Fallout: A Post Nuclear Tabletop Game

[Gargobot]

Hello and welcome everyone!

I launched a similar log over on Warseer, but if there's any place on the internet I would call the home of Fallout project logs it's this one right here.
So here's hoping there's room for one more.

What I want to achieve with this log, over the following months years (I'm very slow at basically anything), is to be able to replay a version of the original Fallout on the tabletop.
And to GM it for my friends who haven't had the pleasure of playing that diamond of a classic.
As that is obviously a rather ambitious undertaking I will cut the game short after the retrival of the waterchip.
(Guess I'll re-evaluate when and if I get to that point.) I have also decided to leave the Hub and Junktown as pure roleplaying elements without tabletop representation.
Which still means I have to build Vaults 13 and 15, Shady Sands, the Raider Camp, Necropolis above- and underground and a number of generic Wasteland terrain for random encounters.
And of course all the people and critters inhabitating these places. As you can see, I have my work cut out for me.

Let's start this baby off with some pictures of the few things I've managed so far:

Vault Dwellers






Raiders (I'm not so sure anymore about the dude with the gas mask.)


Ghouls


That's basically it. I do have some very tiny terrain pieces, more or less just vignettes, finished. And I'm currently building a Shady Sands style hut. In other words: Watch this space.  

[zizi666]

I don't think we can ever get enough of FO threads 

Mighty fine paintjobs there.

That said, I'm not sure about the skintone of the ghouls. The vibrant yellow/green gives them a radiating look, like glowing ones. (which they obviously aren't considering the fact they're carrying weapons)
Also, should you want to put glowing ones on the table, how would you go about to paint 'em even brighter than these ?

PS : tell me the numerals on the back of the vaultdwellers are decals...

[Achilles]

Welcome to the land of Fallout threads! Nice paints!

[Constable Bertrand]

Those ghouls really glow dont they, almost like aliens! Very subtle but effective shading though, so nice work on the painting front.

I like the raiders, less leather fetish... and more scrambled survivors. I think the gas mask one stands out because his arms are a different colour to the rest of the group (not that that's a bad thing) and his head is different. It is just different to the rest of the merry band tis all.

cheers
Matt

[Anpu]

Looking great! There is always room for more Fallout, especially fun to see a original  Fallout game one. I will be following this thread with great interest. Great painting as well.

[Gargobot]

@zizi666: Thank you very much.
Concerning the skin tone; yea they're pretty glowy. But in Fallout 1 Glowing Ones actually were white. Which is what I will do for mine too. (Thinking a radiant green as base and then stark highlighting up to pure white. I'll prolly also use that Fluorescent Green paint I recently bought.)
All other ghouls were either green or yellow. I sorta tried for a mix of that (as seen on the one on the far right), but after that they sorta became glowy green, which I liked and hence kept.
The numerals are freehands I'm afraid.

@Achilles: Thanks mate!

@Constable Bertrand: Thanks. I think you might be on to something, I painted another black Raider and he sticks out less now. Though the mask remains a point of contention. We'll see if I end up using him. Keeping strictly to the script I'd only need 8 male raiders, and I have loads of other unpainted candidates left.

@Anpu: Thank you.

So finished up some Raiders I had started a while ago.


Also plodding along on my terrain. Nothing to see here really, but in the interest of full disclosure:


I'm pretty much a terrain novice, haven't even built a hill yet. So if anybody has some helpful tips on how to build houses, I'm all ears.

[Wyrmalla]

Ah, classic crotch hugging Vault suits. Good work on those. Oddly (because nobody else has said it and I feel weird to), that brown suits their colour scheme when matching them in with the older games. I may just steal that. ^^

Those are Judge Dredd gangers right? I picked up two boxes of them thinking they'd be useful, but personally I think they're  a little big. You're using Games Workshop models however, so they look fine. That's some great painting. Clean, and colourful, but on the models themselves it doesn't look cartoon like. Good work on those (and you didn't fall for the "let's cover everything in a bucket of dirt like the newest games do").

Vault Dweller ghouls? Yes, they are rather green, but you picked a colour and rolled with it.

Personally I start with a frame when building terrain. Just one rectangle for the roof, and four sticks jutting down from that to mark the four corners. Stick in more strips to describe doors and windows, and maybe a few along the walls for stability. After that just bung on some plasticard. I only tend to add plasticard to the exterior of one of these frames, so the strips are exposed on the inside giving extra detail (and well in the case of a corrugated shack plasticard doesn't usually need to be placed on both sides). I put together all of my buildings that way, but its easiest with shacks (at their most basic level I've turned out half a dozen of those things in a night). If you're going for a removable roof then remember to add tabs along the roof's inside edge so that they don't fall off in game too. ...And other crap. ...Great advice? ...Uh.

Are you going to coat that hut in plaster or something to give it a texture? The windows wouldn't be too hard to achieve if you found some sticks, stuck them in boiling water, then over time twisted them into shape. Though whether you can be bothered sitting there for ages doing that, or just go for the traditional slit windows is down to your own commitment (and if there's anything more entraining going on like paint drying). That shack would look good with a rickety fence made from deadwood actually too, oh and little lamps (someone must make gas lamps in this scale, Miniature Mojo perhaps).

Are you sticking with small scale skirmish games aimed more at the first game's setting, or are you planning on including more progressive elements from 2 and Van Buren/New Vegas (ie upping the game to squads of soldiers instead of just bands of adventurers)?

And that's some nice painting on the base of that terrain piece you have on your warseer thread. I think I'll have to steal your colour scheme (are those GW paints you're using?).

[zizi666]

Concerning the skin tone; yea they're pretty glowy. But in Fallout 1 Glowing Ones actually were white. Which is what I will do for mine too. (Thinking a radiant green as base and then stark highlighting up to pure white. I'll prolly also use that Fluorescent Green paint I recently bought.)
All other ghouls were either green or yellow. I sorta tried for a mix of that (as seen on the one on the far right), but after that they sorta became glowy green, which I liked and hence kept.

Drat, never played 1 or 2, only  FO3 and FO-NV...

The numerals are freehands I'm afraid.

showoff 

I'm pretty much a terrain novice, haven't even built a hill yet. So if anybody has some helpful tips on how to build houses, I'm all ears.

I'm sure you'll find lots of tips allover this place, but should you be interested, I built a Poseidon rest stop (someday, I'll build an awning to match it, some day...) and a small radio station (actualy a plasticville copy) and you can get the templates for these from my dropbox.
You can get my templates here :
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12288625/tv-station.pdf
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12288625/Poseidon%20station.pdf

threads on the building proces : http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=30951.0 ; http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=29440 and pics of the finished radio station:  http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=32589.0

[Constable Bertrand]

Nice new raiders. 

I'm with zizi, and have also only played 3. The bright green and white will be cool if you pull it off, which I'm sure you will. I've just gotten some ghouls myself so will watch your progress eagerly and may steal your scheme

Er building tips? Cut the round edges off the paddle pop sticks. that will get you started. And other one is detail. Cut things thin as you can use them, and they are still too big. So don't worry about getting too fiddly with it all, just go nuts!

Cheers
Matt

Cheers
Matt

[DELTADOG]

Nice Thread I will follow it too.

my tipp for your terrain pieces is my mixture of exterior wall Plaster.

50% PVA Clue
30% Ready to use crackfiller
15% Birdsand
5% Floorwax (Acrylbased)

Take a big strong hairy brush and use it to spreckle the Wall.

If you use Crackle Paste instead of the Crackfiller, you got nice weathered surfaces.

[Argonor]

Nice Thread I will follow it too.

my tipp for your terrain pieces is my mixture of exterior wall Plaster.

50% PVA Clue
30% Ready to use crackfiller
15% Birdsand
5% Floorwax (Acrylbased)

Take a big strong hairy brush and use it to spreckle the Wall.

If you use Crackle Paste instead of the Crackfiller, you got nice weathered surfaces.

Why do you add wax?

[DELTADOG]

Acrylic Floorwax is a detergent mixed Acrylic medium. Is cured rockhard but little flexible (Very thin protection layer on your floor after using) The detergent breaks the surface tension and let the Water in the whole mixture "flow" around the smaller particles (birdsand). That leads to a very small grained rough, but tough surface while is intended to become to get a 28mm scaled Exterior plaster.

In USA Future Floor wax is famous, in EU Emsal Floorwax is more common.




And now btt, don´t want to get bugged for off topic.

[Brummie Thug]

Cracking looking figs love the Ghouls!

[Sangennaru]

Lovely fallout-ish minis!

and the future wax is a really interesting option! I will try this out today!

[Gargobot]

@Wyrmalla: Hey thanks mate. Plasticard sounds interesting, what does one use to work with that though? Can you cut it with a knife, or is it too dense for that?
Good idea for windows, this one is just supposed to be one of the windowless smaller houses in Shady Sands though. Gotta learn to walk before I can run.

Are you sticking with small scale skirmish games aimed more at the first game's setting, or are you planning on including more progressive elements from 2 and Van Buren/New Vegas (ie upping the game to squads of soldiers instead of just bands of adventurers)?

For now it's just the first game. I'm trying to think small so I won't get too intimidated by the project. I'll see where I go from there once I get there.

By now I guess half the paints I'm using are not from GW. If you're referring to that terrain piece specifically, that's VGC Charred Brown (GW Scorched Brown), drybrushed with Bleached Bone and then washed with APWP Strong Tone (GW Devlan Mud). Those different colored patches however, are achieved with Vallejo pigments.

@zizi666: You definitely should give the original games a try. Steam usually has them for something like 1.50$ once or twice a year (that's for FO 1&2 and FO:Tactics in a bundle, not individually). So there's really no reason not to.
Thanks for the terrain templates, went straight into my Fallout Tabletop folder.

@Constable Bertrand: You too mister! Play the original games. Round stick ends have been cut off. Thanks for the tip.

@DELTADOG: Will try that next time. I actually thought about PVA and bird sand, but I thought that would give a too rough surface. The buildings look rather smooth in the game. But I'll make a test run with your recipe and decide then. Thanks!

@Brummie Thug & Sangennaru: Thanks for the nice words.

So, picture time:
Turns out painting a house is twice as much work as building it. So no finished house yet. I have taken some pictures of those vignettes I mentioned earlier. The basic idea here is to have a bunch of those to add some interest to random encounters and such. So don't expect anything great.