Veteran Raiders

As I bounce about my backlog, I'm always pleased to find use for the miniatures that I've owned the longest.

Due to the fact that in the early nineties the only place to buy miniatures in my hometown was a model shop with a limited selection, many of these older models are from less well known ranges.

Such is the case with these three...

These are three 'Future Savages', formerly from Grenadier and now sold by Mirliton SG. They've loitered in my collection, run with my Necromunda Gangs (mainly Goliaths as Juves) and for the last 20 years have languished in a friend's garage.

However, they are now back in my possession and destined for the Capital Wasteland as Raiders in Fallout Wasteland Warfare.

I've already added one of this set to my Raiders gang as a Psycho, and these three will be joining the crew, adding a bit of muscle and a savagery to the hunting pack.

There is a fifth model from the set, but someone in their infinite wisdom chopped his hands off in a poorly executed plan to get him holding a Necromunda shotgun (which would look like a cannon in Fallout), so I need to do some careful kitbashing to get him ready for action.

They are an eclectic bunch armed primarily with brutal close combat weapons.

This guy used to be holding a cleaver, which had been chopped off to allow him to have a ranged weapon (again for Necromunda), and so I've scaled things back to give him a less bulky weapon that can potentially pass muster as a pipe rifle or similar weapon.

He's still got his fighting claw and a somewhat anachronistic sword. Who knows where he found that, but it's definitely the sort of thing that would be kept and given a name by an image conscious (check out the hair) scavenger and later looted and sold by the Lone Survivor because it's not as good as a Shishkebab.

One of the things I've struggled with painting for a while is black skin. This time I followed some online advice and went for Wyldwood contrast paint over a coat of Gulliman Flesh. 

It looked terrible and so I tried to salvage it with some Mournfang Brown highlighting and ended up much happier with the outcome and this it likely to be my goto approach (minus the Gulliman Flesh) in the future.

A further highlight was added with an extremely light drybrush of Ushabti Bone, but I applied this to the all three models to make them dusty from there time in the wilderness.

One of the things I like about this set of miniatures are the idiosyncratic details on each model. This one has a bird skull fetish, jewellery made from the teeth of some foul creature and most of a teddy bear.

Admittedly, a couple of these elements root this character in the eighties: the floppy disk and digital watch. They are not quite right for Fallout, but they're still fun details.

Finally, I like the fact that these three add to the running theme in my Raiders of them clearly spending too much time on their hair. Bright dye jobs, mohawks, whatever the last guy had and, in this case, dreadlocks all indicate that they want to look good whilst butchering settlers.

It's nice to see miniatures that reflect the fact that people come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and I can't quite shake the feeling that this one looks a bit like Boris Johnson. In fact, it would take much to convince me that this is his weekend attire.

I'm not sure why the post-apocalyptic genre seems to assume that humanity will devolve into savagery whilst dressed in fetish gear but I think Mad Max has something to do with it.

Again there's a nice collection of fun details on the model (beyond the posing pouch). The doll pendant, the pocket watch on the 'belt' and the computer keyboard (I was tempted to paint this as a Speak & Spell) all add personality. 

There's also another eighties anachronism in the CND symbol on the quiver, but given that the organisation was actually founded in 1958, it's not beyond the realms of possibility that in the alternate reality of Fallout, the symbol became more widespread earlier in response to nuclear proliferation.

I probably have enough Raiders to play the free narrative campaign Modiphius released when the Raiders were launched, but I'll look into running it solo as finding time and opponents for all the games I want to play is hard and at least Fallout Wasteland Warfare has a well developed solo mode.

Acquired: -61
Painted: 374
Lead Mountain: 638