100 Voices

My summer of Pulp City painting continues! 100 Voices proved somewhat of a surprise on the painting front, as I had no plans a week earlier to tackle him! (even though I have loved this mini from the moment James showed us the WiP pictures). I had been prepping a big batch of minis across a few ranges to get ready for later painting and opted to include him. Then I decided to do his base blue colour, and well, he ended up getting finished over a couple of quick sessions in one day which was very pleasing. It was a pleasingly straightforward painting job.

100 Voices is Eric Hanson, a former crooked but successful lawyer who had a sideline as a vicious serial killer, brought to justice by Dead Eye. Empowered by the dark whispers which constantly surround him, he ha been remade as 100 Voices.

In game terms 100 Voices is a Leader, essentially building Villain Teams of Supremes lacking Faction affiliation. Consequently he is something of an alternative to Mysterious Man. Unlike some Leaders, 100 Voices is not a heavy Damage dealer. Instead he brings disruption to his foes though Mind Control and some very effective de-buff Actions, and forcing models to rely on Spirit against him, often a weaker Trait.

Having painted 100 Voices, I really need and want to paint the Voicelings to go with him very soon.

I am really happy to have finished 100 Voices, and have recently finished the pets from the Citizens pack too (look for them soon), so I hope to get most of the Citizens family done this month too - watch this space. 100 Voices is my 143rd Pulp City mini, and if I do finish the Citizens soon that will leave just one mini short of the big 150....

100 Voices
Villain, Support, Level 3, Mystery
30 mm

Cro Mag

Cro Mag smash!

Cro Mag kind of jumped my 'planned painting queue' for Pulp City, and I am glad he did and that I how have him finished! Cro Mag is big, have no doubt, roughly 3 inches to the top of his head piece from the bottom of his base (that base is 50 mm across!). It is always satisfying to be able to put a big guy Powerhouse on the table, and I needed more Villain Powerhouse options painted, so Cro Mag was a perfect option. More importantly, painting Cro Mag leaves me just 1 mini short of the target I set for my own Pulp City painting at the start of the year. The pictures have washed out the highlights a little, but I am happy with the overall outcome (although his left heel needs a touch up).

Cro Mag is prehistoric man come to superhuman life in contemporary Pulp City, a rampaging creature often working for Mysterious Man. Even by Powerhouse standards, he is far from bright, and is pretty much all in all a destructive force of nature.

Powerhouses are beasts in combat, they just take a bit of getting used to since they do not supply AP to the Pool, and because you want to get the best out of their Power Up dice. Two Powerhouses going toe-to-toe with plenty of Objects to Manipulate (either Throw or Smash with) is just great fun, and really evokes the spirit of over-the-top battles we wanted to create with these massive Supremes. Cro Mag is no exception to any of that!

The mini comes in just two parts and is cast in resin, making it very simple to prepare and assemble, and easy to game with. For his colour scheme I generally followed the brown fur/blue skin of the studio version.

It is nice to get another 'big mini' done, and I still have a number of Powerhouses to paint (eight in all right now, although I have started on TINY!). Now he is painted, I am hoping Cro Mag makes it to the table before too long, and it also reminds me I need to paint up 100 Voices as another Leader option for him!

Cro Mag
Villain, Powerhouse, Level 3, Mystery
50 mm

Papa Zombie

Papa Zombie has been in a state of being part-painted for at least a couple of months, probably longer, so finishing him is pleasing to say the least. Over on my Eclectic Gentleman Tabletop Gamer blog I am participating in Zomtober, so it felt only apt to try and complete work on Papa Zombie during that time.

I am not sure why I stopped working on Papa Zombie after starting him, except to say that is how it tends to go for me. Colours-wise I had a slight false start on his trousers, but after that knew how I wanted him to look. Finishing him takes me to 129 painetd Pulp City minis in my collection and fills out my painted Coven a little more - at present I still have Feartigo and L.O.A. to go.

In game terms Papa Zombie is not a front line fighter like some other Leaders (for example Dead Eye, V.H., Ra'Leigh, and Dark Solar and others). Instead he offers a number of abilities that don't deal significant direct Damage, but instead enhance the threat of his own Team through Mind Control, additional Minions, and even creating Minion 'bombs'. He also has one of the most devastating Leader Cards which can automatically Stun every Enemy model (barring those who are Immune/Stun of course); time it right and not only do Targets become easier to hit, but suddenly movement bonuses are negated - great against ARC and Necroplane in particular.

I am not sure what is next up for my Pulp City painting; I'd like to get something done for ARC (Red Bella, Ba-Boom or Robo-chimp), and definitely want to finish off the new starter set minis (I still have Anansi, new Nuke, Tekkna and new Ace of Wraiths to do). I set a modest target for the year of 12 Pulp City minis and still have 3 more to do to meet that which should be manageable - anything extra will be a welcome bonus.

Papa Zombie
Villain, Leader, Level 3, Mystery
30 mm

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

Amok

Amok is the 125th Pulp City mini I have painted for my collection, and it feels like something of a milestone to have done so - the 125th mini needed to be something big, and Amok certainly is big!

Painting Amok was mostly a nice switch of pace after painting some recent Grimm, contrasting in size especially. Amok is a member of The Way, and stands somewhere between 60-65 mm in height (he is mounted on a 50 mm base), so he is a big mini. Doing the flesh was nice and quick, but after that it felt slow to finish, even though I only started it last week; I forgot how hard work I find it to paint bigger models, even one with a simple scheme like Amok. In all, I have painted a fair number of models in the past couple of months over a few ranges, so it is nice to have a decent level of productivity.

One of the greatest benefits of last year's successful Kickstarter was being able to make Powerhouses for the main Factions that did not yet have them. Melvin de Voor did yet another brilliant job with the concept and James Van Schaik turned in a great sculpting job based on that IMHO. As soon as we all saw where Amok was heading we were very pleased!

Amok's massive form is due to his physical body being infested by a spirit of rage. The peaceful man that he was seeks to contain that mystical anger-fuelled power, but it remains ever-present.

In game terms Amok is one of the strongest Powerhouses there is. He also has Dice+ at the lowest end of Powerhouses. However that is mitigated by accumulating Power Up dice and spending them well - if he adds 3 Power Up dice to an attack, he can add 2 more for free! Basically he is designed to be used more aggressively than most other Powerhouses. This is really emphasised by his Power Takedown and Throw combo; Power Takedown can generate a Grab & Throw EFX to allow Amok to use the Target as a missile, adding another Damage 1 to the Target of the Power Takedown as well as whatever Damage is caused to the Target of the Throw!


Amok
Hero, Powerhouse, Level 3, Mystery
50 mm

Green Emperor

The Green Emperor twisted his broken sword in the chest of the Phoenix and the fire died in her eyes. Indeed, the times had truly changed. He turned around looking for the Tiger, but she was nowhere to be found. It mattered not, for they were writing a completely new history this time.

Click to embiggen my imperial majesty

Okay, this was a pleasant surprise to myself - started last Saturday and finished within a few days, which does not follow my usual pattern M.O.; that usually means starting a model, blocking stuff out and moving only to return weeks, months, or even occasionally years later...

So Green Emperor is done. I purposefully used a very limited palette: 5 base colours including 3 greens, each highlight in a different way; blue-green (sword), with some thin glazes; and dark grey for the hair.

While not my best work, I am happy with how it turned out, especially given the time I took for turnaround - it has helped stoke my enthusiasm more, so much so that I am determined to finish my 3 Terror Cotta Warriors and maybe my Shadow Double this month.

Green Emperor's game rules for the current edition have been released (here), but suffice to say he comes with the usual plethora of rules that one expects for a Level 3, and one of the cool things is he unlocks the feature to allow up to 3 Terror Cotta Warriors to be taken in a Jade Cult Team.

However, in the upcoming SE I think he comes into his own; Actions that required a lot of text have been translated into our new Action Bar approach. In addition, we have taken a more comprehensive view when revising everything to hopefully make everything have its own relative worth. Well for me Green Emperor will offer not only a Leader, but a very capable front-line combatant, with the opportunity to unleash truly overwhelming attacks in the right circumstances and with the right choices; those choices mean accepting he cannot do as much as could otherwise, but offers him a brutal way of influencing the battle directly.

Anyway, enough words, I hope to post something else quite soon so watch this space.

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.

Ra'Leigh, Aquarius Warlord

The Ulthar are a warlike race of aliens travelling to Earth through Quantum Holes. The aquari are the royal caste, controlling the wrariors, navigation and ship itself of each Patriaship.

This mini has taken a long, long time to finish off - it really has. Firstly there was a problem with the neck frill component, then when it had been prepped I base-coated the main armour and lost focus and motivation. And that situation carried on for quite some time...

What I resolved to do was start other minis (a couple of Grimm in fact), and paint the second version of Stalker to 'get something done' - which from past expereince helps me paint something that has ground to a halt. And it did work, albeit slowly, but finally Ra'Leigh, Aquarius Warlord has been finished, barring varnish.

The upshot is that my Ulthar Sub-faction is finished for the time being, which means I am again closing in on painting everything in the range (until the next waves of releases!).

As a level 3 Supreme, Ra'Leigh, Aquarius Warlord is a potent model on the battlefield - durable and pretty hard-hitting. I still find the Ulthar tricky to use as a whole, meaning I do not get the best out of them, but I am pleased with the force as a painted 'unit' of sorts.

Dark Solar/Solar

He took the mantle of Solar to wash the guilt off of his soul. Promising he’d never take another human life, Solar patrols the streets of Pulp City day and night, a loner constantly brooding over what might have been and will never be

The original 'spandex Supreme' has had a makeover (see Solar here), and what a makeover! The original divided opinion in some quarters I know, due to the cape (I have read comments elsewhere from posters who struggled with it, even though I thought it was a great solution to creating the appearance of Levitation), but I really liked the first iteration. This new one is probably even stronger in overall execution and the fact that it is single-piece makes assembly very simple. It is easy to see the evolution in the creation at the hands of a different sculptor.

I actually finished this a lot sooner than anticipated, starting it only as an afterthought along with Sovereign (and later Perun - all with a similar root palette), so it was pleasing for me to see it finished. I elected to continue my previous Solar colour scheme this time around. I decided against trying a free-hand version of the chest emblem as my confidence to do so is not sufficient - may next time when I try a different colour scheme.

In gaming terms Level 2 Solar (Hero) has had a bit of a makeover; nothing drastic, just some tweaks to better reflect how the game works now with more than 50 Supremes available, and the fact that he should have been able to fly all along!

Level 3 Dark Solar is a very powerful proposition; a Hero/Villain, he unites Nature Supremes as a very formidable force. His all-Nature Team Power generates an additional Power-Up die per Round; not to be taken lightly. Just as the Level 2 Solar is a fairly formidable option even as a Level 2, so too is Dark Solar relative to his Level 3 peers, armed with some powerful Damaging Actions (Tactica here). Along with Dead Eye he may be my current favourite Level 3 available.

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.

Dr. Tenebrous

The dark tentacles of Tenebrous' agenda reach beyond Necroplane and its schemes. If the Supremes were ever aware of whom his contacts are among the Supremes and politicians on Earth, they would be afraid to ever fall asleep.

One of my two WAMP entries, Dr. Tenebrous has been in my 'to-do' pile for quite some time. Of course, when one paints at the speed of a comatose snail, that sense of 'some time' is kind of relative.

The mini was sculpted by Paul Muller and has a great spandex villain look in my mind; he has a design that would not look out of place as a threat to the Avengers or the JLA. The base is from the Maxmini range for Pulp City - it is actually the Ace of Wraiths base, but since it so closely echoed the swirling cape effect on Dr. Tenebrous it seemed a perfect choice to me.

Dr. Tenebrous is the big bad leader of the Necroplane Sub-faction. The Supremes of the Necroplane are determined to steal away life force from the Earthly plane for their own nefarious ends, and that is just the kind of thing Tenbrous specialises in. Like any Level 3 Supreme he is formidable enough, but what he does is add some buffs for Necroplane minis, as well as allowing the Necroplane to incorporate Forgotten allies as though they were Necroplane themselves - when more Forgotten appear this will give a very wide array of options for players wanting to focus on these deathly invaders, let alone future possibilities for Necroplane Supremes.

I don't quite know why it took so long for me to start this mini, but I painted it fairly quickly by my standards, and I am reasonably pleased with the results - although the gems are not great, that is an area that I need to practice on. The colour scheme uses a very similar palette to the one I used for my other entry - natural as they were painted at roughly the same time. It is a colour scheme I am pretty happy with and that I think works quite well.

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.

Dead Eye

Dead Eye is the driving force behind most of the unregistered crime fighting in Pulp City.

Heavy Metal may be the media darlings of the Supreme Hero set; Blood Watch may protect the citizenry against things that lurk in the dark places; but there are many unaffiliated Heroes, and Dead Eye is pre-eminent amongst them.

This is my second attempt to photograph Dead Eye; the first pictures came out unfocused unfortuantely.

Another Pulp City mini sculpted by James van Schaik, Dead Eye is a tough Level 3 Supreme who comes in a pack with the Vigilantes. Originally I intended to paint him in the colours of my old American Football team, the Chester Romans, and give him my old number (22 - I played corner back), but that would have been an 'ineligible number' for a quarterback, so I settled for number 1 for two reasons: 1) painting one freehand number twice is easier than painting 2! 2) his number reflects that he is the daddy. The colours were changed to simply try and tie him in with the Vigilantes, so in all it made sense to follow a US-flag themed colour scheme.

Playing him recently showed that in-game as a character he offers some finesse as well as a heck of a lot of durability and stopping power: in other words he was great fun to use.

Mysterious Man

Being bad is good. Being good is bad.

Another James van Schaik sculpt, the simplicity of the Mysterious Man model belies that he is a very potent character in the game. One of only a handful of Level 3 Supremes, Mysterious Man is the first of these I have completed (I am working on Dead Eye and his Vigilante Minions right now). Just as Level 2's are noticeably more potent than Level 1's, so Level 3's are more potent than Level 2's; in addition all Level 3's offer some team-based bonuses depending on what other models comprise the team.

I am trying to tie my Villains more and more together visually. To that end I have settled on trying to work some purple in to their colour schemes where possible. I knew straight off that Terrordon X (the flying dino-thing on his shoulder) would be purple - inspired by a character from a certain marvelous comic book stable. With that in mind I didn't think a green coat would work (the 'official' Pulp City version is in green), so that had to be brown. I liked the idea of using greens and browns and so the rest of the palette stemmed from there. All because of the first decision. One of the few times the planning and execution went fairly closely together in my painting.

Father Oak

I really love this mini. I say 'mini', but that seems an incongruous description - the model is big! That said, it was harder to paint (and photograph) than I originally expected. The Father Oak sculpt is by Sergio Alonso Leon.

Father Oak is a quite literal force of nature, with no particular allegiance (he is a Hero/Villain in Pulp City terms). The model is excellent, and a superb take on a treeman. The concept was half of a winning entry into a contest run by Pulp Monsters (the people behind Pulp City).

Generally with big models that have large(er) surfaces that are not simply flat, I think they tend to be more manageable for painting. What I found with Father Oak was that I had to try to refine certain skills that I have relied on for years. I am not the world's greatest painter, but I like to think my technique is 'adequate bordering on effective' (ie you can 'tell what it is'), but I honestly found Father Oak to be more of a challenge than expected.

Not due to size, but instead due to the textures that are represented (bark, vines and robes), as well as the pallette to use. Trees are rarely just brown as such, even though we often think of them that way, which makes painting a tree or even treeman in a satisfying way something that is worth thinking about. I don't know if I am fully satisfied by the end result, but what I did was use grey as a highlight before using brown washes.