Fallout Wasteland Warfare – The Burns Residence Done!

As I often say, it took longer than expected but I’m glad to be able to show off the finished ruined house this time around. I have a fair bit of hobby-related topics to yammer on about this time so I won’t waste any time. Let’s start by discussing the Burns Residence.

Friend of the site, Azazel, gave me some timely feedback to mentally chew on and it helped inspire me to rethink a few things and I think improve the overall paint job. He also sparked some other ideas which I’ll discuss near the end of this article. The big thing I decided to do was try to represent wood with paint that has mostly chipped off. One of the things that inspired this idea was looking at reference photos of abandoned houses which seem to have the most damage present on the porches, especially if they aren’t covered. Since that is exactly what we have here, I thought I’d try to represent that as best I could.

You can get a sharper look at what I did later on but I’m pretty proud of it and I think it really sells the idea that this is a ruined house. I wish that I would have used the technique on all the windows as I think they would look less stark that way but sometimes you’ve gotta learn as you go and that’s what happened here. I did go back and add more chipping to the windows to make them look even more damaged and try to tie them into the other parts like the shutters. I also added some plywood to some of the windows to drive home the dilapidated appearance even further.

If you recall, a couple of weeks ago, I showed where I messed up a part on this door, well I figured why not add some plywood there to cover up my mistake and reinforce the broken piece? Now I have no concerns about it breaking and you can’t easily see where I messed up so that is a win-win and perhaps a sign that I’m slowly improving at terrain, even if I don’t always feel like it.

One part of this kit that is somewhat odd is the back doorway. There is wood covering it in an interesting way. I’m guessing its to support the overall building and keep everything stable but at the same time, there is a stairway (which Fallout minis can barely fit on without tipping over, unfortunately) and there is hole in the floor which is normally where a door would go. Its very curious that they left the hole there because there’s nothing on top to secure the door. Its a nitpicky thing but I would like to see that removed altogether since it serves no practical purpose that I can discern. You also have the option of either gluing this staircase to the building or leaving it unglued. I fear that it will be easy to accidentally break off since it sticks out and doesn’t have a perfect join so I’m leaving it unglued. I appreciate that Black Site gives you flexibility on staircases like this but it does make for a difficult decision as well.

It was a couple years ago the last time I worked on a larger piece of terrain so I thought I’d take a few side-by-side photos to compare them and see if I’ve learned anything.

I think the Burns Residence has a noticeably better interior and so I can feel good about my growth there. I think one area where I could have improved the Burns Residence is using slightly lighter shades of blue and weathering the windows even further. There’s plenty more to learn and improve at, I’m sure, but its nice to see some growth and I’m sure if I practice on terrain more, I can get even better.

Of course, its nice to have two houses done now because that should mean I am closer to being able to make a proper residential board in the near future. I think its likely I’ll try and get another game in soon to celebrate. It also means that I really need to turn my attention towards something that I’ve wanted to work on and haven’t yet. And that means creating some furniture to go in my post-apocalyptic dollhouses! I love immersion both in taking photos and in battle reports in general and that is one thing that is obviously missing in my collection currently.

The challenge is that there aren’t as many sources for post-apocalyptic or even just damaged modern furniture as you might think. TTCombat makes some, Mantic makes a little bit, and there might be some model railroad stuff you can use in a pinch but that’s about it. The better bet is 3D printing because Modiphius makes some STLs and then there is Tiny Furniture which has a pretty wide selection too. I think I will start by dipping into some of what TTCombat makes but I’ve realized over the last few months that for me, as a Fallout Wasteland Warfare enthusiast and someone who wants to get more and more creative with terrain in the future, there is almost no choice for me but to get a 3D printer. There are other games out there where they are less necessary but thanks in part to Modiphius’s pretty strong support, there is a lot you can print and paint for the game but only if you own one. I’ve always been a bit lukewarm on owning a 3D printer and if I had friend would print stuff for me, I’d probably rely on them to get around having to buy one, but I don’t and so for me, getting a 3D printer seems inevitable at this point. They certainly open up hobby possibilities like no other product or tool on the market can currently.

Before I get further afield, I did want to show a few cinematic pictures I took using the Burns Residence as well. It may not have furniture but I still tried to take some cool images showing how it might be used in the future.

Truthfully, when I bought this terrain, I envisioned it serving as a base for either Super Mutants or Raiders since its so destroyed and unfortunately, Super Mutants don’t fit in the doors well so I think its going to be a raider base primarily. I look forward to painting up the remaining Raider in my Core Set and then showing them off in and around this raggedy house. I think you may find that it fits them like glove but we’ll see!

Getting back to Azazel’s feedback, he recommended some additional weathering techniques that post-apocalyptic homes (or indeed long abandoned ones tend to have) which I’d love to try out. I actually was leaning towards doing some things like adding streaking grime underneath the windows but after some in-game research, I found that the houses in Fallout 4 do not have this kind of wear. I’m guessing its because the designers and artists at Bethesda decided it was so dry there that they wouldn’t have that the kind of damage but it was a bit of a bummer as I have the paints to do that sort of thing and I’d like to experiment with it more in the future. I also do miss the moss growing on various things which is what you’d see at most abandoned houses, unless it is a very dry area.

If you think about it, post-apocalyptic settings tend to range from either being like Fallout or The Road where things are desolate, little to no plants or animals survive or they’re more like The Last of Us or The Walking Dead where the apocalypse is fairly vibrant and buildings are being consumed by nature, for lack of a better way to put it. I really enjoy working in the Fallout space for a variety of reasons but I think down the road, I might try my hand at a Walking Dead or zombie themed diorama like the fantastic one pictured above by Patrice-Vincent. I don’t have any firm ideas but would like to work in that setting at least once and I’ve always wanted to have an excuse to paint some zombies too as they’re pretty versatile models and you can do a lot of different things with their clothing. Azazel’s work over at Azazel’s Bit Box really proves that well. I don’t know when it might happen but I think down the road, possibly even a year or two from now, expect something along those lines. In the meantime, I’m going to celebrate getting that large chunk of terrain done by knocking out some minis that have been waiting to be painted for a while now.