These models were kindly provided to us by Modiphius for review.
Following on from SRM’s review of the NCR Top Brass the other week, we’re back with some more Fallout: Wasteland Warfare for you with a look at the Caesar’s Legion Military Command set.
The Legion got three kits in the recent New Vegas expansion to F:WW, with a Core Box of regular Gaiuses, a Veteran Wave with their more elite troops (and some dogs), and then these guys, the Military Command. All three are instantly recognisable from the game. Front and centre is Legate Lanius, the final boss for the NCR storyline, wielding his Blade of the East. He’s also just straight-up enormous, towering over the other two. Backing him up are Lucius, leader of Caesar’s Praetorian Guard, and Vulpes Inculta, all-around bad egg who you are most likely to encounter after the destruction of Nipton. Both have their game-accurate weaponry, with Lucius wielding a ballistic fist and Vulpes holding a ripper.
As is typical for Modiphius, the casts on these are great. They go together easily with one exception, which is that the Blade of the East is an awkward fit on Lanius’ arms – it didn’t quite seem to want to sit where the wrists were without me doing some jiggling and a little cutting, and then a tiny bit of green stuffing to fill a gap. It also broke off during painting and needed re-attaching – nothing too difficult, but a little annoying.
Overall though that’s a very minor complaint, and really there’s nothing else to say about assembly. Like SRM, I really don’t love the big tabs on the resin bases – at the very least it would be nice if they were consistently on the back of the base to be less visible, but as you can see on Lanius they’re sometimes attached right at the front where any damage from detaching it is very visible.
The bases on these guys aren’t especially characterful – they’re pretty much just the wasteland of the Mojave, although weirdly the product photos on Modiphius’ site show them as being a kind of asphalt grey. I painted them in desert fashion instead. Lucius’ has the most going on, with some nice boot prints that take to washes well and stand out a bit, as well as a few shell casings, while Lanius occupies a slight hero rock.
A nice thing about the Fallout range is that it has a historicals level of detail – all the bits you’d want to mark them out as the character models you’re expecting, but no more. This makes them easy to paint up, with some nicely defined textures like the leather chest armour on Lucius and Vulpes. I went through these pretty quickly (probably too quickly on Lucius’ face – sorry bro, that’s just how you look now) and the combination of nice sculpts and crisp detail keeps them looking good even at a tabletop standard like mine. After decades of painting GW minis I tend to go brighter and bolder than Modiphius’ more muted and realistic palette, but I think they still look great and the red in particular is a striking colour for the Legion.
What I need next is some guys for these commanders to command, of course, and that means the Core Box and Veteran Wave. The three sets together will give you everything you need to play the faction in F:WW, or just to have a complete set of the Legion with sculpts you’ll recall from New Vegas. First up, though, I have some Gunners and overgrown insects to be cracking on with for a future Fallout Friday, courtesy of Modiphius – so watch this space. Next week though we will have a review of the 2D20 RPG core book!
