (Leech) to 'fly'; well that was resolved when I saw some smoke style special effects on Tabletop Art's site. I ordered a couple of packs and problem one solved.

Problem two as ever is my project inertia; this can hit at any stage of a project and kicked in before assembly began. Well, it has now resolved - getting six minis painted in December and three (so far) in January created some momentum and so yesterday I assembled this thing and gave it a spray under-coat.

Watch this space for completion (sooner than later I hope!).

Captain Hadron & Mini Hadron

Click to enlarge-ify

Captain Hadron is one of the admired heroes of the world’s greatest Supreme Team, Heavy Metal. Yet that reputation sheds little light onto his past and the uncertain future he faces

Woo-hoo! About flipping time these were done!

Anyone who has read or Followed this blog for any considerable length of time will likely be aware that the various Hadron incarnations  (Captain Hadron; Mini Hadron; Giant Hadron) have been in my painting queue, unfinished, for a long, long time. In fact, it was two years ago this month that I received my Giant Hadron.

Well 2 of the 3 for the set are done as part of one of this month's Challenges: New Broom January.

Evidently I needed the carrot (or is it a stick?) of a Challenge to get these done, and it has worked.

The finished work is probably a bit rough by recent standards, but that is probably because I have struggled so much to get these done. I am not overly worried that they may be a bit rough as I am more than happy they are done. they have been hanging over me for far too long, and sometimes things need to simply be finished off. That includes accepting Captain Hadron leans at a funny angle (due to being re-attached to his base; I am not doing it again).

While I still have 21 days to get Giant Hadron finished, I have one other Challenge this month. Add to that that I have painted one Anima Tactics (click for link here) mini this month, and if I succeed in all the Challenge minis I should have a fairly successful month by my meager standards.

Sculptors on these are: James Van Schaik (Captain Hadron), and Jarek Smolka (Mini Hadron).

In game terms the Hadrons can swap between different sizes. In the current edition Giant Hadron is limited to 1 or 2 rounds depending on other choices (like taking Dr. Mercury), but expect more choices around the use of Hadron in the upcoming Supreme Edition.

Painting Challenge 2: New Broom January

Yes, they have been unfinished for far too long!

Okay, this is the big one, pun fully intended!

Rob has been rightfully making a point that I still have not finished my Hadrons. I cannot argue with him on that score.

So we got to chatting and we settled on a theme for January that would allow me to tackle them and Rob to tackle some Force on Force stuff: New Broom January; projects that have sat unfinished for far too long.

The dead;lines are smaller mini by January 10th; another small mini by January 17th; big piece by January 31st.

So keep an eye here for my side of things, and check out Four Colour Super Minis for Rob's progress; the Painting Challenge is on, a New Broom January to sweep those minis into completion!

Painting Challenge 1: Hendybadger Vs. Pulp Citizen/ Hendybadger Vs. Doc Cosmos Throwdown!

Doc Cosmos and Hendybadger

In my 2012 in review post I mentioned how useful I found having Painting Challenges with someone else; that has been Rob so far (his blog here), and it has really helped because it felt like I had to meet the deadline or otherwise let someone else down, which helped give me the impetus to succeed.

Well this very month I am launching into 2 Painting Challenges, and the first is with Hendybadger (his blog can be found here).

Since we both have commissioned minis (Hendybadger was commissioned as a fantastic gift for HB by his wife, AKA the Galley Wench), we thought it only apt we actually paint them.

So the Challenge is on: to have both minis painted by 31st of January  One simple Throwdown, and there can be two winners! Will we do it? Watch our blogs to see!

2012 In Blog Review

A New Year starts and I thought I would take a quick look back at the year gone by in relation to my minis hobby blogs.

2012 saw my third minis blog launch – Anima Tactician. I had high hopes for quick momentum into this new project which soon evaporated as I hit yet another painting slump in all genres.
2012 also saw a downturn in my overall minis painting, albeit with a surge in the final month (I painted 25% of all minis I completed last year in that one-month period). The year before had seen me paint more zombies in a short space of time than I thought likely.
What did help at times last year were the Painting Challenges I agreed with Rob. Now I do not have the stamina for something like LAF’s Lead Painters League, but those month long challenges helped a lot, which is good – expect more in 2013.

On to the minis and the blogging then.

My 3 blogs are (click names for links):

• Pulp Citizen 
• Eclectic Gentleman Tabletop 
• GamerAnima Tactician

Painted In 2012
Pulp Citizen: 11 (not a great return) (16 in 2011)
Eclectic Gentleman Tabletop Gamer: 8 (6 of which were Zombies)/ (16 in 2011)
Anima Tactician: 5 (0 in 2011)
Total: 24 (32 in 2011)

And blogging?
Totals Posts: 158 (175 in 2011)

Now I know one factor which impacted this painting and blogging was stepping up my involvement in Pulp City, and with the bulk of that work completed I am setting myself a goal to paint more minis in 2013 than I did in 2012, and similarly blog more this year than 2011 (2010 was a high point I am unlikely to emulate alas). That means I will try and keep all 3 blogs active, and aim for around 15 or so posts per month across all 3. Posting this on all 3 does count 3 times over!
Anyway, thanks to everyone who stops by and takes a look, or has a read; I promise more blogging in the year ahead and hopefully stuff of varied interest. Stay tuned! And feel free to comment and say what you would like to see.