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Fallout – Assaultron and Some Terrain

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This week was a slow one for me hobby-wise, especially in terms of motivation but even with that, I managed to finish a couple of things. While I was initially motivated to work on the failed Overpass terrain project, outside of that, I’ve been dragging a bit on painting Fallout miniatures. I think the combination of not planning on playing again for a while and wanting to focus more on terrain (which I actually need) has kept me from being as motivated as I want to be. I need to get more minis painted because they are taking up the most storage space in my hobby desk but I’m sure that will come with time. If nothing else, I did get another mini done this week. Here is my second Assaultron which hasn’t been varnished or given rust effects yet. I’ll explain why in a second.

While I admittedly rushed through painting this mini a bit and it could use even more contrast, I think it looks good enough. These robots aren’t the most fun to paint but they aren’t the worst either. There are some parts on their arms that a bit fiddly and hard to know what to do with. I’m running low on the foam I use to apply rust effects and I’m not sure exactly how I’m going to get more (I’ve gotten all mine from the packaging of other things I bought) so I’m going to try and ration it by using the foam on multiple minis at a time. I’m sure you’ll see this mini again at some point in the future when I’ve rusted it up properly.

If you have an excellent memory, you may recall that I did one of these not too long ago but in gray colors. The sharp-eyed, Grumpy Gnome, pointed out that Assaultrons usually have a green tint to them so I wanted to make sure this one looks more accurate to the game. Here is a quick comparison of the two. I think he was right and the green one looks better overall. Assaultrons are dangerous in Fallout and cost 300 points to use in a game which is a ton so I will be surprised if I ever need to use all three sculpts at the same time. That is good because it does bother me slightly that these two don’t match, even if they do look good next to each other.

I also managed to knock out the collapsed Overpass terrain I showed off a little while ago. It was really quick and easy to finish once I got the white spirit I needed. I think the results are very realistic and it is a solid piece of terrain. Please excuse the clearly still drying glue in the pictures. I forgot to put the grass on until I was setup to take some pictures!

To follow up on a couple of things I discussed last week, I actually did get a new laptop this week and was able to start working again. I’m pretty behind on things but getting caught up slowly but surely. I think I’ve mentioned it before but I work for a software company and generally, tech companies are great to work for. The benefits are excellent and so is the working environment at my company, but as I’m sure many of you know, the economy is shaky right now and its looking like not the best time to be in this industry anyway. Several big companies like Meta and Amazon are laying off a lot of people and my company has had a sudden change in leadership. While we seem to be doing fine financially and the CEO change isn’t something to panic about, there was a mention of layoffs being a possibility in the future. As a result of all this, I’m thinking the somewhat obvious thought that it seems like we could be in for difficult times in the next year or so. Is anybody else hearing or experiencing these things?

While I haven’t bought any new board games yet, I have been looking at least one caught my eye. I started looking through my Arkham Horror cards this and before I knew it, I played a couple of games. It is such a fun game and I’m not sure exactly how long of a break I took from it but I should have never left! I have some content for the game sitting around that I hadn’t even played yet (shame on me!) so at least for now, I’m going to try and address that by playing a bit more Arkham in the coming months. What this probably means is that you’ll have to listen to me yammer on about how great of a game it is more in the future!

Lastly, Thanksgiving is coming up in the US and I will be busy for at least some of the break. I probably won’t be able to paint as much this upcoming week too so I wouldn’t be surprised if I don’t have any update next week. For those of you who are traveling, I hope you stay safe and I’ll be keeping up with everyone else’s work as best I can in the meantime!

27 thoughts on “Fallout – Assaultron and Some Terrain”

  1. Good progress on the mini and terrain Jeff! 🙂 Both look really good! I like both Assaultrons equally to be honest! I think it’s a bit of topsy turvy world all round at the minute, with at least some uncertainty somewhere, so it’s nice to be able to get some enjoyment out of minis and games when we can!

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    1. Thank you, John! I’m really glad to hear you think all of the new Fallout stuff looks good. I couldn’t agree more that its nice to have an escape with all of the craziness in the world lately too!

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  2. Really like the colours on the Assaultron Jeff, but I also like the original one, and would be very easy to keep track on the tabletop with the two different colours.
    Great that you have enjoyed playing Arkham again, as with all that investment, getting the most out of it makes sense.
    I think it’s difficult all over at the moment, I’m currently retraining to explore other avenues.
    Hope you have a great Thanksgiving

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    1. I hadn’t thought about that with the varying colors. I guess there is some upside to my color choice mistake!

      Sometimes it is tempting to buy new games but if you already have something you like, like Arkham Horror, maybe you don’t need something new after all.

      I hope your retraining goes well and thank you for the Thanksgiving wishes. I didn’t get a chance to email you this week like I had hoped but I went back and looked at the Overpass kit and I threw away both broken pieces so I won’t send you pictures. I’ll just get a new one if I decide I want to move forward with that project down the road. I really appreciate your offer to help with it and I probably should not have thrown those pieces away so quickly no matter how annoyed I was at the time!

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      1. No problem at all mate, I find if I break something, if I can’t instantly think of a fix, it’s best to put it away, while thinking about it, so I don’t do anything harsh like bin it. Saved me a lot of money over the years ! LOL

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  3. I think they look great together, and the rust will definitely finish unifying them. I’d assume these would have been sold to companies and painted in whatever scheme the company used so a bit of colour variation makes sense to me.

    Good luck on the work front, uncertainty is never fun. We have the opposite problem in Australia at the moment, can’t find anyone to hire, so companies are holding on to people tight, which is good if you’re over here.

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    1. Cheers, Nic. I hadn’t thought about different paint schemes on Assaultrons but you’re exactly right. There’s no reason that couldn’t happen!

      It sounds like you’re where the US was a year or two ago. Its not the worst place to be in, especially if you’re looking for a new job. My wife would love to move to your country so I probably better keep her from seeing this information 😉

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    1. While in some scenarios they are more like environmental hazards, you can play as the Robots faction too. You can also customize the loadout of them too. I don’t have the expansion that lets you do that but it is something that I may be get in the future as it sounds fun.

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  6. Loving it mate! They both look brilliant and given that they were made a couple of hundred years prior, makes perfect sense that they would be slightly different colors.

    Your ruins look the part. It is a shame about the bigger overpass. I know you would have brought it all to life.

    I think with an incredibly unstable geopolitical situation (Trump, Brexit, Musk, China), Covid and eventual post-Covid measures, inflation, the global shipping crisis, climate change and the War in Ukraine it seems obvious that we are in for some rough times to come. And that does not even take into account potential unknowns, ie the next pandemic, war or natural disaster. That said, all we can do is soldier on and deal with what comes.

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    1. Thank you, mate! I’m really glad you liked both things I finished this week. It was nice to have made some progress on Fallout as well. While I have a bit more to do on Hellboy in the near term, I think I’ll see if I can’t focus a bit more on Fallout in the remainder of the year.

      I couldn’t agree more with you. There are a lot of things that could really hurt the global economy and I think with companies cutting back, layoffs across a lot of industries in the US are inevitable. There are some tough times ahead…

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      3. We celebrated a few days early as an old former colleague of mine from my Policing days came to visit. It was a most excellent Thanksgiving, in large part due to Mrs. GG making a perfect pumpkin pie.

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  7. Mate, I love that green on the Assaultron! It’s beautifully painted and highlighted, and the colours are dark enough to give it a real sinister edge. Great stuff!

    The scenery is great too, very realistic and the washes have worked very well.

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    1. Thanks for the kind words on both of these, Matt. I was lacking motivation this week but when I hear others liked what I worked on, that really helps keep me focused on getting things done.

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  8. I think both Assaultrons look pretty awesome. I think I would go a little less heavy on the rust and wear/tear on the latest one. Then you would have one that has really been through it and one that hasn’t been active in quite awhile. The older one looks like it could have been in the sun/elements for a long time, and the paint has faded.

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    1. Thank you, Faust and that is a great idea. The brown rust paint won’t show up as heavily because the newest Assaultron is dark green but I’ll try applying rust with a lighter hand and see how it turns out 🙂

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      1. For rust, I usually use a black,
        dark brown, red-brown, light brown, orange, and sometimes a mustard. Using a combo of those with a sponge, going dark to light works really nicely. If you get too much orange or yellow, you can go back over it with a dark color too. Anyways, the dark colors should make things look dirty/spotty, and yea will mostly blend in with the dark green. The lighter rust colors should should show up pretty decently. You could also stiple some silver over the dark green for scratches, bullet marks, etc.

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  9. I do like the green one, but I think they work find together, Fallout is a setting where things could be a bit mixed up and less uniformed.
    The concrete pillar looks grand as well.
    On the work front there is a lot of uncertainty at the moment regarding economy, I’d be surprised if most companies are not thinking about options.

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    1. That is very true. A little messiness is good in Fallout. Thanks for the kind words as well. Its both comforting to know that others are seeing the same kind of financial concerns but also sobering that any of us could be affected by tough economic times!

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