I scored a Blackstone Fortress box as a Christmas gift. My hope for it was to play on my own, with the kids coming and going as they pleased. And of course, get a fresh taste of 40k painting, to go with the Underworlds and Blitz Bowl I’ve been enjoying.
Chaos Space Marine (helmet)
Chaos Space Marine (mask)
I’ve been playing a session every weekend, and having a ton of fun. The kids are mostly with me. It does work well for them to drop in and out. Many a dinner conversation is about our exploits to date.
Obsidius Mallex
I wanted to do something interesting for the bases, but not shell out for resin ones. I settled on hexes (masked with cut out tape, airbrushed, then edge highlighted by hand), pipes (made with my trusty Tentacle Maker), and good old fashioned sand (painted grey). The hexes mesh well with the general aesthetic of the game, and the sand hides slots and reduces the number of tiny hexagons I need to cut and place.
Base detail
Obsidius Mallex and his Chaos Space Marine bodyguards
Ever since these were announced, I wanted them. But I didn’t have much of an excuse. They’re bulky, and I mostly play in stores. Well, the store excuse fell away. Plus they’re getting hard to find. I guess it was time!
The tiles are one-foot squares, which lines up perfectly with Fallout’s Into the Wasteland scenarios. They come as bare grey plastic, but the detail is such that they paint up quickly. I mostly followed the guide on Secret Weapon’s blog. Airbrush the ground and debris, then pigment wash in the dust. I added in some drybrushing and stippling for extra color.
Maybe I should pick up some more themes before it’s too late.
This character pack for the Institute adds three new named characters, including named versions of the Courser and a Gen 2 Synth.
A-2018
A-2018 presents almost the worst of all possible colors; black and white. I used my standard Reaper Blue Liner for the black, mixing in some white and pale blue for the highlights.
Kellogg
Kellogg has a rad cyber arm, though the limits of casting (and my paint) render it somewhat less rad.
Z2-47
I wish Z2-47 was more distinct from the other courser sculpts. If you put him next to the courser in the faction core box you’d be hard pressed to tell which one was the named character.
The Institute are the boogeyman of the wasteland in Fallout 4. Now they can do the same on the tabletop.
Gen 1 Synths
The Institute has an army of synths, humanoid robots with varying amounts of human appearance and personality. Gen 1 are the weakest, essentially acting like zombies.
Gen 2 Synths
Gen 2 are still unlikely to pass as human, but are closer. Both of these specimens have seen better days.
Courser
The Courser is a gen 3, a terminator sent out to take care of rogue elements. They have stealth and teleportation. What fun!
Institute Scientist
The Scientist is an actual human. At least probably. Protect them as they go about doing sciency things.
