As the title suggests, I don’t have a lot of flashy stuff to show off but I made progress on a couple of things and wanted to share before the holiday weekend ends.
First up, we have an objective marker. If you’ve followed this site at all in the last year, you know that I love getting these finished but find getting motivated to paint them difficult. Fortunately, this one was really easy and I got it done in a couple of hours which is pretty fast for me. I now have five of the ten markers I own done which is not bad. Unfortunately, all of the remaining unpainted ones are more elaborate and will take more time and work but I’ll keep chipping away as I get the motivation.
Another thing I was happy to finish even if it isn’t terribly exciting is a second piece of railroad track. I am a little surprised that the newest one looks quite a bit different than the previous one. The rust and the train tracks are a bit different looking when placed next to each other. I’m not too bothered about this as train tracks vary from piece to piece but it is surprising how easily variation can sneak into your painting! I did get out a ruler and measure these pieces of track and this covers 16 inches thus far. That means I’m a little less than halfway there to having enough track to make it across the standard 3 x 3 Fallout board. As with most terrain projects, this will be a marathon and not a sprint!
Finally, it was a big shopping weekend in the US this week with sales galore. I somehow always seem to get myself excited about some kind of potential sale and this year, I decided that I would try and get Kingdom Death Monster which is a very expensive and premium board game. One of the few that I don’t own and would like to get. Fortunately, it wasn’t to be and it sold out within seconds before I could even try to order one. Why fortunately? Since missing out, I realized that I don’t really have the capacity to take on another game for a while. I’d be better served focusing on playing Arkham Horror: The Card Game, painting up Hellboy, and getting more Fallout stuff done so I can play it more in 2022 as well. That is a ton of stuff to play, assemble, and paint and I should stick to that for now.
Instead, I decided to grab some higher quality MDF terrain that I sorely need for Fallout. Black Site Studio, who is kind of like the American equivalent of 4ground because they also make pre-painted terrain, has a line of Fallout-friendly terrain. Most of their offerings were out of stock but I did pick up a shack/shotgun style house that should be handy and I also got this…
An overpass looks like a nice way of adding some verticality to a Fallout table and I think that if I can find a way to add a bit of texture to the “concrete” pieces, it could end up looking really nice. It doesn’t look bad at all as it is now of course but it should be an interesting challenge for me when I get around to it. There are further pieces you can add so you could easily have a board that features an extended overpass. My hope is that I will get on with this MDF terrain much better than Sarissa and it will take a bit less time overall, since it is pre-painted. Black Site Studio’s products cost a bit more but I think it is worth the money if everything I described above turns out to be true.
I want to give a special thanks to Stewart Blaine, inventor of the Blaine Terrain Scale, and creator of the witty and entertaining website, A Terrible Loss of Lead and Wealth, for providing the idea and inspiration when I wasn’t feeling great about making more terrain. I’m hoping Black Site Studio can ship my order reasonably quick and I can get going on some more Fallout terrain to right previous wrongs!
Kuribo's Painting 
The markers look good and so does the rail track. It’s very difficult to get two pieces to be identical but as long as they blend together where they abut each other they will look natural enough. Nice MDF piece too and if you are looking for texture you might want to consider chinchilla dust. 🙂
LikeLiked by 4 people
Yeah, chinchilla dust is totally the way to go. It works really well and is dirt cheap.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Cheers, mate and I agree about keeping the train tracks looking the same. Chinchilla dust sounds like a great idea. My wife is terrified of rodents so buying some of that should put the fear of God into her as well! 😀
LikeLiked by 2 people
That poor Synth. You have captured that tragedy quite aptly.
I am loving that overpass. Perfect for aesthetic atmosphere as well as game play verticality.
As already suggested, I have heard good things about Chinchilla dust.
https://markamorin.com/2021/04/02/aztec-temple-columns-and-my-new-love-for-chinchilla-dust/
LikeLiked by 3 people
It does look a bit like The Institute’s last stand, doesn’t it? We’ll see if that plays out on the battlefield one day hopefully 🙂
Glad to hear you think the terrain idea has potential too. There are several other pieces and even ramshackle walkways I can add to that one so I should be able to make something fun to play on and looks good too.
Sounds like the Chinchilla dust union got to you too, mate! In all seriousness, I think that could be a great option. I’ll have to see if I can’t figure out how to make the cement look cracked too. Then I’ll really be in business!
LikeLike
I started to read this post earlier and my first thought was “I wonder how long it’ll be before TIM suggests chinchilla dust?” 🙂 Its good stuff, TIM and Mark Morin put me onto it, should be just what you need. Nice work on the railway and the fallen synth too.
LikeLiked by 4 people
I’ve seen how well the dust works for TIM and Mark and it didn’t even enter my mind, how daft of me! 🙂 Thanks for the kind words on the latest pieces as well!
LikeLiked by 1 person
The marker looks excellent Jeff, and ties in well with your synth’s. The track is coming along nicely, and the variation in colour adds to the effect.
The overpass looks cool, for a asphalt texture you could try liquid greenstuff, while it’s still wet dab it with a sponge, it gives a great texture. for broken pieces if you want a deep concrete texture, use some normal greenstuff, and press in texture with a broken piece of breeze block (I think you call them Cinder Blocks in the US)
LikeLiked by 4 people
Thanks for the kind words, Dave! Those are really cool ideas and both are things I would have never thought of. I was thinking I might need a specialty product like AK Interactive or Vallejo make but I think your ideas are likely to be cheaper and more effective so thanks for sharing! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
To echo all the other posts, chinchilla dust is perfect for texturing MDF. That broken overpass is a great piece of scenery and perfect for post-apoc gaming. Great job on the marker, too, and the train track looks suitably grimy!
LikeLiked by 4 people
Thanks for the kind words, Matt! It sounds like Chinchilla dust is the way to go and knowing that several people, including yourself, like the look of the overpass will help motivate me to make it look as nice as I can! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Judging by the comments so far it looks like only meself and Dave Stone don’t have shares in the International Chinchilla Dust Company! 😉 Good that you’re making progress though, Jeff!
LikeLiked by 4 people
Haha, the Chinchilla Dust Company’s Sales Team seems to sense that there’s blood in the water over here and they’re ready to earn their commission! Thanks for the laugh and kind words as always, John! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well I appreciate the shout out and looking forward to seeing how the the Kuribo bump will rocket my stupid silly blog upwards. 😀. Thanks.
Getting and providing feedback is what makes blogging fun and worthwhile so I’m happy that my little comments here are so.
Markers that match the game genre can be tedious to do but they do add greatly to the table presentation and worth the effort in the end. 😀
Looking forward to the freeway overpass. I’ll have to check that company out.
LikeLiked by 2 people
You’re very welcome! I get a fair bit of traffic from your site which is possibly you eagerly checking my site for updates but I suspect some of your readers somehow end up visiting me which I appreciate! 🙂 I mostly wanted to credit you for the wise and helpful suggestion because it got me out of a potential rut!
I should have saved the markers for further along when I had more terrain done as I think they’re kind of like the cherry-on-top type of project when everything else you need is done but alas, here I am, painting them instead of basic terrain that I need 😀 Black Site Studio does quite a bit of different things but I’d say they skew more towards non-historical wargaming settings. Hopefully they have some cool things you can use though! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great work on the Ex-Synth. Is that the one with the dodgy pose you mentioned in a previous post!? 😉
I wouldn’t worry too much about the differences in the track sections (though this is why I batch-paint stuff!) Both look great and I didn’t notice at a glance. You can always also go over all of them once the final one(s) are complete with a bit opf weathering and that should unify them all.
Love that ruined overpass kit! You will of course have to get a second raised section to butt up against it and build a raider base in there!
I also bought a bag of chinchilla dust, but haven’t used it yet.. 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
No, this one was sculpted this way 🙂 It would have taken quite a bit of work to get it looking as good as this dead synth does!
Batch painting is wise in situations like this though I find it a bit tedious. I’ve been doing a bit of batch painting with Hellboy minis and its working okay even if I’m not as fully committed as you are, mate! 🙂
I’m thinking the same way on the overpass terrain… It could be really great if it works out! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Every method and technique has a time and place the way I see it! 👍
LikeLiked by 1 person
Late to the blog here but worth it for the comments! Never heard of chinchilla dust but sounds like some something I could use in my projects. I’ve been using a fine artist pumice to rub on for texture but the dust sounds way nicer, and cheaper!
That overpass is very nice, it’s amazing what you can find in mdf these days.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I got off my usual schedule and it was a holiday weekend so you’re most certainly excused! 🙂 I think MDF is not as useful for MESBG as it is for a lot of other wargame settings but there is some cool stuff out there, especially if you don’t mind deviating a bit from the look of the Peter Jackson movies.
LikeLike
Man, I was so excited when I saw the picture of Kingdom Death, I thought you’d gone and snared it. I saw they were selling them online at the original Kickstarter price, sorely tempted, but still a little too rich for me.
I have to disagree though, you can never have too many games, never too big a backlog of things to paint. Think of it all as an investment, one which will sap all your money and take away all your free time, but boy, is it worth it😉
Lovely track by the way, should look great running across the battlefield👍
LikeLiked by 1 person
That was a real bait and switch on you then, mate! 🙂 I didn’t go into greater detail in this post but one other thing that concerns me about Kingdom Death is the poor availability of the game overall. It seems like there could be times where you want to get something for the game and it simply isn’t available. The game may be fantastic (in fact, I’m sure it is!) but if you can’t buy what you want for it, then it isn’t going to be that much fun for you in the future, if you know what I mean. That and I already play three “lifestyle” games and you have to draw the line somewhere!
It is a good thing my wife doesn’t read the blog and see your investment advice too, mate! You must be trying to get me in trouble! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
I didn’t realise there were issues in getting hold of KDM and its ancillaries, though I haven’t paid it that much attention. I do get their e-mails and when I visit their site there always seems to be stock, but that’s only once in a blue moon and usually just to look at the pictures of painted minis they display.
Lol, I’m good at giving advice aren’t I😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Its really wild with KDM. I get the impression that the company that makes it is keeping things scarce so they can always have people “pre-ordering” stuff like the base game and then they deliver that once a year or something fairly infrequent like that. I don’t care for that business model all that much even if I like most everything else I’ve seen about the game. I just want to buy something when I’m ready and/or interested. That isn’t too much to ask, I don’t think! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s tricky, as they’re a small company and I think KDM is all they do, so I imagine they only do enough print runs to meet the current demand. If they could mass produce the price would drop some, but I can’t ever see that being the case other than when they run a Kickstarter campaign to fund it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know what you mean, mate. It might be for economic reasons and that makes sense for them as a company but it definitely rubs people the wrong way and I can’t think of many other games that have been out as long as KDM and yet, you have to work so hard to even get it because its so scarce and not in print. KDM is a very unique game for better and worse!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like the painting on those Synths, and I especially love how the wrecked (dead?) one fits with the scheme. I am a sucker for thematic markers, perhaps in part because I never get round to doing them myself.
That wrecked off-ramp terrain will be perfect for Fallout.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t know what to call them them when they’re “disabled” in combat either, mate! 🙂 Markers are one of these things that really add to any game but they’re rarely important enough to finish before minis and terrain. Having said that, I bet you can make some awesome ones for MCP when you get time and motivation! 🙂
LikeLike