Fallout Miniatures Part One: Vault Dwellers

Okay, I love the setting of the Fallout series of video games.  I think it is a great setting for a real RPG (computer games try, but they are never going to be true roleplaying experience, no matter how much we like them.)

This of course opens the door for making minis based on the visuals of Fallout, which is awesome, since I love to convert minis, and always see it as an artistic challenge.  But I am also quite poor, lacking the disposable income I once had (kids, man.)  So I am going to show you the cheap way to get your minis.

On that subject, I am aware that there are tons of other sites who will direct you to manufacturers who make specific minis that are designed to look like Fallout properties.  Brother Vinni's, for example, puts out the most amazing Fallout-inspred minis I've ever seen.  They are amazing, and I can't afford them.  If you can, feel free to cruise on over there now.

The rest of us must make do converting Heroclix.

Now there are a lot of great reasons to limit yourself to using Heroclix minis for a Fallout project, especially if you are starting from nothing.  First off, they are cheap, and become cheaper when you buy them in bulk on ebay.  They have a huge variety, so chances are you will be able to get nearly every mini you may need from them, and lastly, by doing so, nearly everything will be in the same scale, barring a few internal scale inconsistencies we have discussed before.

To begin, let's look at the perennial favorite, vault dwellers.  Begin by thinking of what a vault dweller looks like.  It's all about that jumpsuit, man.

Here is the clean version of the jumpsuit.  Brings back the memories, don't it?
(picture courtesy of  Fallout.wikia.com, an absolutely amazing resource!)

So all you need to do is look for minis that fit those parameters; boots, long cuffs, high collar, belt and the trademark yellow stripe.  These are the primary elements (minor details can be overlooked.)  There are many HC minis out there that fit this pattern.

Here is a selection of minis I put together by simply walking into the next room and rummaging through my collection. 

One of the things you will need to consider is how skin tight you are willing to allow in your minis.  A lot of superhero minis come wearing spandex tights (duh,) which can look silly on the men (of course, that is simply expected of female vault dwellers, but we'll discuss that later.)  But you can still find characters wearing clothes that aren't too skin tight to look like a vault jumpsuit.  Remember also, that anyone whose pants and shirt are more or less tucked in can be painted to look like it is a one piece outfit, so remove color from your sight when you are looking at minis.

While all that is fine for people who still dwell in vaults, many of your characters may have been out of the vault for some time.  In that time, they will have modified their outfit, adding bits of armor, pouches holsters, as well as showing signs of repair.

Armored vault suit, anyone?
(Picture again from the wonderful folks at Fallut.wikia.com)

What this means for you, the modeler, is that the minis don't need to look quite so perfectly matched.  If there is a feature on the mini you don't like, or that makes it not look like a vault suit, remove it, convert it, or cover it.  

This is where some putty or things from your bitz box can come into play.  Character has a clear lines at the shoulder that show his sleeves are meant to be a different material?  Cover those shoulder lines with some shoulder pads made of putty.  your mini is clearly wearing shorts over his pants? add a pair of holsters and paint the cuffs of the shorts as tie-down straps for them.  Mini has funky patterns on the front of its boots?  Scrape em off and sand down to smooth.  Even if you have never converted minis before, with a bit of experience, you can accomplish amazing things in a short amount of time.

This opens up the field for a lot of minis you might otherwise have overlooked.  Several of the minis above have features you would want to alter before using in your game.  Iake a look at what you have, and try to image how you could change it.

And now, a word about the ladies.  If you start to pick up bulk orders of Heroclix (and I heartily recommend that strategy myself,) you are going to end up with lots of female minis.  And pretty much all of them will have skin tight outfits.  If you are offended by such sexist, phallocentric, patriarchal objectification.... I have no idea what to tell you.  It's sort of the industry standard in the comic book, gaming, and video game worlds.  Sorry.

And that means that the minis you find are going to fit that pattern.  cultural issues aside, this is great news for the modeler.  Because if all the female vault dwellers are wearing skin-tight jumpsuits, you can pick from a very wide selection of minis.  Remember that bare skin can simply be painted Vault-Tec blue, and voila, instant spandex jumpsuit.  So if you have a female mini with bare legs (and believe me sister, you will find plenty,) just paint all the bits (torso, legs and arms) the same color to get the jumpsuit effect.

I reeeally did not have to look long to find some ladies in jumpsuits.

The same advice regarding undesirable features applies to the ladies as does to the men.  So if a mini is wearing thigh-high boots (lots of those,) use the holster trick mentioned above.  Exposed midriff?  Paint over it if there is no molded line on the mini.  If there is, scrape it off or disguise it as another feature.  Or just ignore it, if you are not a stickler.  Lots of heroines have swords and guns, even more so than the male heroes, so weapon swaps should not be a big problem (we'll talk about doing head and weapon swaps for Heroclix minis another post...)

But enough conjecture, how about some examples of the finished product?  The following minis are ones I made for a mini campaign I ran to test out the rules I had made to use the D20 Modern rules for Fallout.  The characters were from Vault 42, another 'holdout' vault that had taken steps in the hope of insuring they would never have to leave.  Of course, we know how well that turns out...

This guy was a Vault Security officer.  He was originally the Punisher, and did not require much more than a repaint.

Same mini from the back.

Technician and science guy.  Note the scanner and laser rifle.  This was just a great mini for a vault dweller, with raised bits in all the right places for painting, even had a Pip Boy.  But he was originally the Hulk enemy the Leader, which means his head was like a foot tall in scale.  I chopped it down and resculpted some hair from putty.

Science guy from the back

My wife's character, the medic.  A pretty uninspired mini, she was originally a SHIELD trooper, and because this was a quick campaign, I did not even stop to fill in the gap on the arm.  What an awful husband I am.

My favorite.  I actually did this one after the campaign had ended (we were toying with continuing it, but did not in the end.)  The computer/tech guy, he made some... questionable decisions during the campaign, usually without consulting with the party.  So I designed this vignette to represent his proclivities.  The sign was printed out and then glued and weathered.  The switch is an electronic component I scavenged from somewhere.

The tech from the back.  He was originally the Marvel villain Mentallo.  The antennae are made from a staple, that I actually shoved through his head (drilling a hole first) and bent upwards for stability.  Then I used putty to make the ear cups.  I think it gives it a cool, retro look.

So there you have some advice on making vault dwellers.  I hope this has been of some use to you.  Next time we'll look at how to make raiders, and have some real fun!