Into the Wasteland: Final Warbands and Scatter Terrain

The building and painting phase of my 32mm Fallout/This Is not a Test has finally wrapped up with my last warbands and scatter terrain.

While you don't see really see large groups of Vault Dwellers on the surface in Fallout, I really felt something would be missing from my games if I only had the two Vermilion figures I previously painted as guns for hire.  I found offical Modiphius Vault Dweller figures fairly underwhelming and the other Vermilion proxies were lacking in the weaponry to be a viable warband. Luckily I found a seller in Canada with a line of 32mm Bunker Security Agents under the Nuke World banner that fit the bill perfectly.  You can buy them with Vault themed bases, but I opted to use extra post-apocalyptic bases I already had.

Science Officer and Overseer

Security Captain and Riot Trooper

Riot Troopers with firearms

Additional Security Officers

Here is a quick comparison between an official Fallout miniature, a Nuke World miniature, and a Vermilion miniature.  While there is some difference in the base heights, I would say the Fallout and Nuke World figures are almost identical in size (Nuke World may be a fraction taller) and the Vermilion miniatures are a little smaller.  However, they are within standard human differences and stylistically I think they all look fine mixed together. 

My last warband is another set of raiders from Vermilion, the Rust Reavers.  I was unable to figure out if an offical Fallout rider group inspired them, but I am going to use them as a cannibal warband.  

The two suits of power armor seemed to be cobbled together from different models with additional bits of scrap welded to them. Fallout 76 introduced excavator power armor for civilian usage, so I decided to paint these as two work suits that were repurposed for combat by my raiders. 

Shotgun wielding Raiders.  The Etsy images of the figures had clips attached to all of the guns, but these were not present on the weapons I received for some reason. 

Raiders with ranged weapons, including a Junk Jet that can fire scavenged debris (as seen in the first season of the TV series).

Melee raiders

I also finished off my remaining scatter terrain. These are 3D printed bits for raider camps, including a Great Khan scarecrow, and some boobytraps made from cymbal monkey toys and dynamite (a freebie from one of my Esty sellers).

Piles of human remains and a spiked body. Perfect for cannibals. 

Some resin mattresses from TT Combat. Not the most appealing for a good night's rest.

I bought a 5 piece set of brick wall bits off Etsy, but unfortunately didn't realize it was a single design just being shown from different angles. I've painted each one slightly differently, but will have to be selective on how I scatter them about.     

Another set of 3D printed walls, and luckily this time 5 of 6 the pieces were unique. Unfortunately the print lines were pronounced, but I was too lazy to try and sand everything.

However, I think they still look ok and are big enough to block line of sight for larger figures.

With that, I think I am now ready to play This is Not A Test.  I'll get some solo test plays in to learn the rules and then see if I can convince someone to give it a go with me.  Fingers crossed!

Into the Wasteland: The Brotherhood of Steel

I'm back with one of the fan favorite forces from Fallout, the Brotherhood of Steel. As with most of my warbands for This Is Not A Test, these are 3D print proxies designed by Vermilion Miniatures.  The knights follow the designs from the early games in the series, while the soldiers seem to be inspired by later games. This made planning a paint scheme a bit harder, as the armor colors and such changed over time. Since most people will know the later bare metal armor rather than the earlier olive green, I opted to go that route across the board. Not all the figures are appropriate for my Fallout New Vegas setting, but I'm not one to let universe canon get in the way of a good time.

The commander of the unit appears to be wearing underarmor from the Fallout 4 game with some added torso armor.  The underarmor appears in a few color combinations, with officers usually in black, but I've gone with the grey/olive version.  The armor on the soldiers most closely resembles that used by knights in Fallout 4. I wasn't 100% sure from the game screen captures if the brown coloring seen on the armor was intended to be worn paint or corrosion, but I chose the later to match the rest of the BoS force and help keep the color palate different from my NCR warband (It's also how Modiphius paints the offical figures). Weapons seem to be laser pistols and a laser rifle from Fallout 1 and 2.

The next two solders have armor that appears to be inspired by the Fallout 76 recon armor.  The armor has a bluish tint in-game, so I mixed gunmetal and dark sea blue for the base and used bare steel for the worn areas. They also have the Fallout 1 and 2 laser rifles.

Three knights in power armor. While BoS knights are usually shown wearing T-60 armor in the later games and the TV series, These knights are depicted in the earlier armor that came to be known as T-51b armor. As mentioned above, these were painted olive green in Fallout 1, but I've gone with the more modern bare metal.  Weapons are a minigun, plasma pistol and super sledge from Fallout 1.

The last knights are wearing Midwestern Advanced inspired power armor from the Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel game. This armor is no longer considered canon in Fallout, but was supposed to have been designed by BoS remnants who survived an airship crash in Chicago. It looks similar to Enclave X-01 power armor, and fans have debated on if and how they are related. I've again gone with bare metal over olive green for the paint scheme. The commander originally came with the minigun seen above, but I swapped it out with the more advanced plasma rifle. 

 The amount of heavy armor and weapons the Brotherhood of Steel has compared to my other warbands is on another level, so I am worried about game balance at this stage.  I'll just have to see how it plays out in my first games.

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.