Giant Hadron

Captain Hadron's transitions to giant-size required a lot of control and meant that he could not utilize other abilities when doing so, and even his transformations back to other sizes were time consuming when grown to his maximum height. 

Wow. Even with the deadline of last month's Challenge, I did not get this finished on time.

And having already dawdled for over two years, the first of my Giant Hadrons is finished (yes, I have another! That could be another terminally slow painting log in the making...).

It is done at last. Not my best painting by any stretch, but what surprised me is how difficult painting a big model is. I don't think I have completed painting on a model this size before now. I guess painters get habituated to working at a given scale and so stepping beyond that is going outside of your comfort zone, which may be part of why this has taken so long to complete; that and I am a notoriously slow painter of course!

Not my best work, but hopefully I have learned some lessons from tackling this big model; lessons that will inform other big models eventually.

In the new Supreme Edition rules Giant Hadron is a Powerhouse; what this means is that we hope he lives up to his stature, and unlike the previous edition he can stay giant-size for the whole game (he was limited to 1-2 Rounds previously).

We are still gathering feedback on the new rules, so let us know what you think of our biggest Powerhouse, who gets Size Matters against all other Supremes as things currently stand. With the importance of dice pooling to achieve SFX, that is a good advantage to have.

Hopefully this month's painting slump will not continue into next month, and I hope that I can start to overhaul the total painted minis I achieved in 2012, especially with so many new Pulp City minis on the horizon: Green Emperor and Terror Cotta Warrior; V.H. and Blacksmith; Red Bella and Primates of Power; Papa Zombie and Comte Vendredi; new Starter sets and much more besides.

Time to get those last few currently remaining minis done then: Doom Train; Night Fright and Leech; Green Serpent; Pulp Monster.

Welcome

A new 'welcome to the Pulp Citizen' post, with two newly signed up Followers: John Davis and Joystick Junkies. It is always a pleasure to see new names signed up, so much appreciated guys, and a big thank you. Joystick Junkies have a blog which can be found here.

On the Pulp City front; well we launched the Open Beta in January as planned. Already feedback has started to come in, helping us tighten up the game even more before publication hopefully later this year.

Although we are having a few server problems, the Forums have been an invaluable way for fans to pass on their thoughts, so as soon as they are back up please check them out.

On my own painting front, I really hope to get Giant Hadron completed today. Fingers crossed.

Bring On The Big Guys!

So Pulp City Supreme Edition Open Beta has been out for a couple of  weeks, and anyone checking out the rules will be aware that one of the 'big' changes (pun intended) is the application of Roles to the Supremes line-up, especially Powerhouses.

Powerhouses are the 'big guys' of the Supreme world. Within the new rules they have a pretty much unparalleled capacity to lay the smack down on whatever gets in their way.

Powerhouses are now generally to be mounted on 50mm bases; players retain the option to keep them on 40mm bases, but base size has added meaning in Pulp City now. However, those 50mm bases can provide a real advantage as in the new system the Opposed Roll has been replaced by the Action Roll.

The Action Roll provides a success of fail mechanism and extra degrees of success all in one. Powerhouses benefit in a couple of ways. Firstly they score extra successes (SFX) easier than all other Roles. Secondly, because Size Matters (this is a Combat Bonus) their bigger bases mean that if using their Actions against models on smaller bases means they get an extra die for that, and die pooling is a key feature of the Supreme Edition rules. Players should start to get into the swing of maximising their dice pooling, and Powerhouses are definitely at the forefront of that.

While we have been play-testing over the past year or so, I had mounted my own Powerhouses on 50mm bases under their regular bases as a useful prompt that they would get the Size Matters Combat Bonus (see the top picture).

However I recently decided i needed to make the upgrade permanent, so I have painted up a set of new bases with which I plan to remount the 3 50mm base Powerhouses (Six Feet Under; Father Oak; and Apebot); Giant Hadron is a special case who at 80mm base is the 'big guy of big guys'.

Now I am just hoping that the good old super glue bond is not too good; why is it whenever you want something to be loose with super glue it is stuck tighter than anything, while models you want to last fall apart with a mere sideways glance?

As for Powerhouses, I can safely say there will be more, maybe even this year. So stay tuned to the Pulp City website; the Pulp City Forum; and the Pulp City Facebook page for news, hopefully alter this year.

Welcome

A new 'welcome to the Pulp Citizen' post, this time to r1Pped who has just signed up - thanks for doing so. r1Pped has a youtube channel which can be found here for those who are interested. That just goes to show how far the gaming hobbies have come when there are gaming bloggers and vloggers about.

The internet has helped the tabletop gaming hobby immeasurably as far as I am concerned, opening up opportunities for manufacturers, customers and retailers alike. It has meant that I can try games that around 10-15 vyears ago I would have been dependent on my LGS to get in (yes I know the interwebz has been around longer than that, but that time-span has seen the transition from print to digital media as the primary way of exploring and showcasing the hobby). So while my LGS may have made some great choices in stocking some cool games, today I can be my own taste-maker. Of course the balance is in trying to still support the local LGS, while recognizing that it cannot stock every shiny new range that takes my eye; they (LGS's) still are such a vital part of the hobby when well-run.

On the Pulp City front? Well, all that work over the past 14 months is paying off as Open Beta is out.

So what is there to expect going forwards? Well Pulp Monsters hopes to schedule monthly releases from this month forwards (with the odd skip month for logical reasons). While I cannot say what exactly they will be, new Starter sets are confirmed (including a new Nuke and new Supreme Aurelius); new Guerilla has been seen; and do not be surprised if we see some more big guys this year (Powerhouse's).

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.