V.H.

V.H. is my second Blood Watch Supreme (after Youngblood) in less than a month, after a spell of not painting any Blood Watch minis for four years - it is funny how these things turn out!

I admit, I am far from the most disciplined of painters, and certainly not an especially productive one, so each time a mini is finished, I am pleased, even if my output is erratic and somewhat sporadic at times. What does help focus me is a deadline for a specific purpose. In this instance the annual Hallowe'en Madness game is coming up, and I want V.H. on the table for that game!

By my standards this was a very quick paint-job, being finished in a couple of hours over around 3-4 sessions in one day, and I am satisfied with the final result even if not my best work. Right now, getting stuff finished is most important for me, as I see painted minis as the means to the end of playing games, and the latter is my favourite part of the hobby. I think finishing the mini so quickly was feeling sufficiently motivated by the deadline necessitated by the upcoming game. It has also helped get me one more painted mini closer to my target of 12 Pulp City minis this year, and is the 128th Pulp City mini I have painted for my collection.

In game terms V.H. can be potentially very hard-hitting if she is used smartly, as she has an Action allowing easier EFX achievement and always rolls at least 3 dice for Action Rolls. Her biggest downside is that her primary Trait for Damage-dealing purposes is Agility 6, which is lower in value than most other Leader's primary Damage-dealing Trait, but should still be sufficient against most Targets. Unlike most Leaders, V.H. does not bring any Minions as a matter of course, so her Team are very much dependent on their own
resources without that extra support available from expendable Minions.

V.H.
Hero, Leader, Level 3, Mystery
30 mm

Youngblood

The latest addition to my Pulp City Supremes, Youngblood is the 127th mini I have painted from the range for my collection, and a pleasing addition for me, especially as it has been 4 years since I last added to the Blood Watch!

After finishing M.O.D., Amok and the selection of new Grimm before them, it has been nice to get a little renewed momentum for additions to a few different Factions.

Youngblood is a vampire child taken in to the Blood Watch fold. The Team has helped restrain the darker urges he experiences due to the power that lies within him, but even then they are not totally sure if he will stay on the side of good.

I really liked this concept as soon as I saw it, another great idea from Melvin. Part of the problem for us is ensuring that we can translate new concepts to sufficient sales to justify making minis from them all, which was part of the major reason why the first Kickstarter was so beneficial to a small company like Pulp Monsters as it gave us the opportunity to grow the range significantly.

In game terms, Youngblood is an interesting proposition. Like many other Level 1 Supremes he can be taken out by overwhelming Attacks, yet he has a couple of ways of Self/Healing, which opens up the possibility of increased durability, especially coupled with him having Stealth, Flight and a Self/Defend buff. He is an Infiltrator, and one that you can dump into an awkward position, knowing he can generate a few defensive dice and recover small amounts of Damage. Add in his ability to control Enemy Minions and he can offer some disruption to an opponent, while only using up one of your Team Levels.

Youngblood
Hero, Infiltrator, Level 1, Mystery
30 mm

Blood Watch (Sub-faction - updated)

Click on the picture to embiggen.

With the recent painting of Moonchild/Moon Coyote and Loup Garou II, and guessing it may be a few months before further Blood Watch are released, I thought an update could be in order as with the The Coven update yesterday.

The Blood Watch are guardians against the threat of the Necroplane and other arcane evils. They are dark defenders, creatures of the night, and men and women empowered by occult forces.

The models above are sufficient to field a Level 9 Blood Watch Team.

The Blood Watch (rear row left to right):

• Loup Garou II: fast and brutally powerful; requires Moonchild to be present to be be fielded as Blood Watch.
• Sgt. Bale: ex-special forces soldier turned arcane-empowered supernatural hunter.
• Six Feet Under: enslaved in Hellrock, the Necroplane's terrible prison, Six Feet Under is a man from another world determined to spare this Earth the same fate as his home world.
• Zombie Wolf: (Minion) Hoodoo's guardian; is this Loup Garou - a former enemy - turned to serve Red Riding Hoodoo?

(front row, left to right):

• Moon Coyote/Moonchild: support Supreme, fast and mobile.
• Blood Rose: the last of her kind, the Blood Watch's healer and source of mobility - she can teleport them across the field of battle.
• Red Riding Hoodoo: New Orleans voodoo practitioner, and mistress of ancient rituals.

Moonchild/Moon Coyote

This teenage Native American is a werecoyote, choosing between here human support form and coyote speeder form. She belongs to Blood Watch but thanks to the half of the Moon Amulet, under certain conditions, she may be fielded in The Coven.

The human-coyote hybrid form (Moonchild) was sculpted by James van Schaik, and the animal form (Moon Coyote) by Jarek Smolka. A quick paint-job this on as I painted both minis together and there is little variation of colours on offer on either.

I like to think the paint-jobs are pretty understated, but fitting I feel, and I have pretty much used the official versions as a broad template, even including a magenta half moon motif to help break-up the look of ther tunic as with the studio version.










Just as Moonchild/Moon Coyote allows Loup Garou II to be fielded as a Blood Watch Hero, so the reverse is true: Loup Garou II allows Moonchild/Moon Coyote to be used as a The Coven Villain. Lots of Team-buildings combinations available there then.









In game-play Moonchild/Moon Coyote is a Shapeshifter, with each form having some specialisation, but overall offering a Supreme specialised in Support and mobility.











Further out it hopefully won't be too long before Blood watch can field their own Level 12 Team with at least a couple more Supremes lined up.

Loup Garou II

Loup Garou II is the second of his name to work for the Coven. Though Hoodoo has slain the orginal Loup Garou this new incarnation is entirely different. His fragment of the Moon Talisman transforms him into half man half beast. A creature of uncontrolled savagery he seeks out his enemies and rips them limb from limb.

Sculpted by Erick Redling - his first foray into Pulp City I believe, this Loup Garou is the second known bearer of the name.

A big brute of a dread-locked werewolf, I was very eager to get painting on this one. Alas a bit of paitence would have helped since I noticed that as I was painting there were parts I did not prep adequately enough.

Loup Garou II is a real combat monster in every sense of the description. Normally a Villain, if Teamed with Moonchild/Moon Coyote, he then becomes Blood Watch and a Hero! Very useful!

Forgive the funny angle on the pictures - I was trying out a new mini tripod and so will need to elevate the minis if using it again in the future.

Blood Watch (Sub-faction)

Click on image for bigger version

Guardians of the rift-breach against invasion by the Necroplane, the Blood Watch are dark defenders, creatures of the night, and men and women empowered by arcane forces.

Nicely balanced so far with enough minis to make an Encounter Level 6 Team, the Blood watch offer a nice collection of archetypes.

The Blood Watch (left to right):

• Red Riding Hoodoo; New Orleans voodoo practitioner, and mistress of ancient rituals.
• Zombie Wolf; Hoodoo's guardian; is this Loup Garou - a former enemy - turned to serve Red Riding Hoodoo?
• Six Feet Under; enslaved in Hellrock, the Necroplane's terrible prison, Six Feet Under is a man from another world determined to spare this Earth the same fate as his home world.
• Sgt. Bale; ex-special ops turned arcane-empowered supernatural hunter.
• Blood Rose; the last of her kind, the Blood Watch's healer and source of mobility - she can teleport them across the field of battle.
  

Sgt. Bale

Bale is a stone cold supernatural hunter. Not only he sets the otherworldly freaks on fire with his burning fist and flaming bullets, but also makes sure they stay dead.

Not Sgt. Bale Extreme of course (that remains a future painting project), but I finished Sgt. Bale this week. A very cool mini in my view, I have mixed feelings about the final paint-job - while not totally enamoured of it, I feel better about the outcome a few days after finishing the model.

On the field of battle Sgt. Bale is pretty devastating, and even has the potential to become more powerful during the game if he successfully takes out a designated target.

Six Feet Under

Six Feet Under never steps back. His traumatic experience in Hellrock prison stripped the remnants of his sanity.

I finished and photographed Six Feet Under (also referred to as 6FU by some players) last week, however my camera appears to have 'died' as you may have noted from recent posts. Having photographed the mini, I was not going let that deter me. I ordered a USB SD memory card reader and voila, was able to access the pictures I had taken of Six Feet Under and Tangent.

I had started Six Feet Under at the same time as Hellsmith, planning to paint and finish both together. With both being over sized I found it slow, laborious and somewhat disheartening as I didn't seem to be progressing very fast. So I put both to one side and finished Tangent instead! Then while getting towards the end of Tangent I revisited Six Feet Under and finished him within a couple of days. Following that, I started (and quickly finished this time) a second Hellsmith with a completely different paint-scheme to the (as yet) unfinished first Hellsmith. Funny how these things work, isn't it? Anyhow, I am fairly pleased with the results for Six Feet Under. The model has had a little extra minor work since the photographs, but obviously I won't be rephotographing it imminently.

The sculpt is yet another by Jarek Smolka, who has sculpted most of my painted Pulp City minis thus far. As for gaming with Six Feet Under, well one tactic is to take him with Trail and Blood Rose and deliver 6FU as a 'melee bomb' to beat down a target. He will probably struggle to survive unsupported, but it should be brutally effective.

Ace of Wraiths

Armed with the cursed Deck of Souls and the ancient gun Hellstromm, the brooding gunslinger enters Pulp City!

Another Jarek Smolka sculpt, I really like this model. Unfortunately I have painted it on and off for months, which suggests to me that I really didn't have a strong and clear enough painting concept at the outset. A lot of decisions in the painting have been made as I have gone along, which has probably left me less than satisfied with the end result.

I love the background of a doomed gambler and gunslinger empowered by Hellish forces and artefacts to exact retribution on evil men. It is a classic that shares themes with many such doomed loners, I just don't feel that I managed to evoke that feel in the painting of the mini. I am vaguely satisfied with my first OSL (Object Source Lighting) attempt at the back of the mini. It is probably only faintly visible, but it is a technique I'll keep working on.

I have seen some great examples of Ace of Wraiths in recent months. It may be worth checking out the Pulp City Forums Hobby Section to have a look.

Blood Rose

Blood Rose is an alien from a collapsed astral reality, that has hidden amongst the humans for a couple of centuries.

Sculpted by James van Schaik, Blood Rose is the Blood Watch's healer and teleporter, and she brings many intriguing options to the battlefield. In this regard she very much occupies a slot on a team as a 'Support' model. In this regard there are no official designations as such, but rather most Supremes can be categorised as Brawler (close combat), Blaster (ranged attack) and support (healing and boosting/buffing other models). Of course some models transcend such categorisation, straddling more than one area of expertise, but it is a potentially useful tool to look at team construction. In Blood Rose's case she is very support-focused, which means she opens up some devastating tactics. Combine her with Trail and Six Feet Under to land the latter amid the enemy (having been already buffed by Trail's actions) and possibly able to take down a foe in one round. Not my tactic, but potentially very destructive, so kudos to the mastermind who came up with it.

As for painting Blood Rose, I found the mini really hard to tackle, more so than I originally expected. As a consequence I am not satisfied with the robes and especially the roses, and so will certainly want to do another at some point. I realise I am saying that a lot, and that may be the theme for my personal challenge in 2011...

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.