While I was initially thinking I wouldn’t have enough material for an update this weekend, a few things happened which happily changed that. First up, we might as well discuss the subject in the title. I’ve made a fair bit of progress on the Raider in Power Armor. I spent a good amount of time adding some weathering and scratches to the metals to try and blend them all in together a bit more. Here’s a look at last week and then this week’s progress.
Last week.
This week
Its now starting to look a bit more Fallout-ish! Of course, its missing something pretty big and that is rust. I just received some new rust paint today that I’m eager to try out and so I expect next week should be a pretty strong update. The rust should elevate the look even further. An unexpected challenge that I wasn’t thinking about when I started working on this mini is that its hard to weather the metals and still capture highlights too. The scrap metal pieces are so small that that you really don’t have room for highlights, rust, and scratches. As a result, I suspect the metal will be a bit lacking in the highlights department but hopefully it still looks good in the end. We should have a better idea of that next week.
I also discovered that its easy to scratch off the paint on the back of the mini while working on the front so I’ll probably have to do the front side, and then varnish it before working on the back to protect the paint. Its not ideal but it should work out in the end and I’m happy to spend extra time on this mini as its the leader of the box.
Outside of painting, I also decided to work on updating my Fallout spreadsheet which records both what I own, what I’ve fully painted, and how much it will cost to buy the remaining miniatures I’m interested in owning. Somewhere John@JustNeedsVarnish is beaming with pride as I know he likes a good wargaming spreadsheet. If I were to buy everything that I’m missing miniature-wise (not including terrain or the soon to be released Core Sets in hard plastic), I estimate the cost at almost $1,700. The cost has nearly doubled in the last two-three years since I last updated the spreadsheet which is certainly noteworthy. Modiphius has been busy releasing stuff that is of interest so kudos to them for that. Stewart Blain (not to be confused with a certain street magician!) did a great article on hobby expenses and I’m a bit surprised by how much it will actually cost to fully collect Fallout 4 minis. That’s not even counting all of the other Fallout games they make models for like Fallout 3, New Vegas, and 76… I like to think that our hobby isn’t as expensive as some people make it out to be though I might have to eat my words on that!
My hobby spending strategy has always been slow and steady. Part of that is because I never wanted a huge backlog and I’m more motivated to buy things that I need. This also conveniently proves my theory that the hobby is to some degree as expensive as you want. Yes, paint and a few essentials are inescapable costs but you can space out your purchases and keep it fairly reasonable for a lot of games, if you want too. Truthfully, its so common to see posts on places like Reddit or Discord where someone says, “Excited to jump into 40k” and they dropped hundreds of dollars on a bunch of boxes of minis that will take years to paint. While I like the enthusiasm, I don’t recommend this approach as you may end up changing your mind about whatever game you invested in before you even assemble all those minis sadly.
Having said that, the updated spreadsheet makes me realize that I should try and buy a box of Fallout a month for a bit, when I can afford to, just to slowly reduce how much there is to buy. I need to flesh out the forces for a number of factions to keep battle reports interesting, for example. That was the other benefit to updating my spreadsheet that I wanted to mention. It makes it easy to take a bird’s eye view of my collection versus what is available which I appreciated. And that view has helped motivate me to buy more Fallout and get more done in general for the game. The ability to focus and get things done is sometimes underrated in our hobby, especially when there are many cool games and settings out there to tempt you. However, if you’re a slower painter like me, you have to focus on what you really love and dedicate time to it or you’ll quickly find that your collection and gaming have stagnated. In my case, my diversions into some board games last year is what really has me feeling this way. I certainly learned a valuable lesson there.
I say all that and at the same time, this week I’ve started contemplating whether I might finally try and make some kind of Necromunda diorama. I would like to try my hands at another diorama one of these days and doing a Necromunda one is something I’ve wanted to do for quite some time and keep pushing off. So of course, my advice at the end of the day is to do as I say and not as I do!
Kuribo's Painting 
Nice progress on the armour, the extra detail really makes it feel lived in. It’s an interesting challenge painting rusted/worn metal in NMM, you lose a lot of what makes NMM look metallic which is the reflections. Keen to see how you go there.
I’ve learned to pick my battles when it comes to buying hobby gear, you just can’t have everything (either it’s too expensive or you’ll never be able to paint it!).
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That is well said, Nic! NMM is not generally the preferred method for painting weathered metals, I think for that reason. That and I think NMM is probably more for competition painting and weathering has to be done carefully in that setting too.
In a setting like Warhammer The Old World/Warhammer Fantasy, those armies can cost quite a bit to collect. Its tough to collect anything GW because they pump out so much as well. Modiphius look disciplined in their release schedule compared to them, I would say 🙂 I struggle with the painting time thing as well though. I often look at my total Fallout collection and am underwhelmed by the amount I’ve painted. Hopefully one day I’ll feel differently!
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Great progress on the power armour Jeff, and sounds like a sound strategy varnishing the front when finished so as not to rub off the paint, like has happened on the back.
It can be scary when you start to realise just how much we spend, and how much more we want to spend, on our hobby, it’s probably why I don’t do spread sheets ! LOL If you then throw in OCD you may as well admit you’ll always be broke, unless you become a millionaire over night ! ROFL
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Thanks, Dave! I’m hoping that being careful with how I paint this mini pays off in the end anyway.
I hadn’t really thought about it but collecting anything GW is probably the most financially draining because they never stop releasing things and even Emperor’s Children and Dark Eldar get new stuff eventually haha! If I don’t forget, I’m going to check back in on all this in a while and we’ll see if I’ve put a dent in the amount I want to buy and if I’ve got some more stuff painted too. I’m hoping being disciplined and persistent will see me through.
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Nice work! Soon you’ll have a full gang of Raiders for the tabletop.
I think compared to 40k, FWW is cheaper since you don’t have a bunch of book keeping to do, and the models are worth the price in quality (just not the bases, I could never sort the clipping part).
Inflation and overseas issues in the past 5 years has made hobbying more difficult to commit to in terms of price and stock shortage.
It’s probably why so many skirmish games appeal to the current generation of hobbyists. Less books and miniatures needed to get into the hobby.
The journey is long, but if you stick to your goals you can slowly grow your collection. I know the grind, my FNV collection was a very slow effort. Last year I was distracted from FWW with other hobby projects, but I’m back (partly due to Fallout Factions) to get nearer to the end. 🙂
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I’m looking forward to it. I’ll at least have the basics for Survivors, Super Mutants, Raiders, and Institute which is not bad.
40k’s pricing is a little hard to work out since individual characters cost way more than a box of 10 miniatures too. I do agree that the resin bases in Fallout are really tough to get smooth. Its the worst part of the resin for me. I hate it when the tab is on the front of the base as you really can’t cover that up very easily.
I totally agree on rising costs and skirmish games appeal. I don’t like painting huge blocks of troops even if I think they look great on the tabletop. Its so refreshing with Fallout only needing around 10 models in a game versus 50 or 200+.
Sticking to your goals is the wise thing to do. I’m going to try and be more focused and hopefully I’ll feel better at how my collection is developing. I’m years away from owning and having everything for Fallout 4 painted but I can at least build up a good amount of minis and terrain to use in games in the near term anyway 🙂
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nice progress.
I didn’t know I spent so much and I’m keeping track again this year to see if I spend more or less. Might have been a banner year.
But you only have so much time. It’s not whether you’re fast or slow (I expect that everyone is around the same speed) but how much time you can give. And if that hobby time is broken up with video games or other pursuits.
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Thank you, Stew! I’ll be curious to see what you find out. I think I actually spend a lot less on miniatures in a given year than I expect to and so I actually can stand to spend a bit more.
You are right about only having so much time. My goal isn’t really to collect EVERYTHING for Fallout but to get as much of the things that I like and want to own. Of course, getting it all painted up is just as important and the part that will slow me down. We’ll see if I can do better on all this over the course of 2025 or not. If nothing else, I will try and be more focused and disciplined and not get distracted by any other games besides what I own.
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That raider looks great so far (you know how partial I am to a grimy, post-apocalyptic ne’er-do-well!). And a Necromunda diorama you say? Music to my ears! Any hints on what you have planned?
Funnily enough I’ve recently put together a spreadsheet detailing all the miniatures I have, painted and unpainted, for every project (minus terrain currently because I can’t quite work out how to qualify that). I think in this economy we’re all doing a bit more planning and budgeting when it comes to our hobby spending.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about something I’ve loosely dubbed “hobby project amnesia”. That is to say, I might find myself thinking “those orcs look very cool. And I haven’t added anything to my Orcs and Goblins backlog since I bought that shaman back in November. No harm in treating myself to something new is there?”. And it’s true that my orcs and goblins army is fairly achievable, and could probably be completed this year if I put my mind to it. It’s just that, in that moment, I completely forget about the existence of all those Necromunda gangs, Blood Bowl teams, Warcry warbands, my Chaos Marines, Necrons and Imperial Guard, my Starks and Lannisters for ASOIAF, my plans for Turnip28 and Trench Crusade, that box of Cursed City models, all those cosmic horrors for Cthulhu Death May Die and so on and so forth that are also waiting for my attention. I have only one project: orcs and goblins. That other stuff barely exists… until tomorrow when one of them gets to tempt me and the greenskinned horde are forgotten about.
Hopefully taking a more holistic view of the collection in it’s entirety will help to redress this. Certainly I feel that something has to – and I think that’s the key thing; working out what you actually want to do. Certainly my brain says that I want to buy less and paint more, but my actions suggest that some part of me very much wants the opposite.
On this note, something else that I’ve been factoring in is my rate of painting vs purchasing. I’ve been keeping a record of how many models I paint and buy for several years, enough to be able to generate an average annual figure with a fair degree of accuracy. This tells me 2 things – that without changing my habits the pile will only continue to grow, and that at my current rate it will be many, many years before I’ve painted everything I have currently. Speed of painting then becomes an issue because, in my experience, some people paint fast and some paint well but very few do both. I think I fall somewhere in the middle – good enough and fast enough, but I’m not sure I can speed up much more without cutting quality to a degree that I’m unhappy with.
Anyway, I’ll stop yapping on – needless to say you’ve given me a lot of food for thought!
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Thanks, mate. The Raider is definitely right up your alley, I reckon 🙂
I’m starting to lose faith in my Necromunda diorama idea a bit. I’d love to use GW’s terrain kits to cobble something together, probably in a shadowbox. I’ve seen people doing that lately and it looks really cool. However, I’d be willing to bet that getting GW’s terrain to fit in said shadow box (or even on a display base) might not be all that easy so that’s where my second guesses are coming in. Its also a case of if it was easy, it’d be done already by someone… I do want to paint some Necromunda (always have!) so I’ll have to figure something out. I know I’ve shifted my focus to larger scale minis but I do love seeing dioramas and really nice display bases that bring a setting to life and a bust doesn’t offer that same opportunity, unfortunately. The problem is that I’m much better at figure painting and not nearly as good of a modeler/builder too.
I’d love to take a gander at that spreadsheet and see just how big your collection is, mate! 😀 I think you’re onto something about figuring out your figure intake versus painting rate. Fallout is a bit more manageable in terms of releases but you’ve got a lot there with all of the GW stuff alone. Have you considered limiting yourself to skirmish games (to lower the model count) or perhaps restricting yourself to certain factions? The scope of things you own and collect is awe-inspiring but also daunting in terms of actually keeping up with it. The upside is plenty of variety in your painting queue which I tend to thrive on myself. GW is bad about telegraphing what they’re going to do in terms of which armies are getting new sculpts too so its hard to predict what will come out next. Some armies get very little love and the space marines get new stuff all the time as we both know.
I don’t know if any of this helps but I’m chuffed that I gave you food for thought. I was hoping it might help others as it certainly did for me. I’ve got to be a bit more focused on gaming and avoid the temptation of the new if I want to get where I want to be with Fallout so we’ll see if I can follow through on that.
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Good progress on the power armour Jeff! 🙂 Thanks for the mention – I did smile at that! However, I’m quite specific about what I commit to spreadsheet tracking. How much I get painted I find really useful! But how much I spend, how many figures I’ve still got to paint and how long it would take to paint them are deliberately not recorded or analysed! Project choices are interesting, since I’ve considered some projects way back in the past, halfheartedly started them, given up and then picked up them 20-odd years later and made progress with them!
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Thanks, John and I’m glad to hear it. Its interesting how different our spreadsheets are! I think its probably good that they’re different in the sense that it means we’re paying attention to whatever parts we care most about. Maybe at some point I’ll show some more details of what mine looks like. I’ve never done so because I was worried it might put someone to sleep! 🙂
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My experience with spreadsheets is that it’s best to cut down the display to show what you’re interested in most, even if that means hiding rows and columns and other sheets. I used spreadsheets a lot at work and looked through other people’s spreadsheets when they asked for my opinion. One of the few comments I had consistently with some people working with them was the amount of decimal places they’d use and I had to explain that 10 decimal places was not really ideal!
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That is a sound strategy! There aren’t any decimals in my spreadsheet though I think it would fail your design test on not displaying too much at once. Its very vertical and takes quite a bit of scrolling to get through. Perhaps there is room for improvement there 🙂
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Oh I scroll through mine Jeff, so don’t worry about that! For the ones I used to create for work though I opted to use separate sheets in a workbook, since they’re easier to access via sheet tabs. Each sheet then had to contain all of the info without the need to scroll. In most cases all the sums were done in hidden sheets so that you only viewed what you needed. I used this approach so that other people could use my spreadsheets if they needed to, but I don’t have to worry about that with hobby stuff! I think I’ve laboured this a bit now, but the engineer and nerd in me like spreadsheets!
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I might be missing a trick by now having different sheets for each faction. It’d save some scrolling anyway. And don’t worry, John, I know who to contact with any spreadsheet queries now 😉
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I’m with John on spreadsheets. A man needs to know his limits, or hoarding can begin expensively. And the power armor looked excellent btw.
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That is very true. The main thing is to try and come up with a strategy for participating in the hobby that doesn’t break the bank and leave you with several lifetimes worth of miniatures to paint. If you can do that, then you’re golden, I’d say!
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Excellent progress on the raider. I think that the aesthetic is Fallout’s strongest point so the minis that lean into that are the best.
You would need to become a brain-in-a-robot and seal yourself off in a vault if you were to try to paint your way through $1700 of minis 😛
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That is well said, mate. The style of Fallout is what makes it fun to paint minis and work on terrain. Its something to aspire towards for sure.
Haha, if I could get sealed in a vault, I reckon I could get a lot more painted so I’m on board with at least half of that idea 😉
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I think a lot of us like to keep track of our figures in some way or another – I can only manage to do so in terms of figures completed, and the blog plays a large part in that. Well, pretty much the whole part. I’d probably be traumatised to see how much I actually have unpainted, but I guess someone’s going to inherit a huge wargaming collection one day…
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You can definitely lose sight of what you’re trying to accomplish, if you’re not careful in our hobby. I have more unpainted minis than I’d like but I reckon it could be a lot worse. I don’t envy you or Wudu trying to catch up on your backlogs, although then again, I would rather bet on you guys catching up on yours because you both are more efficient painters than me.
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