Hello Dakka. This blog will detail my efforts to grow my Fallout model collection.

Currently consisting of assorted models only, the upcoming release of the official Fallout miniatures game by Modiphius will no doubt see plenty of official models as well. Until then, I have a fair number of third party models that want a paint job. I started working on Fallout themed models a year and a half ago, so I have a fair few models to show off already (which will be added as I find time; plus, being new to Dakka, I'm still figuring out how everything works, so please bear with me). I'm not short on plans and the models to execute them on. I certainly aim to update this blog somewhat regularly.

After a hobby slump of a couple of years, I found Fallout to be just the right thing to get back on track. These days, I am finishing more models than ever, a fact I am very happy with. My current focus is on painting. This means that my models are roughly split into two groups: those by Brother Vinni which just so happen to have an inherent post apocalyptic vibe (funny, that...) and those by assorted manufacturers, which I chose because I like the models. The latter, to me at least, look like they could fit the Fallout setting, but are not necessarily reminiscent of actual designs from the video games.

I'm not a painter first and foremost, and enjoy modeling a whole lot more, as it were. But since my priority is to have a nice, painted collection, something I've never really had before (the legions of unpainted models usually outnumber the painted ones quite a bit), I am very happy to have all of my assembled, Fallout related models painted bar two to four which are undergoing painting at any given time. I would very much like to invest time in conversions, and I have no doubt that I will ultimately do that, but for now most models are stock models painted to look the part. But it is definitely one goal in the near future is to get that post apocalyptic survivor feel on the models that I don't really get just yet, for the most part.

There will be a few models that are NSFW for forgetting to put pants on (seriously, some people would forget their heads if they weren't screwed on...). They'll get spoiler tags and due warning, so if you don't care for people in various states of undress, don't open spoilers.

So to start out, here are my Wastelanders. They are basically a completed gang (I've been playing using modded Necromunda, so if that means anything to you, we're talking about a starting gang - future additions may therefore happen)

Jebediah's Posse:


The Vault Dweller responsible for helping those nice country folks just looking to grow their crops. Also, the stupid dog that follows her around:


Andrea, or 101 as that slanderer Three Dog calls her. A bit NSFW, therefore spoilered:


Dog. Also listens to Stupid Dog, if he listens at all. Which he usually doesn't:


Pappy Jebediah, completely normal settlement boss and totally not a cliched joke:


Mama Lynn, beloved daughter, wife and probably related in at least two more ways to Jebediah:


Junior. Like you didn't see that coming!


Uncle Herbert. Too drunk to feel pain. Friendly fire? Pft!


Red Mane Zeke. Enemies tremble at the sight of his beard:


Krissy. Likes comics, cosplay and shotguns:


Julie. Who needs defining features if you have two guns?


Eckard the Cook. He cooks.


Amber. First skirmish, already shell shocked. Off to a good start!



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I painted some robots, too. US Army Robots:

Assaultron


Mister Gutsy


Robobrain


Protectron


Super Mutants next. Few but dear to me because they were the first test models for a new technique for painting skin that for many, many years prior to these models I never could get to look right. That changed when I painted doggies, with the big guy proving I could replicate the result. Ever since, I'm happy with painting skin.

Super Mutant


Super Mutant Hounds

Next batch are Feral Ghouls, starting with a picture of the full group:


Close-ups:








I only have two Institute related models yet:

Dr. McNamara


Courser



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On the mercenary front, I have a handful of models that form Captain Jessie's Glow Rangers:

Captain Jessie


Regulars






Sniper


Mercs are an ongoing project, a group to which I occasionally add a model. I have three more on the side that I'll eventually get around to painting.

Slavers next. Strangely enough the biggest NSFW group, so they're all spoilered.

Mean Lil Sis


Nessa


Pit Fighter Kate


Pit Fighter Sam


Sam and Kate side by side


I have a bit to say about these. After the test run of the Super Mutants, Kate and Sam were the real test of whether I could paint satisfying skin (let's be honest, how often do you see green skin? How do you know how that should look? It could look like anything. Human skin? Harder to delude myself when there's plenty of good comparisons around for that). Turns out, this is the way to go. At least as far as I'm concerned. I've gone through three or four different approaches over the years and was never happy with any model I painted that showed any significant amount of skin. Oddly enough, the best skin I did prior to these was a couple of Tau heads. But then again, why shouldn't they be good? Who's to say how blue skin looks like realistically?

While I was (and still am) happy with the skin technique, being lightly dressed left the models a bit boring looking. So? Time to figure out blood and mud. Cuts, bruises, splatters - it's been a good bit of fun seeing these come together to make the models more interesting. And because they are the parts of the model that will stand out, I put a good bit of effort into making them as fine and subtle as I could. And I like the result. It needs to be said these are probably the models that bettered my painting more than any others, and in a small amount of time at that. Normally I don't set out to learn new things deliberately - I don't enjoy painting enough to do that - but in this case I did, and I am pleased with the result.

Nessa is a similar case, except this time it's OSL. It's my second attempt (the first one is the dwarf from Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower, who has a lantern axe which I found to be a bad test object for a beginner like me) and I'm pretty happy with the Glowing One lantern. I'm sure actual good painters will find plenty to criticize about it, but OSL has been a big hurdle for me in the past because I couldn't begin to imagine how I might paint light on a model. Well, Nessa has been one hell of a confidence boost in that regard.

Creatures and animals:

Deathclaw


Radscorpion


Bark Scorpions


Radroaches


Woofies


And finally, scenery. I'm building a farmstead for the hillbillies first before I get to more urban stuff (although I'm also contemplating a coastal theme). I'm really slow when it comes to working on terrain (one scenery piece every couple of years...) so the progress I'm making on these is nothing short of amazing.

Currently only the church is finished:








Current WIP is the farmhouse.






I'm making slow progress, adding a bit here and there every other day. I'm not decided yet how I'm going to wrap up the picket fence and what to do about the empty corner of the backyard. There'll be a fuel stash by the concrete block as well as a ladder to access the walkway. I'm also thinking of fortifying the front with a couple of sandbags placed against the fence to complement the pretty fortified appearance of the backyard.

Not sure if I should do any more than that. I'd welcome input on the matter. The idea is to have lots of room to place miniatures, so everything is spaced to comfortably fit a 25mm base (and oftentimes 30mm, too) while having as many interesting things scattered around as possible to make it look like people are actually living there. The church, while pretty much as I envisioned it during construction, looks a bit sparse in hindsight. Not sure I know how to express it, but if you look at the stone wall, it's long, straight and doesn't really interact with the rest of the scenery piece. Grass and rocks on the ground help a little with this, but there's no denying it's full of empty space.

Finally, wrapping up what I have so far, is the barn:


This is really just the ingredients of future greatness. I assembled the tractor to get its track width for the grooves in front of the barn door. The tractor itself is reserved for the final piece of the farmstead, a corn field. There will probably be a tire wall next to the barn. Possibly a tree and/tree trunk or two. Perhaps a rusty barrel dump to fill up space. Truthfully the barn is the first piece I wanted to do but ended up pushing it back because I had more complete ideas of the other pieces.

So, this is it. From here on out it's future updates, hopefully coming in a couple of times a month.

I've done some work on the farmhouse:









Everything is in place and I'm happy with the overall look of it. Next step is to put sand and rocks on the base and then go ahead and paint it. I might pick out flat stones to create a small path from the fence door to the porch.

I painted some Rangers:







Technically I'm not interested in the NCR and my favorite setting is the East Coast anyway, but I always liked the Ranger outfit in New Vegas so I stuck as close to it as I could make it.

The farmhouse is plodding along after I went through two bottles of glue and the... accidents... that happened applying sand to the base, but it's basecoated now and I'm going to paint it slowly over the coming weeks. Never been much good working on terrain. Too big for me, so it's slow going.

So there may be the odd model coming in before that's finished. I've got two more mercs to paint and considered assembling and painting a couple of Brotherhood Outcasts.

Here are the Brotherhood of Steel Outcasts I mentioned last time:





I tried a retrained color scheme on them to match the aesthetic in Fallout 3. I'm happy with them, too, but next time I think I'd add a few spot colors here and there.

I also have a scribe and a super mutant in the works that I'd like to paint next.

I finished the farmhouse:





















On to the barn. Since I have two pieces on large bases now, I think the barn we stand mostly by itself with just a tire wall to keep it company. Should come it at half to two thirds of the base size of the farmhouse and chapel.

I'm also getting bored with farming. I'm thinking some military stuff next. Road block, checkpoint, sniper tower. I have a couple of ideas.

Eventually I want to build a pit for slaves to fight in, but I will wait until I know how Modiphius's rules shake out. If they can accommodate pit fights, I'll build something specific to those rules.

Whoa I think this may be my new favourite blog! The farmhouse looks stunning as does the church. All the minis are really well painted as well, some great weathering going on there.

Subbed and excited for more!

Thank you for the kind words.

Those buildings are stunning! really great work, and i really like how the vending machine turned out

Thank you.

That farmhouse is awesome. Looks like something you would stumble across while running away from mole rats.

Very cool farmhouse, looking forward to more terrain like that. The gangs are cool as well

Thanks, guys.

Some WIP shots of the barn:







As said it's on a smaller base because I want a smaller terrain piece so as not to be stuck with lots of large ones I can't all fit on the same table. Additionally, after the farmhouse that has a visible living area, I enjoy the simplicity of just having the interior for important stuff with a little defensive structure on the outside.

It's no less a test piece than the other ones. I don't recall painting rubber before, so the rubber tires are a first for me. I'm pleased with how the wall turned out. I literally remembered at the last moment that I still had the plastic bar that I used for the stakes. Would have been a mess at best, if not completely impractical to try and add them after filling in the sand. They do add a lot to the wall and I'm glad I put them in.

The grooves leading out of the doors were a pretty big hassle as well. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to apply glue. It's a bit messy by the doors, but shouldn't be all that obvious once painted. It doesn't help that I finally got a new bottle of glue that, because it's new and good, flows completely differently than the ten year old stuff I used on the other two scenery pieces.

Finally, the big one. I'm going to state it here so I can't weasel my way out it. Part of the reason I left the barn fairly plain is because I am planning on adding a freehand as a focus piece to the empty wall that faces outward. Plenty of room there, and when the thought struck a couple of days ago I immediately quit agonizing over whether the tire wall was enough to make the scenery piece interesting. I honestly thought it was a good idea. So this is me going off the deep end: the barn will get a large Nuka Cola ad which will, inevitably, feature Nuka Girl.

No pressure!

On to less crazy stuff. It's been a bit too warm for my taste and as such I got little done on any gangers or creatures. Too hot to be painting tiny little details. I did however not stop entirely. A month ago or so I resolved to make a sculpt of my main character from Fallout 4. She's finally getting to the point where she's interesting enough to show (because let's face it, a wire frame with some green stuff blobs isn't all that great to look at ). She's still early WIP and will take at least another month to finish.

I mostly used Institute armor, but just like combat armor on my Fallout 3 character, I'm tweaking it a bit to fit my preferences instead of sticking to the original design as closely as possible. Not the least because after careful evaluation I figured Institute chest armor is deliberately designed to kill or seriously injure the wearer. There will eventually be a bit of spiky metal armor and possibly a skull (or just the face bones) for a tough slaver look without going all out Raider.

Spoilered for NSFW, because pants are overrated.

I have a sketch:



It took a while to get around to the Nuka Cola ad but I finally started work on it. It's a little rough in a couple of places but once I fill it with the right colors, it should start to come together.

The reason I got delayed is that I had this idea stuck in my head that demanded my immediate attention:

Bubbles the Glowing Deathclaw:


Bubbles with Deathy for comparison:


So what's so special about it? Bubbles glows in the dark.



The picture is not entirely representative of the effect on the model as my camera does not cope well with low light. On the bright side, it's the first time I had a reason to use the brightened upload option. But it should give a good impression of the applied paint. The picture just shows starker contrast than is there in real life.

So I got some glow in the dark paint because I figured it would be neat to try and give glowy stuff actual glow. Bubbles is a good first try, considering I didn't have a clue how the paint behaves. I'm also not convinced by glowing creature effects in Fallout 4, at least up close, so I'm not terribly sad that Bubbles glows differently than the computer models.

I consider this test successful and will probably paint more stuff like this in the future. I mean, it doesn't really do anything. It doesn't look much different to normal paint by day, but still. The glow makes me happy.

And now I'm imagining how a Glowing Mire Lurk Queen might look like if Modiphius ever releases on.

Wow, lots of inspirational sculpting and paintwork in this thread!

Outlining for the nuka girl mural looks very promising, and an ambitious bit of painting too! I think I can picture the ad you're working from.

Glowing deathclaw looks very interesting - I'm intrigued by the final glowing effect. Did you layer the glow paint thicker in some areas to get the deeper glow? Or did you paint over it with other, darker paint to mute it in some areas? Or is it all an artefact of the camera?

I'll definitely be following all of this with interest. Thanks for posting.

Thank you.

I just did some experimenting lest I lie. First, the picture is a tiny bit off, but holding the model in sunlight and then taking it into a dark room, the green glow is pretty intense and close to what the brightened picture here shows. If I had uploaded what my camera picked up without image processing, the result would have been a lot less true. I'm quite satisfied with this paint (Aurora Glow in the Dark Paint, Bright Green, by Pandora Stocks if anybody is interested).

Naturally the thing with luminescent paint is that the glow weakens without a light source, so the bright areas grow dimmer reasonably quickly. They still stand out over the less glowy bits for a good while though. I tried that last night (hooray insomnia!) and there was glow and a visible difference between differently painted areas after an hour and a half, which is pretty good from my limited experience with glow in the dark paint. Also, I used a moderately bright flashlight which hardly reaches the power of the sun (or a UV flashlight as per the manufacturer's suggestion).

As for the actual painting, it's a combination of thickness and underlying paint. I started out with a solid layer of Moot Green to get a good base coat. Then I stippled the dark areas on the back (and the horns and stuff) dark grey, dark brown and tan in that order. (Edit: I forgot to mention I applied a light, black wash to these areas afterwards) Then comes the OSL part with a 50:50 mix of watered down Moot Green and white to wash the whole model, followed by a 20:80 green and white wash. The goal is to get the recesses as bright as possible while maintaining a strong, visibly green color.

This is followed by a slightly watered down layer of glow paint on the entire model (the paint is water based, which is important to me for sake of convenience). Big part of the glow in the dark paint is that it glows brighter the lighter the underlying color is (the other part is that the thicker the paint, the more glow pigment is there, of course). Thus, painting so far naturally allows some areas to shiny brighter than others. However, since it is watered down, the glow isn't all that strong yet. To reinforce it, I then painted on undiluted glow paint. Mostly into recesses, but I also put a bit more onto the tail, back and arms to get a few larger focal areas.

The paint layers are best seen in the dark picture. Everything that shines really bright is the final layer while the rest is based on the diluted layer on differently painted areas.

The glow paint is fairly thick and somewhat grainy. That works fine for me because the Fallout 4 glowing skins don't just have flat glowing areas but also small glowing dots all over the place. If I were to paint something different (I have blue paint from a different manufacturer for Nuka Cola Quantum), I'd reconsider slapping on glow paint as recklessly as I did on Bubbles and instead try several thin layers.

I finished the model, as I do with any other, with Vallejo matt varnish, to no negative effect to the glow.

Wow! A literal glowing Deathclaw, fantastic!

I agree with you that the glow that creatures have in-game looks a little odd and I much prefer your take. I really want to buy some glow paint now...

The glowing deathclaw is neat as can be.

huh. i wonder what it would be like to play a game in the dark. i'm sure there's glow in the dark dice out there

Thanks, guys.

I can say for certain that there are glow dice around since I own some. Because, you know, if it's past midnight and I have one of those life changing decisions to make, it's pretty handy to see what I rolled.

I'm pretty sure playing in the dark with glowy models only results in bumping lots of stuff into lots of other stuff, but that's just me.

Wow, thank you very much for that in depth explanation. Great stuff - it's always fun to experiment with a new material. Will have to find an excuse to find a pot myself!

What glow in the dark paint you use? was thinking of doing some "secret" alpha legion operatives in other chapter colors that glow in the dark under UV flashlight that shows off the big A otherwise was just going to use highlighter.

That glow in the dsrk death claw is brilliant! Excellent idea.

EDC

 Scarper wrote:
Wow, thank you very much for that in depth explanation. Great stuff - it's always fun to experiment with a new material. Will have to find an excuse to find a pot myself!

No problem. I did forget the black wash (see the edit) in the breakdown, though. That's kind of important to getting the dark parts.

 Desubot wrote:
What glow in the dark paint you use? was thinking of doing some "secret" alpha legion operatives in other chapter colors that glow in the dark under UV flashlight that shows off the big A otherwise was just going to use highlighter.

Aurora Glow in the Dark Paint, Bright Green, by Pandora Stocks.

Bought via Amazon.

Nice idea. Also, absolutely heretical!

 evildrcheese wrote:
That glow in the dsrk death claw is brilliant! Excellent idea.

EDC

Thank you.

Last night I was awake enough to have a longer look at the Glowing Deathclaw and did some more experimenting. As expected, after shining a light on it the super bright shine only lasts for a minute or two before it dims to a longer lasting, medium glow. As mentioned before, still nice and glowy, the different areas are easily distinguished. But, this being the test model that it is, the next time I'll try something different.

I think it is a bit lacking in depth in the dark.

It'll take further study before I really get it, but the impression I have right now is that the extra glowy bits are a bit broad and undefined. Better brush control and better thought out, finer patterns should improve the overall look. Additionally, the even, diluted paint layer is probably too even and strong. It's not really apparent in the picture as it is in real life, but very watered down paint or even a few places that the glow paint doesn't touch should help better define the model.

But that's something for later. I don't really have a model available right now for another test and will probably wait until the Wasteland Warfare models are released. Maybe some glowing mushrooms on a scenery piece. I should have some of those stashed away somewhere.

Anyway, before I go and give the barn the attention it needs, I had a half finished Super Mutant on my desk that I felt guilty about enough to finish him:



And with his buddies:



That wraps up the Super Mutants I have. Unless Brother Vinni releases another model that I really want, the next Super Mutants will happen when Wasteland Warfare is released. Until then, scenery and the odd model here and there.

Looking good! I really like the almost necrotic flesh and the tree stumps on the base.

What is the general scale on all these miniatures? Are they 28mm or closer to 32mm? I was thinking that Mantic sci fi zombies would make excellent ferals for a pretty decent price if the scale matched up.

Edit: Hmm, after looking at the ferals you already have I think the Mantic ones are a slightly more heroic scale than them if you are bothered by that stuff..

Thanks.

I'll just quote myself below from the Wasteland Warfare news thread (including a size comparison of a couple of models) as that should contain as complete an answer as I can give you on scale.

As for Mantic zombies, I compared the only one I have to hand with a Ghoul and he is indeed noticeably larger/more heroic. The shoulders are 2mm wider, the chest is 2mm wider, and the head is 2mm taller. Generally I like Mantic zombies, though. They're good quality and unless the models next to which you use them err strongly on the realistic side, they are not a bad alternative.

So it begins:



I decided to start on the organic bits first. Why? The face is the part I was afraid of the most. Trickiest part to get right on a thing that is tricky to get right in the first place.

That's an hour and a half of work and I've been suitably jittery for the next hour after that. But, it's done. I've brightened a few bits of the hair since then because I found a different reference picture that did not have aging damage on that part), but this is it and I'm happy with the result.

I'll eventually clean up around the edges when I fill in red and white banner in the back so the hair is not final yet and the outline of the face is going to change a tiny little bit as well.

Boy, this is hard work!

Looking very good! It's been a while since I did any major freehand painting but I remember how stressful it could be, looks like you got the hard bits out of the way already though

Thanks. I'm just glad I have a reference picture and don't have to come up with this stuff myself. I've never been a 2D guy, 3d always came easier to me. 2D perspective and lighting give me nightmares.

Just porting an existing image is fairly reasonable by comparison.

Face looks good! Nice job getting depth around the nasolabial fold, especially at this scale. Keep it up, burnout is always just round the corner when some freehand is going well

Quote for the page rollover:

 Geifer wrote:
So it begins:



I decided to start on the organic bits first. Why? The face is the part I was afraid of the most. Trickiest part to get right on a thing that is tricky to get right in the first place.

That's an hour and a half of work and I've been suitably jittery for the next hour after that. But, it's done. I've brightened a few bits of the hair since then because I found a different reference picture that did not have aging damage on that part), but this is it and I'm happy with the result.

I'll eventually clean up around the edges when I fill in red and white banner in the back so the hair is not final yet and the outline of the face is going to change a tiny little bit as well.

Boy, this is hard work!

This is some great stuff. This past year I've been totally into This Is Not A Test and painted up a big collection of wasteland miniatures and terrain.

Nuka Cola Girl approves (One of my favorite minis from my wasteland collection)!

Thanks, guys. I sure hope we'll get a Nuka Girl miniature from Modiphius at some point. I wouldn't mind adding that to my collection.

 Scarper wrote:
Face looks good! Nice job getting depth around the nasolabial fold, especially at this scale. Keep it up, burnout is always just round the corner when some freehand is going well

I know what you mean about burnout. Luckily that's not a concern because real life has a way of interfering so I often get good, long breaks...

I found time for another painting session:



I decided to keep track of progression. I usually don't do lots of WIP pictures, but since this is my first serious freehand it'll be good to have some data at the end to look over. Work time so far:

First picture after 1.5h.

Second picture after 3.5h.

Edit: Now if I didn't forget the actual commentary...

I cleaned up the head and altered the lighting on the left to include a hint of blue as that side has blue lighting in the original artwork. It's not complete yet and only a test. I'll probably go with a little stronger blue, but I want to wait on other parts to get there to get a cohesive look.

I started work on the uniform, but only had time to get two layers of paint done. The shadowed regions aren't a bad start but I have a lot of cleaning up to do.

I think the boots may be a little offset to the left. At least her left one. I'll have to fix that when I get to them, but I think she's leaning back a bit much. But I'll have to see. It might be the sketch of the bottle that's off. Or both.

The Nuka Cola logo will be the death of me. Mark my words!

After 4.5h:



Mostly finished on the painted bits, maybe a little touch-up here and there. It'll be good to get the legs, gloves and helmet done as I'm starting to feel the fatigue...

I've subscribed. Very interesting corner!

Thank you, Wirecat.

So...

I took a tiny break from Nuka Girl. I've painted a couple of regular models that I felt I needed to do. They'll be done tomorrow at the latest so I'll be able to return to the barn quickly, but...

I've had doubts about Andrea, my Fallout 3 character. I put a lot of work into the sculpt...





... but I'm not always as focused as I should be. Occasionally I don't see straight. Or think straight.

The face and head have been bugging me for the past six months. I wasn't sure what it was, but I was sure it needed fixing. Now I'm not prone to taking drastic action on a whim, so I took my time and contemplated her face, the universe and everything.

Well, on Friday I was finally sure that I did a hack job on the face and since I'm not one to let a mistake stand, I cut off the head and resculpted it:



It's way better already, but I need to let it cure and give it a good look over to see everything straight and symmetrical. Taking zoomed pictures helps in that regard. I'm not getting any younger, after all, and neither are my eyes.

Finishing her (again...) is a priority, but after that it's back to the regular schedule.

I've been busy. First up, some more pit fighters, as usual a tiny little bit NSFW.

Persia:


Cathy:


Veronica:


Anaya:


Upon finishing these, something occurred to me. I can put on individual shows, but I need two more to have a proper tournament with a pit champion at the end of the night.

I'll also need to build the arena. Then I need guards. And spectators. So much work to be done.

At least the boss of it all is making progress:



I'm slowly getting there. Most stuff is done and the big item, the missing plasma rifle, is no longer an issue. There are still lots of little bits missing, but this is not bad for two months' work. I usually plan for three to four months for a model like this and it's looking like I'll hit the lower end of that estimate.

Speaking of numbers, continued to paint Nuka Girl. So after a total of 6.5h I have this:

Wow, you got some real sculpting talent, that raider boss looks really good.

Thank you.

Operation successful, face resculpted and repainted.

As always, spoilered for a lack of pants:



I happy with it, and it's not just the resculpt. The paint job is a lot cleaner, too. I changed her expression since she'll form a mini diorama with the slaver boss. I wanted a more benign expression for that. Now that that's done, I can finally focus on my regular projects again.

Last one in my quest for perfection, also spoilered:



So there's actually a serious reason to painting all these (other than that I like pretty, naked girls, of course): painting skin is something I want to get better at. I think I'm reasonably successful at the ends of the spectrum, but I'm having real trouble hitting the right tone in the middle. I never quite consider them right and keep painting until they're either light or dark enough to look right. That's an obvious problem.

I think I got a lot more painting to do before that changes.

Well, at some point anyway. Next on my list is actually finishing the barn.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Nuka Girl after 7.5h:

And it's done.



That's it. Nuka Girl after 9 hours of work.

For comparison, a picture about the actual size of the freehand:



So, the big one is done. I'll varnish it to protect it from mishaps and then I'll go and wrap up the barn.

Impressive little artwork, looks really good in the actual size

Beautiful mural, and all the more impressive for the size of it. It's a bit artificial having close up photos revealing every flaw considering it's only a few inches high on the tabletop. Did you enjoy painting it? 9 hours is a long time for something on such a small area! Well worth the effort in my book.

There are lots of really cool things going on in this thread I see. Kudos on all the sculpting and the artwork especially. It's great to see when people have their own little pet projects and put a LOT of effort into it. It's worth it though. Cool stuff.

Thanks, guys.

 Scarper wrote:
Beautiful mural, and all the more impressive for the size of it. It's a bit artificial having close up photos revealing every flaw considering it's only a few inches high on the tabletop. Did you enjoy painting it? 9 hours is a long time for something on such a small area! Well worth the effort in my book.

It's artificial alright. I'm always conflicted how to post miniatures because on the one hand, I'm not getting any younger and a nice, big picture of a model let's me see and appreciate every detail. On the downside, as you say it reveals every flaw*. Realistically, you can't even always tell if it's a flaw or a feature, considering the original is that much smaller and the painting may look great on the actual size. It's why I don't envy professional painters who have their work exhibited on the Internet. You either put your best work into making the actual model look great, or paint for pictures and may risk the natural look of the model in the process.

Did I enjoy painting it? Honestly? No.

It's a bit of a depressing flaw in my hobby pursuits:

I don't enjoy painting models.
I do enjoy painted models.

It has led to a rather large, rather unpainted 40k collection because I love assembly, conversion and sculpting, but the painting step is just tire- and bothersome. My Fallout collection has benefited from me getting tired with this and putting more painting time in. And in the end, yeah, the result is worth the effort. But I don't find the process particularly enjoyable.

Which will come to bite me, no doubt. Nuka Girl turned out successful in a way I could not have imagined before. The downside? Now that I know I can freehand, I will want to create more down the line and it will just be grueling But no doubt totally worth it in the end! Yay!


Edit: *I do find it helpful to have blown up pictures of WIP, though, as it helps identify potential problems not easily visible on the model itself. That's a definitely a positive coming out of such apparent visibility.

For instance, I took the picture and afterwards cleaned up the little white splotch between the N and the swipe on the Nuka Cola logo. Didn't catch that in real life and only saw it in the photo.

The barn is finished:

















I have no real idea what to do next, scenery-wise. It occurred to me that a military checkpoint requires a road and a road requires vehicles/vehicle wrecks not just to look proper but also to get lane width right. I have a couple of 1:48 WW2 military vehicles that I mean to put to use in some way, but I think I'm more comfortable waiting until Modiphius releases some car wrecks first. Not much longer until November.

I'm quite the fan of Mantic's Battle Zones kits and have a few, so I may do something urban next. I also ordered some TT Combat MDF so a construction site will happen at some point, too, but probably not next since the order won't ship for a bit.

So, I'm happy the farmstead is finished for now. I'll decide on the next project once I clear my mind and work space of rural stuff.

The slave boss is making remarkably good progress, and I think I'll be able to finish the sculpt this week and have her painted sometime next week. I also still have three more models on my desk that suffered from obsessing with other projects when I really should just finish painting them instead, but that's how it goes. Maybe I'll find the time and motivation for them now.

Other than that I don't have any set plans for the future. Many ideas but not single, concrete one. Maybe I'll finally get around to working on one of those Vault Dwellers I bought from Brother Vinni ages ago. It's a funny kind of Fallout blog that doesn't have a single vault suit it and I may just have to rectify that. But who knows?

Edit: For some reason the barn looks very shiny in those pictures when it doesn't in reality.. No idea why, other than that I suck at taking pictures.

Vera the Slaver Boss is fully sculpted and awaits painting (a little NSFW, as usual):



She'll be the test model for glowing mushrooms. I'm generally happy with my bases and don't want to overload them with stuff, so they are for the most part brown and grassy. That was fine initially, but the more models I finish, the more it looks too plain for my taste. I've added the odd skull to the Slavers because, like Raiders, it looks the part and helps convey the gang's mood. But mushrooms, being organic and growing in places, seem like a good, general addition to go with the tree stumps and grass.

Except for characters which get a more themed, denser base (like with the razor wire wrapped corpse on Andrea's base), I like the idea of having fairly plain bases that fit with each other but have small alterations fitting the faction. I might add bits of scrap to the Brotherhood of Steel, for instance, since they'd be encountered in techy places rather than the rural areas the basic bases portray. Or more wet and muddy ground for Mirelurks, and so on. Got to work that out as I go along. Raider/Slaver skulls really are the first foray into this, and it's why Vera's base has skulls as well and isn't all mushrooms just for the sake of testing the waters.

As for making them, I am quite happy with the small GW mushrooms from an Age of Sigmar basing set. I used a medium sized one as well, but I think that's the upper limit. I'm thinking of sculpting three or four caps of each style (flat and cone), make a press mold that takes green stuff and stick a wire in before it cures. Should work fairly well.

Really impressed with the realistically-hanging stowage you manage to position on your sculpts. It's easy for something to look tacked on, but you have a great sense of weight and gravity. Nice job with the plasma gun too - very faithful to the game! Any tips you can offer on getting such clean lines with green stuff? I'm struggling a bit getting crisp details.

Mushrooms look interesting - I'm not sure how well they'll fit with the character from looking at them, but I'm sure you'll prove me wrong with the painting!

Barn looks fantastic. Nuka girl looks right at home and not drowned by too much other detail. Fantastic work! You deserve more comments.

Nice work
Love the kola mural!

Thanks, guys.

 Scarper wrote:
Really impressed with the realistically-hanging stowage you manage to position on your sculpts. It's easy for something to look tacked on, but you have a great sense of weight and gravity. Nice job with the plasma gun too - very faithful to the game! Any tips you can offer on getting such clean lines with green stuff? I'm struggling a bit getting crisp details.

It's a bit of an obsession of mine and mostly it doesn't even stem from miniatures themselves, but video games. While there are the odd design flaws in GW models (not a jab, I've just spent more time on GW models than anything else) where the inside of a Marine's arm is cut off so he can hold his bolt gun in the desired pose and it has caused the odd raised eyebrow with me, I am fascinated with video game models and which parts designers deem worthy of their own, well, physics and definition I guess, and which things are simply tacked onto the underlying skeleton and merrily stretch out or contract as if the were, say, skin instead of metal plate. It illustrated really well how a model is supposed to move and how gear would get in the way of it without its magic contraction ability.

Plus, I like to imagine myself having to lug around my model's gear, and anything I that bothers me gets tossed.

Sculpting advice? I consider myself terrible at explaining things. I'll give it a try nonetheless, but please tell me if I'm just letting off a confused mess.

Getting smooth surfaces and edges can be as easy or as hard as you choose, in my experience. Look at the whitish surfaces. Smoothed by scraping off the surface with a sharp scalpel. Similarly, you can easily sculpt edges to follow along the general line you imagine, let the green stuff cure and the cut off excess material for a well defined edge.

I realize this might be considered cheating by some (I've had a comment or two to this effect in the past), but I found that if you're building a shape from the ground up, it's nonsensical to limit your tools to just adding and shaping putty. Why not allow yourself to remove some as well? It doesn't look professional, so it may not be an approach for you if you want to show off a sculpt without discolorations, but I don't need that and I simply can't argue with the results.

If you want to get as much done as possible during actual sculpting, let's use on of the thigh pouches to illustrate my approach.

I find the trick is to start out with the right amount of green stuff, which is just a little more than you need in volume. If you have to mix in some more later on, you may end up with ungainly lines that you may not be able to smooth out easily. Not a problem on the lid because you want a line to separate it from the pouch, but on any other surface, it's an unnecessary complication. Picking the right amount of green stuff is a skill unto itself and as far as I'm concerned, just takes time and practice to learn. But it's the most crucial step.

Smoothing the surfaces should primarily happen in a single direction. With the pouch, I have a blob of green stuff. I shape the top and sided to be reasonably where they should be with excess green stuff on the outside and the bottom. I then pull the outside down towards the bottom so the surface is smooth and any excess material is at the bottom. Cutting this off is another tricky part. a simple 90° to the surface will dull the bottom edge because the green stuff follows the knife cut. You want to cut inward (I'm just going to throw out a random 75° angle here). The green stuff will still follow the cut, but you have a little excess material left over that you can push back to get a crisp edge again.

After that, you need to patiently and gently pull out the surfaces towards the edges. Normally you should work with a wet (or greased - I prefer water myself and there's a reason for that, as you'll see) tool to avoid it sticking to the green stuff. To get a crisp edge, though, you really need the pull of the bare tool, so what you want to do is pull the surfaces towards the edges starting out with a slightly moist tool to ensure the green stuff is not sticking to it. Then you'll repeat the motion as often as necessary. At some point, enough water evaporates to get some grip on the green stuff. This is when you can pull it to a crisp edge.

It's helpful to approach an edge from both sides, alternating between each side. As a final step, you should have a pretty crisp edge that you can highlight by pushing in the surfaces around the edge very carefully and very gently. Leave the edge alone and push in behind the edge. This is tricky, though. I do that occasionally, but find it mostly unnecessary because I usually layer so many colors during painting that I couldn't tell the difference anymore.

Technically this should work with corners as well, but honestly I've never tried to get a really pointy corner like that. Way too much work when, as far as I'm concerned, cutting away excess material gives you a more precise method of achieving the same effect.

 Scarper wrote:
Mushrooms look interesting - I'm not sure how well they'll fit with the character from looking at them, but I'm sure you'll prove me wrong with the painting!

I have a good feeling about them, because I chose their position carefully to match their color with Vera's appearance. I painted them in both variants found in Fallout 4, which is to say green (the two conical ones) and blue and brown (the three flat capped ones). The latter should go well with white, brown and light skin which dominates that side, while the former are positioned beneath the more colorful plasma rifle (which has green and yellow and stands out against all the white armor). That was the idea anyway and so far I think it's working out. The real test, of course, is seeing them on the finished base. Without the static grass, the model is simply unfinished any since I lack any noteworthy visual imagination, I need to see the finished model before I can say for sure.

Luckily I've had a very productive day and I will actually finish the model today, which means pictures tomorrow, so you can see for yourself and won't have to take my work for it.

 Scarper wrote:
Barn looks fantastic. Nuka girl looks right at home and not drowned by too much other detail. Fantastic work! You deserve more comments.

My Nuka Cola rep warned me that ground level was contractually permissible but inefficient, and a huge billboard high up in the air would attract more views. Turns out I should have listened to him, eh?

Painting is done. Obligatory post-wide NSFW warning, because she's still not wearing pants.

Standard multi-angle picture:



As I said before somewhere, Vera's pose is meant to go with Andrea's. I threw in Dog, too, because why not?



And finally I didn't paint Nuka Girl for nothing. May as well use her as a backdrop.



And now I'm all out of Orkmoticons.

Yeah, so maybe I'm a tiny little bit tired and don't feel like waffling. I'll let the pictures stand for themselves. Onward to the next project, which as it so happens I have no idea what it'll be as of yet.

Really useful tips with the green stuff, thanks. Always useful to hear someone else's methods and add a few things to your own repertoire. Anyone who tells someone they're doing something 'wrong' when it comes to sculpting or painting loses several points in my book. If something works and produces a decent effect, who cares how you achieved it? I've not tried a lot of cutting away myself, but i'll deffo give it a go for things that need a hard edge.

Can't look at your latest post just now (not trying to get fired on my break ), so will have to check when I get home. Are trousers banned in your fallout universe?

Agreed. At the end of the day it's the result that matters. How you get there is irrelevant as long as you get there.

Pants are really only an issue with these two. Andrea and Vera are the adaptations of my Fallout 3 and 4 (role play*) characters respectively. They're not replicas because sculpting gives me so much more room to personalize a character than in game options ever could, and for instance I prefer the style of Fallout 4 combat armor over that of Fallout 3, so I went with that. But I tried to bring across memorable characteristics. Which is for example why Andrea is all scarred up like that. I spent the first twenty or so levels constantly getting shot, stabbed and burned, always with a crippled limb and half a minute away from death, surviving on chems and my last few bullets and if need be, a combat knife. Vera, on the other hand, spent most of the game in power armor, which is really powerful in Fallout 4 and resulted in no serious injury ever (plus Fallout 4 goes easy on crippled limbs as well), except for that one time I got badly mauled by a Rust Devil Assaultron (if I make a faction HQ terrain piece, there will be a throne constructed from an Assaultron ), and a few nicks from running around without armor.

So what's happened is this. I'm not saying I'm greedy or anything, but I have a habit of skirting the carry weight limit. So I find a shiny new item that I probably won't need and pick it up, then I find another shiny new item that I probably won't need but still pick up, and so on, until I'm over the weight limit. Now, sure, I could just toss it, because I'll probably not need that, But you never know! What if this time, of all times, I need it after all? So I got to make room. Weapons? Need those. Armor? Too important**. Pants? I can just get new ones when I'm home. You'd be amazed how often this actually happened to me. Thus, no pants.


*I did a lot of playthroughs because Fallouts among my favorite games, but I usually have a main character that I role play as best as I can, while others are more for testing different approaches and stuff.

**It worked a little different in Fallout 3, but heavy, worn down armor did me no good, so I rather went with the loot instead.

So after much deliberation I discovered this...



... and I think I'm not over my rural phase just yet. I went out and bought one to build my own farm outlet store.

I like the Perry buildings, but their being 1:56 does pose a few problems with how miniatures keep getting bigger. It's been a concern I didn't fully account for when building the farmhouse. After the sand (that came with its own share of problems) was put on, and after accounting for the base, my tallest miniature couldn't walk straight on the porch without knocking her head against the roof. I try to fluff it as the occasional flood carrying in soil that the fine folks at the farm can't be bothered to shovel away again, but at the end of the day it's an unfortunate mix of working with varying scales and my inexperience when it comes to building scenery.

Now since the store uses the same parts on three facings, and I don't much feel like having such a closely matching building, I'll put some conversion work into the outlet to change its shape (the porch will go and likely be relocated to the store entrance) and at the same time I'll put the entire house on a stone foundation using the same walls (this time the intact pieces) as the chapel's wall, likely painted grey. Not sure yet, but I could see myself painting the wood red. Should look the part. Since the building is still unassembled and I'm going to cut away at it anyway, I'll try to do more and better integrated (repaired) damage on this house than the other ones (which I all assembled at the same time, before really knowing what to do with them).

I intend to split the store sign using the vending machines from Fallout 4 as templates, which is to say make one half read something about milk on a white and purple cow skin pattern and the other red with the Nuka Cola logo and Have a Nuke slogan. Possibly have a more recent "Brahmin" added to the milk side to account for a certain Great War and its repercussions.

I love Fallout 1 and 2 dearly, but lately I've been converted to the Wasteland 2.

That Nuka Girl makes a wonderful backdrop, that for sure! Good luck with that store You've got, weathered wood is not the easiest thing to do!

Thank you.

I've been eyeing Wasteland 2 for some time now. Maybe I should finally bite and buy it. I think - even though I can't be sure - I think I might just be in a post-apocalyptic phase right now.

Since a terrain project takes time and doesn't keep me occupied throughout because of drying time and planning, I broke open a pack of Brother Vinni vault dwellers. I originally intended to work on only one of them, but that has turned into the one I wanted requiring lots of work and so I figured it would be easiest to do the other two first. I'll make a trader out of the girl and vault security out of the guy. They'd make a nice vault caravan, too, if I had a brahmin to go with them.

Which leaves Dave. He'll become an enterprising ex-vault dweller that joins my Slaver gang. And because I don't have any better idea for him, Dave will get a fatman. I'll try to tear up his vault suit a little and supplement it with armor and, I guess, stuff in order to raider him up. It's still pretty hazy. The real fun part will be sculpting the fatman. Until that's done, I'm not really concerned with the rest of the model.

Although the biggest issue with these guys is composition. They're vault dwellers with vault suits and vault numbers and the more equipment I put on them, the less visible their identity will become. It's a balancing act that I have yet to figure out, getting the gear to look right and still having core components peak through.

After a short break to get a C'tan done, I'm committing most of my time to Fallout again. The aforementioned trader is coming along:



I added a Robo-Dog to the caravan since I had one and figured a vault should be suitably high-tech to have one. I also like the image better, having more than one guard for the caravan, even if it's just a dog.

As for the trader, she's in a good place, I think Just a little gear on top of vault standards to show she's getting around, but not so much that it detracts from the vault suit. I'm considering adding a pistol holster, though.

Vault Security dude is taking a little longer because the armor is a bit more work to sculpt. He's well on his way, though, so I expect he's not going to take much longer.

The biggest issue remains the Brahmin or rather the lack thereof. You'd think properly scale resin cows would be easier to come by, but hey...

And now for something completely different:

I haven't had much luck with the outlet store because, well, there are a number of reasons. I had to wait for an order to arrive, which it only did this week. Planning has also been a bit of a pain because technically I want to do a couple of parking spots by the store, which need proper dimensions to fit cars, and there were issues with the roof and post-apocalyptic additions that I wanted to add but had to figure out first. That's all in the process of being sorted out, so I hope I'm going to have a WIP to show in the not too distant future.

More importantly, though, I am easily distracted. Specifically by two things. One of them is the next piece of scenery which I just had to do some prep work for. More on that a good bit later. The second one, well, I had an idea. I'll do an update specifically on that in the near future. Still planning and plotting. So much to consider before it can hit the public.

First look at the outlet store:



I'm going to add stairs to the front and a loading dock to the side. I'm still trying to figure out how to do the parking lot.

I decided against massive damage to the building since I want the rural scenery to look worn but not as war scarred as an urban area. Who's going to waste a nuke on a farm? Well, commies, that's who! Luckily communist economy sucks, so they really don't have any to spare.

I'll limit the rebuilt structure to another walkway (similar to the one the farmhouse has) on the other side of the building with a patched up wall, a new corrugated iron roof and a second story door under the new roof construction. That's the plan at the moment. I'll have to see how everything fits together.

Extra armour on the vault lass is looking great. I agree that less is more with something as iconic as a vault suit, would be easy to overdo it. That being said, I'm looking forward to your security guard, as that's a fairly trademark look as well!

Nice start on the store.

Thanks, Scarper. The security guard is coming along, even if I seem unable to put on the shoulder pads straight.

I should have a picture of him up in a day pr two. Meanwhile, most of the gap filling on the outlet is done and I should start on the roof construction soon. The walkway is a bit hard to work on because I need to spray the inside of the house (that is devoid of detail) black, and until that's done I can't glue it in place. And I need the house itself ready for a mock-up to figure out the base layout. Work, work.

Here's the guard for the Vault 81 caravan:



The armor is finished. I'm a bit sick and not seeing straight, so I may have to do a little cleanup here and there. As with the trader, I'm debating adding a little bit of gear on top, most importantly an ammo pouch. I can get away with the civilian part of the caravan having no reloads on her (that's what the pack Brahmin is for, after all), but I think that doesn't work for a guard. Maybe also a pistol holster so he has a backup weapon.

The trader's pistol holster is almost finished, so it looks like I'll be ready to paint these soonish. I haven't really been doing well with painting lately, though. Too much stuff getting in the way, so no promises.

Here are the ingredients for my next terrain project:



I believe I said I'd do something urban next, but I've been working on a coastal theme and hoarding materials for it for a while and finally got around to assembling the patrol boat. Essentially what I have in mind is a beached boat by a pillar of a destroyed bridge. Basically the ship has been carried up an inlet by a flood and got stuck when the water withdrew. This is to justify having a boat on dry land since I don't want to do any terrain (yet) which specifically requires a larger body of water on the game mat or as a separate scenery piece.

It'll also allow me to test a cracked earth paste for the dried out river bed, aka most of the piece's base.

I'm currently working on the farm outlet and the bridge in parallel because of drying times. No idea yet which one will come out on top and get to the painting stage first. Both have details that I still have to work out, like the dreaded parking lot for the farm. For the bridge, I'll have to see how it fits together. Maybe the boat will form the center of an encampment. Not sure yet.

On to the other thing I talked about. Tremble before my leet MS Paint skills:



So there I was thinking it's great that all these pre-war bus stops litter the Commonwealth and the Island in Fallout 4, but I think I'd rather walk. Public transportation isn't what it used to be. But then it came to me - why not?

Now it's been a somewhat constant criticism of mine that in a post-apocalyptic world where power armor and various flying machines are maintained without trouble, how hard can it be to have a regular old ground vehicle that works as advertised? And it doesn't have to have an engine either. Mankind got around plenty before the steam or combustion engine were invented.

Thus was born the Brahmin Bus!

Imagine that a savvy businessman figured there is need for getting around and doing so in style, and with more protection than tagging along with your local caravan Well, the Brahmin bus service can make this dream a reality for just a few caps per passenger.

I made a sketch, which I don't normally do, because I have no idea when I'll get around to building it. It would suck if I forgot (or for no reason changed) key elements.

You should be able to read about most features in the picture, but I'll add a couple of notes:

- The sketch was made using screenshots from the game to determine the relative size of the bus and Brahmin. I could fit in six, in three pairs. The question I'm debating is if maybe 4 BP (Brahmin power) is enough. That would allow a little more room in the back, which is the most heavily converted section of the bus, as well as a little storage compartment behind the driver. The obvious downside is that 6 BP is much more capable of moving a fully loaded armored vehicle than 4 BP.

- The layered, armored skirts are intended to protect both wheels and Brahmin, While it's not especially hard to change a flat tire, a flat Brahmin poses a bigger problem. The skirts have suspension and skids so that the bus doesn't get stuck on uneven ground.

- In conjunction with that, I'm contemplating an addition to the front for mine clearing, the other big danger to the Brahmin.I'm not really sure there's a good answer to that particular problem, though. A plow causes friction, requiring the Brahmin to work harder. A mine flail doesn't have that problem but requires power to spin and makes a racket, which you probably want to avoid. So the solution requires something that works when needed but isn't a hindrance when not needed, like a plow that can be lowered and a spotter sitting next to the driver.

- The passenger deck is kept simple for now, but is obviously vulnerable to snipers and grenades. The issue is that adding taller armor adds additional weight the Brahmin have to move, and aesthetically an open deck with railing and a sun screen could look pretty cool. Grenades can be stopped with wire mesh while still allowing a panorama view.

- The winch and back ramp are a quick addition to seal off the bus and protect the gunner positions from the back. Considering the Brahmin need to be able to enter and leave, the middle section of the ramp needs to be low and level whereas the side should allow passengers to access the ladder to embark or disembark. I'm currently not clear on how this will be handled, nor the walkway dropped to connect both gunner positions when the ramp is raised.

- Since the bottom along two thirds of the length of the bus for 4 BP or more for 6 BP is cut out to allow for the Brahmin, the back axles are gone and the wheels need individual suspension. This should work since the driver only needs the assembly around the front axle intact for steering.

- The storage compartments to both sides hang low and partially conceal the armor plates, but are suspended from the bus's side to allow the armor plates to move.

This is as far as I got. I think the vehicle is viable and could plausibly exist and work. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

I could see myself build this from plasticard, mostly. Got to scare up some wheels of the right size and figure out dimensions. Since I'm already working on two scenery pieces, I don't know when I'll get to it, though.

Vault security gent looks fantastic! Armour looks realistic and effective - you've somehow conveyed the weight of it, which is very impressive. I can see where you're coming from regarding the extra gear, but it would be easy to overload him. Ammo pouch should be easy to sneak in, at any rate.

I'm really looking forward to seeing you attack that boat - I'm a big fan of nautical theming and it's something you don't see a whole lot of at 28mm scale. What model is that? I'd love to pick one up myself. Is it going to be a rusted out hulk, or something still usable?

Bus is an interesting concept. I appreciate the extra space would be useful, but I think 6 cows are going to more convincingly be able to shift that weight than 4, especially if you factor in the extra weight of customisation where the 2 vanished cows would be.
With regard to the mines, have you considered a mine roller such as this?

Would allow for clearing the way whilst the roller creates less friction than a plow. Just an idea!

Thank you.

Yeah, I ultimately decided to add two small pouches on the left and a pistol holster on the right. Man's got a job to do and I'm not going to stand in his way.

Agreed on the nautical theme. I can understand it, bodies of water are harder to incorporate than almost anything else into a normal board. Aside from historicals for amphibious assaults and river crossings, I don't believe I've ever seen much related to the sea. As I said, I'm there myself. I have one gaming mat and it's all dry land. The only way to convincingly build my coastal theme terrain is to make sure it's a little inland. I bought a glorious whale carcass from Antimatter Games that will be beached similar to the ship, which I'm in the process of figuring out the composition of the components on the base. It'll be a partially rusted hulk stuck against a collapsed bridge in a dried out river bed. That's the plan for now. I'm a bit stuck at the moment trying to figure out composition as well as how much elevation over the river bed I want.

The ship is a 1:48 US Navy Swift Boat (PCF) kit by Revell.

I think you are right about the number of moo cows. I'll probably be more comfortable myself with six as well. The mine roller is interesting, thanks. Never seen that one before. I'm not quite sure it'll work as is as not only the tire lanes need to be cleared but the path of the Brahmin, too, lest they step on a mine that the tires would have missed. But the idea is good.

So, first WIP of the ship and bridge:



I'm a bit uncertain on a number of points:

1. The bridge will get a maintenance access ladder so it's possible to climb up and down during games, but that means I need dry land on the bottom. So it's either a transition from the pillar to the small island on which the ship is beached, or a concrete foundation with the island arranged around it.

2. The bridge will run parallel to the base so as to prevent it from hanging over the edge, which gets in the way of storing the piece between games. I don't have a clear idea yet at which angle I want the ship.

3. Elevation is a problem in the image. I'm hoping to fix that with the island/concrete foundation. That should allow a ship to comfortably pass under the bridge. Where it might get iffy is the ladder. It'll be two individual ladders with a walkway in between both to offer an elevated position for models as well as shortening the height a model has to cover in a turn. It's position is pretty much set due to a door in the pillar and the overhang of the bridge, but so far I still have the option to put it on the same side as the shop, or the opposite side. On the same side I'm going to double down on the elevated positions on that side and possibly getting in the way of model placement on the ship's deck. On the other side the will be overhang, which as I said I want to avoid, so I'd have to move the pillar further inward on the base, which in turn may make the island on which the ship rests a little cramped, if there is any room left at all.

So yeah, lots of stuff to figure out.

I finally painted the Brotherhood of Steel Outcast Scribe:



And a group shot with his buddies:



That wraps up the Outcast I planned to make. I may or may not add an extra robot or two down the line, but considering I don't get all that much hobby time recently I have enough on my plate with the two scenery pieces and the Vault Dwellers.

Speaking of which, I decided to switch from Vault 81 to Vault 101 since the vault suits are so clearly based on Fallout 3. Not a big deal and gives me an excuse to make a vault caravan from Modiphius's whenever they become available. For now I'll have the two from Brother Vinni to paint, along with the robo-dog. I also started work on their Brahmin, based on a cow model from Reaper.

So there I was thinking, wouldn't it be neat if instead of of getting on with any of my numerous projects, I'd just not do a damn thing at all? Well, one month later I think the answer is... no, not really. So, after real life dragged me away from hobbying I'm hoping to get a little more done again in the near future. Until then:



This is the first mock up of the beached ship and bridge. After rummaging through my building collection I decided to extend the pillar with a little pumping station. It allows me to have a dodgy ladder construction that doesn't look quite as dodgy as it really is. And while I have no idea how the Wasteland Warfare rules are going to shake out, it's a good spot to put a computer terminal in case those are objectives or points of interest (which I assume, given there will be models and there's a hacking skill).

I settled on a concrete foundation because of this addition, so it looks properly industrial. The ship should fit nicely on what remains of the base and I'm likely going to add a muddy bank around the concrete base so it is level and miniatures can easily placed aboard, along with dirt that's washed up against and collected on one side of the ship. Plus a couple of broken bridge parts sticking out of the ground that stopped the ship in its final position in the first place.

Ooh this is going to be good! I'm just playing with some DZ terrain myself at the moment so you shall be good inspiration to stick with it

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

Next up is finalizing the pipes and ladder assembly. That's all that's in the way of gluing the whole thing in place and getting started on the ground texture.

I finished the ladder assembly:



Took me long enough to work out the details. I'm terribly indecisive when it comes to working out the little bits. All that's missing now is hand- and guardrails and the thing I love to forget, I'll have to cover all those connector holes. Oh joy.

Here's to the next three weeks of agonizing over the tiniest details.

I did something most amazing. No, I don't mean wrapping up the bridge assembly. No, after three months, or is it four, I remembered to put a couple of models in the picture to give an idea of scale.



But yes, the bridge is finished except for little details like debris and a broken walkway that I can only add once I see how the rest of the piece looks as those pieces may interact with others.

The next big step is to put the ship in place alongside what I'm currently thinking will be two broken bridge pieces. I'm considering deforming the hull to show the impact, maybe tear it open a little. Not sure how to go about that yet.

The other big one is to shape the ground to make something that could be mistaken for a river bed. I have crackle paste for the river bed but I'm not looking forward to tying that together with normal sand of the bank, or somehow getting this to gently slope toward the bridge foundation. Oh boy.

There is a shocking lack of color on this page. I'm feeling blue.



There, fixed. I put the blue and put it on Lou. Well, guess he's Lou now. And since I'm naming things, may as well call the stupid dog Spot:



Yay, so I finally painted something again. Winter is a bit dire since I prefer daylight (and sunshine) for my painting, which is obviously in short supply at the moment. That's half the Vault 101 trade caravan done. I'll probably paint the trader next and wrap it up with the Brahmin, but technically I meant to paint the dog last and you can see how that turned out. Guess we'll see.

I gave gloss varnish a try to finish off the visor on the guard. Transparency effects sure are hard, but I think I can live with what I've done. I'm sure before long I'll have car windows and other fun stuff to try this on a little more. Light, shadow, distortion - it's all one big nightmare.

I'm a bit stuck on the scenery because I can't make up my mind how to make the ground around the ship. Realism versus playability is something that I can't just decide between - I love the former but appreciate the necessity of the latter. Sloping silt hardly helps the models stand, but it's really the only way it would accumulate around the ship. And of all the nitpicky little details, I get stuck on which way the river flows...

Oh well, I'm sure I'll make some decisions eventually. It's not like I'm running out of other things to keep me busy while I wait....

Edit: Also, my tripod broke and I'm not sure if the replacement isn't very good or if that's just my poor photography skills showing more than usual. Hm...

*brushes off cobwebs, shushes spiders away*

Ooooooooo-kay. So the past couple of months haven't exactly been the most productive, but I'm doing things. Hopefully now that it's starting to get sunnier I'll get more stuff done again.

So, onward. The big one is of course the ship and bridge scenery piece. I hit two snags there, the first of which is mostly resolved with this test piece:











It's small, it's fuzzy and cuddly, but it gave me a very good idea what to expect from the cracked earth paste I bought for the river bed around the ship. It's pretty good stuff, hard, sturdy and just flexible enough that it doesn't break when bent. I love it.

The only issue I had, which you can see well enough in the pictures, is that I have to figure out how to smooth over the surface after applying it. The pack contains a popsicle stick and suggests using that to apply the paste, but as can be seen that leaves ungainly streaks in the surface. I was hesitant to treat it with a little water since I have no idea whether that'll impact the crackle effect (I suspect it would, but maybe if I'm careful...). I'll give it a try with the bridge model, and I guess just hope for the best.

The second holdup is the sides of the ship which should have a sandbank look where the river built up sand while flowing around the stuck ship. I could build this up with plaster, but since it's a large piece and I want to keep it as lightweight as possible I'll go for a hollow plasticard construction with thin sheets (so they bend well) held in place by plastic cement (one of the lovely side effects of using plastic, it's going to be very sturdy for what it is) reinforced with a couple of pillars beneath. This is what I'm working on now, having just started on the upstream side of the ship.

The last thing that delayed the model is, well, really dumb, but I resolved to close the holes for the clips on the plastic tiles and just couldn't be bothered to measure them and cut some fitting plasticard to do it.

Well, that's behind me now and this is where I currently stand:

Today's update with final pictures of the ship before painting:







So, that's a big scenery piece that took a while to make, and I suspect painting it won't be a swift affair either. Not the least because I don't really picked a color for the bridge yet. Concrete and ship are grey, dirt is brown. Easy. But the bridge? Rusted to be sure, but not all rusted so as not to look boring. Hmm. Maybe I'll go green.

With the bridge getting closer to completion, I recently started sculpting my Sole Survivor. Might take a while, but with how my output has slowed down (not the least because I'm waiting for Modiphius to start shipping new stuff) she may be the next model I finish, unless I miraculously decide to continue on the Vault caravan. Well, maybe I'll actually do that. I've spent some time painting a Wild West Exodus model today. Maybe when I'm done with that posse and I still feel like painting stuff...

Technically I still have the outlet store for the farm waiting for some love, but I think that'll have to wait until the ship and bridge are complete. Working on them simultaneously sure helped when there were considerable drying times involved, but I'm happier working on one thing at a time, especially when it's big models like scenery pieces.

Well, I miraculously resumed painting the Vault caravan...



Had a terrible week, at the end of which I found it both relaxing to put the final touches on this models and get to feel good about finishing a model again. Yay!

That leaves only the Brahmin to paint. I was undecided how to paint its skin, but I think I figured something out I want to try, so I might paint that at some point. Not sure when, though, because I'm currently putting some paint on a couple of 40k models again. If that mood lasts, it might be a while...

The bridge is, unsurprisingly, not making any progress with me putting my time towards other endeavors. What is making progress is Dao, my Sole Survivor from Fallout 4:



Only missing the arms and the head now. The face is done and I'll put it on once I know which way she's supposed to look. The arms are going to hold an assault rifle in front of her body, which I therefore had to get done first.

I think sculpting on Dao is done:



Unless I overlooked anything that needs fixing, i can move on to painting her.

Might paint the Brahmin before that if I feel like it as that's been on hold long enough, but you never know. Player characters have a way of getting VIP treatment. Cows don't...

Amazing! I applaud Your sculpting skills and all these ideas for terrain items, like that bridge that obviously has been too far... Top-notch Herr Geifer.


*Ducks and hides under the bridge remains.*

Thank you!

And now for something comple... I mean, marginally different!

I bought FFG's Fallout board game. The figures looked all sad and unpainted, a fact I sought to rectify over the last two weeks:

Back to the regular stuff. I painted Dao:





That's my Fallout 4 Sole Survivor sorted.

With this out of the way I hope I'll have the time, motivation and SPACE! to paint the bridge. I've never been one for terrain pieces because the thing I like about miniatures is their size. Terrain, well, you know. It gets big. Too big to handle properly in the case of the bridge, which put me off in the past. Luckily I don't have any pressing project to take my mind off of that, so maybe I'll finally get some work done on it.

Or I'll just do something else after a day or two. Whichever is less bother-/tiresome.

Awesome stuff there! Is the FFG fallout miniatures in scale with the other stuff by chance?

Great blog. Some cool minis in here, and some nice sculpting. Well done indeed.

And keen to see that bridge progress.

Thanks, guys.

F.U.P.O.S wrote:
Awesome stuff there! Is the FFG fallout miniatures in scale with the other stuff by chance?

Unfortunately not. They seem to be 35mm scale compared to the 32mm scale that much of the other stuff in my blog is. And while the detail on them is quite nice, especially considering they're board game miniatures, they use decidedly heroic proportions (large heads and hands, somewhat stylized, chunky body shapes). Plus, although that's specific to me, they are molded to 3mm bases compared to the 1.5mm tall bases I use, so for me they stand apart that little bit more than they have to.

That said, I use 32mm models alongside 35mm models. To me one guy being a head taller than another guy is not a deal breaker. It's the stylistic divergence that stops me from considering them, really.

Love the colours you've picked for the FFG figures - charming bright colours from the old world in with the wasteland drabs. Dao came out lovely as well - really seamless sculpting work.

That bridge is really something else though - so much tiny, believable detail, an incredibly cinematic piece and yet still useful as a bit of wargames scenery. I can't wait to see it painted

Thanks, Scarper.

 Scarper wrote:
I can't wait to see it painted

Well, the sooner you get to work, the sooner the bridge will be done!

What, you don't expect me to paint it, do you? You do?

Why do I have to do all the work? Bummer.



Ok, so on a serious note, the bridge is turning out to be quite the long term project. It's a lot of surface to cover just to get the base layers on (which I'm only halfway through at this point). I dread to think of all the tiny details I'll have to paint after that.

But I'm sure I'll get there. Just as I'm sure I'll fit in the odd, more compact project before the bridge is done. Got to break up the monotony a bit.

Aye, a feeling I know well. One of my biggest problems with terrain painting is the sheer overwhelming SIZE of the damn thing. I get burnout laying basecoats on a 28mm figure, so something the size of a bridge just seems a step too far. Fitting in smaller projects inbetween seems a good plan. Stick with it! I belieeeeve!

If you ask so nicely, how could I possibly stop now?

It's a good thing in theory, fitting in smaller projects. If only I didn't have a knack for finding something that's just as work intensive...

Oh look! It's an update!

After wasting half a month on this pesky real life stuff nobody needs, I managed to paint the billboard:











In other happy news, I'm painting the bridge and while it is slow work (especially now that it's really hot and I'd rather not do any work at all) and I almost ran out of paint, looks like I'll be getting there eventually. It'll be a while still, but I'm confident it's going to get finished this year.

So what about side projects so I don't go nuts painting the bridge? The big one should be that I'll be drowning in Wasteland Warfare miniatures before long. I doubt I'll be able to resist those new shinies before wrapping up current projects.

The billboard came two to a pack and I primed and basecoated them at the same time, so there's no reason not to paint the second one as well.

Finally, not sure if I mentioned it in this thread, but I felt the need to make an improved Piper. I'm currently halfway through the sculpt.

Just caught up on your blog. Fantastic work here, from the sculpting, to the scratch building, to the painting. Love all of it. Very inspiring. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you, Cleatus!

I've almost missed that update! What a great... advert or movie or just a graffiti? Anyway, it is a very nice terrain piece and in line with other Your gems. Thumbs up!

Thank you!

It's a movie ad based on a trailer shown in theaters in Fallout 4's DLCs, using a still with the monster's hand reaching for the girl as a basis and the font show on other stills for the text.

I finished sculpting Piper.

NSFW warning because boobies:



I'm not saying Modiphius should hurry up releasing the first wave of Fallout models, but yeah, Piper was supposed to tide me over until then. Guess she's done too soon...

The bridge isn't making any progress whatsoever because I'm too busy dying of the heat to paint anything that large. Until it cools down, terrain painting is on hold.

So, I'm giving Piper's sculpt a good look over and if I don't find anything that needs fixing, I'll decorate the base (not quite sure on the design yet) and get to painting.

Mostly I used the extra time to assemble some Stormtroopers for Star Wars Legion. Not the worst way to spend my time as I love Stormtroopers and they look neat, but I had hoped to be working on some Wasteland Warfare models by now. Unless the lure of Deathclaws and Sentry Bots is too strong, I think I'll get the Minutemen playable first to prepare for when my friends get their Super Mutants and Brotherhood. I already have conversions in mind to get some extra Minutemen in combat armor and even one in power armor, but don't worry. At least the ones in combat armor will have their stupid laser muskets like the idiots they are.

Great little details and a good looking face there! I envy all these sharp and imaginative work.

And - yes, Modipius really should speed things up, there are too many projects stalled in the line.

Thank you.

Lovely details with the camera and the 'press' badge. I'm really impressed with her face!

Excellent work on Piper,that's a great sculpt.

Thanks, guys.

I forgot to add a hint of the camera sling under the one holding the bag along with a hole on the inside of her forearm I didn't catch (that one was really hard to see, and reach). Both are fixed now and I'm hoping I'll get the base done this week and start painting.

Happy news on the bridge front, too. One cooler day in this heatwave saw me put a fair bit of paint on it. Yay! I think it's forecast to cool down again so I should be able to get some more regular work done.

Got in a tiny little bit of work in the revision department:



After resculpting Andrea's face to bring her up to the same standard as Dao and now Piper, I found it increasingly hard to tolerate Vera's face. Although better than Andrea's original one, it was still not up to my current standard. Which I set out to rectify over the last couple of days.

The face is smaller and finer now, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. It looks a bit messy in bare green stuff, but a coat of paint should fix that. Now all I have to do is get the skin tone to line up...

Technically I'm painting Piper, but things didn't go smoothly and I couldn't get as much work done in the last week as I wanted. However, i don't expect that to last and have her painted by next week at the latest.

More good news is that I did considerable work on the bridge. In a frightening and unprecedented burst of activity, I wrapped up most of the painting on the piece last week. I will have to, um, fill up some potholes on the base that didn't get enough sand initially, but afterwards I'll will only need to paint the base and finish a few fiddly bits and the model is done. Only took me a year, too. Hehe.

Neat stuff! Nice job with the freehands.

Thank you.

And it's painted:



NSFW picture for full impression of the model:

A bit impressionistic... but considering the scale - great!

Thanks!

I love huge, blown up pictures for seeing every detail, which includes all the flaws on a model. Really helps iron them out. Unfortunately it's not all that representative of what the actual model looks like. I've never figured out how to present a tiny little model in photography without it looking so small that you can't make out anything. Gives me a headache, this who photography business...

I painted Piper (NSFW because boobies):

Just great! Somehow I've imagined her in a more desert-like camo, but jungle dirt is good too. And these mushrooms... Good batch. Wasteland, Rail Nomad?

Wirecat wrote:
Just great! Somehow I've imagined her in a more desert-like camo, but jungle dirt is good too. And these mushrooms... Good batch. Wasteland, Rail Nomad?

Thank you. I like to stick with good old olive drab because it's so US Army. Such a classic. I do prefer browns to greens, though, so that's pretty uncharacteristic of me.

I had to look up Rail Nomad because I didn't know what that means. Still don't, really. I haven't played Wasteland (yet). I used some mushrooms of that design before, using up the few I had from an Age of Sigmar basing set. I kept these new ones in the same style, sculpting green stuff over a short metal rod. but of course they have to glow. Mushrooms in Fallout 4 glow. So I want mine to glow, too!

Behold the end of eternity!

OK, that may be a little melodramatic, but the ship and bridge certainly felt like they took forever.









This piece took so long that I put (almost) any thought of what to do afterwards aside. I have several possible terrain projects I can work on, but for now I'm completely undecided.

As far as models go, I expect that I'll get my first Wasteland Warfare models before the end of the week, so I might do something with them provided I have the time.

The first of my Fallout Wasteland Warfare stuff was in the mail last week (YAY!) and I couldn't help myself. There's only one model I could start with. Glowy the Deathclaw:









Obviously Glowy glows in the dark, as tested on several things before. Thanks to getting a solid idea of how my glow in the dark paint works while working on Bubbles, I gave Glowy more contrast both by day and night. It also helps that Modiphius's Deathclaw is larger with more surface structure than Brother Vinni's.

I don't know if I'll work much on scenery in the coming weeks, now that I have something a lot more shiny to paint (and convert, eventually).

Loving the terrain now it's all painted! Good use of the Mantic scenery bits, I have not idea what to do with all the tiles I bought

Glowy looks incredible, any chances of some pics of him in the dark?

Thank you.

 Commander Cain wrote:
Loving the terrain now it's all painted! Good use of the Mantic scenery bits, I have not idea what to do with all the tiles I bought

What works for me is piling up my boxes and dreaming of the things I could build with them if I didn't have so many things to do already!

 Commander Cain wrote:
Glowy looks incredible, any chances of some pics of him in the dark?

That can be arranged.

That is something to give creeps for a week at least! Nicely done! And that bridge is very well done - is it actually done now? Cheers!

 Geifer wrote:
That can be arranged.

I regret asking, that thing is even more terrifying in the dark! I'm gonna have to try that technique on something one day as it works so well... *starts daydreaming about a glowing tyranid army*

Top marks for glowy.... The nocturnal pictures are great.

Thanks, guys.

Wirecat wrote:
That is something to give creeps for a week at least! Nicely done! And that bridge is very well done - is it actually done now? Cheers!

Yes, the bridge as a terrain piece is done. I will likely never play it like that though as the top of the bridge is pretty barren. I'll probably always have some wrecked vehicles on there once I get some painted.

I intended to leave it modular to allow for different scenarios to make use of it. Vertibird extraction, for instance. Maybe a shack for an eremite or something. Lots of potential. I even have some loose traffic cones to put on the edges so if you fall off, it's your own fault.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Commander Cain wrote:
I regret asking, that thing is even more terrifying in the dark!

I painted the Zetan:



I'll have a small band of these by the time I'm done. The plan is to have this be a freshly crashed one (as I want one of every model stock, so no conversions on this one), two more that have gone native because they crashed a longer while ago, and an alien hybrid (which will probably be based on Feral Ghoul rules, since that's the closest they were to in Fallout 3).

I have primed Minutemen on my desk as well as a need for a Star Wars Legion army, though, so it may be a while before I get around to that idea.

I put in gallery votes for the Glowy in the dark images, that is something that should be on the Dakka homepage for all to see for sure. Great concept and great execution!

Wow, great looking Fallout minis all around! I especially love your scenery pieces, and those freehand adverts!

Thanks, guys!

 Gulgog TufToof wrote:
I put in gallery votes for the Glowy in the dark images, that is something that should be on the Dakka homepage for all to see for sure. Great concept and great execution!

Good luck with that.

I saw your glowing deathclaw in the gallery. Super awesome work on everything here.

Keep up the great work!

 xXWeaponPrimeXx wrote:
I saw your glowing deathclaw in the gallery. Super awesome work on everything here.

Keep up the great work!

Thank you!

 Geifer wrote:
I painted the Zetan:

It is so old style that it is antique, in a good, classy kind of way. Even more so when there will be a whole crew of them. I am really looking toward seeing them in paint. Cheers!

Yeah, I'm currently a bit stuck on which weapons to give them. I want one with a rifle, and the simplest way of doing that is to give him a laser rifle as I'll have some spare after converting combat armored Minutemen. But I'm not sure if that not too high-tech for the idea of an alien stranded in a hostile environment who has to make do with what he can fight. Perhaps a projectile weapon would be better. Maybe a pipe rifle from a Super Mutant.

Then there's the close combat one. I wouldn't mind a power fist, but there again there's something about the idea of a skinny alien beating people to death with a wrench or a baseball bat or something similarly low tech.

Decisions, decisions...

Plus, I'd like to start slow and bits swap to get a better feel for Modiphius's models before I go and do anything more than basic sculpting on them. Which currently limits my options somewhat.

What time is it, you ask? Why, it's time for SCIENCE!

After this short commercial break! Join the Minutemen! See the world! Get eaten by Deathclaws!



So this is my first conversion work on Wasteland Warfare models. Simple stuff to get a feel for the models as they are very fine, pretty realistically sculpted models and different from what I usually work with. Not very spectacular, but I was especially keen on seeing how small I could sculpt symbols so that I don't have to sit there and paint freehand faction symbols on power armor. Might just look the part when it's all painted, which will be a while still.

I also had some fun with rednecks in combat armor to get a bit of variation into my Minutemen band. I imagine those two as a sniper team. One has a laser musket ( ) and does the sniping, the other guy has a real weapon and watches his back.

And now for the science part. Here's Snuggles:



I said it before, not sure if in this thread, but I'm not a fan of PVC. I will say though that if there is a redeeming quality,, I will go and make the most of it. In the case of PVC, it's that hot temperature can deform the model quite easily but it only retains its new shape if it's shock cooled. For instance, one of my Zetans was limboing on his base when I got the starter set but when I got him out two weeks later, he was standing upright as intended with no help from me whatsoever. Whereas I fixed Glowy with boiling water and rapidly cooled it down in cold water. So technically the foundation for greatness is laid.

Now, I'm not hurting for Deathclaws. I've got two resin ones that will get different paint jobs so I'm ok with them mimicking Glowy's pose, but since I have a couple more in PVC and PVC behaves as described above, I figured I don't need to convert the additional models tediously if I can just reposition them with hot water for five or ten minutes. If, and this is the part that's going to take a little time, the model does in fact retain the new pose.

Enter Snuggles. I just so happened to have boiling water and a spare ten minutes to hand and I think you can do a couple of neat things without ever putting a knife to the model. Nice. I found that the thighs were a bit thick and attached to the body too rigidly to alter the pose of the left leg much, but the torso and arms bent admirably and I'm happy with how the new pose has turned out. I'll eventually take the model off its base and put it on a flat one, and will probably have to resort to shaping the base to fit the legs instead of the other way around because of the aforementioned trouble with the thighs. I might have to do some more bending instead, but we're going to have to wait and see.

For now the interesting part will be to see if the model retains its new pose. I'll probably leave it alone for a couple of weeks to see if anything happens. Would have been better to try this in summer when it's hot and the PVC is more likely deform (if it does in fact deform, that is), but what can you do?

A quick follow-up on the last update:



I threw the model in hot water again after it bent back a good bit to see if it was anything I did (and I think I like the tail better if it's somewhat straight) and this time tried to overbend it a bit. the idea being that if it's bent more extremely it won't bend back quite as far as if you go about it too gently.

I'm still going to give this some time, but after eleven days it seems to have settled from the pose shown in the previous picture to what you can see in this one. I'm guessing I can expect it to hold this one, though as I said I'll watch it some more time since other projects keep me busy at the moment.

I love your terrain, it's really quite fantastic.

Thank you!

Productivity!

So, something new after a short break;



The first painted Minuteman is a tin can. That means unlike every other Minuteman she has a good chance of survival. Hurray!

I'm not the biggest fan of blue in general (nor green for that matter), so after some adventurous decisions I ended up with a blue tone I can live with. That's a good thing in so far as I'll try to copy that for the combat armored Minutemen on whom the armor is still the dominant feature. I was afraid things wouldn't go as smoothly, but I l got lucky. Not that those guys are necessarily the next models to get painted. I have a dozen models primed, most of which will end up in the Minutemen band

Hopefully this should mark a return to slightly quicker updates again. I got the tedium of painting my Star Wars Legion core troops over with, which frees up time to paint Fallout models again. Which I'm very happy with as I hate batch painting and very much prefer to work on individuals.

Looks very neat in a proper kind of way. An industrial sort of blue and a very fitting freehand.

Thank you. The "freehand" is sculpted, as can be seen a couple of posts up. I hate painting stars, especially small ones. So with this model I tried to sculpt them and see how that works for me. Turns out I hate sculpting stars as well.

The next model will have a freehand, though. And guess what, there'll be stars...

Let's make the Wasteland great again, shiny and chrome!



Tobias Trump, Mayor of Libertytown.

I got the model for "free" last I ordered from Hasslefree (it wasn't really free with everything that went wrong with my order, but you know, I got it eventually and extra stuff as a way of apologizing, so all is well) and I figured I'd expand my nascent campaign setting with a new town and its mayor. I even had the wonderful idea to convert the model to look right proper patriotic. On that note, painting any kind of accurate (and straight!) stars and stripes on a bunched up cloth sculpt has to rate among the least enjoyable experiences in my painting career. Anyway...

I didn't originally intend to paint him next, but I happened to prime and basecoat him along with the T-60 before putting them away for a bit, so instead of getting more Minutemen painted he's the one that got lucky. On a similar note, in a really unhelpful turn of events that almost looks like I try to avoid doing what I should do, I also put a sketch of Nuka-Girl on my second billboard. Not saying that will go anywhere soon, but then I didn't think I'd get started on the billboard either even a few hours ago...

So yeah, who needs plans anyway?

Making plans just wastes valuable cutting and gluing time

Lassie and Tobias both looking good there.

 monkeytroll wrote:
Making plans just wastes valuable cutting and gluing time

So true, so true.

 monkeytroll wrote:
Lassie and Tobias both looking good there.

Thank you.

 Geifer wrote:
Thank you. The "freehand" is sculpted, as can be seen a couple of posts up. I hate painting stars, especially small ones. So with this model I tried to sculpt them and see how that works for me. Turns out I hate sculpting stars as well.

The next model will have a freehand, though. And guess what, there'll be stars...

Hm... I've missed that on Your earlier photos. But stars trump everything, right?

Looking very good, even better for the Wasteland!

Hehe, thanks.

I painted a car!



Which, by the way, took a tiny bit longer than I thought. Most of the paint is experimental. I tried a new way to paint rust, and a way to tie rust and the remaining paint together. And don't get me started on those windows...

Overall I'm happy with how it turned out. When I paint the next one I'll probably try it without the silver layer on the windows and trust on the varnish to make them look shiny and reflective.

Rust looks good, nice job!

Thank you.

Time for some WIP.



I mentioned earlier that I had another billboard that I put the sketch for the freehand on (the tough part anyway - the Nuka-Cola logo and font in big, friendly letters shouldn't be too terrible). It seemed like a good idea at the time, until I noticed that I hadn't even finished painting the billboard yet. Considering I'm somewhat hesitant to put lots of work into a freehand only to mess it up when I paint anything around it, I went and rectified that. Which benefitted from the work I had done on the rusted car.

It's a bit of an experiment. I painted the previous billboard a lot more silvery and less worn. It will be good to eventually see these next to each other and see which one I like better. I'm cool with having scenery pieces with various levels of wear (they are still styled similarly, so they won't look off next to each other), but I will now doubt trend towards the look I like better on future pieces.

For comparison, the other, less rusty billboard:



The billboard is an on and off project so I don't know when I'll put more work in it. My focus is still on the Minutemen. I made some good progress on Nora and Dolph the Potentially Enslaved Tech today and should be able to finish them in a matter of days. After that I already have the combat armored Minutemen and a normal one queued, but I'm doing a bit of work on a variety of different things, so I can't say yet will get done next.

 Geifer wrote:
I painted a car!



Which, by the way, took a tiny bit longer than I thought. Most of the paint is experimental. I tried a new way to paint rust, and a way to tie rust and the remaining paint together. And don't get me started on those windows...

Overall I'm happy with how it turned out. When I paint the next one I'll probably try it without the silver layer on the windows and trust on the varnish to make them look shiny and reflective.

I like this one, but - just a thought from a passer-by. I'll start on these windows. Before trying to make them shiny and reflective You can try to make them dull. Pick a base color that can be a mix of interior and exterior, so anything like a yellow, dark brown, even green. Give it a gradient from the top down to the darker shade and then dust it a LOT. Windows tend to accumulate small particles over the years, like rust and sand, so anything left by the road long enough will lose all shine but acquire a lot of "added taste".

And the WIP is very promising!

Thanks for the feedback!

I don't have much experience with reflective and translucent items yet, nor much of an opinion what I like best or how to go about it. That sounds like something I'm going to give a try.

Considering I chose the base colors to reflect the brown ground and the blue sky, I've been hesitant to plan painting one of my cars blue. After all, there might be the chance of the windows just blurring into the remaining paint of the car and give it too samey a look. I'll give your brown, dusted windows idea a try combined with blue paint for the car.*

While I'm at it I'll make a red car with the existing approach minus the the silver layer. That'll give me a couple of approaches to pick from and see what works best for me. I might need that for other glassy surfaces eventually as well.



*When I get around to it, of course. No shortage of projects these days.

As announced in the last update, Nora and Dolph are finished:

I took a small break from painting Minutemen and assembled and painted a preservation shelter:





Just a quick project in between other stuff. I had it lying around since September and really felt like doing it last week, so a short assembly and a bit of painting later I have a small, new scenery piece in my collection.

I intend to keep painting the Minutemen, but I also just had an idea what to do with my Zetans, specifically the melee one. I already started cutting him up and if all goes well he'll get a ripper on a stick along with a pose to match.

I seem to be doing side projects more than the main stuff at the moment. I painted Snuggles:



I bought a pot of dark green for an unrelated purpose but figured I could give a different glow pattern a try with the dark areas in dark green and the glowing ones light green, making the overall model appear more vivid (although I'm undecided whether I like that more or less). Comparison picture for Glowy and Snuggles:



I might have to try experimenting some more down the line. Probably on a different creature than a Deathclaw. Maybe Modiphius releases some Mirelurks until then. The shells should make for a much greater contrast than anything a Deathclaw or a Glowing One has to offer.

It's time for the little green men. Spoilered because there are no pants on Mars.



As part of my band of stranded Zetans I sculpted a human-alien hybrid. Loosely inspired by Fallout 3 concept art with a good helping of happy-go-lucky sculpting, I finally have a model I wanted for a while now. I used to have this same warband, minus the already painted one, using stand-ins from Mars Attacks and, for the hybrid, a slightly converted female Wargames Factory zombie as a quick way to get models on the table. The intent had always been to upgrade them at some point to properly represent Fallout aliens. That was prior to the announcement of Wasteland Warfare, which sorted out the Zetans nicely with the promotional model. Since Abominations from Mothership Zeta are bound to be a good while off, I just made my own since the band only needs one.

The other two Zetans are well on their way and while they are not the focus of my sculpting, they get frequent additions and shouldn't take too much longer than if I put as much time into them as possible. The reason for this is, obviously, that a full sculpt demands some attention and takes a good while to do, leaving less time for the mere conversions.

And because sculpting one model isn't enough, the hybrid is closely followed by a human model for the alien band. Billy Joe, by merit of being a hillbilly and a bit dim, was able to take the role of Igor for the stranded Zetans. If they want to experiment on humans, he's the one who hits unsuspecting wastelanders over the head with a shovel and drags them to their hideout*. And since I have a pretty clear vision of how he is supposed to look he's going to get a sculpt of his own.

I think it might be fun to bolster the ranks of the band with a reprogrammed Protectron or two. Maybe convert them similar to what you see with Rust Devils to make them specifically attached to the Zetans in look.

*While I don't have any real plan for an alien hideout at the moment, it did occur to me that adding an alien biolab in a ruined building or some such to my scenery collection might be a cool idea worth thinking about.

Yep. An alien lab in abandoned barn or broken building would be very cool!

Sculpting is cool. He is standing on Renedra 25mm base, isn't he? Nice texture for such small figure!

Thank you.

Yes, the hybrid is on a 25mm base by Renedra. I put all my human sized models on that (and smaller, like dogs).

The lab will probably not be in a barn as I have one already. Maybe something more urban or industrial. I have a fair few untouched Mantic plastic tiles for brick houses and factories that I've been wanting to use for years now. But we'll see. What I do know is the building needs to have a crudely thrown together satellite dish on the roof. You know, to phone home and all that.

Another Zetan ready for painting:



I didn't really have much of a direction when I started, other than crashed alien going native, but after repositioning and adding a few armor plates I figured less may be more and left it at that. The other Zetan I'm working on will be covered up a good bit more, and I'd hate to cover up too many identifying marks and lose faction coherency across these guys.

Painting the hybrid got delayed because I found the remains of my green paint dried up in the pot. I got a replacement and will finish the model when I have a little more time. Shouldn't be too long, though.

I painted the Hybrid:



Also two comparison pictures side by side with the stock Zetan:

I think I'm done with the conversion of the last Zetan:



As with the other one, I'm trying not to cover him up completely so as not to hide the spacesuit too much. I did opt for a covered head though since that's the third time I use the same one with the same expression and a hood is a good fix for that.

Time to get painting.

Next to the nice and sharp greenstuff the plastic looks almost melted and soft on all details. :( Other than that - superb work!

Thank you. I don't like PVC myself and certainly hope that the initial batch is the last PVC we've seen for Wasteland Warfare. It's even worse because Modiphius makes amazing resin models which makes the comparison with PVC even less favorable.

Still, they're official Zetans and all that is available right now, which is better than nothing.

Woe is PVC... but still, it is indeed better than nothing and You a building wonderful things on top of it.

I finished painting a Minuteman that I started a couple of weeks ago but set aside because of... distractions:



The first of the normal ones, to be specific. I'll try to get each of them their own little variation while sticking mostly with browns and blue jeans. The latter specifically I'm not sure about. I'm not the biggest fan of pants, nor painting them blue. I think I'll try and get some variation in there.

But that's still in the future.This being a small side project, I have both Zetans and the two armored Minutemen that will get painted first (unless I really, really feel like doing something else - which happens, in fact it's happening right now...). I also primed a handful of Settlers for my Minutemen to protect. If I feel like a change of color and can paint them.

Remember those distractions that keep me from painting Zetans? Here's one of them:





After letting it sit for a couple of months because freehanding , I felt like putting in that work last week and I now have a new piece of scenery in my collection. Hurray!

While I do intend to work on the stuff mentioned in my last post, I made a new Fallout 4 character last night that I would like to bring to the tabletop, using a BoS Lancer and trying to sculpt a face so tiny it fits with the scale of Wasteland Warfare models while retaining the level of detail the official models are capable of. That'll be fun...

I look at it as a viability test, really. I ddn't put too much work into the Zetans because their being PVC left the models with much less detail than I'd like. Consequently I don't feel like doing as good a job on them as I can. Lancer-Sergeant Abigail, I hope, will get better treatment, being one of those shiny resin models Modiphius produces.

Just a quick addition:



I did a bit more work on the face that didn't turn out quite right before. Not saying it's perfect now, but it's a bit closer to what I had in mind.

Other news is that I may actually get Wasteland Warfare going at my local store, so my top priority is to get paint on a PVC starter set to demo the game and hopefully stir some troub... I mean, raise some interest. It'll likely be a quick job and not up to my usual standard, but it kind of needs doing now and they're PVC models, so that's OK.

Three weeks later, I now have a painted starter set to demo Wasteland Warfare:



Takeaways:

PVC sucks as a material.

I hate batch painting.

I hate rushing things.

Painted models still look better than unpainted models despite low standard.

I need a break.

So, after tirelessly painting for almost three weeks and having twelve new models to show for it, I'm a bit exhausted and will take it slower for a bit. Maybe do some Warhammer before going back to the Zetans, Billy Joe and Abigail. Who knows. Since I consider these a chore, I definitely want to do something I actually feel like doing next. We'll see how that turns out.

Take Your time. But the result was well worth the effort, IMHO. Very solid starter, nothing to shake a stick at!

So, that wasn't the longest break ever. I got in a game of Wasteland Warfare last week and that inspired me to get back to work. I and have something to show for it as well:



Family picture of the Zetans.

And the individual views of the new ones:





That concludes the Zetans. Took a while but they're finally ready for action.

I gave points values my first look today and for what is considered a standard game, they're a little inexpensive. The plan was to add two Protectrons all along, but those too are really cheap, so an Assaultron will join the merry band to bring it up to playable size size. These robots are already assembled but I'm not quite sure yet how to dress them up. The idea is to make them look somewhat scary so the average wastelander isn't going to nose around their place, what with it being haunted and all. I'm going to play Mothership Zeta again and see if that inspires an idea or two.

Until then I guess I have those Minutemen to paint that I've been neglecting for so long. Maybe I'll do that, or maybe I'll keep procrastinating: I'm not hurting for things to paint, after all.

At any rate, I also finished the rather small conversion of Lancer-Sergeant Abigail:



Not the most extensive conversion I've ever done, but I like the plain look of the orange BoS jumpsuit. She got a combat knife because a backup is always good to have, and a custom head, but otherwise I'm pretty happy. Did some repositioning as well, which went smoother than I expected. The resin Modiphius's models are made of is very good and user friendly.

Maybe I'll base and paint her next. I might even use the opportunity to do the same to the Feral Ghouls I assembled a while back. We'll see.

Very nice. Knife is in place and the combo of high ponytail with ( Ican't see clearly) almost clean head backside is a little unconventional. But good! Thumbs up!

Thanks.

The haircut is straight from Fallout 4 (or as straight as I could make it ). Always fun to see a BoS girl sporting one. I thought it was a bit of a shame that all the unnamed official Brotherhood models have headgear.

I'm still taking it slow for the time being, but something came up:



A friend asked me to sculpt an aviator cap for his Behemoth, and so I did.

Goggles make everything 8% cooler. Good work on straps, sir!

Thank you.

Our hero, our hero, claims a warrior's heart!
I tell you, I tell you the Dragonborn comes!
With a voice wielding power of the ancient Nord art!
Believe! Believe! The Dragonborn comes!

It had to happen, didn't it? More after the picture:



OK, so it's probably safe to say that radioactive barrels don't make an appearance in Skyrim. That's alright. I have no intention of stopping work on Fallout. These I painted up on the side while I was busy with sculpting and wrapping up painting on other models. Not the most notable addition to my collection, but I had these sitting on my desk for the past two months and figured now is the time to finish them.

And while I'll certainly keep working on Fallout models, the fact is that I didn't neglect to paint the barrels for no reason. I've been in a fantasy mood lately, putting more work into Age of Sigmar models in weeks than I have in the years before that. Modiphius's announcement of their Elder Scrolls game couldn't have come at a better time. So as of this moment, I'll add Elder Scrolls models to this blog right alongside the Fallout models it was created for.

I may have added the Dragonborn model to my last order from Modiphius... because willpower is clearly overrated and who even wants to resist shiny new models anyway?

But while I wait for that order to arrive, I can work on other fun stuff. Wouldn't do to limit myself to just the official models. So I am currently sculpting a past player character from Skyrim. And you know what that means? It means I'm fiddling around with daedric runes, like all the cool kids:



That's my sculpting board which for the most part gets used to sculpt faces. However my Breton will have a daedric symbol hanging from a couple of chains, and there's no way I can sculpt that while it's dangling from thin chains with nothing else to hold it. So I sculpted the M and A runes, inverted since you're seeing the back here (and yes, as you can see from the drawing, that was not the original plan...), putting the Oblivion rune on the backside and having the chains that hold the icon sandwiched in between. That's the plan anyway. We'll see how well that works.

Third sculpt from the top is her face, by the way.

As I was already smearing daedric symbols on the board for reference, I also added the longer inscription that is carved into her breastplate. I'll have to see if "carve" is going to remain correct. That's how that part of the model currently looks, but since it's still early days and nothing aside from the carved armor plate is sculpted yet, I don't know if I'll keep it or fill out the carving with raised letters instead. It'll depend on how the rest of the armor design turns out. Got to put some more work into it before I decide.

It's summer so I'll post something hot.

NSFW warning because Dragonborn without pants:



Still WIP, obviously, but I had a lot of fun* matching my sculpting to the proportions used by Modiphius for the official models for Bethesda's properties. As you can see the promotional Dragonborn arrived as well. I'll likely not paint him soon because it's hot at the moment and the paint is just going to dry before it even leaves the brush. Hoping for a little cooldown soon, but if that doesn't happen, well, what can you do? At least sculpting isn't negatively affected by the heat, so I still have plenty to do.

Speaking of which, I quite enjoy mashing up daedric and dragonbone armor for the cuirass, because let me tell you that I could certainly not mod Skyrim like that. Which while playing I always thought was a shame, because I like both styles and had to make do with mixing discrete armor pieces to at least come close. Sculpting a physical model, that's not a problem at all. So yay, I'll get my character to look like she was always supposed to.




* sculpting teeny tiny faces may not actually be lots of fun

* but the results are worth it!

Awe mode on.

Thank you.

Ever since Modiphius announced Elder Scrolls Call to Arms I've been toying with the idea of making a nice Skyrim themed manor for my display case. I've gathered some stuff to build it, played Skyrim to get a feel for the architecture, drew up a floor plan the other day and... it just occurred to me that I'd better keep the raised torch and Dovahkiin standing on his personal rock in mind when I build the ceiling/determine story height. Phew, that was close.

So yeah, after a while of other stuff I think I'm down for a larger scenery project again. Yay!

Today I have a WIP picture of...

...a naked girl with a knife. What could go wrong?

So, obvious NSFW warning here.



So, what's this about? Several things, actually. First, introductions. That's a new take on Andrea, my Lone Wanderer from Fallout 3 who has become my favorite Fallout character and possibly my favorite RPG ever played.

The model is obviously still WIP, but now that most bits are on, especially the arms I felt it was a good time to take pictures and look the model over and see how I feel about the proportions. I'm sure I spoke of this before, but I like to have a different view of the model to get a better idea of how a sculpt shapes up and if I missed things the naked eye has a hard time seeing. With that out of the, this is me feeling adventurous and doing fun new things that I really hope work out the way I want. these are:

1. Something pretty mundane, I wanted a model that is scaled and proportioned to go with the official Wasteland Warfare models. I'm not too bothered with slight differences in miniatures whose primary purpose is to increase the range of models I can draw from to enhance my games and whose differences you'll be hard pressed to see at arm's length on the tabletop.. Brother Vinni, Hasslefree, Golem and Modiphius miniatures can happily coexist as far as I'm concerned. While I already made a nice model of her I take the official models as the standard by which everything is measured and if there is one character I won't tolerate looking second rate, it's her.

2. I haven't really had much of an opinion on scars before now. Recessed or raised, or possibly just painted on? After putting some thought into it I think raised scars are my favorite approach and I'm using her as a test bed to see how subtle I can sculpt these. This is coupled with the particularly fine head in line with Modiphius's models, so it really becomes an exercise in improving my fine detail sculpting.

3. Speaking of the head you may have noticed that it's a copy of the Dragonborn's head (who really is the fantasy version of the same initial character concept, so they share the same facial structure). I went and tried getting better results with instant mold. I've done some press molds before and they worked better on some things, worse on others. I think to really get a better idea of how the stuff works I need a model I feel some attachment to and that isn't there for mass production (which is the most obvious use for molds, of course). I need the feeling that quality comes before anything else and not try to do too much at once. this ties in with...

4. RPG progression characters. I think it's a neat concept, having a number of models of the same character, just advanced further along the story. Now try to sculpt the same character over and over without going nuts. I figure if I can get a quality mold of a simply posed character, I can use that to replicate her any number of times and equip her to fulfill different roles. From this, the pit fighter variant, to her standard merc gear, to something more suited for infiltration, and so on. I honestly don't know if I'll go through with this in any meaningful way, but the potential alone is worth looking into the whole molding process in greater depth.

So I've been mostly working on her lately, but since Warcry is going to played at my local store I put most of my time into Warhammer models. I can manage sculpting a single model alongside that, but not much more. Once those guys are out of the way, though, I'm hoping to get a few more Fallout models painted. I've got half a dozen Feral Ghouls that have got some paint on them already, and I primed my BoS power armored models and just need the opportunity to get going on them. And then there's the Raiders and let's not even talk about what happens when I get Liberty Prime...

Plan is solid - good luck to You, and steady hand!

Thanks.

Progress!



After way, way too long I found the time to get some more Fallout models painted. That's all the Ferals I own sorted out. They'll be joined by more Feral Ghouls as I'm bound to get the upcoming Glowing Ones but for now they're done and I can move on to something else. Probably Brotherhood of Steel if nothing goes wrong. Maybe Raiders if I can't resist.

I tried something a bit different on these to get the dirty clothes look, omitting the use of stippling in favor of just blending with thinned paints. I'm not sure that worked out so well. The browns are fine but the yellow and pink seem like I should not have gone with such stark contrast in the recesses. And maybe they could have in fact all benefited from a couple of dirty spatters. They're done, but I think I'm going back to incorporating stippling with the next batch.

On to naked girls. NSFW warning, because you know:



So, I think she's done. I'm not really sure about the knife's design, but as a master model for a mold the knife does not have to be more than an empty space to run the end of a wire through. I can replace it easily enough with a different design. Possibly with a resin combat knife from the weapons upgrade sprue.

Provided of course the whole mold making thing works out in the first place. Figuring that out will be the next step.

I have a mold. I have a replica. I have an opinion. And it's not even as bad as one might expect.

Spoiler because NSFW:



So that's, obviously, the original on the left and the replica on the right. The picture shows the replica after cleanup of the easy bits, effectively flash around the thicker parts of the model. Some thoughts, then.

The good parts:

As can be expected, the front detail came out reasonably well. The mold mass apparently had a few cracks from kneading so there's a spot or two with lumps of green stuff that need cleaning up, but considering how much of the stuff I used that little kink can be overlooked.

The mold halves were constructed to clip into each other on three sides and it worked really well, having the halves align perfectly. I've tried this in the past and this is the first time that really worked out.

I tried to build up the mold in the crotch and armpits and it worked out fairly well, preserving detail and preventing green stuff from spilling over and completely filling up the area. This has been a big disappointment in the past with a couple of things and I'm happy that this worked out here.

The not quite so good parts:

Filling the mold with the right amount of green stuff to both avoid too much spill which destroys detail around the sides where the molds meet and too little coverage that leaves gaps and also destroys detail is an art unto itself and I don't have enough experience to minimize problems with it. This replica is actually the second one I tried, using less green stuff than before. The first one is not necessarily a bad attempt either, but it has marked problems with green stuff buildup especially around the Pip-Boy. It does have a couple of better cast bits, and I won't rule out using it in the future. That said, it will require a good amount of cleanup.

The arms and ankles seem to be too thin to cast without issues. During mold making there seems to have been more problems with cavities that shouldn't been there. Filling in green stuff is hard because there's not enough to stick to the mold easily. Inserting the wire may shake it loose and because of its rigidity tear away and deform parts when the mold halves are pressed together. The last point may be improved by taking greater care when bending the wire to shape, but overall these thin parts seem to be the hardest to get right.

Because of how the mold was created and how I can't be everywhere at once and have to race to get everything done as the mold material cools down and loses its plasticity, the back of the head did not come out very well. I'm not too bothered because it's only a small detail to fix manually, but still.

Air and I guess water bubbles during mold filling are not great but there doesn't seem to be too much damage cause by them. Still, it's there.

Pretty big one alluded to before, the wire that goes inside the green stuff really needs to fit the shape well. Again it's the thin parts that see this become a problem. Hands, wrists, and ankles are all a bit problematic with this specific replica. In general, getting the wire to bend just right in the right hand to fill the knife hole is very tricky. I may have to try completely ignoring the knife with a future cast simply because I think it's the part that stands out the most. The rest of the model is pretty flat and can be easily molded. The thin knife going off at almost a right angle is a tough one.

Overall I'm fairly happy with how this turned out. There's a good amount of cleanup required in places, but since the replica is generally supposed to be a starting point for further sculpting, that's not that much extra work on top. It does give me a solid and quickly made, and more than anything a consistent base for variations of the character, so I think this whole experiment can be called a success.

Because this particular replica had considerable problems with the knife and because I'm itching to have a model with paint on it, I'm converting this one to be the fisticuffs version of the character.

Today there's and update with a variety of things. First, a Knight:



That's a quarter of my power armored BoS force painted. I'm hoping to get through the other ones quickly, as the color scheme is pretty quickly. With a slight exception for Paladin Danse who doesn't wear a helmet, which is going to add that bit of extra work. Still, I'll be happy to have these painted so I can draw on them as the core of my BoS force.

Hopefully that will also put me in the mood for finishing Lancer-Sergeant Abigail. She's been half painted for a while. Those BoS suits are full of tiny little details and if that wasn't enough the two color pattern is surprisingly complicated. I know nothing beats a power armored Knight for simplicity, but that's a lot of stuff to paint. Very, very carefully paint at that.

On we go then, to the reposed fisticuffs girl. NSFW warning, as usual:



Not much to say here, the missing knife and a bit of a sloppy arm repositioning kind of naturally led to her fighting not quite unarmed. The fun thing is there's a hilarious combination of mods, chems and perks that should make her a blast to play even in games against seriously armed models, even though she's basically running around naked and punching people with a chain wrapped fist. Very reminiscent of what you can do with your player character in the video games. I love it.

Most of the work is in the cleanup of the replica while some resculpting is required to account for the new pose and her new weapon. She's coming along nicely, though, and there's not much work left.

Oh yeah, she's also yelling now. Her old face was too serene for someone who's going to be on Fury all game long.

And I almost forgot, the guy with the minigun is Dave. I love the Enslaved Tech model, and I love miniguns. It's a conversion I simply couldn't resist. I don't know how much else I'm going to add, but he'll at the very least get a deathclaw gauntlet hanging from his belt. Maybe he'll get a sidearm or slung rifle as well, couple of pouches, maybe some grenades. I'm still working out the details.

On to Elder Scrolls. NSFW warning:



Not forgotten, I'm generally not in a fantasy mood at the moment so not much work on my two Dragonborns is happening, but to be honest the thing that took a great deal of patience and that I seriously needed a break from afterwards was attaching those tiny little chains that would swing and come to rest in every possible direction and place except the one I wanted. That was bogus. I don't want to do that ever again.

Great progress on that flame bearer! Fills me with envy and shame, that's for sure.

Knight is a bit too same on all faces. Metal always shows every kind of wear and tear applied, but I still like hos *solid* it looks.

Thank you.

I know what you mean about the silver. I painted a watered down layer on a rusty basecoat to get the desired depth but did little to prevent good coverage and a neat appearance. Now I'm actually cool with it because the Brotherhood of Steel has the knowledge, resources and facilities to keep their gear in good order and I wouldn't want to give their prime assets the kind of wear normal wastelanders have to contend with, but it's true. Metallics have always struck me as taking a lot more work to paint nice patterns with than non-metallic paints.

I have a primed Mr. Handy who's supposed to look a lot rustier than the Knight. I'll probably paint him next and see how that turns out.

The pit fighter version of my Lone Wanderer is painted. NSFW warning because she's still not wearing pants:



The skin came out surprisingly well, which I guess really proves I shouldn't batch paint things and give every model the required amount of time.

I tried something new with the base when I found that the wires connecting her feet to the base weren't quite short enough but I glued them in anyway. Originally I figured I'd just have her stand on a metal plate or a slab of concrete but since a bottle of water effect had found its way into my shopping cart recently, I thought I might as well try it out on her. So the metal plate under one foot got slanted, the opposite edge of the base built up as concrete, and combined with two dams on the remaining side I had a basin for the clear resin to go in. It did not go perfectly smooth. as you can see the static grass to the fore soaked in a bit of resin and I had to fix that as best as I could, but applying the resin in two layers led to surprisingly little pull up effect around the legs, something I had trouble way back when when last I used (a different brand of) water effect. Yeah, I'm pretty happy with how that worked out.

The tattoo on her back also looks much nicer than what I managed in the past thanks to the helpful advice of some Dakkanauts.

Lastly, I already said something about the skin but the scars bear separate mention, especially the ones on the head where scar density to available surface is pretty high. I had trouble with that in her previous incarnation, too. Trying to highlight the scars led to a pretty messy overall appearance and I think I overdid it with my color choices. This low contrast attempt looks much better and is going to be the way I paint scars from now on.

In other news, I think I said something about painting a Mister Handy before? Well, Old Rustbucket is well on his way and I hope I'll be able to finish him soon.

It's time for a little patriotism!



I finished painting Old Rustbucket. Obligatory I still hate stars and stripes and I still don't ever want to paint any more. Until the next time anyway.

Regardless of the difficulty of painting straight lines and fiddly little icons, this ended up working out surprisingly well. The original idea was to paint the flag on the spherical body and leave it at that, but that made the eye stalks and limbs look too disjointed in their muted silver. So the motif got extended to the eye protectors and the upper metal plate on each limb for a more balanced appearance.

In the Geifer does science department, I added a drop of clear resin over the irises to emulate the glass lens the video game model has, and luckily that turned out flawlessly. That's pretty cool and I may do that on more things from now on.

In other news, I have Liberty Prime now and have already begun assembly. No idea how long it will take to paint him, though. He's kind of big.

Danse and his Knights are well on their way and I figure I'll have to put less than an hour's work each into them to get them done. Which may actually take a little while still since I've had a busy week with no sign of letting up, but hopefully that'll change soon. I want to get them painted and out of the way. Obviously I have a big robot to tackle but I'd hate to get started on him while leaving the little guys half painted.

Paladin Danse and his homies:



Alternative titles would have been Forces of Blandness or the Greymarch, but that's the Brotherhood of Steel for you.

I actually am happy that these are painted, and not just because it means they're out of the way. The Brotherhood has a pretty balanced roster of troops and I'll get around to painting combat armored Knights and Scribes in time, but it'll be fun to have these guys specifcally to hand for the occasional all power armored game.

Individual pictures:







Next up: a stupid dog.

Actually I can't rule out that he's going to be followed by another two dogs, but it was sunny today and I managed to paint him in one go, so he's basically just missing varnish and static grass. Those things I'll do tomorrow. The other dogs are only primed and may take a little while until they're done.

Liberty Prime is assembled and I'm currently adding sand to his base. It's a big base and takes some time to do properly, but I should be able to prime him this week. I already got out a big brush I had stored away, just in case.

Woof!



Two hours of work went into Dog's fur, but I figured he needs to look good next to his mistress, so I put in the extra work.

Only two more doggies to go, but I'm not sure I want to do that right away. I'm kind of sick of fur now.

Luckily I have Liberty Prime as an excuse to do something else.

Totally woof! Very good fur in that scale and in that time, beats Schleich at twice the size (BTW, some people who are not averse to repainting this rubbery abomination actually produce amazing results with just an airbrush and patience). Bring on the Prime, good Sir!

Thank you.

Wirecat wrote:
Bring on the Prime, good Sir!

Yeah, about that. Due to entirely unforeseeable circumstances I may have been volunteered to the Grand Army of the Republic now that Fantasy Flight has release Clone Wars for Legion. That might impact the pace at which I can work on Liberty Prime...

Also, boy oh boy is that a huge model. That is a lot of surface to basecoat!

I just read the entire thread, captivating! The Fallout feeling is definitely there. Have you considered building a vault?

Thanks! Yes, I have considered it. My terrain projects have slowed to the point of standstill at the moment, and there's always my tiny apartment to consider when it comes to storing large terrain pieces. So right now it's not on the table. That said, I'm pretty sure I have an MDF vault door laying around here somewhere so I at least can make a vault entrance to add to an outside location.

So much to do, so little time!

Sleeping through winter is the only sensible choice. Bears have the right of it.

Ahem...

So I got a little sidetracked on top of getting precious little done for two months, but luckily that changed for the better recently and I'm back to doing Fallout things. Not Liberty Prime as my painting has been taken up by Star Wars Legion, but I did some sculpting on Dave:



Specifically the deathclaw gauntlet. I made a press mold of a Deathclaw's hand to get some fingers, which worked well enough, but cleanup and the construction of the gauntlet took a lot longer than I had hoped. I couldn't really get motivated to fiddle around with all the little straps and bars.

But that's in the past now. The model has everything it absolutely needs. Sunglasses, minigun, deathclaw gauntlet, a little armor to distinguish his outfit. Now the question is, should I add more? A backup gun and some pouches and/or grenades come to mind. Maybe he should have real boots as well. Maybe another piece of armor? Decisions, decisions. Suggestions welcome, too. I'm not really sure how to progress.

As far as other things are concerned, I want to paint Liberty Prime but this time around the end of the year has been exceptionally cloudy and dark and I think I'd rather see what I'm painting, so not a whole lot has happened so far. I may paint a human sized model like Piper first before going back to him to get back into a Fallout mood after working on so much Star Wars. Technically I should paint Lancer-Sergeant Abigail, too. She's been sitting half painted on my desk for half a year now.

I thought about converting Cait, too. And Billy Joe, the most hillbilliest Raider/Scavver/Merc/Brahmin herder ever.

Or maybe I'll assemble and paint all my Institute models in an unprecedented rush of activity. Likely? No way! Fun to think about? Definitely!

So as usual, lots of ideas and not enough time to see them through...

Wow - what a blog!

Can't believe I have missed this up until now.

Am just getting started with FO myself and this is a real inspiration - fantastic! I love the aviator cap on the Behemoth, a very inspired idea.

Can I ask where you got the Ghoul miniatures from a page back?

 Pacific wrote:
Can't believe I have missed this up until now.

Whereas I can't believe I missed your post. I'm sorry to only reply now. But thank you for looking.

 Pacific wrote:
Can I ask where you got the Ghoul miniatures from a page back?

They're just the regular Feral Ghouls from Modiphius with a messy Contrast paint job to mitigate/hide the (in my opinion) somewhat lacking appearance of Fallout 4 Ferals. But aside from rebasing them on flat 25mm bases they're just the standard models.

Liberty at last!



So yeah, I'm a year late. But Liberty Prime is finally painted. Which means two things. First, I have more confirmation that I definitely don't need that large models suck the motivation out of me like nothing else and therefore take unreasonably long to complete. Second, now that Liberty Prime is done, perhaps I'll be able to get more stuff done again and update this thread more than once a year.

I wouldn't hold my breath, but it's not impossible.

I didn't entirely forsake Fallout during the time I worked (and the far larger time in between when I didn't work) on Liberty Prime. It's not much, but I figured I'd assemble an Institute force. That's a box of each type for a load of Synths. Most are now assembled and there's a chance they'll be my next Fallout project. It's a bit later than I had hoped for, but after getting some good results last year on my Sisters of Battle with significant use of beige Contrast, I could see a similar approach giving me quick and good results on the Gen-1s and 2s. Which is really why I'm assembling the Institute models in bulk unlike most other Fallout models. I don't expect them to benefit from individual painting nearly as much as the run of the mill wastelander.

The other thing that's on my mind is, of course, the Enclave. Took Modiphius long enough to release them. Took me long enough to get Liberty Prime out of the way. So this may be a good time to get some nice folks in black power armor painted.

All of that with the caveat that I've been on a Star Wars spree lately with a side order of Warhammer, so I don't expect my Fallout output to skyrocket all of a sudden.

Getting Liberty Prime done is quite the accomplishment. I'm not even sure I want to buy it just because I know how much work it will be as metals are just time consuming.

I think you're looks great, probably the best one I've seen painted. I like the dirt and grime look of it makes it very dieselpunk which I think the Robot takes a bit of inspiration from.

Thank you.

The model doesn't much deviate from how my power armored Brotherhood guys are painted and I dreaded to put that into action from the moment I realized how much surface I had to cover on Liberty Prime. But I think the model simply needs the added depth. Considering how big it is and how simple its design, it's actually quite detailed. But it's still very big with large, even surfaces that benefit from anything that makes them look interesting.

Amazing thread! I just binged the whole thing.

Glad you liked it.

Looks incredible!

Thank you.