Into the Wasteland: Caravanners and Freelancers

 

Everyone needs to find supplies in the wasteland, and if you're away from the settlements, caravanner merchants are who you need to find.  This warband was created with figures from a mix of Vermillion Miniatures 3D prints. I'm not sure how viable they will be compared to the other warband types, but I'm hoping the two brahmin will prove useful in close combat.   

I also have several figures that don't really work with any of my current warbands, so I'll be using them as the Wasteland Weirdos Freelancers and Guns for Hire that can be recruited by other warbands.

First up are a few ghoul gunslingers, a mechanic for gun and relic repairs, and a doctor.

Bringing justice to the far flung regions of the wasteland are Ranger Moore, his partner Silverheels, and their cyberdog Scout. 

A couple of surface-adapted Vault Dwellers with a Garden of Eden Creation Kit (G.E.C.K.) to help kickstart civilization.

Goris, the albino Deathclaw from Fallout 2. Intelligent and able to communicate, he left Vault 13 and spends his time studying human culture.

Into the Wasteland: Aliens and the ‘Burbs

Happy 2026!  I luckily had a short break during the holidays, and was able to knock out a few more items for my Fallout/This Is Not A Test Project.  

First up are some Zetan alien survivors that have wandered down from Area 51 (a frozen Zetan was seen in the most recent episode of the Fallout TV series).  These are 3D print proxies made from Vermilion Miniatures' Space Invaders warband. I've painted mine using the Fallout 76 uniforms for reference.

The standard aliens come with three types of separate heads, so you can mix and match figures as you desire.  The miniatures are thin, so care will be needed when handling them.

The set also incudes two sets of power armor and an attack drone.  Stylistically they look different that what was seen in the game, but I think they look alright when using a similar paint scheme.   

Here's a size comparison to a human figure. While the aliens are  appropriately smaller, the power armor is similar in size to human power armor.

In addition to another warband, I also finished up a new set of buildings for the table.  These are the Derelict Suburbia and Ramshackle Cul-de-Sac MDF sets from TT Combat's City Streets line, which give you two houses and accessories per set.  For paint colors, I used 1950's housepaint advertisements as inspiration. This was then dirtied up using pewter grey drybrushing and watered down brown craft paint.

In terms of detailing levels for MDF kits, particularly the destroyed elements, I would rate these as mid tier out when compared to other manufactures. I considered adding extensive scratch built details to the kits, but in the end I got lazy and just added some grass tufts and a few minor items.

One thing I really do like about this kits is that all the houses break apart to some level. This not only makes it easier to get figures and item inside, but allows you to more widely disperse the building elements over your table.  

The interior of the houses are also spacious for the most part, so there is room for figures and scatter terrain. 

The kits are advertised as being appropriate for 28-35mm miniatures. I previously built the gas station and burger restaurant from this line, and they came out at approximately 1:43 scale based on the doors.  That looked oversized even for 32mm miniatures,  so I was a bit nervous here.  Luckily the door sizes are approximately 1:48 on the houses, so 32mm miniatures look fine and even 28mm aren't too bad.

 I still have three more warbands to paint along with a last bit of scatter terrain, but I think I now how enough ready to run some pilot This Is Not A Test games. 

Into the Wasteland: Mutant Animals, Vehicles and Scatter Terrain

 Work continues on my Fallout New Vegas project for the This Is Not A Test rules. Rather than another warband, I've recently been working on more dangerous creatures and terrain for my tabletop.

Cadazor mutant wasps. These genetically engineered monstrosities are some of the most poisonous creature in the New Vegas area. The Vermilion Miniatures 3D prints are rather delicate and I needed to pin the flying cadazor to its base to keep it from breaking off.  The Esty seller printed the wings in a semi-transparent plastic, so I was able to merely stain them with some colored inks and allow light to still pass through them, giving a nice effect.

Nightstalkers. Another genetic experiment that combined DNA from coyotes and rattlesnakes to produce a venomous predator.  For the snake scales, I tried to mimic coloration seen in the Speckled Rattlesnakes of the Southwest.

 

Geckos. Fallout New Vegas has several strains of geckos in the game with various attributes. I decided to paint mine as Golden Geckos, which live in irradiated areas and inflict radiation damage with their attacks.

Radroaches. Not a significant threat in Fallout, but how can you resist having these disgusting pests on the table.

And here is how they all sized up against a human.

Working vehicles don't play a significant role in both Fallout and This Is Not A Test, but you will find them scattered along the highways around New Vegas. Unfortunately there aren't many 32mm vehicles that are stylistically appropriate for Fallout (most follow a Mad Mex aesthetic), but I did manage to find two.

First up was a retro pickup truck from Kraken Studios. This was a nicely sized vehicle, and you can get it with or without cargo. The print included 2 side mirrors, but they were fragile and kept breaking off, so I finally gave up on trying to reglue them on.

Vermilion Miniatures car with added roof rack from the Kraken truck.  The roof was printed separately, so I was able to paint the interior prior to assembly.  

A fuel/water tank from EC3D Designs and a cart from Vermilion.

Airstream camper trailer from EC3D.  I purchased the 32mm size, but it came much smaller than expected, seemingly more appropriate for 28mm miniatures. To help hide how short it was compared to my figures, I made the decision to put it on a fairly thick base.

A bunker entrance also from EC3D. While this didn't look anything like a Vault-Tec entrance, I thought it could work as a military storage bunker and be a good objective on the table.

That's it for now, but there are still a few more warbands to paint and some buildings to finish.

Into the Wasteland: Robots

With the release of Fallout season 2 just around the corner, I figured it was time to get back to wasteland.  Though the current edition of the "This Is Not A Test" rules is lacking a robot expansion, I couldn't resist adding these mechanical menaces to my roster of creatures.  As with much of collection, these 32mm miniatures are 3D prints designed by Vermilion Miniatures; they run the same size as my offical Fallout miniatures and have similar design aesthetics.

Leading my robot forces is the Mechanist supervillain, with a Robobrain cyborg as his lieutenant.  The dome that came with the Robobrain wasn't transparent, so I made one from scratch. This was done by heating some clear plastic while a metal mixing ball was resting atop of it and allowing gravity to create the dome.  The results wasn't entirely perfect, but I liked being able to see the figure's brain.

Though not a close design match for Fallout, I have proxies for a Mister Handy series utility robot and an Eyebot. While I prefer the offical designs for these robots, these will get the job done. 

Military Assaultron-style combat robots. 

Protectron inspired utility robots. Vermilion designed these as multi-part kits featuring a variety of subclasses, so you can mix and match the bits for variety.  

Sentrybots. These robots are fairly large and very heavily armed; Each caries a minigun, energy weapon and grenade launcher. I expect they will be quite deadly during games. 

Hopefully 2nd edition offical robot stats will come out soon, but in the meantime I'll cobble something together to get them on the table.

Italian Wars: Landsknecht Units

With the release of Warlord Games' "Death and the Landsknecht" supplement, members of my gaming group are interested in running some larger Italian Wars games, particularly Pavia.  As the bulk of my current Holy Roman Empire army is made up of city militia units with only one unit of landsknecht, I decided it was time to bring some more mercenaries into the fold.

First up are two new command stands featuring Georg von Frundsberg and Götz Von Berlichingen.  The main figures are Warlord Games' dedicated miniatures, with additional miniatures from Foundry, Wargames Atlantic (conquistador drummer), and two TAG miniatures repurposed from an earlier command stand I had built.  There are some differences in figure height and bulk between the various manufactures, but I think they look reasonable enough. The figures are attached to the stands with magnets, so they can be easily broken down in the future if I want to do something different with them. 

Next are two large pike blocks assembled from Foundry miniatures and the plastic Warlord Landsknecht set.  There is a bit of size variation in the Foundry line, with my figures ranging 26-29mm to the eye, and the mercenary character set being much bulkier (I believe it was a different sculptor than the majority of the line).  The Warlord figures sit right in the middle of that size range, so the overall blend looks fine. I was not a fan of some of the Warlord head options (they look too big for the bodies), so I've mixed in some spare Perry heads I had in the bits box.

To support my pike blocks, I assembled some strips of Doppelsöldner with  Zweihänder swords. Depending on the rules set, they can either be added to the front rank of my pike blocks or set up as small associated units. The miniatures are a mix of Warlord Games Landsknechts, Wargames Atlantic conquistadors, and some 3D prints designed by Peculiar Companions (Erramir Orlans).  The Wargames Atlantic miniatures are bulkier than the other two lines, but I decided to still mix them.

A Foundry great cannon and crew.

I really wanted to add some Steel Fist miniatures to my army and looked into ordering Doppelsöldner and mounted crossbowmen, but the quoted shipping from the UK to the US was astronomical (~50%), and this was even before the tariffs kicked in.  I looked at a US stockist, but their inventory was pretty threadbare.  About the only thing remaining were  knights, so I bought six with Zweihänders. As with the above Doppelsöldner, these could be added to a pike block or kept in their own small unit.

Lastly, there are my mounted crossbowmen.  As mentioned, I had hoped to get the Steel Fist set, but opted to buy the cheaper 3D prints designed by Peculiar Companions. They are smaller than the Perry cavalry, but are fine in separate units.

And with that, I think I now have enough units to more than support my portion of this project.  Now we just need to find time in everyone's schedule to get this battle started.