First civilian models/counters for Pulp City!

Greetings citizens!

I'm gearing up for my second Pulp City game this weekend with the cold war forces.  I'm looking forward to how a game plays when I've actually read up on what my models can do.

One of the bits of collateral missing from our last game was civilians.  In Pulp City civilians serve a number of purposes and function as objectives in many scenarios.  Pulp Monsters offers silhouette standees for citizens but I always thought proper models would blend better with the scenery and look cooler.

Years ago I bought a ton of Heroclix models with the intention of repainting them and using them for other games.  For more than 5 years that box has been a great source of figures for  a lot of games I've played and once more I'm diving back in for some civies.  Much like Les Impes I've actually already done this project once before on different bases but I enjoy doing them so doing a second batch is no big deal

My first batch of 8 are mostly re-paints although a couple were more touch ups on existing paint jobs.  What's kind of neat about these figures is that Heroclix doesn't actually have a use for "civilians" per se so 5 of these 8 figures are actually meant to be various superheroes in their secret identities.  Feel free to make guesses in the comments below.  I'll honour Silver Age tradition by acknowledging "no-prizes" for successful guesses.

In addition to the 8 above I have 2 more done that I photographed separately because I'm involved in some hobby challenges where I track "painted" figures and it would be a huge stretch  to claim I painted these.  Both were crisp enough out of the packages that I just re-based them and re-did the eyes.

So that means I have 10 civilians done so far for Pulp City.  In a perfect world I'll get 10 more done next week.

-Jay

Hobby Grab Bag - The hobby A.D.D. is strong with this one....

Many different irons in the fire this week.  I've got a figure I need to finish for a painting contest by Friday, 2 figs that I need for a game on the same Friday, 1 figure that I had started for my D&D game and never finished, and at long last the start of my Robotech forces!

First up I got a bit (not much at all) more work done on my Jester for the Iron Painter.  The Jester will also being doing double duty in Mordheim.  At this point I have all of his brighter colours done, now it's time to go back and add the darker bits.

Next up I'm FINALLY circling back to Dr McMourning's nurses.  When I played in the Malifaux league I ended up playing Outcasts so the Nurses have been gathering dust for about a month.  Walking away from the league with a new box of Zombie Hounds got my excited about my Resurrectionists again, so more on that shortly.....

When I was bouncing back and forth on what my big bad monster for the snowy mountain would be in my D&D game the first idea I abandoned was a sasquatch.  I started painting him and I'd like to finish him just so he's not another half-painted figure on my desk.

And last but definitely not least, the figures that came out last year that I've been waiting for for almost 30 years....Robotech.  I'm starting my Robotech models off with the Destroids for 2 reasons; first up I haven't decided yet what I'm going to replace the ugly flight stands the veritechs came with, and second because I can use them as old school (3025 era) Battletech models!

That's it for now, if you don't at least see the Nurses and Jester done by the end of the week it means I screwed up.

-Jay

Zoe's World - Medusa

Zoe's back with another superheroine.

This is a great figure for her because it looks like it could be all kinds of different things; a sneaky ninja, a spider-girl type, or someone just starting to fly.  We've  got one more figure to paint and then Zoe will be ready for her first game of Supersystem!

This is another re-purposed Heroclix model.  At the time I got this figure she probably would have been considered a B-lister that I could count on people not to recognise but with the direction the Marvel Universe is going in she is now a fairly prominent character; Medusa Queen Of The Inhumans.  The funny thing is without knowing who the character was Zoe ended up almost painting her in Medusa's actual colour scheme.

-Jay

Strange Aeons: Threshold vs Serpent-Men!

My painting has been pretty varied over the past year but over the last couple of months the only game I have played with any consistency is Strange Aeons.

For those of you unfamiliar with the game Strange Aeons is basically a Cthulhu skirmish miniatures game where one player controls, grows an develops a team of investigators known as Threshold Agents, the other player plays an ever changing roster of monsters and horrors from beyond time and space.

For today's game my team of Threshold Agents was raiding a tomb wherein a cult of Serpent-men were holding a dark ritual and concealing an ancient spellbook.

My team snuck up to the inner chamber of the crypt and with a few lucky rolls were able to almost immediately neutralise the high-priest of the serpent-men.

Everything seemed to be going my way until reinforcements began pouring in.  A surprise attack took out Diana Skully before she even realised what was happening as she was struck down by a magical bolt from one of the newly arrived cultists.  Nigel Bottomtooth was next to fall to a Serpent-man in close combat.  The agents intrepid leader Rick O'Connell held out on his own for two more turns and even took out another Serpent-man on his own before the weakness brought on by serpent poison made him easy prey for a final attack.

The Threshold Agents will return to fight another day!

-Jay

Cry Havoc and let slip the Raccoon of war!

I'll be devoting myself full-stop to producing miniatures for a D&D Next game I'll be running in December but before I kick that off I wanted to show off  a Heroclix re-paint that I'm not sure I really need for anything but I'm still incredibly excited to have...Rocket Raccoon!

I enjoyed a few movies that came out this year but Guardians Of The Galaxy stood head and shoulders above the rest.  Great action, great comedy and memorable characters.  I wanted to get the full team to actually play Heroclix with, and I have (minus Groot...not a single Groot model in all my packs) and I lucked into a few extras that will be great for other gaming as well.

Rocket is great to have because in addition to superhero gaming he should also work well when I circle back around to Gamma World early next year.

Starting tomorrow....back to where it all started for me 30 years ago....Dungeons & Dragons!

-Jay

Zoe's World: Two-For-One

A week ahead of schedule Zoe decided to sit down and paint up a new miniature to play Pathfinder with.  However she was really dedicated to the idea that she HAD to finish the half-painted super-heroine figure she had started weeks ago.  So before moving on to Isabeau she finished up her first super-heroine for Supersystem.

I had a lot of funny moments while helping Zoe with this figure.  The first one was that after seeing some of my friends' miniatures she commented that my bases were "boring" and that she wanted something fancier for her figures.  This resulted in my chopping up some old wall sections to give her 3 super-heroines some textured bases to run around on.  She also wanted to go with a bright colour palette on this fig which ended up with something that should fit in well with any supers games we end up playing.

And at this point I have to ask my now obligatory obscure knowledge question; can anyone guess what B-list Marvel character this figure was before Zoe re-painted it?  This one is extra tricky because this character has been depicted in both animation and live-action but for some reason in both of those appearances the character's appearance was altered RADICALLY from their comics look.

Next up Isabeau.  This gives Zoe a classic (and statistically survivable) character to play her first Pathfinder game with.  A heavily armoured fighter with a sword and shield Isabeau should be a good first character choice.

This figure is one of the Reaper Bones figures and I have to say it did present some painting challenges for Zoe.  The Bones material is a soft vinyl which although I think is adequate at holding detail when you have a young or inexperienced painter who tends to put their paints on a bit thick you can lose detail very quickly.  Luckily Citadel Washes were up to the task of bringing most of the details back.  I expect the Bones figures will be fantastic for her to actually play with because they should be quite durable, we just need to slow down a bit (honestly not my forte either) when painting them.

Painting Isabeau from start to finish and painting her super-heroine's skin and hair took Zoe a total of about 2 hours and until we hit the washes it was with little to no interference from me.

-Jay

Is this my chance to make a "winter is coming..." joke?

Two more members of my Strike/Titan team today, who will also possibly be getting used in other games.
Black Widow and the Winter Soldier are two of the characters who got a huge boost in the Marvel Comics-verse during Ed Brubaker's run on Captain America and then carried on in the Winter Soldier series.

I like this Black Widow figure because it gives me a female figure in stealthy tactical gear that doesn't look totally impractical.  The Winter Soldier is cool, but he's probably a bit too science-fictiony to use in most modern games.

This should give me a decent mix of dudes (and dudettes) if I need to call for help in my game tonight!

-Jay

Strike/Titan Team

Over the years I've painted a lot of SWAT and Special Forces figures to use in games but I always manage to seem to find more that I could use in one way or another.  The three figs I touched up and re-based today are more Heroclix from the Winter Soldier set.

I'll be using these guys as a SHIELD Strike Team or possibly using their images to represent a Titan Team in the Top Secret SI game I'm currently playing in.  The centre figure (Brock Rumlow from the movie) would also make a decent survivor miniature in a post-apocalyptic setting.

-Jay

Secret Agent Man

Wow!  Just wow.  I just wrapped up an awesome gaming session that had a little something for everyone; nostalgia for an old gaming system, good times with an old friend, a cool miniature and it was all the more enjoyable because I just played a two-hour RPG session with a friend who lives on the other side of the country.

Awhile back my buddy Darren proposed playing an RPG together over the Internet.  I've always liked that idea but every time someone has tried to get that off the ground before it has failed, primarily because the tool or tools we were trying to use to execute our plan just didn't work.  Darren directed me to http://roll20.net which is a web utility for playing RPGs and it is fantastic.  Simple, intuitive and allows you to do everything a group of gamers sitting around a table can do except pass each other snacks and drinks.

Tonight we played Top Secret S.I. an action/espionage game that was produced back in the TSR days and holds up surprisingly well.  Typically one of the problems I have with older RPGs is that a lot of them just seem to have way more rules than are actually necessary to play a game.  Basically Top Secret works on a system of percentages for skill rolls and works pretty smoothly.  It actually reminds me of a less crunchy version of Dark Heresy.

Even though we were playing over the net I did paint (touch up actually) a figure for my character which only seemed fitting as one of Roll20s primary tools is the ability to use a map to represent the action.  My character is a fairly generic agent and I had just gotten a perfect figure in the SHIELD Agent for the recent Winter Soldier Heroclix set.

This set is great because in addition to providing me with a character I needed for an RPG it's full of SHIELD agents that match the look of the Marvel Cinematic Universe characters so if that was ever something I wanted to game I should be able to loot at least a half-dozen interesting and appropriate figures for the set.

-Jay

Best laid plans of mice and supermen

Awhile back I mentioned I had decided on playing the Goalsystem games, starting with Supersystem with my daughter Zoe.  We're still going ahead with that but I may have over thought things a bit.

Zoe is going to be painting up her own team of 3 new superheroines.  I decided I would paint 3 new superheroes/villains to play with at the same time, but as her interest has been erratic I've gotten a bit ahead of myself.

Zoe's first fig when she gets it done is a "brick" arch-type which is both a pretty cool looking figure and one of her best paint jobs so far.  At the same time she started painting 'Princess Power' I started painting a "brick" of my own.  Meet Mac Roman.

Mac has super-strength and toughness and will also be able to fly.  Basically he's going to be my all-around super dude.  Think The Captain from Nextwave and you've got the basic idea.

For this project we are both doing complete repaints of some B-list (and maybe D-list) Heroclix models.  So here's my question for all you superhero fans; what was my figure originally before his re-paint?  I used a little putty to fill in some details I didn't like but other than that he's straight off the base, no chopping and swapping.

-Jay

Bane!

I decided to take a quick side-step tonight and do a re-paint on an old Heroclix figure I've been coveting for a long time that a friend of mine recently sent to me (thanks Mark!); Bane.

Bane has been one of my favourite Batman villains since the Knightfall series and although I did enjoy his new depiction in the Christopher Nolan movies "classic" Bane is still the version that will appear in my DC Adventures game if I ever get around to it.  He's also yet another member of my favourite super-team The Secret Six.

I'd also like to point out that one of the factors that influenced me to get Bane finished is that I have settled on a game system for Zoe and I to play some games with so I need to get started on some new superhero figs this week.  After weighing my options I've decided to use some of the Goalsystem games starting with SuperSystem.  I've already rounded up three heroines for Zoe to paint and play some games with and then after that we will be taking her two previously painted models and trying out Chaos In Carpathia.

Guess that means I've pushed my sci-fi reveal back a few days....

-Jay

Hobby Grab Bag: More Fantasy and Superstuff!

I've been "away" for awhile but wanted to show 3 of the 4 new projects I've been working on and share my thought on a couple of others....

First up I've decided to replace one of the Thralls I just painted for my Witchfire Trilogy game.  When I looked at the 3 models I had done together the smallest one really didn't fit in with the other two.  The size wasn't really the issue what I noticed stood out was how the swords looked on the other two with their glowing runes and realised that having one model without was going to look out of place.  So I've got a bit more work to do on this fig and then he'll join the team.

Next is another fantasy fig I'm not still not sure if I'm going to use or not.  The figure is a knight from Fantiaztion's "Rusted Heroes" line.  It's a skirmish fantasy game that I don't know anyone who plays but it was on discount at one of my local retailers so it gave me the chance to pick up some knight and cleric models on the cheap.  I'm considering him as a Captain Helstrom model (again for the Witchfire trilogy) but the absence of a pistol or any other techie bits makes me a bit hesitant.  At any ate he's a cool figure so whether or not he makes it into that game I'm sure I'll be happy when I finish painting him.

Here's a thought most gamers have experienced at one time or another; you walk out of a movie theatre and your first thought is "boy I sure would like to game that movie/battle/scene/etc".  After seeing the trailer (JUST THE TRAILER!) for Captain America: The Winter Soldier I'm pretty sure I'm going to want to game a big throw-down between the forces or order and chaos in the Marvel Universe at least once.  So I've decided to re-base and touch up every SHIELD agent figure I can get my hands on.....now if only I can get an actual Winter Soldier figure somewhere....
*Incidentally for those of you unfamiliar with the Heroclix line I think this is the first time I've ever posted a 'before' picture.  You can see the paint jobs are serviceable but will look out of place as-is next to actual painted figures.

I also want to touch on a couple of other irons not-quite in the fire yet.
I'm really eager to continue work on my Blood Angels but after my plastic cement fiasco of a couple of weeks ago I'm not super-excited about the idea of gluing together a bunch of 10+ part tactical marine models.  I had decided to ease myself back in by buying some of the boxes of 3 plastic marines with bolters (which are simple 3 part models) only to find they are now special order only.  So I will be doing up some tactical marines after I'm able to get my hands on some of the simpler style models.
Warlord Games has just released their new Judge Dredd Miniatures rules, so I will also be getting cracking on getting those done ASAP.

A lot going on hopefully I'll have some completed models to show for some of this before the end of the week!

-Jay

Fairchild

I got some more Teen Titans Heroclix packs today so I thought before I go full bore into my paint contest entries I'd do a bit of touch-up work to knock out a quick project.

One of the Wildstorm characters that has found a new home in DCs New 52 is Caitlin Fairchild; formerly of Gen13, currently of The Ravagers.  One of the things that is cool about the Teen Titans set is that it includes both a "classic" Gen13 version of Fairchild as well as a New 52 version in new costume.  In addition one of the things that worked out well for me is that I got 2 of the Gen13 version (which I prefer) and 1 of The Ravagers version, so I can have one of each for Heroclix games while still having an extra one to chop up and re-paint for my other superhero games.

I'm fairly happy with how my repaint turned out, although I wish I had noticed that rough spot on her leg before I took the picture instead of afterwards.  This will give me another "brick" type hero for my games.

-Jay

A team mate for John Colt Jr!

Awhile back I re-painted a Kryptonian Soldier with the intent of using him as a descendant of John Colt (Spartan) and mentioned I might like to re-visit the idea and build a super-team around that character.

Here is the first addition!  I've decided that I'm going to try to add in 1 of each of the basic superhero arch types (strong guy, psychic, blaster/shootist, etc).  So my first addition is a brick type character.  Again this figure came from the same Superman Heroclix set and was a complete re-paint.  The figure is originally meant to be Non one of General Zod's men but after cleaning up the head and re-painting the figure I think he makes a perfect sidekick or partner for John Colt Jr.  The other great thing is the colour scheme means he can also fill in as a generic patriotic US or UK hero as well.

-Jay

The Iron Patriot Take Two

I got what I desperately wanted from the Iron-Man 3 movie Heroclix set; the new Iron Patriot model.
(apologies for the poor photo, I shot it several times and I'm not sure if it's the reflective paint but it just doesn't want to focus properly).

I think the Iron Patriot figure is great for a number of reasons.  First up, let's be honest, it's just a cool figure!  Between the shoulder cannon, the military markings and the colour scheme it just looks like it's all business.  Secondly the figure is a little more multi-use than an Iron Man figure.  At the end of the first Gamma World campaign I played in my character had found a suit of power armour with a big gun and this would have been perfect, in addition it would work in any sci-fi or superhero setting where you need a U.S. themed Patriotic figure.  And lastly he's going to be yet another star player on my 'What If ?' Avengers team.

The other thing that's kind of cool if the figure gets used for some Marvel based superhero RPGs is that a friend of mine recently informed me that in recent Marvel history 3 completely different characters have donned the Iron Patriot armour. 
The first was Norman Osborn (The Green Goblin) who wore the armour during the Dark Reign story line as the head of the Dark Avengers (still one of my favourite Avengers books ever).
The second is in Marvel Ultimate continuity Tony Stark (Iron Man) wears the Iron Patriot Armour serving under President Captain America in a near future ultra-patriotic USA.
And third in the recent Iron Man 3 movie Jim Rhodes (War Machine) ditches his War Machine armour for the Iron Patriot suit.

Love the look of the armour in the comics and movies and I love this figure!

-Jay

Iron-Man Mk7

I'm not sure I can even call this figure a "touch up"; I popped him off his Clix base, re-attached him to a standard 25mm base, coated the top, varnished and done!

I've gotten a lot of Iron-Man Heroclix over the years but it wasn't until the Avengers movie set that they felt like they scaled right with my other figs.  The thing I like best about this figure (which is from the Iron-Man 3 movie set) is that he came with a metallic red (rather than flat red) paint job.  I think he looks terrific and if I ever game with a 21st century Avengers team he's definitely ready to rock!

Now I just need to scrounge up one of the new Iron-Patriot figures (that the fig from this set I REALLY want).

I'll be back tomorrow with more Malifaux and/or Project Scrapheap!

-Jay

A civilian for all genres (I think?)

I decided to touch up another figure for use as a generic civilian for superhero/post apocalyptic gaming and when I took a step back and really looked at him realised that as a civilian with no relevant gear he also works really well for Shadowrun and possibly even Steampunk games.

I think the vest and tie but without any other items to define the period the figure is from means it would be passable for alot of different times.  I also thought that the style of the pants made it look somewhat out-of-time, but I might be over thinking that last bit.

Incidentally this is the Harvey Dent figure from the most recent Batman Heroclix set.  As soon as I pulled him from the pack I knew he was destined for a re-basing and some non-clix gaming.

-Jay

Secret Society Of The 52: Obsidian

Back with a quick superhero interlude before diving head first into Warmahordes this afternoon!

Two characters who found themselves in limbo after DCs reboot who now look like they probably won't be coming back are Jade and Obsidian the children of the Golden Age Green Lantern Alan Scott.  Obsidian was a great add to my DC collection because he has a fairly uncommon powerset in DC which is none the less fairly common in Marvel so he feels great for gaming in both venues.  Obsidian has a number of super powers based on his ability to tap into a dark energy (much like the darkforce dimension in Marvel).  He's also a really cool figure that has like many of my new Supersystem team done time as both a hero and a villain.

Like I said just a quick diversion, I'll be painting my Machine Wraith today, which as far as I can tell will be useless against Hordes armies but hopefully I can find some use for it in games as it is a sweet model.

-Jay

Justice League Dark:  Zatanna

A while back I posted a picture of a Reaper female magician with the stated intent of using her as Zatanna in some superhero gaming with the caveat that I wasn't sure if I could get away with using her in my DC Adventures game because her look in the New 52 reboot was radically different.  Just last week I got my hands on one of the New 52 Zatanna figs and decided to touch her up so I had the appropriate figure on a base that matched the rest of my new/current superheroes.

I have to admit I'm somewhat conflicted about this figure.  The design is well executed and I love the energy halos around her hands but I still prefer the "classic" Zatanna to the new reboot Zatanna.  I've moved away from my original plan for my game so I'm not certain I need her for DC Adventures anymore but I wanted to get her done and the figure itself could be used in lots of different modern/near-future games.

I think for my next superhero fig I'm going to dig into the backlog to pick out another member for my Secret Society of The 52 for Supersystem.

-Jay

Killer Croc

Another member of Batman's rogues gallery touched up and re-based tonight; Killer Croc.

Killer Croc is a great villain to have access to because he makes a good second banana to a mastermind-type villain and also in DC Adventures he offers a different option for a PL10 Gotham City campaign in the event that the players make choices other than Bat-family style crime fighters Croc can trade blows with legitimate meta-humans.

I'd also like to point out that this new Killer Croc model from the recent Streets Of Gotham set is an absolutely fantastic model with great depth of detail.

I feel fairly confident that Croc will see some action in DC Adventures and even if he doesn't I can always do some kind of b-movie 'Killer Croc vs King Shark' and that would be fantastic in it's own right.

-Jay

Killer Croc