FWW: Making a Base

Wasteland Warfare allows me to do something that I haven't had many opportunities to do before - build terrain features for gameplay. So whilst I've been building some scatter stuff and working on my Red Rocket kit, the below is my first MDF/bigger project.

I started with a 4Ground "2x Damaged Containers A" MDF set. These are roughly 25 Pounds, but you can get them significantly cheaper if you scour eBay, and don't mind longer ship wait times. So 25 (I don't have a Brit pound sign) retail netted for $20 USD is not that bad at all. The downside, however, is that a few of the sprues were a good bit damaged, and I imagine that is why the price was so low. But since I'm using this for Fallout, I don't even mind.

(Retail image)

So there are different ways to build this, but I really liked the idea of doing it as above, with the two sections connected and the added radio dish piece. The rooftops are removable for interior play or diorama purposes. Immediately, I came up with three different ideas - raider base, Enclave forward post, or the Leader's Office from the Settlement Mode. Each gave me some different ideas but ultimately, I decided to keep it kind of generic for use as any of the three.

As I said, my first MDF (which is like a thin pressboard) kit, so it was a lot of trial and error, but I got the yellow half done fairly quickly, more or less. Nuka Girl for scale reference.

Rather than move to the grey section right away (the instructions didn't make it seem like it mattered what order I did individual pieces in), I went ahead and put together the little bathroom piece.

It's pretty cool. So after that, I got a little bold and not only blew through the grey portion, but also joined the two together. NOTE - it said to use the white type glue, and I did, but I forgot how long it takes to get a good hold, and I had to fix a bunch of stuff as I went. Because PVA is apparently NOT the same thing as Elmers. Oops. I also made up some little light pieces, and used provided "iron plates" to tighten the joining.

Rather than keep it loose, I glued the radio on top of the detachable roof to help lift it open.

Now I had to think of how I wanted to improve the footprint. Including adding an extra bit of plasticard underneath the containers to raise them up a bit (as if they were on a cracked concrete slab), which I painted a small section to know the break in the floor between the two, and I added some plants under there.

 

Once I had my footprint, I thought about that radio dish, and the starting rules for settlements. Since they begin with small power generators, and someone in my FO group had posted, I got some cheap (less than $7 for 3) Reaper Bones starship generators. Drilled into one and added the connectors that FO4 gens have and got to priming/painting. As well as a wall mounted computer from my terrain bin, for possible turret controls...

All top tier ideas, but which require painting and time. But worth it in the grand scheme of things. 

Then I marked off on my footprint where the generator would be, and where the containers would be, so that I could paint and base and flock and whatnot the remaining plasticard sections. As opposed to just naked white. Got the base painted, added my main pieces, then had to go back and touch up places where I left too much white showing.

After that, I came up with the idea of using a pan to do all of my basing in, and that helped to get the glue applied the way I wanted to.

Yay, shaker cap basing material. And yes, I put all of the extra back in. So, with that part done and dry, I let things chill for a minute, then came back and started doing some finishing touches. And yes, I realize the flock material is super light on certain parts. That's intentional as it's the wasteland. Later, I'll learn how to use Sculptamold, as the only thing I really wanted to do with this that I didn't is build a rock wall for the one side. Using foam board may have also been a little better than the plasticard for a base. I'm fairly certain it will hold up (the main container section at least) but I'd have liked a little less floppiness in the finished product. And the pics don't show it as well, but the generator is connected to the building - since I drilled in that paperclip piece, I did the same for the building, and then attached a small piece of basing barbed wire, which I went over with a black ink to darken it up a bit. May still weather things more and use an ink on the trees, but otherwise, we're ready to go.

I dig it. It has play potential. For the Brotherhood. Ad Victoriam!

EDIT - One of the things that bothered me with the plasticard/basing material is how easily it rubbed off. So I went back and added a few things, like some leaves under the trees, a little bit of an ink wash on the trees, connected the two roof pieces with some leftover "metal" pieces over and under, and then sprayed it all down with a matte varnish to keep the basing material more solid. I actually practiced this on my mutfruit grove first. Worked just fine. Makes me a little more confident with moving minis across this. Now, to get another really good game in...