Robo-Chimp

Robo-Chimp is my 22nd painted Pulp City mini of the year, and continued my Minion focus. I had a bit of a struggle, possibly because I think I started it around the time when a painting slump hit, but I finally finished it this weekend in a determination to clear something out of the dread painting queue.

The painting is not my best, but it will suffice since I am far from a perfectionist when it comes to slapping minis with the hairy sticks. Finishing Robo-Chimp gives me 14 Levels of painted Minions this year, which has been pretty cool on a personal level to be honest, so no doubt will see some more varied choices whenever I get around to any future Battle Reports. I have a few more part-painted Pulp City minis so I hope to keep some momentum into the start of 2017, even as new releases continue.

An A.R.C.-specific Minion, in game terms, Robo-Chimp typically offers a decent 3-dice pool for its Monkey Rockets Attacks which have Blast 2 as part of their FX. The Action does not deal any EFX (Extra Effects), but can be an effective way of peppering a few models with Damage 1 - try and pick out the lowest Agility Trait in a group of models if possible. In addition, Robo-Chimp also usually rolls 3 dice when defending, which combined with its 3 HP means it can potentially surprise your opponent by sticking around in the face of low to moderate Attacks.

Robo-Chimp
Hero/Villain, Blaster, Level 2 Minions
30 mm

Cyber Dogs

My first Pulp City minis for a while, and back to the Minion focus I have had this year. I have been struggling for painting motivation in general in the last few weeks, so needed a 'quick win', which the Cyber Dogs were perfect for.

We were able to produce the Cyber Dogs due to the great success of the Cold War Kickstarter, and they have a neat rule function in that each Dog brings a separate boost which affects the whole game card of Minions, which can be bought as 2, 4 or 6 Levels (1, 2 or 3 models).

I went for a quick and done approach simply to regain some momentum as mentioned, and I hope it brings me back to some more regular painting. I still hope to finish at least a couple more Pulp City minis before year end, but even if I don't, it has been a much better year after the previous two years' outputs. This also takes past 150 painted Pulp City minis, so high time I did another 'all my painted collection' post!

Ankle Biters (Minions)

Ankle Biters done! I tackled these now as I was starting to lose some motivation and momentum on the Citizens, so I needed to finish something different to keep myself going. Thankfully the Ankle Biters offered a pretty quick turnaround. On another plus side, painting them is in line with my intention to paint more Minions this year.

I kept the painting scheme pretty simple as the most important thing for me was simply finishing 'something'. That helped them get finished fairly quickly and my renewed motivation has extended to prepping some more minis (Including Voicelings!), which was a nice bonus. These two are my 146th and 147th painted Pulp City minis, taking me a step closer to the 'magic 150'.

Ankle Biters have been appearing in increasing numbers on the streets of Pulp City, and many assume Mysterious Man is responsible for their creation, but rumour has it that he now has a rival in his field.

In game terms Ankle Biters are nice simple Level 1 Brawler Minions. They are best used in tandem, ganging up on a single opposing model, preferably with added Momentum bonus (they can each roll 3 to 4 dice then if attacking the same model). If you can trigger an EFX, they become especially dangerous as one of their EFX options is Fatigue, meaning these lowly Minions can potentially lock even a mighty Supreme in place.

I really need to get a Minion-heavy Mysterious Man Team onto the table soon to use all the wacky options at his disposal!

Ankle Biters
Hero/Villain, Brawler, Level 1 Minions
30 mm

Hovercats (MInions)

Hover! Hover! Hover! Hovercats! Ho!

My focus this year on painting up as many unfinished Minions as possible continues, and the Hovercats are the latest minis I have completed for my Pulp City collection. A brilliant translation of Melvin's fantastic idea for these flying ferocious felines, they are, naturally, armed with Catling Cannons as they deliver a heck of a punch.

With Flying, their Blaster bonus, and if both Hovercats from a card shoot at the same model, they can each throw out 4 dice. With only 2 HP each and low to mid-range defensive Traits, they are fragile (although Flight adds the High Ground Combat Bonus), but if used smartly against the right kind of target (ideally with Agility no greater than 4), they can deliver a decent threat.

Finishing these little guys puts me up to around 15-17 Levels of Hero/Villain Minions, so a lot of choice on top of other things like Vigilantes, Grimminions, Necro G.I.'s etc.. I hope to add Robo-Chimp, Mutant Mobsters and/or Ankle Biters before the end of the year. Painting-wise I have to finish at least 4 more Pulp City minis to hit my minimum target of 12 for the year, which I feel I am on course for, maybe more if I can keep my sporadic momentum.

Hovercats
Hero/Villain, Blaster, Level 2 Minions
30 mm

Grimminions (4-5)

My final Grimminions are done! I started all five Grimminions at the same time, then focused on the three I thought would be easiest to finish first, with every intention of finishing the other two a week or so later. That was a couple of months ago....

Anyway, the little guy with the traffic cone on his head got some work done while waiting for paint to dry on another mini, and so made some quick progress. That just left the limited edition Kickstarter exclusive Grimminion on its mono-wheel, the most complex of the bunch due to the different 'bits' of the model, and which I finished today. That now takes me to a 'full' card of Grimminions, which can be surprisingly formidable to an unsuspecting opponent; the more there are, the higher value their key Traits of Strength, Defense and Agility become; in effect the Grimminions are treated as one model in terms of making an Attack, but with the option of which model it comes from, and as noted, with high Trait values backing it up.

Finishing the Grimminions is pleasing both in terms of having more painted Grimm (yay!) and finishing more Minions (also yay!). This takes me to 136 painted Pulp City minis, and halfway to the modest target of 12 Pulp City minis for the year which I set at the outset. I'd like to get a couple more Powerhouses done soon, including TINY!

Grimminions
Hero/Villain, Brawler, Level 2+ Minions
30 mm

Grimminions (1-3)

Some more Pulp City painting is done! This year I am determined to paint more Pulp City minis than last year, and within that get a few more Minions done for variety. The Grimminions are a nice easy win on both counts, being small and simple to paint.

Grimmionions are the smallest Grimm morphotypes commonly seen, with each as varied in its fixations as the larger Grimm. A card of Grimminions comprises 2-5 Grimminion models, and becomes more powerful as the number included is increased. On the downside, each card may only make one Attack Action per Activation, but with a potential Strength 6 Strike from a card of 5, plus likley Mobbing bonus from the group, then they can be a significant threat even against Tanks until the number of Grimminions is whittled down.

After these 3 minis, I have 2 more Grimminions to finish which are both slightly more complex than these, either due to colours, or in the case of the mono-wheel due to 'extras' on the mini. I am building up Grimm options ahead of a battle report planned for the end of the year. After the Grimminions, I really need to tackle Grimmsham and TINY!

Grimminions
Hero/Villain, Brawler, Level 2+ Minions
30 mm

Ninjas (Jade Cult III)

My third Minion Card of Ninjas for Jade Cult, and my 7th and 8th Ninjas so far.

These were supposed to be finished back in August for the Minion Month Painting Challenge I had with Rob, but I fell at the final hurdle. While painting various Zombies for Zomtober on one of my other blogs (click for link), I finally regained the motivation to get these finished.

So these are done, which is a 'good thing' as far as I am concerned. I have now painted 116 minis for Pulp City, which I find pretty pleasing.

I still have plenty of Pulp City minis to paint, and hope to get stuck into them over the next few months: Green Serpent; Pulp Monster; 3 x Terror Cotta Warrior; Slug Muldoon; Papa Zombie; Comte Vendredi; and some other stuff...so watch this space!

Finally, yes, I did manage to catch the base of the lamp in the picture of the backs of the minis; oh well, I am too preoccupied to take any replacement pics...I have painting to do!

Ninja Sensei (Jade Cult II)

Click me! Make me bigger!

Well that did not go as planned. This was supposed to be my 'week 3' entry into Minion Month, and it slipped badly - it wasn't completed until last Friday. As for the 'week 4' entry, well that is underway, but I have blown the deadline.

I am pretty disappointed, as so far I have pretty much achieved the challenges I have done with others, but not this time. While I have so far painted 4 Minion models as a result, I was really hoping to have done more. Still, I intend to finish the other Ninjas I have started, and I did some more on them today, so all main colours are blocked out, and have worked on the green areas with shading and some highlighting.

This model is to be a Ninja Sensei for Jade Cult; all my Ninja Sensei will use the body featuring the tabard as well as the bald head, so that they will be more distinctive among the eventual hoped for ranks of Ninjas.

Also note that I have changed my lighting set up a little, adding two additional lamps, so that may see a little bit of experimentation with future photographs; I am simply hoping they will be brighter and crisper, but we shall see.

Anyway that is all for now. I have more Ninjas underway, and have started work on the Primate of Mystery, so that may get finished in the next couple of weeks, if motivation is there.

Ninjas (Jade Cult I)

My latest set of Ninjas, and the first ones completed for the Minion Month Painting Challenge.

The previous Ninjas I painted were done last year, in a colour scheme intended to accompany the Way of the Fist and Blade, while this year I plan to start amassing painted Ninjas for the Jade Cult. Things have gone a little slower than I hoped (and this is the second deadline that has slipped a day), but I reckon I will have painted 4-5 Ninjas/Ninja Sensei at minimum this month, with one more already underway, and others awaiting assembly.

Ninjas are a Level 2 Minion card, and my plan for the Jade Cult Ninjas is to do sets of Ninjas and Ninja Sensei, with each set having a characteristic weapon. So this set and their upcoming Ninja Sensei are armed with kama, originally a crop reaping tool. Other options with the minis include sais, swords, and nunchuku. If I can, I will avoid the swords as the Way of the Fist and Blade Ninjas have those, but we will see.

After photographing these I notice a bit of the base of one was still unfinished, so that has been rectified- I just cannot be bothered taking the pictures again!

Well that is week two of the challenge down, and 3 minis completed, with 4 Pulp City minis completed this month already. Not my smoothest painting admittedly, but done nonetheless. So keep checking by the blog to see how I get on. Rob's initial progress can be found here.

Shadow Double

Click-click

This was not the first mini I was expecting to finish for the Minion Month Painting Challenge, but it is done, and it is a mini I have wanted to be finished for rather quite some time! In fact, it is over a year since I finished Shadow Mask!

So now it is done, although it is a day late.

Those Ninjas are still in the queue mind you.

So how does Shadow Double qualify for Minion Month? Well, in the SE rules, the Shadow Double card is a Minion separate to the Shadow Mask card. You could represent Shadow Double however you want to, but to me it made sense to use the Shadow Mask mini with what I hoped would be a suitable colour scheme.

Shadow Double starts in play, and if he is KO'ed, he can be Summoned back into play again by Shadow Mask. So the only way to keep him down is to keep the Green Emperor's own attack dog (a.k.a. Shadow Mask) down for the count.

On the painting, I kind of knew what I wanted, but I did struggle a little at times with this one, so it is far from my best work. On the other hand, I think it does what it needs for the tabletop, so it will do.

This is the 110th mini I have painted from the Pulp City range (of course some are duplicates, as this is to Shadow Mask posted a while back). I am not sure I will ever paint as many minis from a single range ever again, except possibly Anima Tactics (as blogged here - and even then I still expect to be painting more Pulp City as I add to the current number, so Anima Tactics might never exceed the Pulp City line-up I have, even with a larger numerical range of minis).

My first Jade Cult-themed Ninjas are underway, so I hope to hit the next deadline properly. Stay tuned to see how I do!

Shadow Mask and his Summoned Shadow Double

BTW, Rob is away, so his first Minion Month minis will be posted when he returns.

Ninjas! (Way Of the Fist & Blade)

Ninjas

A loooong while since I posted some newly painted minis, so I was glad to get these done, even if my painting skills were more than a little rusty in completing them.

Hadron has hit a back-burner yet again, but not because of these Ninjas, rather I hit yet another painting block. Therefore I wanted to 'get something done', and these were to hand, so without much further ado I cracked into them. Well I say 'without much further ado', but I did change two of the heads mid-way through.

Ninja Sensei

They were assembled a few weeks ago but inevitably got put to one side. The sculpts are by the brilliant James Van Schaik and are four piece models (head, two arms, body) with two body variations.

When I decided to get stuck into them I had plans for these to represent two rank and file Ninjas and their Sensei, but part-way through I changed my mind as to which model should represent the Sensei, so heads were swapped around a bit and one taken out (bare-head for the Sensei, swapped for a wraparound goggles head and a different goggles head was put onto one of the other Ninjas).

These guys are intended to be some 'good guy' Ninjas, therefore probably linked to the loose collection of Supremes known as the Way of the Fist & Blade. Since the pivotal figure in that collective is Crimson Oni, I wanted a colour scheme to match him. Highlighting the dark body-suit was challenging and probably shows off my current painting rustiness most of all. Still they are done and that is the main thing for me.

Way of the Fist & Blade Ninjas with Crimson Oni

I will be doing more Ninjas and Sensei in the future (for the Jade Cult), and they will have the more traditional masks and probably bare heads for Sensei. They will look a little more uniform in that respect I expect. And there should be many more them...

From Beneath The Streets!

Just a picture of all of my Grimm so far, and something I may repeat as my collection of the little blighters grows.

What will be interesting is that when more Grimm are available, as Minions they may be mixed and matched to provide different ability combos; pretty nifty I reckon.

Necro GI's

These Necro GI's are finally done. Not brilliant, but at least finished enough for my purposes.

I think I first posted about these on the blog back in July - so it has taken around 4 months or so to get them completed. They probably haven't had very much work on them, but that is likely because the approach I was first using on them was quite off-putting. So I eventually salvaged the paint jobs to a certain extent, but I wish I had started on them in a different way.

The sculpts are excellent in my view, more superb work from Paul Muller whose aesthetics suit the Pulp City range, and the Necroplane in particular. So with that in mind any short-coming are simply down to ye olde Pulp Citizen, and nothing more. I will try and see it as a lesson learned, even after years of painting, and maybe a sign of my outlook on the painting hobby changing as well.

In game terms these guys are amped-up contagious zombies with guns; what isn't there to like about that? I reckon they will be a given in most games using Necroplane for me going forwards - especially as there is already a formidable coterie of Supremes available. I painted 4 in anticipation that I will always need more during an Encounter. I love the simian-like aspect to them as well - it evokes a certain primitive feel to the minis.

Well, most importantly they are finally done. so what next? Gorgoroth, Taurus Captain? Xyllian, Master Sagittarius? Iron Train? Skyline? Time will tell.

June Summers

Channel 4 news reporter, specializing exclusively in Supreme affairs.

The object of the recent contest I ran, this is my version of a painted June Summers (sculpted by Wotjek Flis). June has yet to be generally released, and was a mini I picked up a few copies of through a promotion Pulp Monsters ran last year.

June is a Character Minion, meaning that she can be Activated like a Supreme. She brings certain bonuses to games that will be even more welcome when the revised rulebook hits, since she can add to your Agenda Point score (basically victory score), and she also adds to the Starting Roll which is nice.

This is one of the first minis I have tried photographing with a new lighting set-up, so it may take a while for me to get it right.

Sentry Bots (2) - Villains

Some more Sentry Bots, this time in a colour scheme intended to complement my Villains - I don't think you can go too far wrong using purple on some nefarious Supreme or one of their Minions. The paint-jobs were fairly quickly done, much as the other Sentry Bots I painted. Nonetheless I am reasonably happy with the results.

As my collection grows, so does the need for Minions. Mysterious Man especially needs Minion models available to be able to fully utilise his abilities. Compound that with the fact that not all Supremes have exclusive Resources, and only (at present) a handful of generic Resources, then Minions are vital to spend those Resource Levels.

I am looking forwards to seeing more 'official' Minions appear in time. In the mean-time the option to use the BOOM rules to create Minions is in place, but I like that my games can make use of minis like the Sentry Bots. I just wish that along with the head and arm options, there were two bodies in the box set to maximise variety, but despite that i am pretty pleased with the results.

Sanguine and Draku

Guillaume Sanguine, the French entrepreneur, whose blood thirst extends far beyond just the business, visits Pulp City.

I really enjoyed painting Sanguine and Draku - opting for simple colour schemes (including the flashes of purple to tie them in with many of my other Villains); the net result was that they were painted pretty quickly having obtained them from Maciej at Salute 2010.

Sanguine offers quite a few team-building options: he can be fielded as either level 1 or Level 2 (and the Level 1 option can potentially upgrade mid-game!), and he has the Necroplane allegiance, which he can drop thanks to the nifty new Freelancer skill. Basically that means he can work in either currently available level 3-led Villain sub faction - unaligned (Mysterious Man) or Necroplane (Dr. Tenebrous).

The minis are sculpted by James van Schaik, and I think he did a superb job on both. The posing is really suitable for a vampire, and the costume has arguable nods to comic-book characters like the Crow. James has sculpted a lot of the line and I think his work has been of a superb standard.

Draku offers a Minion that can hang around the game with decent HP (for a Minion) as well as having HP recovery, and to cap it all, if he is taken out, Sanguine gets mad and adds a bonus to all of his Action Rolls. Add to that that I think the model is incredibly cute, and perhaps best of all is that it is modeled on and named for the dog belonging to Maciej, the game's originator.
I believe the art on his Minion card is taken from a picture of the real-life Draku.

As a Pulp City SE update, Sanguine is a Support Supreme and Draku is a Tank Minion; a great little combination.

Vigilantes

With the most recent shocking Supreme-caused crimes, citizens of Pulp City look up to the greatest heroes and take the justice in their own hands.

Sculpted by Wojtek Flis, the Vigilantes are Level 2 Hero Minions who come with Dead Eye. They are not exclusive to Dead Eye, but become more potent when fielded alongside that particular hero of Pulp City - becoming Level 1 Supremes, which don't count towards the number of Supremes selected! Instead even with dead Eye they are purchased as Resources.

I had my first games with them yesterday and found them to be fun and effective - not game winners, but a nice addition to the range of Resource options.

The minis were painted along with Dead Eye to give a cohesive feel, hopefully making them look like a combined 'unit' as may be the case in some other games.

Originally I had a different colour scheme in mind for Dead Eye, but when I settled on the US-patriot theme for the Vigilantes his colour scheme changed to something resembling his 'official' scheme to fit more nicely with them. I am probably most pleased with the wood-grain effect on the baseball bat - not too readily visible here (however try clicking on the top image for a larger image view), but it is there I assure you!

Sentry Bots

After the first Ulthar invasion in the early 70s, inquisitive minds in Pulp City embarked on a project of fighting Ulthar fire with fire! The first of the reprogrammed bots fought alongside Nuke in a short and violent battle in a radioactive waste dump in Mexico.

Sculpted by Jarek Smolka the Sentry Bots are a universal Minion resource. Intended to be very 'pulp sci-fi' in their depiction and styling, I think they look just the job. A few options are available in terms of heads arms, and backpack to make the Advanced Sentry Bot version.

No guesses as to what the source of my colour scheme inspiration was. That however isn't the full story. A fellow Pulp City hobbyist (Undead Jon) painted Rook in a manner inspired by Iron Man also, and I thought his idea was so good that I should...ahem...borrow it. Well imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, isn't it?

The second picture contains the Sentry Bots with the Advanced Sentry Bot I also completed last month.

Advanced Sentry Bot

Androida of Heavy Metal managed to build on the frame of the Ulthar Bot a new technically advanced version that possessed a higher AI and a very efficient and fast tactical computer built in.

Built using the extra backpack component form the Sentry Bots pack, Advanced Sentry Bots are exclusively available to the Heavy Metal team and just that little better than 'normal' Sentry Bots. The Sentry Bots/Advanced Sentry Bots are sculpted Jarek Smolka.

I painted this one at the same time as Androida, but opted for less sharp highlighting. I think it came out okay, and I am not unhappy with the result, but I am still working on the techniques I used, so hopefully there remains room for improvement.

Red Riding Hoodoo and Zombie Wolf

A member of the Blood Watch - a heroic alliance of mysterious supremes. These guys are...creepy!


Sculpted by Jerzy Montwill, I really like the Red Riding Hoodoo mini and her companion (an exclusive Minion - in other words only usuable with Red Riding Hoodoo), which is a Zombie Wolf (which may be the undead form of a former villain in thrall to the power of this Creole practioner of the esoteric arts).


I still struggle with skin tones, so found it quite a challenge to paint Red Riding Hoodoo. Further, I should have probably painted her bandages a lighter grey. That aside, I am reasonably happy with the end result.