I hope everyone is having a good start to the new year. Mine could be better, truthfully. I got sick over Christmas for the second year in a row which means I’ve been sick for most of two straight Christmas breaks which is really disappointing. I think I got the flu and it has certainly not been a picnic. I’m just about over it finally, but there’s a lot I had intended to do (mostly chores) that haven’t gotten done and work is right around the corner. Such is life, I suppose.
Fortunately, there is lots of hobby stuff to discuss since its been a while since my last update. First up, I finished another Vault dweller right before Christmas. So here’s a look at him.
The Vault Dwellers are one of the easier and quicker Fallout minis to paint and this one was no exception. I did find his face a bit tricky and his hair wasn’t as crisp as I expected but I think it looks alright in the end. Here is a look at the two Vault Dwellers I own next to each other.
There’s just one more mini in the box to paint now so I’m getting close to getting another box of Fallout minis done. I have no idea when I’ll use these in a game and its a shame I don’t have any Vault terrain but I’ll get there one day hopefully.
Since coming back home after visiting family (and getting sick), I’ve been chipping away at something else for Fallout.
This is the final junk barricade of three and truthfully, it feels like its been sitting around for a while and I figured the Paint What You Got Challenge is the perfect time to finally get it done. There are some tricky things to paint on this one including the locker (which I couldn’t find any great visual references for online) and the refrigerator which took longer to paint than I expected (and I forgot to paint the fridge’s handle so it isn’t technically done yet). My completely arbitrary goal is to try and outdo the previous barricades I painted since I’ve learned some things over time but we’ll see what I can manage in the end.
One thing I can never complain about is my family’s generosity with Christmas gifts. I got three new boxes of Fallout minis, a couple of Nintendo Switch games, and Arkham Horror: Third Edition – Dead of Night expansion. Normally, I’d show you the new minis I got but since Anne is running a challenge to get your miniatures assembled, I went ahead and started working on building them and will show you them once they’re built.
You can’t tell but these two Super Mutants are really tall. Taller than the regular ones and so they should look very impressive on the battlefield once they’re painted up. They also both have pretty big guns so that won’t hurt their leadership skills either!
I mentioned Arkham Horror previously and I’m happy to say that I did get to play another game of Third Edition this past week and it was pretty fun. I got to play another new scenario, Veil of Twilight, which involves the Twilight Lodge. For those who don’t know, they’re basically the Freemasons, if they heavily dabbled in the occult. There’s certain Arkham Horror tropes that I think are really enjoyable. The mafia/gangsters (think Prohibition era), the Twilight Lodge, and the different flavors of Lovecraft that get explored, just to name a few. No game does these things better than Arkham Horror, in its various iterations. At this point, I’ve tried 3 of the 4 scenarios so I imagine that after a few more games, I can probably write up a proper review which I look forward to doing.
Finally, I did open up the box of Dune cards over Christmas break like I had previous mentioned and I definitely like the cards and will collect more of them. I was really lucky to get one of the better cards you can pull out of a box as well.
An Oscar Isaac or Christopher Walken autograph is worth more but I am thrilled to get Jason’s signature. I’ve bought a decent amount of cards in my life and I’ve never gotten a bigger name actor autograph card before so I’m thankful I got this one and buying the box of cards has more than paid off which is very lucky. I have also come up with some interesting plans that involve both collecting cards and reading comics but I’ll save those for a future update as this one is getting pretty long at this point.
Thank you for reading as always and I look forward to lots more hobby fun in 2026!
Kuribo's Painting 
Happy New Year to you too Jeff! Sorry to hear you were sick over the break, that’s no fun
Nice job on the vault dweller looks bang on! What do vault dwellers get in the game that’s different to regular people (if anything)?
Didn’t know cards like that with autographs existed, neat!
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Happy New Year to you as well! Being sick hasn’t been fun and today has been a somewhat manic scramble to get things done before work starts but at least I’m just about healthy, finally.
The Vault Dwellers don’t have any major differences from other human characters surprisingly. They’re meant to be your typical vault residents and I think that means they’ve been shielded from radiation, raiders, and all kinds of nasty stuff in the outside world.
I’m glad you learned something new about cards from this week’s entry too! 🙂
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I wish you a Happy and Healthy 2026, from now, and hope you feel better soon.
Excellent work on the vault dweller, and only one more and another box completed. The barricade is progressing really well, the filing cabinet reminds me of one I used to have that was green, but they usually come in grey.
Sounds like you had a bumper haul for Christmas, and look forward to seeing all your construction challenge, and painting as well.
Awesome reveal on your cards, must really increase your value of the box.
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Thank you, Dave. The same to you and your family!
I’m glad you like the vault dweller and the barricade should be pretty impressive when its done. I did some research and file cabinets are indeed grey in Fallout so I’ll have to find a way to make all this grey work together somehow…
I would guess that it is a $125-150 card out of a $70 box. Its hard to break even buying boxes of cards these days so I was very lucky.
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Top work on the vault dweller but it’s the barricade that really stands out for me. Your games must look amazing with models and terrain like that. Sorry to hear you’ve been under the weather, get well soon!
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Thanks for the kind words, mate! I certainly try to make my games look nice though I don’t actually play that often because I’m always too busy painting so I suppose there’s a tradeoff there. I’ve turned the corner health-wise just in time to go back to work where its probably going to be busy. Hurray! 😀
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Hope you’re feeling better soon!!
Amazing work on the Fallout stuff, that barricade is top class! I look forward to your Arkham review, as well. Did you join the Silver Twilight Lodge and “save the world”? 🤣 I seem to remember having accidentally fallen into that trap before now…
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Thanks, mate! I’m just about recovered, thankfully. I’m glad you like the barricade so far too. I didn’t join Silver Twilight Lodge because something about it seemed fishy. When I play the scenario again, I’m going to try and remember to join up and see what happens 🙂
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Oh yes, very fishy definitely covers it! I joined them in the Arkham LCG way back when, as well, and managed to bring about the end of the world then, too! Maybe I’m a baddie..? 🤣
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It could be! It also might mean you’re pro-apocalypse which is pretty dubious as well! 😀
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Happy New Year and the painting challenges yet to come! You’ve stated the new year right with a character and a barricade. The filing cabinet should be grey, maybe gun metal grey?
Had to fight off a cold myself with visiting family, no fun. I do need to up my gift list to get a better haul like yours.
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Thank you! You’ve gotten off to a smashing start yourself with those trolls, I would say. The file cabinet will indeed be grey but it will be similar in color to the safe. Its not a very creative or interesting choice but it matches the game so that’s what I’ll go with.
MESBG isn’t the easiest thing to ask for since it isn’t widely available nowadays but ordering from GW is easy and their gift vouchers work in a pinch too. I can’t see any reason why you can’t have a Merry Hobbit or Dwarven Christmas!
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The Vault Dwellers look fantastic! You can use them for any Vault (I can’t recall if they have a sculpted number on the back like the Sole Survivor?) so you’ll get a ton of fun making senario games with them!
Looking forward to seeing how the mutants will go in the challenge. 🙂
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Sorry to hear you’ve been under the weather, Jeff, but sounds like you’re on the road to recovery!
Nice work on the vault dweller and barricade! Good timing for me as well, since I’m re-watching Fallout Series 1 before starting Season 2!
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Being sick sucks — hope you get back to normal ASAP!
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