While I was on a bit of a tear writing articles lately, I have also been painting at an enjoyable pace behind the scenes which is mostly the focus of today’s update. I have what feels like a good amount of minis to show off though I do have to admit that part of me wishes I had these completely done so they were a bit less shiny and a bit rustier! As a result of playing Fallout for the first time last week, I’ve been very motivated to paint more Fallout minis so that is what I have to show off this time.
First up, we have a couple of ghouls. What are ghouls for non-Fallout fans? While they look like zombies, they are people exposed to too much radiation who become skeletal and while some people still retain their mental faculties (despite the physical deformities), most end up being mindless and aggressive threats to sentient creatures in the wasteland. I like all kinds of ghouls in Fallout and I find the feral ghouls to be some of the most enjoyable enemies. They’re pretty easy to kill but you also have to make sure they don’t swarm you or they might just get you!
In terms of the minis, they don’t photograph as well as I hoped because of their weird poses and they had a lot of mold lines to clean up so they were a bit of pain compared to most Fallout ones I’ve done thus far. I do like the weathering on the clothes and the metal grates will get a bit of rust which should add a bit more color as well. With that said, they are a bit fiddly and they feel as if they could break pretty easily so I’ll have be careful with them to ensure that doesn’t happen. I’m excited to see them when they are completely finished and I do look forward to fielding them in a special scenario down the road. Unfortunately, I will have to buy a second box and paint all of the same sculpts a second time for that scenario which will be a bit less fun…
While you’ve seen a super mutant hound previously and this one is still a bit shiny still, I was struck by how much better this one looks than the first one. I really wanted to get this guy varnished so I could show you a comparison between this and the first one but sadly it will have to wait a bit longer. Much like the ghouls above, I can crank one of these out quickly compared to most Fallout minis so it was nice and fun to paint them after spending so long on that Dark Angels Primaris Marine.
Next up we have another generic settler. He’s number three of four so I have a pretty good feel for painting these guys now. I think he might be the best one I’ve done yet and while I wasn’t sure as I was painting him, I’m glad I made him more colorful than some of the previous ones too. The only bummer is that when I saw the blown up picture of the mini, I realized his eyes don’t look nearly as good as I originally thought. The images get compressed a bit on WordPress so I don’t think you can really see that at all here but it was a bit annoying to discover. Since he looks good in-hand, I’ll probably just have to live with his eyes as they are.
Last up, we have Sturges who is one of the more memorable characters from Fallout 4. As you can probably guess, he is the mechanic/builder with quite the stylish hairdo. I personally found him a bit annoying in how he would constantly tell you to go get X materials to build something but I can’t deny he is a cool looking character and hopefully you all think I did him justice here. He was fun to paint, if a bit time consuming, and getting the dirt on his pants was not nearly as easy as rust is. I used the same technique for rust described here but I had to use acrylic paint to match the colors on the base. I ended up having to make some adjustments to get the mud looking more random which was a bit of a pain. I think I probably over applied it which is really hard to undo once that has happened. One thing I didn’t realize as well is that you really want a flat surface to dab the paint on. The ridges like on his clothes make it so the paint doesn’t go in the recesses as easily as you would like which also made this harder than I hoped. But all in all, I can’t complain too much and am happy with the results. A bit of varnish and rust to finish him off, and he should be one of the better Fallout minis I’ve done.
So that is my painting progress over the last couple of weeks. I’ll probably share some of these again when I get them finished up but I’ll wait a while until I get a bunch of Fallout minis ready to varnish all at once.
A couple of other random tidbits. I wanted to say thank you to anyone and everyone who voted on the Dark Angels Primaris Captain. He got an 8.1 which is the second highest score I’ve ever received on CMON and that was good enough to get the mini featured on the front page for a couple of days too. That is certainly an honor and was a goal I hoped to achieve with that mini too so I consider that project a success (not that I would have said it was a failure if I didn’t hit those goals but it was certainly a confirmation of how I felt).
I received some Fallout terrain from Sarissa Precision this week. It took less than 10 days to get here from the UK and I’m excited to build and paint it. I’ll certainly share my experiences with it as I’ve never built MDF terrain before and I’m sure I’ll learn some things along the way.
Now I just need this one last thing to arrive for my MESBG diorama. I’ve been working a bit on it and am going to probably ramp my effort up on it this upcoming week so I would say you can expect on update on my first real diorama next week!
Kuribo's Painting 
I agree on the fun of the feral ghouls in game. Great stuff, I certainly prefer them to super mutants for some reason. All your painting does them justice but Sturges you really brought to life. Respect!
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Glad to hear it isn’t just me on ghouls 🙂 For me, it is Deathclaws that I cannot stand. Being chased by a tank with claws is just not that much fun. Thank you for the kind words on the painting as well 🙂
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Such progress, makes me feel like a bum since I have done so little lately. (unless you count painting the bathroom and dining room ceiling as painting) Have you tried any of the GW contrast paints yet? Seems like the mutant hound might be a figure that it could be used on.
I always see things that need fixing after I take a picture of them, I really need to get in the habit of taking a intermediate picture to check on my progress. Regarding the eyes, they seem fine, it is the eyebrow on the second figure – another quizzical look, you would think they would know what they are shooting at by this point. 🙂
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That sounds like painting to me! 🙂 I would think that you needed a break after finishing a big project too. I have not tried GW contrast paints. I am unfortunately a 34 year old stuck in a senior citizen’s body in that I get stuck in my ways very easy and don’t experiment as much as I should. One of these days I will try Contrast paints and I’ll probably rue not doing it sooner.
Taking pictures can help you spot mistakes and it can also drive you crazy because the camera has better eyes than we do. Hmm… maybe my eyebrows aren’t doing the minis justice. I always try to paint eyes and eyebrows fearlessly because I think that is the only way to get better at them but perhaps I’m not doing myself justice with the eyebrows. I will give this some more thought!
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Very nice work on all the figures, they have each come out very well. To my mind the wethering looks good, after all who knows what they have crawled through or layed down in? When it comes to the photographs the camera is often not the modeller/painters best friend, it exagerates everything and it is easy to forget that the screen image can be so much bigger than the mini itself. This used to bother me a lot but my attitude now is if it looks great to the naked eye then it is fine. Looking forward to your first diorama. 😊
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I took a second look at that mini whose eyes I didn’t like and I reached the same conclusion as you. They aren’t perfect but they don’t look bad to the naked eye so that is going to have to be good enough. It is also good to hear that the weathering came out alright. I might be being a bit hard on myself there so I appreciate a second opinion 🙂 I’m very excited about the diorama too. This will hopefully be a fun week of painting while working on it.
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All very nice indeed! 🙂 The muddy clothes look spot on to me!
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Thanks, John! 😀 I think I was a bit harsh on the muddy clothes and they look better than I initially thought.
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These look great!
Your Fallout journey has inspired me to finally start playing Fallout 4 the video game. I’ve played Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas for both around 100 hours each back in the day and really loved them, but since I’m trying to play video games chronologically by order of release date I’m still stuck in the 2011/2012/2013s, so hadn’t made it to Fallout 4 yet. I’m really loving it so far and it’s cool to see your beautifully painted miniatures capture that feel so well.
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Playing video games chronologically is very ambitious! I’m glad to hear you’re playing and enjoying Fallout 4. Some people don’t like it as much as New Vegas or 3 and while New Vegas might be my favorite, I really love 4. It improves on the Fallout formula in a lot of ways and it has a lot of memorable moments and characters. The setting too, is just amazing with PS4 level graphics. I’m convinced that is partly why it is so fun to paint the minis 🙂
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Yes, I am blown away by how great it looks! That is one of the reasons why I’m playing video games chronologically, so that I don’t get too used to the pretty graphics newer games have and can still enjoy older games more easily. I do play more recent games from time to time (Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Assassin’s Creed Origins, Star Wars Battlefront II), but overall I try to play from old to newer, especially in a connected series such as Fallout. The post-apocalyptic setting is really fun to roleplay in.
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It is definitely nice to play a series in order and I try to do the same thing when possible. I’d never thought about playing games chronologically but I can see why you’re doing it. I tend to buy a system, play as many games as I want to on it and then buy the next one and start the process over. Your idea sounds a bit more organized and logical if I’m being honest 🙂
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Great progress all around! Nice job on the miniatures. I especially like the expression of the mechanic guy, as he looks a little bemused or sardonic. 😀
I haven’t played video games probably for a decade and reading the comments above makes me wish them a little. But I barely have time enough for my one hobby of miniature gaming so another time sink is out of the question. 😀
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I agree on the mechanic’s expression. I don’t remember him looking that way in the game but it makes him stand out against all of the other serious looking minis in the Fallout line.
I’m of the age where I grew up playing Super Mario Bros. and so video games have always been a part of my life. Having said that, I don’t have any kids so I have time for a couple of hobbies. In fact, it is the main reason I’ve been reluctant to have any children but maybe one day I will change my mind 🙂
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Love the painting mate, I always used to take out the legs off the ghouls to slow them down. Don’t like hunting super mutants without some long range thinning out the herd, but funnily enough my favourite thing to hunt was the death claws (not at the start of the game obviously). Sturgeon is spot on. I cannot remember which settlement I left him in. You have now made me want to go and have a look. I finished the game, but kept on going for all of the side missions, well that and deathclaw hunting. The easiest one to find is by the ghoul settlement. It spawns just across the river from there. If things get too tricky I run back for the protection of the multiple gun turrets that cover all approaches to it.
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Cheers, mate! Watching ghouls pull themselves along the ground to try and get to you is pretty entertaining. I’m glad to hear this post was inspiring and I would encourage you to play Fallout 4 again since you have enjoyed it so much 🙂 Did you ever try hunting Deathclaws in the Glowing Sea? That area always scares me because there are so many nasty enemies crawling around there. I’m sure it would be a challenging place to fully explore. I have to admit that I didn’t do it on my first playthrough. Maybe I will on my current one 🙂
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Out of interest have you played 76 yet. I heard it had poor reviews and didn’t bother with it.
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I’m the same as you. I’ve heard some people say it isn’t that bad or it is an improved game since it was released but the bad reviews and the online only gameplay turned me away from it. I would maybe get it when it is heavily discounted but I also think I’m likely to keep playing Fallout 4 until the next game comes out 🙂
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