Perun

In every generation there is one brave Polish man who wields the lightning in the mankind's darkest hour. He lifts up the runic axe, older than the people of this land and the power of the ancient deity starts coursing through his veins. Old gods still watch over their children and stand vigilant when tides of evil rise.

The current wielder of Perun's power is a student from Warsaw whose grandfather and great great grandfather used to be Lightning Lords years ago. Stanislaw Starzynski became marked with the lightning rune when he confronted Forgotten minions sent to recover Szczerbiec, the coronation sword of Polish kings.

A pre-release at Salute, Maciej was kind enough to have one of these on hand for me, and from the moment I saw the first shots of the green (and became aware that there will be some international Supremes - expect more by the way!), I knew how I wanted to tackle him, and I don't think that changed at all during execution.

I really enjoyed painting this mini. I guess that my enthusiasm has been no doubt fulled by the recent Thor movie, and reading Thor stories in New Ultimates and Ultimate Thor as well as Avengers comic books. Marvel have their own Perun (and maybe DC also?), but this is a special mini to me. I have seen at least one other super-hero mini styled on Perun and I think this one wins hands down. I think James Van Schaik has done a stunning job in sculpting this one.

I green-stuffed what I would hope would pass for a tiny wind-swirl/cloud beneath his foot to represent wind lifting him into the sky.

Perun's game rule are yet to be finalised, but let me say that he is likely to be a true powerhouse of Nature on a par with Solar; Villains beware...

Virgo

Alien goddess of vengeance who makes it to Earth just before the next Ulthar invasion. With each fallen Ulthar and new Supreme ally gained she is closer to her goal - overthrowing the evil patriarchal empire that enslaved all of the Ulthar females.

Virgo is a special kind of Ulthar - she is a rebel and so cannot used alongside any other Ulthar. Despite that as a Hero/Villain she can be fielded in Teams from either Faction. Furthermore, when Dark Solar appears she will offer a valuable option to a Hero or villain player wanting to exploit Dark Solar's special Team Power.

With very good range and Energy Trump Trait, Virgo can fulfill a role as a kind of 'sniper', yet has Actions and Skills that aid her in Close Combat; so no 'glass hammer' here then. She won't stand up long against a dedicated brawler, but she will do a good job if used in her specialised role.

With this mini I wanted a palette that was removed from what I use for my other Ulthar. The only commonalities are the flesh colour and the basing - the base is from the same range. I thought I'd go for colours that could represent a more sneaky type of character, and in hindsight probably should have chosen a different colour for the cape, but overall I am fairly pleased with the outcome.

Tritonious

"Tritonious, they treat you like a monster, a freak even without knowing the monster your father is. How can you be still pretending you’re a part of this?"

One of the newest releases, Tritonious was in the bundle of minis that arrived at the beginning of the week. Having recently finished Twilight and Gentleman Sniper, two of the earliest sculpts in the Pulp City line-up. I quickly had an idea for a colour scheme and so he was finished pretty quickly for me. His belt still needs a wash, but other than that I will probably leave the mini 'as-is'. Not perfect, but finished enough for my purposes, especially as I have had another painting block of sorts lately.

The colours are different to those for the 'official' version; I chose the green and turquoise to evoke a water/nature feel. I elected not to pick out the piping in a different colour because the two options I tried just didn't work for me.

In game terms Tritonious is a Level 1 Supreme suited to Close Combat as well as having Water-based synergies and control thanks to his Exclusive Actions.

Kitty Cheshire

Kitty Cheshire, a woman or a demon? Or both? The first one to cross the edge of the Silver Mirror on the Twilight Hills, Kitty is making her comeback to Pulp City after the years in the limbo of the Otherside.

Sculpted by James van Schaik, I think Kitty Cheshire is a very cool execution of a great idea. I love the way that the model has been rendered to make it appear that Kitty is phasing in and out of reality.

Kitty is the first Supreme belonging to a brand-new sub faction - the Otherside. No other models or concepts have been released for the Otherside yet, but I believe that whatever does come next will probably be very imaginative indeed.


The colour scheme is another simple one, but with very good reason. I have been using red and blue on many Heroes, and purple in some way on many of my Villains, so I decided to place all 3 colours into the scheme. It may not be my best effort, but I am reasonably satisfied with the outcome.

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.

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.