“Keep the peace… don’t get caught.”
– Nisha
One of the three gangs fighting for control of Nuka-World, the Disciples are the wildest of the bunch. A group of thrill-killing psychopaths, the only rule they follow is “don’t get caught.” Killing anyone – including Operator and Pack members that they nominally have a truce with – is perfectly fine as long as nobody knows who did it. To reflect this vicious nature, the Disciples are primarily a close-range focused gang with relatively few long-range rifles available. They prefer fast close combat and hand weapons.
The Miniatures
Raiders: The Disciples is a hard plastic kit that comes as two sprues which make ten Disciples models. The models are all uniquely posed, though some do look fairly similar. The different weapon loadouts go a long way toward making them distinct, and you could easily grab two boxes and make 20 models that look totally unique at a glance. The poses are dynamic, with nobody looking like they’re just lounging around. Every Disciple is here for action, with most of them running straight for the enemy to do some stabbing.
The in-game lore of the Disciples is followed very faithfully in the model design. There are very few men in the gang, with only 1 sculpt out of 10 being obviously male, and the other 9 being either clearly female or ambiguous. Everyone in the gang has the signature hood and metal mask on, with several different mask designs that give some variety to the sculpts.
Matt: The Disciples were mostly a dream to build, and I only ran into a few issues, none of which are deal-breakers. All of the models are keyed very well so the arms and legs slide into place with no fuss. If you want to customize loadouts, it just takes a few seconds of knife and file work to make the shoulder joins perfectly flat and then you can put pretty much any arm on any model, with a few exceptions due to the posing.
I found a few of the running poses to be a bit too dynamic, needing some additional support under the feet to be stable on the base. As you can see in the image above, the extra little basing bits they provide on the sprue are perfect for this, with the medkit box being a great height to plastic glue the model’s foot to, giving it a rock solid base connection. The other issue I had with the kit is that I found it very, very difficult to distinguish between heads while they’re still on the sprue. When they’re primed they’re all detailed and distinct, but on the sprue everything looks exactly the same and I found myself picking heads based solely on which direction they were looking when placed on the model. I just didn’t have anything else to go on.
The note in the Operators review about the instructions also applies to this kit. If you want to build models for Fallout Factions, you need to remember to flip to the front of the instructions when building each model to make sure you’re giving them a loadout that’s legal in the game. This means there’s a rocket launcher left on the sprue that you won’t be using. It’s very sad.
Fowler: These new Fallout plastics really are fantastic kits to work with. Having had a peek at the Pack and Operators, the “oh god, which head is this” problem is unique to the Disciples.
Painting and Basing
Matt: Because this is a licensed game, I wanted to adopt the perspective of someone who has painted no/few miniatures before and see how it would be like to paint up this kit. Simple basing, contrast-style paints, and not a lot of time spent. I’m happy to report that they are amazing for this. The mix of textures really lends itself to a simple style, and the details are present but not overwhelming.
I started with a basing scheme that’s a mix of MIG Ammo Light Earth Ground and Pro Acryl Concrete, to represent how Nuka-World is a mix of broken asphalt and dirt. I just smeared each basing paste on the base according to what I thought would look good, with most being a mix of both basing materials and a few just one or the other. After that, I did a standard zenithal prime and got to work painting.
It’s at this priming step that I really fell in love with the models. Everything just pops once all the details are picked out. Each strap and makeshift armor panel stands out and looks deliberate, and what looks like basic gauntlets on the sprue are revealed to actually be a ton of arm bandages that are really fun to paint.
I painted these entirely with Vallejo’s Xpress Paints line, with the exception of the road lines on the bases which are just white and yellow ink, respectively. Every Disciple wears jeans, so they were all done in Wagram Blue. The boots are all Greasy Black, and any metal on the models was done with Starship Steel. The bases are Muddy Ground for the dirt and Black Lotus for the asphalt. All of the arm wraps were done by painting them with white ink to get them really bright, then using Mummy White to make them look gross, dirty, and old.
For the shirts and hoods I just kinda went crazy, going for a ragtag look and using whatever colors looked good together. Standouts were Landser Grey, which to my eye is a better camouflage green than their actual camo green paint, Khaki Drill which has a really nice yellow-brown tone and doesn’t look quite as dirty as their bone color, Bag of Bones, and Copper Brown, which is brown leather in a bottle.
I also specifically want to shout out their new skin tones. Mahogany is the best one-step paint for a dark skin-tone I’ve ever used, and Tanned Flesh and Fairy Flesh also do exactly what you want them to do.
I’m very impressed with how nice you can make these models look in a weekend if you’re new to the hobby or just in a rush to get to gaming.
Fowler: I’m interested in running Factions with my local group, so my plan is to knock out a bunch of gangs quickly; with Speedpaints and Contrasts. I started with a black prime, heavy zenithal, and a drybrush of Two Thin Coats White Star. The scheme here could either be described as “vaguely gesturing at the box art”. They are much more colorful than the Disciples are in the game.
The main block colors are all Speedpaints: dark blues are Beowolf Blue, the light blue is Magic Blue, the light green is Shamrock Green, and the turquoise is Caribbean Ocean. Leather and wood was painted with Wyldwood contrast. Boots were basecoated with Black Templar. Wraps, straps, and light cloth were painted with Skeleton Horde. Skin colors were painted with the three contrast skintones (Gulliman, Fireslayer, and Darkoath), as well as 2:1 and 3:1 Contrast Medium to Cygor Brown for dark skin. Metallics were all painted with Vallejo Metal Color Magnesium and drybrushed with Army Painter Shining Silver. Then I hit everything with a coat of Ammo By Mig Winter Streaking Grime and cleaned most of it off. I dabbed a bit of Vallejo Fresh and Dry blood effects paints for a bit of game-accurate gore. This was done before final varnishing, to get it to look caked on.
My wasteland basing is mostly GW basing paste with patches of a GW crackle paste. I pre-texture before priming, so color doesn’t really matter here. I… took a cue from Lupe’s Operators basing for mine. I basecoated XV-88, then drybrushed Zamesi Desert and Rakarth Flesh. I use a bit of medium rust and light grey weathering powders. The finishing touches were some scraggly plants and Army Painter Scorched Tufts, and Ammo By Mig Ultra Matte Varnish.
Conclusions
Matt: I had a bit of trouble with these during the assembly stage, but once that’s all done with they’re brilliant to work with. If this is the quality we can expect from Modiphius going forward they’re going to have a great plastic model line on their hands.
Fowler: Once I had knocked out a few of these figures out, I wrapped my head around how the Fallout kits work and really started to enjoy the assembly process. The Disciples have a fantastic aesthetic and were enjoyable to paint up. While there may be a variety of materials to paint on these figures, it is by no means overkill – and they paint up VERY quickly. I am excited to roll right into the Pack kit next.
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