This is a very strange week. I would not say it was a very good week in that I had to attend a funeral on Friday (it wasn’t for someone I knew well but it was pretty far away from Chicago so it made for a very tiring day) and things happened at work that seem like it could make my job which I’ve had for two and a half years become pretty unpleasant in the future which is a shame. I have generally liked my job and recently I’ve stayed when some of my friends have left for greener pastures and now I wonder whether I will end up doing the same. I have stayed because I keep believing and hoping that things will get better and they do for a while and then we take a big step back again. That is one of the funny things about adulthood that I had a hard time accepting at a younger age. I wanted to find the perfect job that matched my interests and my own ideals but I’ve learned the hard lessons of adulthood which tend to make us all a bit cynical. Everyone works in a company or organization that has flaws and with people who have flaws (including ourselves). Its really just a question of how bad the flaws are and how much you enjoy working there in spite of them that determines most things. Regardless, hopefully work gets better or isn’t as bad as I fear it will become. Thankfully, I don’t imagine it will be a drag on the website or hobbying for reasons I will explain next.
I say that because I have a couple of great things to share this week that I am proud of. First off, I got another objective done for Fallout. I like this one because these storage containers are common in Fallout 4, especially around military areas. It is a shame that this wasn’t done in time for the previous report but that’s not a big deal. It is funny because every time I start one of these objectives, I think it will be quick and easy to paint and it always takes more time and effort than expected. I might have overdone the chipping just a bit but I think it looks nice and realistic. I tried to make the weapons look like they were in good shape so that this little objective looks worth fighting over. I do think that I should start using these objectives in battle reports since they are time consuming and I might as well start making using of them as a kind of reward for the effort.
Even more exciting than that, I got a start on a new faction (or army if you want to use that term) for Fallout. This one is dedicated to friend of the site, Grumpy Gnome, who runs a great website and is an all around good bloke! Although I say that, and he is actually a fan of The Institute which is a bit suspicious and I think he might actually be a synth himself! 🙂 That is actually the crux of what The Institute is in Fallout 4. They are a secretive group that has greater knowledge of pre-apocalypse technology than seemingly everyone else and nobody understands their motivations. They are a real bogeyman because they create robots that are so lifelike that your neighbor or a stranger you come across could be a robot agent and not a real person and you have almost no way of knowing! There is more complexity behind them than that but hopefully that is enough background to understand the minis for those of you who don’t know Fallout very well.
I don’t know if the photos completely do the paint job justice, but I worked on this article yesterday after the funeral and didn’t have patience to retake them all. It really does look sharp in NMM with all of the little details. I took a few artistic liberties and added some colorful wiring to really underscore the mechanical nature of these early synths that very much remind me of the Terminator movies. I do question my sanity a bit because I spent quite a long of time getting this painted up (nearly a week) and I will need to paint at least 3-4 more, if not around, 7-8 eventually so I may end up regretting setting the bar so high.
It could be a byproduct of the time I spent on it and I’m certainly biased but I think my paint job looks better and more accurate to Fallout than the official paint job Modiphius put on their box art above. I hesitate to point that out because I don’t want to sound arrogant and I’m certainly not trying to be. It was actually a thrill to work on this mini because I thought I had a shot of breaking new ground with it and I kept thinking, I think I can do one better than any other Institute mini I’ve seen before and well, I’ll let you be the judge if I actually got there. I’m sure someone will come along and outdo me eventually too!
One other thing I wanted to share relates to Fallout terrain. I mentioned a potential solution to the radioactive barrels which I wasn’t liking from Tamiya. Well it doesn’t look like a lot yet but I’m thinking if I use a bit of water effects, I can make a radioactive pool on this piece of terrain and forget the barrels. Annoyingly, I lost the cap this week on my AK Interactive Still Water which I will use for the pools and so I’m not sure if I use it, the remaining resin will dry up or what. I’m very tempted to try and do the water effects on this piece of terrain though as a test piece because I don’t want to make five more (I need six in total) and find out that I don’t like how it looks. So I’ve got a bit of a dilemma there but I wouldn’t be surprised if I throw caution to the wind and add the radioactive water this week!
Heading into Star Wars corner, I finished the first season of The Mandalorian and I was incorrect to worry about the quality of the show. I had just watched the 4th episode which is definitely the worst in my opinion, but I did enjoy every episode afterwards and there was a really impactful death in the first season which I did not expect. I can really see why people enjoy the show and I can safely say that it is the best thing going on in Star Wars recently. I saw that we’re getting a deluge of new Star Wars shows and I don’t feel great about that as I think it is overkill and a sign that Disney has not learned that Star Wars cannot flood the market or it becomes less special but if every show is fantastic like The Mandalorian. Maybe I’ll end up eating my words!
Finally, I will leave you with another Star Wars card. I acquired not one but two Star Wars sketch cards on eBay recently and this one I got a real bargain on which surprised me as it is incredibly high quality. He isn’t the most important character in Rogue One by a longshot but I liked Galen Erso and thought Mads did a great job making him a noble character as well. The artist, Matthew Hirons, is really talented and the likeness is top-notch. My goal is to get at least one sketch card of all of the major Rogue One characters since I love the movie so I’ll likely have plenty more to share in the coming months if people enjoy (or even don’t mind!) seeing Card Corner!
Kuribo's Painting 
Sorry for your loss, even if you did not know them well you cared enough to go.
Great painting as usual…. and thank you for the very kind words! It is with a touch of irony that the comments on your real world work experiences match my feelings about the oh so flawed Institute. Despite their past though, I still believe they are the best hope for a better future in the Fallout universe. Of course I may well feel that way because I might just be a Synth!
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Thank you. Funerals are always difficult even if you didn’t know the person well.
You’re welcome for the kind words! I hadn’t really ever thought about The Institute being the best hope for humanity in Boston anyway but that makes a lot of sense. They certainly had the technology and the ability to really transform the area. I felt like their ideals were not as noble as the Minutemen or the Railroad which is why I preferred those two factions 🙂
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A difficult week I think, Jeff, so hope you’re OK and that work takes a turn for the better for you! I like the marker and the synth – not exaggerating here, but I like your mini way more than the “official” version! 🙂
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It was not the best for sure but it was nice to have working on the website and painting to look forward to once I got through the work week. And don’t encourage me, John! If I start outdoing the box art for miniatures, my ego could really swell 😉
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I agree you did better than the box art, several items that stand out for me are the details on the weapon and the base. Looking forward to a whole squad of Synth!
Regarding your job, it sucks being an adult doesn’t it. 😁 one word of advice, don’t burn any bridges, it’s a small world and it’s amazing what paths you’ll cross. (is that mixing metaphors? )
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Thanks, Bret! I’m glad the time spent on the Synth paid off.
Being adult is certainly not what you expect it to be growing up. I think your advice is sage as well. I try not to burn bridges and be professional as much as possible so I’m sure whatever happens I’ll come out on top one way or another eventually.
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Great work on the objective and the figure. Like others I prefer your version. For some reason people think the box art is how something has to be painted but in truth you are free to do what you like. It is after all only how the artist sees it. Different if you are being true to life or a film or something but otherwise just express yourself. Welcome to adulthood! It gets worse when you have bills that need paying, then you can feel really trapped! In reality life evolves as you know and few people leave jobs when they are happy. Whatever your destiny holds I have no doubt it will sort itself out for the best. Time will tell how things are going and any mind fog will clear in due course and allow you to see the best way forward for yourself. Being happy is key in my opinion. 🙂
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Cheers, TIM! I agree that the box art is just one interpretation of the miniature but it is not the law. I think GW does a good job of sharing how they paint miniatures but it can foster the mentality of “must follow the official paint scheme” at the same time. Those painters may also be the type of people who just want to follow a scheme and not do something unique though too to be fair.
I’m sure many of my peers in their mid-30’s feel trapped as you say! I’m lucky to not have any children, which I hear are quite expensive, though I will soon have a mortgage to contend with so that will constrict my freedom a bit more. I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiment. While things are uncertain now, I know that with time comes clarity and I will know whether I need a new job or should stick with what I have. It won’t be a fun process necessarily but hopefully things stabilize quickly! 🙂
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I absolutely love that Institute miniature. I guess that my Fallout knowledge is rather behind the times as Fallout 2 is the last one that I know well. I guess that later in the story they get better at making pretend people as I think that I could probably work out that one isn’t a real person 🙂
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Thank you! I’m really glad to hear it 🙂 Fallout 3 is where I started so I don’t have great knowledge of the early games, unfortunately. Each game is set in a different major US city and so The Institute is located in Boston but they are not in other areas like Las Vegas or Washington DC which are the settings for more recent games if that makes sense. There are other generations of synths and they look more human-like so stay tuned and we’ll see if you can pick out the synths as I paint the more advanced ones 🙂
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Very nice looking robot. I can see how all the little details just beg for a slow and careful paint job but the end result is worth it. 😀
I hope that the work situation will get better soon. Times like these one can be thankful even to have a job is one way to look at it. Being an adult is what it is. It’s not that one gets trapped it’s that the cost of making big changes goes up along with the amount of effort… 😀
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Thanks Stew! 🙂 I questioned why I was spending so much time on tiny details at times but I’m glad to hear that you think it paid off too.
Definitely about lucky to have a job. Its strange but with my profession, it is pretty in-demand and people will “snipe” technical writers from their jobs when they still have a job. So I’m lucky in that finding a new job wouldn’t be too difficult and I feel like I have the upper hand and a bit of control over the situation in that sense. With that said, things have been a bit rocky all year at work and I’ve been too lazy to put in the effort to find a job so we’ll see if this finally is the tipping point for me or if things get better to keep me where I am. I’m sure it will be an incredibly exciting story to follow haha!
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Sorry to hear you’re having a rough week. The objective looks great
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Cheers and I’m hopeful that things get better. If not, maybe I’ll try a nature retreat 😉
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Definitely works
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Great work on the synth! I’ve only just hit the point in my Fallout 4 playthrough where I’ve started to learn about the Institute, so that’s great timing. I think your work looks better than the box art, I feel it stands out more.
Re: Star Wars, seeing the amount of Star Wars related projects Disney is planning to pump out has me worried that a lot of them will fail and Disney will interpret that as people being tired of Star Wars. Which might hurt the more promising upcoming Star Wars related projects. I feel like Disney is not very good at learning from their mistakes or is incapable of understanding them. I enjoy the Mandalorian, particularly season 2, but I feel it’s still only scratching the surface of what’s possible in the Star Wars universe. And the extremely positive reception (from what I can tell) makes me worried the bar is set very low. I’d rather have them focus on something truly special rather than make a dozen mediocre shows about spin-offs of spin-offs of spin-offs. But we’ll see I suppose… 🙂
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Thanks! 🙂 That is a fun part of Fallout 4 and you start to really think about which faction you want to align with too.
I couldn’t agree more with everything you said. They’re making too many spin-offs and some of them seem kind of desperate to me. Its almost like after Solo, The Last Jedi, and Rise of Skywalker, Disney doesn’t know what works anymore and are trying to make spin-offs of anything that seems remotely popular. I’m almost positive several of those new Star Wars shows are going to fail to find an audience but maybe I’ll be wrong! I completely agree on The Mandalorian too. I find it to be good but I keep wanting it to get better. For every great episode, the next one is just okay or even mediocre. Star Wars, as a whole, isn’t in a great place and has become oversaturated with mediocre content that doesn’t mesh together which is something I never thought I would see. I hope it gets better but I think it is going to continue to be rocky for a while yet, sadly.
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