Lava, Death and Robots

For reasons I won't go into, I needed a bit of a simple and straightforward palette cleanser this weekend, and so I turned to a recent opportunistic purchase that took me back to the mean streets of Pulp City for the first time in a while.

I recently took advantage of Kitbash Games having a sale (with a significant discount) as they moved their production from resin to something else.

This gave me a chance to pick up some models I've been considering for a while and to tide me over until the Pulp City: Full Effect campaign fulfills.

First up is Magman, Powerhouse for the Shadow Axis team of villains that I painted back in 2020. He is one of only a couple of members of that team that I don't have, and as he was in the sale I decided to grab him.

As you can probably guess, he is basically a great big bruiser made of lava, making him a veritable eruption of destruction on the table top. The downside being that, common to all Powerhouses, he is a drain on activation dice, rather than providing them.

I took a fairly simplistic approach to painting him, inspired by, but not exactly the same as, the method I used for my Balrog.

I undercoated the model in red and then gave him a heavy dry brush in black. After this I picked out all the deepest cracks with white and clgave the whole model a wash of Cassandora Yellow, which settle unevenly and gave the orange/yellow effect.

After this, I again dry brushed in black to tidy things up, followed by a light dusting of grey for highlighting.

The base is scratch built from card and aluminium mesh to fit in with the rest of the gang as I didn't have a suitable 50mm resin base.

The remaining two models are technically Omega Drones from the TechNet faction, which I don't own any other models for. However, I shall be using them as proxies for Sentry Bot minions (the cards for which are available from the Pulp City Limits Facebook group)

I'm using them as Sentry Bots as I struggle to field enough minions as I'm allowed to in my Red Republik and A.R.C. factions. Specifically, robots are a better fit than the ninjas I have for the scientific arm of the Ape Revolutionary Committee.

When I said I was looking for something simple to paint, it was the Omega Drones followed a simplistic pattern I've used on several projects. Spray silver, black wash, pick out feature colour.

I opted for glowing blue on these guys as I felt that red would look a bit too Terminator, whilst green might suggest Necron too much.

Although they were simple to paint, I'm pleased that I been able to get something done this weekend and keep myself occupied.

Acquired: -73

Painted: 403

Lead Mountain: 369

Freedom Force: In Full Effect

I'm aware that I bounce around my many different projects with little rhyme or reason, often leaving things unfinished only to return to them at a later date when motivation strikes again.

Such is the case with this post where external events (to be discussed later) have brought me back around to my Freedom Force project to (almost) finish off my existing backlog.

The latest surge of miniatures for this project came from a Kitbash Games Supers Unlimited Kickstarter releasing a new team called the Glory Guard, which are heavily influenced by the Freedom Force game and I've chosen to lean into with my painting and modeling choices.

I now only have a single miniature from the Glory Guard Kickstarter to paint: Enigmiss. Unfortunately, the member of Freedom Force that she looks like is Alche-Miss, who I've already converted, so I'm considering alternative uses for her.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. The latest models to get paint on them are a somewhat contrasting affair, and not only because they have largely been done with contrast paints.

We have the monochromatic Tombstone and the eminently more vibrant Quetzalcoatl, both of who are characters which turn up in the time-travelling sequel, Freedom Force Vs the Third Reich.

Quetzalcoatl is a character which plays on the superhero trope of ancient gods bestowing power on a suitable mortal in the manner of Thor (the original comics version) or Shazam. In this case it's an Aztec god who imbues Jonny Azotl with a range of powers appropriate to a giant flying snake.

This model was the most fragile of the set and in fact I managed to snap his ankle whilst cleaning the model. However, it's also probably the most detailed and took the contrast paints and washes really well leaving me really happy with the outcome.

On the other hand, there's Tombstone. The vengeful spirit of a man executed for a crime he didn't commit who no stalks the guilty, bringing them to justice. Deadman meets the Shadow, if you will.

When it came to painting this one I have arguably relied too much on contrast paints and the initial reference picture I used made it clear that his colours are black, grey and silver.

However, the reference material varies and, as you can see, there were options for a more colourful approach. Adding in the fact that the Basilicanum Grey paint has left him looking quite dirty means that overall I'm not very pleased with the outcome.

I think I'm found to revisit him and highlight the black with purple and clean up the grey to see if I can get an outcome I'm happier with.

As the Glory Guard came with stat cards for both Super Mission Force and Pulp City, I can now field a version of Freedom Force in both games along with 7TV, where I've been using custom profiles.

However, it's Pulp City that provided the motivation for me to get back to these two models, and this is the reason...

Kitbash Games are currently running another campaign, Pulp City: Full Effect, this time on Gamefound to fund the first additions to the main Pulp City setting in a long time (this was originally due in 2020, but 'stuff' happened, if you remember). It's also the first time that the rulebook has been available since the company changed hands, so it marks a real relaunch of the game.

The campaign can be found HERE.

I have somehow now amassed five teams and a motley selection of independent heroes for Pulp City, and so I'm looking to pick up any members of Red Republik or the A.R.C. (such as Simian Jones above) that turn up in the campaign, and with more stretch goals (based on both funding and backers) I'm checking back daily to see what else to add.

I'm also toying with the idea of starting another team, Settlers Green, simply as an excuse to buy the somewhat intimidating Tri-Bal model. There are three members of the team currently available in the add-ons section at the bottom of the page with more that have been teased.

Alternatively, there is a brand new team, Discord, available as a multi-buy, new versions of older characters and with Pulp City's mechanic of being able to build teams in multiple different ways, you could just grab the models you like and go from there.

Am I shilling for the company?

Well, yes. Leon is a friend and I'd like to see him get the game back to where it was. Partly because I want him to do well, but also because it's a really good game that I'd like to play more.

Acquired: -61

Painted: 360

Lead Mountain: 652

Law & Order

"In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime; and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories."

Well, not quite.

In Patriot City, in the world of Freedom Force, Law and Order are not separate, but rather are two faces of the same hero.

An honest cop and a lawyer who was blinded by a mob hit, Law and Order were hit with Energy X whilst in witness protection and were fused so that only one of them can be active at a time.

In my play through of the original game, I've fought alongside Order as an NPC in one of the scenarios involving the gangster Pinstripe, and the two are available to recruit, but I've not gotten around to spending my prestige points on them yet.

These models are again from the Kitbash Games Glory Guard Kickstarter and are sold under the names Truth and Justice.

Law

Mild-mannered Sarah (no last name) was blinded in a mob hit on the Judge she worked for, and later almost killed in witness protection.

As Law, despite wielding a blade with deadly accuracy, she is primarily a protective hero, able to heal, shield and remove conditions for her ally.

Painting wise, yellow and white was never going to be a walk in the park, but I'm quite happy with how she turned out. I had several goes at the white, using washes, drybrushing and contrast paint until I got to a place I was happy with.

Conversely, the Averland Sunset I used for the yellow was a bit watery and ended up working quite well over a Grey Seer undercoat. A happy little accident.

All in all I'm really happy with how she came out. I didn't do the scales on her to nic because I'm not a masochist and they are also represented on her belt buckle.

Order

Officer Samson had been tipped off by corrupt cops to leave Sarah to her fate, but stayed to protect her despite his misgiving. 

As Order he is a classic 'brick' superhero, a heavy hitter with massive strength and toughness, but prone to flying into a berserk rage.

Although quite straightforward, I'm less pleased with my painting of Order. It might be to do with the darker palette, or it could be because of all the models from the set, this had most work to do on mould lines and filling bubbles.

I ended up finding him a bit of a chore. His skin is Mournfang Brown washed in Nuln Oil, whilst the tunic is highlighted Kantor Blue.

I probably need to put more work in to make the details pop, but I found the sculpt a bit of a paint to work around.

He's fine, but my least favourite to paint so far.

With Law and Order finished, I've now completed all of the heroes I own from the original game and have now put together almost the entire team. I still have a couple of characters from the sequel, Freedom Force Vs the 3rd Reich, along with an alternate version of Alche-Miss.

The notable characters I'm missing are El Diablo, Man-O-War and Bullet l, who are actually some of the characters that I use most when playing and I'm keen to include them. Finally there are the optional recruits of Blackbird, Iron Ox and Super Collider, who I'm less fussed about.

When I started this project, I never really thought that I'd get more than a handful of the team done given how specific the brief was. However, the fact that I now can field several different team lineups is largely due to Kitbash Games.

I also have several villainous groups to put against the heroes of Patriot City: Nuclear Winter's frozen forces; Pinstripe's gang of goons; Shadow's dark minions; and dinosaurs propelled through time.

I'm going to wait until I've played it before moving on to characters from Freedom Force Vs the 3rd Reich, however, I might put a bit of effort into the villains that I haven't yet put together: Mr Mechanical, Pan, Deja Vu and the Dominion.

In other news, I've picked up another couple of units for my Badab War project, and so I've gone backwards on the progress. I'm thinking that I might need some honest conversations about whether I'm going to keep some of the backlog that I don't look like getting to.

Acquired: -70
Painted: 300
Lead Mountain: 683

Anty-Hero

To help inspire me to get my Kitbash Games Glory Guard miniatures painted up as Freedom Force, I've actually been playing through the original game from 2002.

Despite being a little buggy initially, I've made it through the initial quests dealing with Nuclear Winter, battled dinosaurs in the streets and things have got a bit buggy again as I am dealing with an infestation of Giant Ants led by the diminutive figure of The Ant.

Having played the game before, I'm fully aware that whilst initially appearing as an ant-agonist, The Ant is a hero at heart and has been mind-controlled by a villain called The Shadow, who I painted last year.

Pleasingly, getting both The Ant and The Shadow painted means that I can feasibly use this combination, along with Darkman and Giant Ants to create a recently large villainous cast to oppose the rest of the team.

The Ant is a character which seems to combine the major beats of both Ant-Man (shrinking and ant-control) and Spider-Man (awkward nerdy teenager, wall-crawling), and this is fairly evident in the costume.

The Kitbash Games sculpt of Microbug is different enough from the Ant, but is close enough to make painting easy and obvious.

I did an undercoat of Grey Seer and then a base coat of Fleshtearer's Red contrast paint. I picked out the brown parts of the costume in Mournfang Brown and then washed the whole model in Agrax Earthshade.

I later highlighted in Mournfang Brown and Mephiston Red before picking out the belt in black and the goggles in silver before doing the lenses white and giving them a was of Cassandora Yellow.

One nice touch from Kitbash Games is that Microbug comes with an additional smaller version for when he has shrunk in games.

I'm not sure how relevant this will be in 7TV, other than for aesthetics, but in Pulp City (which Microbug has rules for) exchanging models for shape and size changers is a well-defined mechanic.

I still have several more heroes to go, but I might wait until they show up in the game before getting them done.

Acquired: -83
Painted: 298
Lead Mountain: 672

Perfect Is The Enemy Of Good

Welcome back to Patriot City as I return with gusto to my nostalgia rabbit-hole project based on the superhero video game Freedom Force.

So far we've seen Gangsters, Dinosaurs, Giant Ants and disfigured Cultists assault this fair city with only a handful of heroes to stop them.

That's all about to change...

Enter three of the core heroes of the team...well, two and a sidekick, but still...

Miniuteman, the patriotic leader of the fight for freedom; Liberty Lad, his daring but youthful sidekick; and Man-Bot, a colossus barely able to contain the Energy X that surges through him.

All three come from the recently delivered Glory Guard Kickstarter from Kitbash Games (and, as usual, came with game cards for Super Mission Force and Pulp City), and as such are not quite exact to the original character designs. However, in the absence of official miniatures, I suspect these are as close as I'm going to get.

Minuteman

Minuteman is the first character you play in the game and is therefore central to the whole narrative.

A disgraced but patriotic pensioner, Frank Stiles is granted his youth and exceptional powers when he touches an Energy X infused statue whilst failing to confront communist spies.

He adopts the guise of Minuteman, clearly based on Captain America, in order to bring the enemies of freedom to justice.

The Colonel Glory miniature from Kitbash Games has quite a few differences from Minuteman's costume design, but enough similarities (the eagle topped staff, old military uniform, etc.) that he works well enough with the right paint job.

I've known this miniature was in the pipeline at Kitbash for quite some time, and so I haven't trawled through 18th century miniatures to find any potential alternatives.

One specific area that I needed to address was his lack of a tricorne hat. I clipped one off a miniature I picked up at Partizan with the intent of popping it on his head.

However, upon closer inspection, I found the staff to be too much in the way to guarantee that it would look stupid. Therefore I opted to have the hat sitting on the floor, having fallen off in combat.

It's not a perfect solution, but it's good enough.

Man-Bot

Arguably the most powerful member of the team, Man-Bot is almost a mash up of Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk, as playnoy Ted Taylor was infused with so much Energy X that it can only be contained by the suit he wears, and even then it still bursts out in dangerous blasts, one of which killed his brother, who designed the suit.

Tortured by his guilt and the threat he poses, Ted joins Freedom Force early in their adventure and ultimately becomes crucial to their mission to protect both the city and reality itself.

This is a chunky model that goes by the name of Armordillo and comes with a choice of hand options, the others being larger and more inhuman.

I trimmed off a helmet crest to bring him closer to the original character, but as you can see, this is much closer to the Freedom Force version than Minuteman is.

Having recently been painting silver Space Marines, I adopted much the same approach of a spray covered in Nuln Oil and then highlighted with Chainmail. I opted not to try to get the blue/purple tinge to the metal as I'm a coward.

The pink was done simply with a combination of Emperor's Children and Carroburg Crimson.

All in all this was really straightforward and I'm really happy with the result.

Liberty Lad

Nick Craft is a fan of Minuteman who uncovers a crime being perpetrated by the gangster Pinstripe. He manages to bring Freedom Force to the scene, but gets shot in the process. A blood transfusion from Minuteman grants him similar powers and turns him into a suitable sidekick.

Obviously based on Bucky Barnes and other teen sidekicks like Robin and Rick Jones, Liberty LL as is one of the less powerful team members who I only ever used if he was a mandatory inclusion for the mission.

The Kid Glory miniature is one of only a couple of single piece sculpts in the set and so required minimal preparation time to put together.

As you can see, again there are some subtle differences between the Kitbash miniature and the Freedom Force design, but the major beats of the character are all present.

I'm quite pleased with the blues I've done on Liberty Lad and Minuteman, which have had a Kantor Blue bases, a Caledor Sky layer, a wash of Drakenhof Nightshade and final edge highlights of Imrik Blue dry paint.

If you are wondering why I didn't do the starts in his chest, I should refer you toy earlier statement about being a coward. I might dig into my transfers collection to see if I have a star small enough.

I still have another half-dozen of this set to do, but I'm enjoying returning to superheroes as these individuals are a nice palette cleanser after the batch painting I've been doing recently.

Acquired: -83

Painted: 296

Lead Mountain: 674

Zomtober: The Time of Terror

It's that time of year that people who massively overplay the significance of Halloween annoyingly refer to as 'Spooky Season' which the rest of us call October.

It's also the time of Zomtober, a small annual event involving a few miniature gaming blogger (blogger who focus on miniature gaming, not gaming blogger who are very small) painting something zombie related each week.

I've not participated since 2019 (not sure why) and the event has dwindled a bit, however, long time Zomtoberer Blax Kleric has decided to... er...reanimate the event and I thought I'd go along for the ride.

Okay, I know, they're not zombies, well one of them could be, possibly, or is at least zombie-adjacent.

However, I only saw the post about Zomtober yesterday and these were what I'd finished. Also, long time readers will know that I have a habit of stretching the boundaries of what counts as a zombie somewhat.

So let's start there...

This is the Hessian, a Supers Unlimited miniature from Kitbash Games that I picked up from a small Kickstarter last year (?). It was actually the only miniature I got from the Kickstarter as I wanted to support the company but couldn't see an immediate use for the rest of the releases.

However, should I change my mind, Kitbash Games have an Esty site where their range can be bought.

It's a really cool miniature with a really nice sculpt that only required a minimal amount of cleaning up. The hands come separately and interestingly mine came with two left hands holding swords, which I assume is insurance against such a thing piece snapping in transit.

Does the Hessian count as a zombie? Possibly. The model clearly draws influence from the legend of Sleepy Hollow (although he's more horseless than headless), but this puts him in ghost territory which is arguably in the right ball park.

As to how I'll use the Hessian, there are a number of options. Firstly, all Supers Unlimited models come with game cards for both Super Mission Force and Pulp City. Unfortunately he isn't aligned to any of my villain teams for Pulp City, but I can still use him.

Alternatively, the Hessian joins my surprisingly large collection of miniature scarecrows, and although he won't be hitting the streets of Gotham, he could definitely join the Children of the Fields for folk horror games of 7TV.

Also in terms of 7TV, he also makes for an ideal villain for Scooby Doo and chums to unmask as a disgruntled janitor, although this certainly takes him out of zombie territory.

This is not a zombie.

It's Dr Red, orangutan and chief scientist of the Ape Revolutionary Committee, a primate socialist collective determined to work for better treatment of simians in Pulp City. And when I say 'work for' I mean 'blow things up until they get it.

Dr Red has sat part painted in my queue for about three years. He's part of an ARC job lot I bought off eBay. He was missing his bionic arm and so I've replace it with the spare arm I got with my Trapjaw miniature.

I'm not sure why I stopped painting him half way through, but I suspect it had something to do with the white coat and the fact that the more you look at orangutans, the more you realise that they aren't the colour you think they are.

Fortunately the recent Kickstarter I backed from Kitbash Games took my head into Pulp City (via Freedom Force) and in the search for something to do I finally got the urge to finish him off.

I definitely have enough members of the ARC to play a game but the original models from Pulp City aren't easy to get your hands on at the moment (although there are rumblings that this could change fairly soon) and so I'm unlike to expand the Revolution in the immediate future.

However, I might use another manufacturer to add some minions to the force (as at least two of these give should get minions for free) as most of the game cards are available to download on the Citizens of Pulp City Facebook group (or at least they were the last time I checked.

A SCAREcrow and a TERRORist. How very Spooky-Seasonal.

Acquired: 83 

Painted: 231

Lead Mountain: 454

The Scarab Corps

So it seems as if I'm in a bit of a superhero phase. Long time readers of the blog will know that I go through peaks an troughs of interest in certain projects, and currently I'm back with superheroes.

Therefore, I've decided to turn my attention to the few remaining Pulp City miniatures I had lying around assembled and undercoated: the Scarab Corps.

The Scarab Corps are a team of chromatically themed heroes (somewhat akin to the Power Rangers) from Kitbash Games' Supers Unlimited Kickstarter from a couple of years ago. They are quite versatile in who they join with, as they are not only all Freelancers, but they enable a team to access leader cards without needing to have a Leader supreme present.

In terms of painting, I did these quickly with contrast paints. The single colour theme for each model and the chain/scale mail suits they are wearing responded well to the contrast treatment.

Blue Scarab was the first of the Scarabs to be designed, and was part of the initial Kickstarter campaign, with the others being added as a stretch goal add on later down the line. As such, she is the only level 2 supreme in the team, and her buxom nature belies the fact that she's actually a 'Tank' and by far the toughest of the bunch.

She was done with Talassar Blue over Grey Seer and served as an excellent test of this combination for some more Tzeentch Daemons I have in the pipeline.

Red Scarab is a Speeder who I suspect is designed for achieving objectives or tagging targets rather than getting into the rough and tumble of the main fight. He's possibly my least favourite of the bunch as the pose and facial expression combine to make him look like he's been caught doing something embarrassing.

Red Scarab was painted with Flesh Tearer's Red over Grey Seer.

Although I like the design of Indigo Scarab, I find him problematic. Not only is there that debate over how purple or blue the colour indigo is (seriously, why wasn't he Green Scarab?), there's also the fact that he's a Brawler with only 5 hit points. I'm not sure he's going to be brawling with anybody for very long.

Indigo Scarab wasn't painted with contrast paints, he was done with a couple of coats of Drakenhof Nightshade wash over Grey Seer.

White Scarab seems incredibly fragile. She only has four hit points. However, as a Support supreme with psychic abilities she's actually unlikely to be put too much in harm's way...although I do suspect that harm may go out of its way to find her.

She was done with Apothecary White over White Scar and so it actually more of a Pale Grey Scarab than this photo suggests.

Finally, there is the Black Scarab (a little bit too on the nose there...) who is the team's 'Powerhouse'. Although I'm no expert in Pulp City, the Powerhouses are normally the big, hulking models that are designed as line breakers and intended to smash stuff. Black Scarab seems a touch small and low level for this roll, so I'll have to see how he does.

Unsurprisingly, Black Scarab was done almost entirely with Black Templar over Grey Seer.

All in all I'm quite pleased with this crowd. Combined with the few heroes I've already painted (Doc Cosmos, Roughneck, Tox and Plasmatron) I can now field 13 levels of good guys to combat the rather terrifying array of villains that the Red Republik, Shadow Axis and A.R.C. can muster (yes, I know that the villainy of the A.R.C. is homo-sapien propaganda, but you get my drift).

I actually only have a single Pulp City miniature left to finish painting. I do have one coming from Kitbash's most recent Kickstarter last month, and I do have an inside track on something coming down the pipeline that I'm very excited about. Also, I took some steps towards arranging a game or two of Pulp City in the not too distant future.

Exciting times!

Acquired: 116

Painted: 209

She'll Put A Spell On You

One of the things that you need to accept about searching for proxy miniatures, is that the model you eventually use will never be perfect.

This is something that can be more pronounced if your subject is somewhat niche in wargaming (e.g. Superheroes), female (as there just isn't the same range to explore as males), or has features which are fairly period specific (e.g. haircuts, outfits, etc.).

All of which apply to the fifties/sixties themed Freedom Force superheroine, Alche-miss.

The main part of this model is Striga, from Kitbash games (whose range of superheroes draw on a lots of sources for inspiration), whilst the head is from the old Wargames Factory female survivors.

I think the head is a little large, but I just about get away with it. However, this is not the only element that is 'not quite right, as you can see from the game art.

The hair, the neckline, the skirt, the mask and the boots are all compromises, but I feel the miniature is close enough for her to pass muster as Alche-miss.

I might possibly change her head if a suitable alternative presents itself, but matching women's hair is one of the trickiest aspects of proxying, with the additional issue matching scale. I'm certainly unlikely to buy a miniature just for the head on the off chance it fits her.

I am happy with how I've painted her, although the symbol on the cape might be a bit small. I think I'm getting better at highlighting and shading, but I do find resin harder to work with as the rougher surface of the miniature tends to expose some of my brush control.

Like Sea-Urchin, Alche-miss is a character I might return to if the differences annoy me enough and a better option presents itself.

The tallies both edge up by one as, following the last game, I bought a miniature midweek to allow me to play the next Quest of the Ringbearer scenario. However, progress is progress, and my Freedom Force project is really taking shape and I probably need to play a game sometime soon.

Acquired: 109

Painted: 113