Fallout 4: Red Rocket Filling Station in 15mm

Looking for a terrain project, and having done a few "cyberpunk" buildings already, I decided to look for something fun and iconic that I could use with "This Is Not A Test" or maybe "Scrappers" or one of the zombie games out there.

Digging around, I settled on the "Red Rocket Filling Station" from Fallout 4.

Cue "Rocket 69"!

The view from the back.

The roof comes off.

The overhang part comes off, too, for ease of access.

Some people wanted to know how I did it.

The short answer is: *shrug* "I unno."

The long answer is kind of the same, but longer.  Here we go:

First off, I based a lot of what I'm doing on the existing 28mm Fallout Red Rocket terrain set.  That's great, because it's already designed for simplification and playability.  I don't own it, but there are photos online.  The side effect of eyeballing it is that I think my scale isn't right.  I mean, it looks right.  The doors and windows are correct, but I suspect that the whole building is nearly the same size as the 28mm building.  Of course, maybe their building is just too small.  Ever think of that?  Huh? :)

In stores now!

Step 1: The Tool
Wait for somebody to buy you a Proxxon hot wire table.

Wait for iiiiiiiit....

There may be better options and it might need some aftermarket mods to really shine, but dang if this wasn't a game-changer for me.  (It cuts foam.  In this case, pink XPS "insulation" foam.  Do not eat.)

I wasn't planning on documenting this, and as I said, I didn't even know what I was doing, so there aren't as many pictures as there could be.

Step 2: The Base

Crazy wastelander (with a banana in his pocket) for scale.

So, first example of winging it.  I wanted a pretty thin "sidewalk", and obviously I needed it to be the right size.  Unfortunately, the arm on the Proxxon is only so tall, so I had to make two halves and glue them together.  But this was the base, so it needed to not fall apart.  Now, maybe I could have just glued it and relied upon the walls and paint to hold it together later, but instead, I glued both pieces to a sheet of paper.  Unfortunately, the whole thing warped and despite painting both sides and trying to heat it and leaving books on it, it kept springing back to a saddle shape.  In the end, I ended up slashing the underside of the paper with a razor to "break it up", and that fixed it.  Maybe I could have also used plasticard instead of paper.  Whatever.  It worked eventually.

Then, ballpoint pen to draw cracks and crevices into the foam.  I've got sculpting tools, which sometimes come in handy, but something about the ink lubricates the process (and marks your progress) in a nice way.  So there's the blueprint.  Sidewalks, tiles, and the garage.  Then I coated it in matte Mod Podge mixed with a healthy does of black paint, ala Black Magic Craft.  Then I painted it.  The white never got quite white enough, but that's probably for the best.

The loose tiles are cut from a cereal box.

A nice coat of paint... Nope.  Still the apocalypse.

Step 3: The Walls
I did NOT, however, get any patterned foam rollers for Christmas, so I had to figure out a solution for the brick walls.  Experimenting ensued, but the answer: a pizza cutter!  I measured out the distances on each side, put down a ruler, and then sliced me some 'zza!

Holy crap!  I accidentally made aluminum siding!

Then I cut a little tool (not shown) out of plasticard that I could grip well, with the tip being as tall as a "brick", and measured out the distances (and half-distances) and proceeded to tediously push in the sides of the brick.  Actually, it wasn't that tedious, but it was still a chore.  I "removed" a couple of bricks with my ballpoint pen.  Then, it's paint and glue, then paint, then glue.  I started out with a white "tacky" glue, but eventually moved to a clear version.  I don't know that one's better than the other.

Nice!

Cut out the doors and windows.

Paint job.  White with a red dry(ish) brush for the bricks.

XPS foam supports and cereal box cardboard moldings.

The walls were bowing a bit, but with a bit of heat from my space heater, glue, and some threats and imprecations, I got them to straighten out.

Step 4: The Roof (not on fire)
For this, I cut a thick-ish piece of foam.  Well, again, I had to use two pieces and glue them together, but they were thick enough that it wasn't a problem.  I did, however, overestimate how large the roof should be.  It overhung the sidewalk significantly which, while perhaps realistic and a nice touch for the patrons of the station when it rains, totally hid the model underneath.

With a heavy heart (in my throat), I used the Proxxon to just saw (burn?  melt?) off a huge chunk from two sides.  I had to go in and recurve the edges (little bit of cutting, and then a little bit of sanding).  I also had to redo the side panels, which was probably a good thing, anyway.  I had forgotten to "break" them.  Curving the side panels was tricky.  I bent them carefully and applied some heat until they stayed about where I wanted them, and then glued them in place mostly successfully.  The "pipe" behind the panel is "plasticard" tubing.  It only exists where it shows.  It doesn't go all the way around.

Then I cut thin strips with the Proxxon, and then cut those to size with a blade, and glued them down in a grid across the roof.  I added a trap door as an excuse for people wanting to get onto the roof.  I imagine you climb up on the workbench in the garage and up from there.  The whole thing gets a coat of black Mod Podge.

Sigh of relief!

Also got some not-Fallout-power-armor from Clear Horizon.

Step 5: The Sign(s)
So, this took some work.  First, I got my favorite graphics editor and found a good font.  Then I edited that image to be closer to the desired look.  I made sure to scale the image to match the actual model.  I printed a couple copies, then cut out each letter from the page, and used it as a stencil to trace the letters onto the foam.  Then, a lot of careful cutting and some selective filing, and I got this.

Oh my god!  Help me!  I can't "C"!

I painted it metallic with red on the front, and went back to the roof.

The side panels got painted white, and then I measured and drew some guidelines in pencil and carefully painted a red stripe.  Then I took a bit of sponge, the kind with the green scrubby on the top, and dipped it into black paint.  I dabbed it mostly dry on a towel (paper, I 'm not crazy!) and then went around scuffing up the side panels.  This wouldn't have occurred to me.  I got the idea from the 28mm model.  It has these black scratches and grime all over it.

That's not how the sign goes.  Ironically, this IS just a test. 

I also glued some bits of cork, gravel and sand onto spots on the roof.  These got black Mod Podge, then brown drybrushing.  I also drybrushed some brown onto the grey roof.  Then the whole thing got a black wash to dirty it up.

And there it all sat for a while.  Whew!

Step 6: That Overhang Thing (and the Rocket)
This worried me.  It seemed simple, but also difficult.
For the most part, you know how this goes.  Two pieces, glued together.  Cut the curve broadly and then sand it to the right shape.  Glue on the side panels.  The curved ones require extra attention.

The rocket, on the other hand, was a challenge.  I ended up cutting out rectangular solids and then sanding them into cylindrical, bullet shapes.  Make sure to wear a mask and probably do it outside.  I used cheap jewelry beads to glue the thrusters onto the main body of the rocket.  It's also, I think, a bit too big, but if you take a deep breath and relax, it's probably ok.

No jokes, please.  We're all adults here.

I glued strips of plasticard along the edges of the "legs" to reinforce them and give it that "I-beam" look. I also glued a plastic ring to the underside, because, I don't know... "rocket".

So... is this a girl or a boy rocket?

More little strips in a grid (not tedious at all!) and glue on the rocket and slather the whole thing in Black Magic secret sauce.

[INSERT INNUENDO HERE]

Step 7: This Stupid Thing
This was hard, and I pretty much messed it up, but it's good enough for government work, right?

Flimsy!  It'll never pass inspection!

So, these are the under-legs.  I didn't want to attach them to the roof, because it's cumbersome enough as it is, and I wanted to be able to see under it.  So there's this thing.  The curve doesn't match the legs on the roof.  Maybe if I had planned better, but it's a minor thing in the end.

Even though I wasn't yet done, I took this to a game, and this piece fell off of the seat beside me and went to bits.  So, I guess that's good, because at least I could address it before the whole thing was done.

New and Improved!  Now with Triangulol for added stability!

I added these little triangles (also on the tops) which gave them more surface area for glue, and also made them stand on their own, which was handy.

Examining the break, it appeared that the glue clung well to the legs, but popped off of the plasticard base.  I'd use super-glue, but that eats through the foam.  So, solution:  I used regular glue to glue little rectangles of stiff paper to the tops and bottoms of the legs, and then used super-glue on that to connect them to the plasticard.  A little "middle-man" action.

So then black magic and gravel and paint (again!) and now I wanted to add some rust to that exposed metal.

I asked my friend AbanthaPryde what he uses (because he's done some awesome stuff) and he says Burnt Sienna, Orange and then Yellow.  I actually found some "Burnt Orange" which looked promising, so I used that.  These are just craft paints, by the way, from the hobby store.  I don't know about minis, but for terrain, they're great.  This takes some artistry, but mostly it's just slopping the burnt sienna around in places, and then going back and kind of stippling less burnt orange on top of (but not completely covering) that, and also a little "outside the lines".  And then do the same, with even less yellow.  This is how it turned out:

So much tetanus!

And I guess that's it!

I'll try to get in a game of "This Is Not A Test" soon and tell you how it went.

EDIT 1:
Look what I found!  It's the bit of plastic that I used to push in the vertical edges of the bricks!

Stab! Stab! Stab-stab!

EDIT 2:
By popular demand, (armored) Dogmeat!

Woof! Whine! [Rolls on back.]

EDIT 3:
Added some "vines" for that "overgrown" look.

KUDZU! (Gesundheit!)

Jason "Ludanto" Smith C;E