Feartigo

Feartigo is my second Pulp City mini of the year, making for a better start than 2016 (although I had a very good February).

I got inspired to do him when I saw someone else had painted theirs up, helping motivate me. As I had a few days off work (a lot spent assembling terrain), I felt confident I would get him finished without him falling into 'painting queue limbo', and thankfully that proved accurate. With all the browns he was going to have I thought the purple/magenta trousers would make a nice counterpoint while sticking with my colour vocabulary for Villains.

In terms of game-play, Feartigo straddles two Factions, as a Necroplane agent who has infiltrated the Coven ranks through subterfuge, secretly serving Dr. Tenebrous, but whose loyalties may be uncertain for either side. Painting him adds my first new Coven in fifteen months, and my first new Necroplane in three and half years! At least one of those Teams needs to make it to the table this year I think.

Feartigo is a Blaster with added durability, whose Actions all work against Spirit (ideal against A.R.C. or Heavy Metal). His added durablity is due to the fact that he has two defensive Trumps, adds +1 die to Defend when Attacked out of Base to Base, and because he also Damages Attackers who Damage him with Mind or Spirit Actions. Basically, as an overall package he can be a nasty surprise for an unwary opponent, especially as his main Attack will typically generate 4 dice against Living Targets.

Feartigo
Villain, Blaster, Level 2, Mystery
30 mm

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.

Tanuki

Outside of the closed ranks of the Jade Cult, Tanuki’s origin is veiled in secrecy, and even within that terrible society few know the truth. One of the Jade Cult's mysterious spirit-oni’s, Tanuki is probably the least loyal of that kind, even if ultimately he is the only one that recognizes that fact.

My third of a planned four Super-November minis, Tanuki has been a long time in coming, although not so long in painting!

I started this just after the launch of this shared challenge with Rob, and the bulk has been painted in the past few days. I found it quite an enjoyable mini to paint, with nice areas and textures to work on. That said, with my new job (I say new; been in post two months), I do not get much day-time to paint in, so Tanuki has mostly been painted at night, which has played havoc with the dark greens, so if anything looks a bit ropy, I blame the lighting! Ahem...

This is the first Pulp City mini for my own collection for quite some time. In game-play Tanuki is very much a Support Supreme, there to help his Team-mates through his unique Actions; he certainly has his own little niche, and is quite unlike any of the other Jade Cult.

With the Terror Cotta Warriors and Green Emperor on the horizon Jade Cult is near to be able to field a sizable Team.

I do think this is a really fun mini, and one I probably enjoyed painting and that I am happier with than any other this year.

I have veered away from my usual Villain colour motif (good old purple!), but hey, the Team is called the Jade Cult after all!

Next up for Super-November? Well that would be telling...

Stalker (Version 2)

I have of course painted one Stalker already, that one done in a kind of black jaguar scheme. Thinking that it would be cool to do another, so that the opposing aspects of Solar/Avatar of the Jaguar could each have a companion, I thought the obvious thing to do was a white-furred variation. Who knows - maybe I will do a more 'naturalistic' one eventually?

This has been finished for a week or two now (I think), but was awaiting time to actually photograph it. Click on the pictures as usual to make them bigger.

I am quite pleased with how it turned out, and at least I managed to get something painted in January amid the disruption of my night shifts.

I wish I could claim credit for the basing idea, using the mail box (by Megaminis I think), but I shamelessly stole it from another Pulp City fan; Tea Urn from Gog Online is the painter who deserves all credit (link here), and a great idea it was in my opinion - kudos to Tea Urn.

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.

Stalker

Recently Solar and his only long time companion, Stalker, are on the heels of the cultists that help Stygian to wake up the Forgotten.

A long time coming this one; the arrival of Stalker was heralded with the original appearance of Solar, both in his background and his rules. So when I was able to get my hands on one, I wanted to paint it straight-away, especially as Solar has been one of my favourite Supremes.

I painted this mini and another (to be seen very soon...) at the same time to try a slightly different approach to my normal 'black' technique, and I was quite pleased with the results, even if the photograph does not show the mini as well as I would like.

The 'new' technique involved using a dark blue-green as base colour rather than dark grey that I usually choose. That was highlighted up by mixing in greys and shaded with black and brown washes.

I enjoyed painting stalker and look forwards to getting him into a battle report sooner rather than later. It was nice to get some minis finished this week, so the next few days should see some more posts.

Lady Cyburn

If Cyburn has a PHD in trouble seeking, that would surely make her more in line with the rest of the big brains on the team. She doesn't. She is a natural warmonger, and that dates back to the times she was just a 100% flesh teenager. Her abilities to cause trouble had been significantly raised with all those shiny new things.
Her service in Heavy Metal is more to her liking than serving her time in jail, but once the 5 year contract is done, who knows where Cyburn will sign up?

Lady Cyburn was added to the ranks of Heavy Metal along with Captain Hadron, and was a mini I liked straight from the off (due to its recognisable influence from WildCATS' Ladytron), but after putting a couple of colours on the mini it joined the back of my WiP queue.

It wasn't until I painted C.O.R.E. in fairly short order that I thought to make a slight change to how I was doing the metallic surfaces and so the rest of the mini followed fairly quickly thereafter. please forgive the photographs - not my best as they came out pretty dark. I like to think the mini looks better up close than it does in these photographs, and I was pretty happy with the way the flesh tones turned out, which may not be too apparent from these images.

In game terms Lady Cyburn is very much a 'blaster', and so adds flexibility to Heavy metal since many of the Team are brawler or brawler-support types.

Le Murtiple

Le Murtiple was never a part of the apes in space project. A.R.C. came across him deep in the South American jungle while overthrowing one of the local dictators. And boy, Le Murtiple was not happy about it. For years he hid his special powers and intelligence, pretending to be a trophy pet creature caught in the world of the celebrity-like lifestyles of corrupted politicians and bloodshed. And he thrived, using his ability to multiply to wreak havoc and turn hotheaded machos against each other.
In the end, who would have blamed the innocent lemure?

A unique Supreme this one: three minis simultaneously representing one character. Take one or two out and Le Murtiple still has a chance of creating further copies of himself.

Le Murtiple is a saboteur par excellence; master of knives, bombs and chemical weapons in pursuit of his goals. Able to create Mirror Images of himself, if all 3 Mirror Images are in play, then enemy models caught in the area they define are better targets for Le Murtiple.

It took me a while to settle down to paint Le Murtiple, mainly because I didn't have any specific ideas for the models. Consequently I used the 'official' versions as a vague guide in terms of colour scheme. Still they are done, and I am reasonably happy with them.

C.O.R.E.

C.O.R.E.: Conscious Omnipotent Replicated Entity. Its pursuit of a new lawful and compassionate order attracted a lot of following and when more and more of Supremes pledged their allegiance to C.O.R.E.'s crusade against all-things-evil, the birth of Heavy Metal team was imminent.

C.O.R.E. is the leader of Heavy Metal, and one of the few Level 3 Supremes available so far. He is versatile and powerful (with an attack that can be extended as far as 18" at the cost of a lot of AP), and he shouldn't lose many Starting Rolls. That versatility extends further to the upgrade he offers Heavy Metal Team members using Ranged Combat Actions: Lady Cyburn and Nuclear Jones especially benefit here, allowing some decent sniping between the Actions available to the 3 Supremes.

Given that Dr Mercury offers buffs for the whole Team, I think he is almost mandatory in a Heavy Metal Team using C.O.R.E. (Encounter Level 12 and above). In fact my ideal Heavy Metal Team at EL 12+ right now would probably see Captain Hadron or Iron Train relegated to last choice, with Iron Train edging things (therefore comprising C.O.R.E., Dr Mercury, Nuclear Jones, Iron Train, Chronin, Lady Cyburn & Androida; no need for a Merc like Gentleman to fill out ranks here).

I put off painting C.O.R.E. for quite some time as I am still trying to improve my NMM techniques. I still have a long way to go, but I think he looks reasonably effective. Eagle-eyed readers may spot that he does incorporate the red-blue colour motif I have used on many of my heroes, even if only in a small way.

The small Tokens around him are his Access Points; these resources are used like remote Exclusive Minions that are static, but have various defensive and offensive upgrade options. They also allow C.O.R.E. to use his Download* action to travel instantly across the board to be in Base to Base with an Access Point.

Silverager

Silverager is a skilled technician, self-taught rocket science genius and a very calm individual, always the voice of reason when Guerilla's ego flies.

BUT....

If you ever, ever step on his toes, he'll make sure those two extra arms are not wasting time as he will chase you down and present the ape fury in all its glory.

Finished this today, and I enjoyed painting it - quite a lot. Which is funny, because many of the models I have enjoyed painting most from the range belong to ARC, yet it isn't my favourite Sub-faction by any stretch; go figure that one out.

I actually started Silverager and Guerilla at the same time, blocking out areas of similar colour on the two, yet carried on with Silverager as I was caught by that ever elusive painting muse.

Silverager was sculpted by Jarek Smolka, who is probably one of the most prolific contributors to the sculpting Pulp City's Supremes, and no stranger to the ARC Team, having sculpted Apebot & Virus, and Chimp Chi amongst others.

In game terms Silverager is a close combat master who can get scarier (and less controlled) as he gets more enraged. He has a pretty devastating Action in Spinebreaker (Charge* with it, sacrifice a Strike to boost it, Power-Up and voila: a result of 12 to 19 is possible), and he also has an Action that repairs Mechanical models - very useful.

Gemini Y

Master Caste - Gemini: Twisted and broken. Gemini X and Y are Ulthar's only known psychics.

They [the Ulthar] embody every damn stereotype of an alien we had before: green, funny language, high pitched voices. Even their ships look like flying saucers!

The other half of the Gemini pair, Gemini Y was painted at the same time as Gemini X for obvious reasons. As I suggested in the Gemini X post, I hope to maintain the regal purple theme, and will see if I can incorporate the yellow elements as well to really draw the minis of the Ulthar together as they are finished in good time - I currently have 2 more Ulthar to paint, as well as one of their subjugated species (a Taurus; still counts as Ulthar Sub-faction).

As with Gemini X, I did find my painting of this mini difficult; the results are satisfactory for gaming, and I accept the final results since I am far from being a perfectionist, but sometimes one wishes that something was just simply better in its execution.

As an aside, the bases I am using for all my Ulthar are from Dragon Forge. They are from the Lost Empires range, painted to match the colours I use for my urban bases. I just thought it would add to the alien-ness of the minis to have a distinct set of bases. I ordered them months ago in anticipation of painting the Ulthar, and was pleased I did so.

Gemini Y offers Actions that concentrate on limiting enemy capability, in contrast to the focus on battlefield control that Gemini X has. In this regard, if pushed to suggest which is 'better', then if playing in a more aggressive style I would probably go with Gemini Y, whereas if playing in a more defensive style Gemini X may offer better value. of course in an ideal situation it may be better to take them both and maximise their capabilities.

Gemini X

The Ulthar are a warlike race of aliens travelling to Earth through Quantum Holes.

Master Caste - Gemini: Twisted and broken. Gemini X and Y are Ulthar's only known psychics.

One of a pair (along with Gemini Y), Gemini X is a Level 1 Villain from the newly emerged Ulthar Sub-faction. The Geminis can be used together or separately, but really benefit from synergistic rules that each has. Gemini X offers a healing Action, Actions for battlefield control, as well as synergies with Gemini Y.


The Ulthar offer something quite different in Pulp City, in that most of the Sub-faction Supremes have a Nature Origin, giving a different slant on Team construction. The other villain Sub-factions have thus far been dominated by Mystery Origins, resulting in a slight disadvantage against Science Teams (such as Heavy Metal).





I struggled a little with the mini, as I have been with my painting in general in the last couple of months (except for the Hulking Grimm which was nice and simple to paint). The purple colour used for the robes will hopefully feature on each Ulthar mini I do, and I will try and maintain similar flesh-tones across the Ulthar (although not all Ulthar Supremes are of that species...) to try to tie them together.

Gentleman (Sniper)

Gentleman is not utterly evil, he considers moral standards more or less a matter of individual taste. Just as you may like a Prada suit, so you may like being a hitman.

A long time coming getting a Gentleman Sniper finished - this was not the first version I started (there is another that I will get finished one day that will have a cream suit. In the interim this was painted simply to get a model done amidst my latest bout of painters block. I had hoped to use an alternative sniper rifle from RAFM, but it was too big to fit adequately; I may try and fit it to the other currently-abandoned version.

Unfortunately when I painted up the model, I came across some pitting on the face that I hadn't really seen during clean-up; by that point it was too late so a case of having to accept the situation or abandon this one as well - that was not going to happen.

I rate Gentleman very highly as a utility Supreme for pretty much any Team; his combination of Merc and Greed 1 makes him a great option to fill a gap in any selection. Even after the release of over 50 Supremes so far, he still offers promise in numerous circumstances. One consideration I may look at his using him with an atypical Resource - the Silencer gun usually used with Twilight. It would require a mainly coven Team, but would allow Gentleman increased stealth-and-shoot capability.

Apebot

The current Apebot programming is still faulty as the hulk freezes every time it fails to complete a pattern. As long as Virus is close behind Apebot, able to override the programming manually, the steel gorilla performs wonderfully. It is able to process more advanced commands and make simple tactical decisions.

What’s even more important and absolutely unexplainable through the basics of Pong programming, the bond between Apebot and Virus is much more than one would expect from 3 tons of steel and 15 pounds of a spider monkey.

Apebot took a long time in finishing, from application of base colour to varnishing - not from work and time invested, but simply that I started the mini and put it to one side. This was purely from setting out with this line to try some new techniques, the NMM (Non-Metallic Metallics) included. It is still a technique that I am working to learnt to execute better, but trying it out is the only way that will happen. What it meant was that Apebot probably turned out less successfully than hoped for, but it has been a learning experience trying this technique on relatively large surfaces. More depth of shading/washes across those large surfaces would probably help, but as I say, I am still very much learning.

I am not wholly dissatisfied with the results, but it wasn't the most enjoyment I have had in painting this line, which is not down to the model, but rather just down to myself. It is finished now, which I am happy about, even if not overly satisfied with the results - and I currently only have 11 more minis to paint in my Pulp City Painting Challenge.

I haven't gamed with Apebot and Virus yet, since I will really need to think carefully about their usage given the need to play both in conjunction.

Virus

Subject 046 appears to be highly interested and proficient with hand-held electronic games.

A long time before the shuttle crash, Virus mastered all the primitive electronic games the 80’s could muster.

Virus is really intended to be used as a partner to his companion Apebot. Since I procrastinated for a long time in finishing Apebot, that had the knock-on effect that Virus was left only undercoated for quite some time.

I wanted to step away from my usual Pulp City palette, so the green shirt made sense, with light brown/buff coloured cargo pants. What I am doing with the ARC minis is to include some black on each of them as a unifying motif (Chimp Chi has black garb; Howler a black shirt; etc).

In the end it was quite a quick paint job that I ma reasonably pleased with. That said, I don't know when i will game with him, since I only tend to use Chimp Chi if playing with an ARC, but I may try an all-ARC Team soon.

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.

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.

Solar

The mighty German millionaire, the spandex-clad Hero, the bearer of Ahau-Kin's tiara, the caped hunter of the Forgotten!

Solar is probably (so far) the most spandex-y of the Pulp City Supremes in the style of traditional comic book superheroes and supervillains. And I love the model all the more for that. Big cape used in a novel way in the construction and execution? What is there not to like in that. I think Jarek Smolka did an excellent job in creating the effct of a hovering hero when completing this one. Yes there is a lot that is familiar in the basic premise, but this model is no straight copy of any specific hero, rather a distillation of a lot of classic superhero tropes.

Solar is a very interesting example in the context of the development of the game and it's background. He is pretty rounded Level 2 Hero able to fight in base to base as well as being mobile and having some useful Exclusive Actions. However what I feel is most interesting is that a poll was conducted last year amongst Pulp City Forum board members. The poll was to determine which of three Supremes (Solar, Guerilla and Ace of Wraiths) would evolve into a new iteration. Solar 'won' the vote. So at some point we will see Dark Solar...

I can't wait.