Fallout fan spent 6 months building a Megaton diorama from cardboard and model airplanes

Modeler CraftyRic showed off three large dioramas from the Fallout universe. The lineup includes Megaton from Fallout 3, the flooded Atlantic City downtown from Fallout 76, and the Brotherhood of Steel airship Prydwen from Fallout 4.

CraftyRic built all of the models over the past few years for the tabletop game Fallout: Wasteland Warfare.

Fallout: Wasteland Warfare is a miniatures wargame where squads of survivors fight it out on a tabletop among Wasteland scenery. The dioramas work as fully playable boards, and visitors can see them in person at the major tabletop conventions Gen Con and Origins.

Each build took a different amount of time. Megaton and Prydwen needed roughly six months of planning and assembly apiece, while Atlantic City came together in just two weeks.

Atlantic City was a paid commission for Bethesda, so I had a hard deadline. Prydwen, Megaton, and Diamond City take months because I spend time gathering lots of greebles and complex parts to build them. For Megaton, I had to use a whole collection of scale model airplanes.

Modelers use the term greebles for small details that add visual complexity to a surface. Pieces of model kits, tubing, buttons, and other plastic odds and ends are the usual material. That is how Megaton got its patchwork walls made of plane wreckage, familiar to anyone who played Fallout 3.

Plain cardboard forms the base of almost every diorama. The crater Megaton sits in is made of extruded polystyrene foam (XPS) and covered with filler. Prydwen also started as a cardboard frame, which surprised many commenters who took the airship for a plastic model.

This one took a lot of planning. After I made the shape out of cardboard, I started adding all kinds of plastic greebles and covered everything in automotive primer. Then I painted it silver.

CraftyRic sticks to traditional techniques on purpose. The modeler specializes in hand crafting and kitbashing, which means building new models from parts of other kits, and turns to 3D printing in only about 1% of cases.

Megaton takes up quite a bit of space, so CraftyRic made it modular for transport to conventions. The diorama breaks down into four crater sections of about 60 by 60 cm, and the houses simply snap into place.

The water in Atlantic City earned special praise. The region arrived in Fallout 76 in 2024 with the Atlantic City – America's Playground update. Many users admitted that seeing Megaton made them want to blow it up, just like in one of the most famous quests in Fallout 3, and CraftyRic confirmed it is the most common reaction.

Fallout: New Vegas is next on the to-do list. Fans have already pitched the modeler a wish list:

• Rivet City, the city built on an aircraft carrier from Fallout 3

• The Brotherhood of Steel Citadel

• Arefu and Helios One

• Fort Independence

• Mister Gutsy and Sentry Bot robots, plus an armored personnel carrier

CraftyRic added that Rivet City is definitely on the list. The modeler admitted to barely playing Fallout, since all free time goes into the dioramas, and only jumps into the games in short bursts for reference.