BOOM - Sludge Monster

Work continues on my Pulp City Painting Challenge. Today I have finished work on Jade Hawk, and I am fairly pleased with the results. I have also been readying Silverager and Guerilla (who I may try to tackle together, despite being bigger than most of the range), and doing bits of painting with two versions of Iron Train. Meantime, the Necro G.I.'s have had very little done with them, and my other Grimms have had main base colours only applied.

So in lieu of new Supremes and 'official' Minions, here is another BOOM entry - the Sludge Monster. This is a Black Hat figure I painted a couple of years ago and re based last year I think.

[Click on card image for larger version]

The basic Level 1 Minion (see right) is intended as an exceptionally tough/resilient Minion, so could be used to defend a location or as a 'speed bump', while the Level 2 version (not shown) has more Combat Actions capability.

BOOM - Mentalist

While I continue to paint my remaining Pulp City minis (Twilight was finished yesterday; Necro GI's have had some more work today; Iron Train has some shading and highlighting done; C.O.R.E. has his main base colour; only 9 models currently remaining to paint), I thought I'd post another BOOM creation, this time with two cards to represent both Hero and Villain options.






[Click on card images for larger versions]
The Mentalist is intended to be a low-level psionic. I worked him up as a Support Minion, based on a model from Black Hat's Mutants and Madmen line. The mini was painted some time ago and re-based last year to be in-keeping with my Pulp City minis - something I will likely do again for a lot of models soon. Well soon-ish. To be honest I have a mountain of minis that I would like to re-base, but tackling that goal seems very daunting as a consequence of sheer volume.




[Click on card images for larger versions]
There are are two variations of this Minion as noted, one hero and Villain. The specific difference is that Support Minions have a differing specific ability depending on Faction. The other abilities are supposed to convey a minor telekinetic shield (Shield Generator), telekinetically enhanced movement (Levitation) and ESP (Target Acquired).

BOOM - Minotaur

This mini was finished long before I took up dice and brushes to play and paint in Pulp City in earnest. This Minotaur mini was originally based to accompany my extensive and somewhat eclectic mix of generic supers themed minis. When the BOOM rules came around, allowing players to make up their own Minions, then it seemed obvious to re-base the big fella.

Now even though my mocked-up card for the Minotaur indicates it can be either a Hero or Villain Minion, it seems most fitting as the latter. Furthermore, I can primarily see the Minotaur as some kind of follower of the Forgotten, since that Sub-Faction owes its origins to the classical Greek myths, which is where tabletop Minotaurs owe their lineage to also, of course.

As is the case with many of my BOOM creations the Minotaur has Solo, becoming a Character Minion. Add in Fury 1 and Deadly Rush and this is a Minion designed to be fairly effective in Close Combat. I envisage its Hurl Weapon Action as being objects picked up and thrown. It is tough like the Giant Ice Golem, but the Minotaur is nonetheless a bit faster on its feet since it doesn't have Slow.

The mini is from the Reaper Warlord line, simply with a weapon removed.

BOOM - Giant Ice Golem

Continuing the BOOM line.

I picture the Giant Ice Golem as the product of arcane rites; raised either by Heroes to stand firm against Villainy or by Villains to aid their diabolical machinations. Therefore I can see the Giant Ice Golem being used in a Team with at least a couple of Mystery Supremes.

The mini is one of the excellent Malifaux line from Wyrd Miniatures. The paint-job was a quick and dirty combo of dry brush and minimal washes. Not the most stunning of work, but adequate and effective for the tabletop.

The Giant Ice Golem can operate independently as a Character Minion (Solo), and has limited ranged capability (I envisage it showering a target with shards of ice - using Hurl Weapon), and can even be used for moving objectives around - keeping precious AP Allowances freed up for your Supremes.

BOOM - High Tech Ninja

BOOM - this was a term coined to describe the fruits of the Minion Creation rules: Build Our Own Minions. I'll be posting pictures of non-Pulp City minis representing some of my creations along with the associated home-brew character card to go with them. First up is the High Tech Ninja.

I envisage the High Tech Ninja as a shadowy figure that could walk in the world of grey between the Heroes and Villains of Pulp City.

The model is from the Infinity range, which I feel sits well alongside Pulp City minis both in scale and proportion. A simple paint-job and voila. This was painted some time before most of my Pulp City minis and was re-based to match them.

Thanks to the Solo ability, the model is treated as a Character Minion - this basically means the High Tech Ninja Activates as a Supreme would without needing to be Commanded. Advanced Scout means the High Tech Ninja can deploy further than usual onto the battlefield, while Deadly Rush increases the Minion's mobility.

High Tech Assassin - Minion

I picked this model up a while ago and painted it probably last year or the year before. It was rebased (for the better - trust me) after I started looking at broadening my options to make use of the BOOM rules for creating Minions in Pulp City games.

The model is a Yu Jing Ninja from the Infinity game and range by Corvus Belli. I don't play Infinity, but have heard good things about it. All the Infinity minis I have picked up have been for other games, so this was always intended by me for use in contemporary superhero games. The model has gone by the codename Manticore when used previously. It also forms the basis of a conversion I have built and am waiting to finish painting.

High Tech Ninja

Level 2 Brawler
STR 4
DEF 4
Damage: 3

Abilities and Skills:
Deadly Rush, Blend 2, Hurl Weapon, Solo, Skilled, Surprise Stab, Under Strength

Black Hat Superheroes - Minions

This model is from the Mutants and Madmen range from Black Hat Miniatures. The line features a selection of pretty nice generic superhero and supervillain miniatures, as well as some henchmen and Minion types, but the civilians are over-sized in my view, and so the range is quite variable as a whole. I painted the model some time ago, using a colour scheme vaguely influenced by a Doom Patrol character called Mento (who used a helmet giving him mental powers) - the colours are switched around from how they appeared there, but that was my inspiration. I photographed it after rebasing it to match the Pulp City minis I had been doing. I plan to use the model as a Minion.

Mentalist

Level 1 Support
DEF 2
ENG 3
Damage: 3

Abilities and Skills:
Protectors (Hero) or Anarchists (Villain), Shield Generator, Smoke Cloud, Survival 1, Target Acquired, Under Strength

I envision the various abilities as applications of psychic powers. The model could become a Level 2 Minion, maybe adding +1 DEF, +2 ENG and 2 damage points, or other upgrades as desired.

This one was painted to simply look like some kind of sludge or muck monster. Comics have a long history of such characters and more famous muck monsters have been DC's Swamp Thing and Marvel's Man-Thing, both preceded by a number of decades by the Heap, in turn possibly inspired by another source (a short story by Theodore sturgeon, "It").

Sludge Monster

Level 1 Brawler
STR 4
DEF 4
Damage: 3

Abilities and Skills:
Deadly Rush, Deflect 1, Slow(*), Solo, Survival 1, Under Strength

Slow* is not in the current iteration of the BOOM rules, but a look through the thread identified in an earlier post will lead to a description of the skill. It basically reduces movement by 1".

Other Minis - Minions

Here are a couple of other minis I am planning to use in some future Pulp City games, but that I chose to base in a fairly neutral manner that should (hopefully!) fit in with the bases I have done for Pulp City without looking out of place elsewhere.

There are currently some Beta-test rules that allow players to create their own Minions, so that is what I have used to create stats for these guys (follow this link to the forum page with the current rules). The create your own rules have been nicknamed BOOM (Build Our Own Minions), the nick-naming of which I may be guilty for...

Ice Golem

Level 2 Brawler
STR 4
DEF 4
Damage: 6
Abilities and Skills:
Deadly Rush, Fury 1, Big, Nonliving, Solo, Strong Creature, Survival 1, Under Strength

It could be a companion to a Mystery Supreme or a fiendish creation of the Mysterious Man. The model is from the Malifaux range by Wyrd Miniatures, and the painting was a quick and cheerful drybrush with minimal highlighting and small amount of wash. Not brilliant, but acceptable for the tabletop for me at any rate.


Minotaur

Level 2 Brawler
STR 4
DEF 4
Damage: 6
Abilities and Skills:
Deadly Rush, Big, Fury 1, Hurl Weapon, Solo, Survival 1, Under Strength

Most likely a creation of the Mysterious Man or an underling of the Forgotten (especially Hellsmith). The model is by Reaper Miniatures from their Warlord range, with the simple conversion of removing the weapon that it had. It was painted a couple of years ago and rebased when the BOOM rules emerged.