Tuesday 8 June 2010

Ramshackle To Release Fantasy Range

HI!

Im actually off on my hols at the moment so havent had chance to update my blog for a while but news has come through of Ramshackle Games fantasy range.

Heres a picture of the Giant:

Ramshackle Giant

He looks perfect for a really big mutant and the orcs are rather nice too! The range will launch with orc archers, trolls, goblin bolt thrower and a couple of mounted goblin mages, not to mention a goblin war giant!

Once Im back from holiday I will set to painting up some of the Nuclear Renaissance miniatures I have kicking about!

All the best!

Monday 10 May 2010

Ramshackle Release Crazies!

Hi!

Ramshackle Games have released two new figures and can be found HERE

Drug Crazed Loonies

Retailing at £1.50 for the two and made of resin they are a good addition to any Nuclear Renaissance warband!

All the best!

Sunday 18 April 2010

More Nuclear Renaissance Painted Stuff!

Hi!

I spotted this rather excellent paintjob over on the Lead Adventure forum and thought I should post some pics of it:

Thaddeus Front

Thaddeus Rear

I really like the parrot with its rich yellow colours!

All the best!

Friday 16 April 2010

Ramshackle Releases Hoverboard With Rider

Hi!

Ramshackle have released a new Hoverboard kit, this time with a rider. It can be found HERE and retails for £3.50

Hoverboard With Rider

Underside Detail

All the best!

Saturday 10 April 2010

New Ramshackle Release: Mushrooms!

Hi!

Ramshackle have released a new scenic pack of mutant vegetation, this time of an assortment of mushrooms and can be foud on their online store HERE for £10 for 20 assorted patches of mushrooms and fungi!


Mushrooms!

Just the thing to add some scenic spice to your game!

All the best!

Back From Holiday!

Hi!

Well I'm just back from a rather amazing holiday in Wales and will be getting the phoneline installed in my new flat on Monday so will have regular internet access from Tuesday!

I had hoped to be getting stuck into my campaign by this point along with quite a few painted miniatures but due to the unexpected flat move and general tardiness I haven't got much done with Nuclear Renaissance!

This will be changing as of June though as I am setting myself the task of painting the whole box sets worth of miniatures in a week! Hopefully this will stir me into getting some gaming in!

In the mean time if any of you have any Ramshackle games or Nuclear Renaissance miniatures painted then please feel free to get in touch and I will post them on my blog!

All the best!

Friday 12 March 2010

Still Here!

Hi!

Apologies for the lack of updates over the last couple of weeks but I am getting ready to move house!

I did spot this rather nice conversion of the Brass Coffin over on Lead Adventure by the taleted Pappa Midnight:


Brass Coffin Conversion 1

Brass Coffin Conversion 2

I really like the bold colour scheme on the beast and am quite tempted to go for something similar on mine!

Hopefully regular service will be resumed in a couple of weeks time after Ive finished moving!

All the best!

Friday 19 February 2010

Wasteland Scenics

Hi!

Heres a couple of pictures of my new scenery that Ive been working on recently:

Storage Tanks

Another View Of The Storage Tanks

Ruined Forge

Another View Of The Forge

Made form an assortment of bits and bobs ranging from old ink cartridges to marker pens, the scenery didnt cost me anything to build and was textured with some spray paint I picked up for a couple of pounds in homebase!

I went for a really rusty and dirty look for the whole lot as they are supposed to be remnants of a post apocalyptic landscape and are roughly the size of a CD.

While I was in homebase I picked up some other bits and bobs which will also be getting turned into dwellings and random scenery over the course of the next few weeks!

All the best!

Tuesday 16 February 2010

Grafted Gubbins!

Hi!

I spotted these bits and bobs from Max Mini:

Mechanical Legs


Mechanical Shooters

They might make a decent conversion for some Nuclear Renaissance gangers!

All the best!

Sunday 14 February 2010

Painted Stuff At Last!

Hi!

Heres some pictures of my stuff at last!

First off theres Gilgamesh Giggles:


Gilgamesh Giggles

I love this miniature and was really surprised how big it actually is! The detailing on it is really nice and he looms over the rest of his clan. I plan on using the same chipped yellow scheme on the rest of the clan along with their mighty vehicle Grendel!


Big Uli, Wolf Clanner

Next up heres Big Uli, one of my Wolf Clan gangers. Originally a Grenadier barbarian, hes available from EM4 Miniatures. Although hes a fantasy miniature, he fits in quite well with the Wolf Clan concept!

Hopefully I will get chance to get some more painting done over the course of the week and be able to add another of the Giggles onto the site ASAP!

All the best!

Steampunk Russia UPDATED!

Hi!

Heres another miniature I spotted from a Russian company called Ratnik:





He has some possibility for another Bandlerd character but alas theres no price as yet!

All the best

UPDATE!

Heres another of the Ratnik steampunk types:



I love the character this guy has with his mad multi barreled pistol, goggles and cigar chomping!

Thursday 11 February 2010

More Nuclear Renaissance Gubbins!

Hi!

Heres some pictures of Peter W of Ghost Nebulae's Nuclear Renaissance collection:

Assorted Converted Vehicles

Another View Of The Conversions

I really like the conversion work hes done on the vehicles. The Boneyard truck on the right has been equipped with Hurricane Bolters from the GW land raider giving whatever gang fields it a terrifying amount of firepower while the other two vehicles are made from miscasts available on request from Ramshackle for a small fee. The trike tailed red wagon is rather nice as it reminds me of a boat with an outboard motor!

Dungers

The Giggles Clan

Assorted Heroes Left To Right: Mrs Muffin, Isambard Kickass Brunell, Mr Sniketty, Admiral Leopold Horatio III And Trixie

It looks like the Giggles clan and the Society of Intrepid Explorers are fast becoming a favourite with the Wastelanders (at £5-8 for a pack of four characterful miniatures you cant go far wrong!)

Ive got family visiting at the moment so gaming and painting is out for the next week but I shall continue to post any images or articles I spot that might be of interest!

All the best!

Wednesday 10 February 2010

Mr Snikkity and Lots More Beside!

Hi!

Heres another of Thorbjorns paintjobs, this time of Mr Snikkity, one of the Society of Intrepid Explorers:

Mr Snikkity

A rather creepy looking character in trenchcoat and tophat, Mr Snikkity is armed with two clawlike arms ending in long scissor like fingers. I have always liked the miniature and the paintjob on it is really rather good too!

With his bionic limbs and overcoat he looks like he could be an upmarket Giggles!

Speaking of the Giggles heres a picture of Thorbjorns version of Vulcan:


Vulcan Giggles

And finally one of the Ironwall Wasters vehicles:


The Stoat!

I really love the battered and post apocalyptic look of all the vehicles and equipment and really wish I was faster at painting!

In other news Ive FINALLY finished Gilgamesh and hope to get a picture of him posted ASAP!

All the best!

Tuesday 9 February 2010

Unusual New Gang Possibilities

Hi!

Ive been perusing the Ral Partha Europe site for some assorted bits and bobs and spotted these guys in the Mage Knight Metal range and thought they might make a nice, if somewhat well armed, gang for Nuclear Renaissance:


Khamsin Freelancer


Khamsin Fuser


Black Powder Boomer


Khamsin Gunslinger

For some reason they remind me of the Ramshackle sculpting style and they all have a certain post apocalyptic look to them, especially the boomer with his ridiculous gloves and big gun and with the similar look to them all, I suspect they may be making an appearance, possibly as either bounty hunters or law enforcement in a future game!

All the best!

More Scenery!

Hi!

Alas my new camera hasnt arrived yet but rather than not adding anything to the blog I thought Id post a couple of pictures of more of my post apocalyptic terrain!


Industrial Building


Warehouse

Both buildings are made from simple boxes or polystyrene with a load of assorted bits stuck on followed by a grubby paintjob. Alas they too have been long gone but I hope to re-create the same sort of look for my Nuclear Renaissance games. The only main change that I would make would be to use a more muted brown colour scheme which is more inkeeping with the new scenery I have!

Heres a pre made piece of scenery I got from the old Vor box set:


Vor Ruin

Made of plastic its free standing but I added a base of foamcore. It paints up really nicely and I have about a dozen of them sitting around waiting to be painted. Unfortunately theres only the one design which could lead to a rather repetitive looking battlefield so I may have to do some conversion work on them before they are done. I really like the weird hatch on it and the melted effect on the top (Just what you need in your post apocalyptic wastes!)

Next up heres some possible conversion fodder for a new member of the Giggles Clan in the form of a repainted mining mech from the now defunct mechwarrior plastic range. They still turn up on ebay for peanuts and are well worth grabbing as they paint up really nicely and fit in quite well with the heavily grafted Giggles.

When the missile launcher and heavy weapon have been removed and some sort of close combat one put in its place its just about perfect for a motorised rig for the Giggles clan!


Mining Mech

Ive nearly finished Gilgamesh now and hope to move onto one of the other Giggles, possibly Grizelda, over the course of the next week or so!

Also I just wanted to say Hi to the two newest followers of the blog Haakon and Colonel Kane! Hopefully I will soon have some more useful gubbins on the blog (I know I keep saying that but what the hey, at some point I might actually do it!)

All the best!

Sunday 7 February 2010

Scenic Madness

Hi!

Heres a couple of pictures of some of my old scenery:









Alas I sold it all a while back but I hope to get some more put together to use in the Wastelands. Its made from a few small cardboard boxes and an assortment of bits and pieces!

More Painted Nuclear Renaissance Goodies!

Hi!

Another quick update with some more pictures of painted Nuclear Renaissance stuff:


Gilgamesh Giggles


Dungers

Again the miniatures are painted by Thorbjorn Nielson and, as with the previous post of the Giggles clan are really excellent! I especially like the angry looking dungers and the contrast between the rusted hulk of Gilgamesh's body and the clean looking rags!

If anyone else has aqny pictures of painted Nuclear Renaissance or Ramshackle Games miniatures please feel free to let me know and I will post them here!

All the best!

Friday 5 February 2010

Painted Giggles Clan!

Hi!

Heres a picture I got off the lead adventure forum of a painted sample of some of the Giggles Clan:


Giggles!

The miniatures are painted by Thorbjorn Nielson and are really rather nice! I love the background scenery too, it really fits in well with the wastes of the Nuclear Renaissance setting!

Ive been working on Gilgamesh Giggles myself and hope to have him finished over the course of the next couple of days!

All the best

Sunday 31 January 2010

Nuclear Renaissance: A Review Part 2!

Hi!

As promised heres the second part of the review covering the remaining two gangs in the box set, the Ironwall Wasters and the Society Against Mischief and a more in depth look at the rulebook.


The Ironwall Wasters (Left To Right: Juju, Tahir, Scythetar, Ironstrike, Spanny)

The Ironwall Wasters are led by Scythetar, an awesome musician as well as fighter whose bard ability allows him to rally his gang. His weapon of choice is his specially augmented guitar and counts as a large weapon,

Juju was a foundling orphan brought to Ironwall from the wastes and is a skilled tracker. Also the groups medic, Juju has several abilities to allow her to dodge incoming fire (and vehicles!)

Tahir is a skilled mechanic and is charged with keeping the gangs two vehicles in good condition. He also wields an Oxy Torch capable of seriously damaging both vehicles and heavily armoured opponents.

Spanny is the groups second mechanic and jas the Spring Heeled ability allowing her to leap great distances, even from moving vehicles.

Gunthar Ironstrike is one of the dispossessed nobles of the Ironstrike clan. Working as a hired hand, Ironstrike wears a heavy suit of armour and is a skilled close combat opponent.

Orrik is the driver of the larger of the Wasters vehicles, the Stinger. His crew also includes Dunstor the gunner who mans the Engine Cannon.

Karleon is the driver of the Wasters ram vehicle the Stoat. Seen as slightly unhinged by his fellow gangers


The Stinger (comes with two optional barrels for the gun, a double barrel and a gatling style one)


The Stoat

The Wasters two vehicles are the Stoat and the Stinger. Unlike the other two gangs they rely on smaller fast moving vehicles. The Stinger mounts the gangs heavy weapon and its rapid movement will allow it to bring supporting fire to wherever its needed. The Stoat is a dedicated ram vehicle and is used to crush opposing infantry and small vehicles. Im not sure how it will fare against the likes of Grendel but it will be interesting to see!

Next up is the Society Against Mischief!


The Society Against Mischief (Left To Right: Matilda Greystoke, Archibald Trumpton, Thaddeus Borlase Arlington, Fidelia St John Smythe)

The Society is led by Thaddeus Borlase Arlington, a genuine heroic chap. With a plethora of useful skills Thaddeus is an opponent to be wary of. Answering to the Keeper of the Keys of Bandlerd, Jonas Longstock, Thaddeus has formed the society to bring order to the Wastes surrounding the prosperous town.

Archibald Trumpton is the groups mechanic and unlike the rest of the society he roams the battlefield atop his trusty tracked bike Buzzby, His high speed allows him to quickly get to any of the societies vehicles if they break down,

Matilda Greystoke is the groups medic. Although not a great combatant her medicinal skills make her a valuable team member.

Fidelia St John Smythe is the societies sniper and operates from their trusty vehicle the Brass Coffin and is capable of picking off the dreaded unmentionables from great distances.


The Brass Coffin (minus wheels!)

The Brass Coffin itself is driven by Burton (for some reason I imagine him being the societies butler...) Looking much like an armoured traction engine the Brass Coffin has been equipped with transport space allowing it to carry the league members into the fray in relative safety. Also armed with a big ram the Brass Coffin can deal with many undesirables by simply driving over them.

Onto the rulebook!

The rulebook is 69 pages and lavishly illustrated throughout. Combining photos of the Ramshackle range and several illustrations the book is full of inspirational stuff but the rules are what I should be concentrating on!

Handily the book contains both a contents page and an index making referring to specific rules a far more simple process than some other rulesets that I could mention. The first few pages gives a little background to the Nuclear Renaissance setting and is as usual for Ramshackles background fluff an interesting read.

Next comes an explanation of the statistics and profiles and game sequence. The turn consists of three phases, the Dominance phase sees the players rolling to see who activates followed by the action phase where the players take turns activating a single model. Im glad to see that the game has alternating activation rather than the GW way of doing things as it keeps both players involved and interested and adds an extra element to the game. Also it means that there are no more games where one player wins initiative and proceeds to annihilate their opponent without the poor soul being able to do anything in response!

A nice touch in the game is that players can opt to skip a character in their activation. While this passes activation to their opponent it allows you to hold them in reserve and activate them later on wich can give a bit of a tactical advantage.

Finally theres the end phase where players check to see if victory conditions are met and any special rules that apply are checked.

The next section details Actions. In Nuclear Renaissance, models have a number of actions and depending on the difficulty of performing them they may have to roll a dice to see if they succeed or not. For example walking over open ground is easy and doesnt require a test while running over rough terrain is a bit more tricky.

Next up is the shock section. This reflects the perils of fighting in the wasteland such as injuries, close calls and so on and is an interesting game component. It can mean that your character needs to spend actions to remove shock tokens from them in order to do anything and quite nicely adds an element of uncertainty to the game and means that wounds and exciting happenings actually effect how the characters react.

The following sections cover everything from movement to shooting, vehicles to close combat and are all clearly laid out and explained and have some handy examples to make the concepts clearer. This is a great addition to the rulebook as its so simple but missing from many rulesets!

The rule section covers gang and vehicle creation followed by the three sample gangs There are several abilities missing from the previous edition but these and more will be getting added to a forthcoming supplement so worry not! You will still be able to have narcoleptic ginger characters!

The book also contains a reference section at the rear with all the tables, abilities and weapon ranges etc that you could want!

The books layout is also worth mentioning as its clear and readable with lots of examples and explanations which makes following the concepts and rules within far more straightforward!

All in all Im really pleased with my purchase of the box set as it contains just about everything I will need to play the game (apart from some suitable scenery but thats asking a lot!) Hopefully I will get chance to play a game or two over the course of the week once Ive cleaned up the miniatures and glued them together ready for painting!

The background also covers a few new gangs that I will cover at some point too!

All the best!

Saturday 30 January 2010

Nuclear Renaissance A Review Part 1!

Hi!

As promised heres a review of the box set! Alas I still havent replaced my camera so am having to make do with using my webcam which is less than ideal!

I thought Id start out with the box itself and am pleased to say that its a rather nice, glossy piece that when opened keeps producing seemingly endless amounts of stuff! Im quite impressed by just how much stuff has been jammed into the box, and more importantly that its all been well bubble wrapped to stop the resin bits getting chipped or broken in transport!


The Box!

Size wise its somewhat smaller than the usual GW style starter pack and is of the same quality and thickness as the boxes produced by many of the better miniatures companies out there!

The box contains the following stuff:

4 metal figures
7 resin figures
3 small resin vehicles
2 medium resin vehicles
2 large resin vehicles
A 69 page rulebook
4 dice and several metal game tokens


The Rulebook!

Having not had much chance to read through it yet but it does contain all the rules for playing the game plus character and vehicle creation rules. The rules have apparently been simplified somewhat to remove some of the maths required in the previous edition but I will attempt to review them in more depth at a later date.

Some of the abilities have been removed from this edition but will be getting added to the planned supplement and as they were things like Ginger (its a gift!), I cant see it effecting the game too much. Also missing from this edition, somewhat sadly, is much of the background fluff. Theres still several pages of it but the previous edition had a whole chapter on the Nuclear Renaissance setting and its inhabitants. Hopefully this will be added to the supplement to but it would have been nice to get a bit more background reading material in the core rulebook!

Visually the book is really nice with sturdy covers and beautiful photos of the Ramshackle range and is well worth downloading for that reason alone!

The miniatures are a mixture of single piece resin and metal castings, apart from Gilgamesh Giggles whose gun barrel has been produced separately. All the figures have tons of character each of the gangs in the box are visually very different (there are three of them but more on that later!)


Gilgamesh Giggles!

The resin miniatures are almost free of bubbles (theres a couple of small ones here and there on a couple of them but they should be easy enough to clean up!) and the only visible mould lines are on the bases which can easily be cleared off. Although they are single piece resin castings they have tons of character and the sculptor has made the most of the limitations of the single piece castings.

The metal miniatures have more animation than the resin ones and are also nicely detailed, Scythetar (the guy with the scythe guitar) has some mould lines round his arms that will need a little cleaning and Grizelda (the girl with the buzzsaw arm) will need a little care with handling as shes only attached to the base by one foot and may snap off with too much rough handling.
Otherwise they are all really nice models and well worth the money!

The vehicles are particularly nice and range from small tracked bikes, to junker buggies, traction engine and even a bit of a behemoth!

The casts are clean and the bikes are single piece castings while the larger vehicles come in roughly five pieces each (main body and wheels/tracks) I really like the large, ramshackle look of them and theres plenty of variety to them as well!


Giggles Transport Grendel!

As already mentioned there are three gangs included in the box set:

The Giggles clan, a group of deranged souls who believe flesh is weak and that it requires to be rectified with plentiful pieces of grafted on machinery.

The Ironwall Wasters, a typical group of gangers who inhabit the wastelands of the Nuclear Renaissance.

The Society Against Mischief, a group of well bred ladies and gents from Bandlerd who aim to uphold the peace.

The three gangs all appear very different, the Giggles are all grafted to machinery to various degrees ranging from replacing respiratory systems to augmented heavy lifting gear and wear ragged plastic sheeting. The gang itself is formed of the following personalities:


The Giggles Clan (Left To Right: Vulcan, Asclepius, Gilgamesh, Levi, Grizelda)

Gilgamesh

One of the most heavily augmented elders in the Giggles Clan, Gilgamesh is pretty much nothing more than a wizened human husk encased in a huge suit of heavy armour (the armour itself is essentially a vehicle in itself giving Gilgamesh enhanced movement) Armed with a power claw and shotgun he is a bit of a monster in close combat and short range.

Grizelda

Armed with a powered cutting saw, Grizelda is the other close combat fighter in the gang.

Vulcan

A Flame thrower wielding type suited to skulking in cover before incinerating opponents.

Asclepius

The groups medic (or mechanic as the case may be) Hes been grafted onto a set of tracks giving him superior movement so he can quickly reach injured kinsfolk

Levi

A bard with an eclectic taste on music. Ranging from industrial noise to discordant blaring Levis music can be used to rally the Giggles clan!

Cleatus

The driver of the Giggles transportation of delight Grendel, Cleatus has been grafted directly into the beast itself!

Azozeus

Another crewmember of Grendel, Azozeus has had much of his body replaced with assorted grafts, not least of which are the upgrading of his arms to a pair of huge industrial lifting gear!

Grendel

Grendel is the Giggles transport. A big beast of a machine, Grendel has two crew and is equipped for hauling scrap but can easily mangle most other vehicles due to its size, bulk and industrial powered tools mounted on its rear!

I will cover the rest of the gangs in part two of the article along with a more indepth look at the rulebook!

All the best!