Nuclear Renaissance - Marauders 600pt Starter gang, the 'Sons of Simius'

Here is my first completed gang for Nuclear Renaissance, a savage band of depraved marauders that go by the name of the 'Sons of Simius'

This gang was put together as a gift for a friend and I'm really chuffed with how they turned out, especially the vehicles. Painting each mini as an individual rather than a uniform squad or army was refreshing and helped to keep my interest up.

This is Simius, the gangs fearsome leader and his wasteland steed; Cheryl the saab 93.

 As with all the miniatures Simius is from em4 miniature's 'savages' range and were it not for the long hair and the fact he's kept his trousers on, he could easily pass for the road warriors 'lord humongous'.

The saab 93 started out like this, unfortunately I didn't take a proper 'before' shot.

And ended up a little more 'used'! 

The speakers and subwoofers bolted to the roof and poking through the rear hatch were made from several old pairs of mobile phone earphones and other various electronic bits and pieces to serve as amps and crossovers.

Not just for show they also have an in game effect as the 'sound system' upgrade, which in turn boosts the range of the inspirational 'bard' skill.

In game This car has the 'turbo' and 'race tuned' upgrades and although saabs of this era are generally turbocharged to begin with, I wanted to do something to represent the car being tuned up, so I also added a front mount intercooler.

Next up is 'Wibber' and his truck 'Redneck'. 

Redneck started out as a corgi classic renault, not the most promising base for a mad max machine you might think, but this truck is perhaps my favourite of the six vehicles I've built so far for this project. The idea was to end up with a real ramshackle 'outback' style vintage truck.

The rear wheels were removed and doubled up on the front, and a wider set of wheels were doubled up at the rear along with some homemade rear arches.

An old chimera dozer blade mount was turned into a pick up bed, and the engine block (Lascannon power cell) and blower scoop were added along with smoke belching exhaust pipes and a feed pipe leading to nitrous oxide bottles mounted on the rear of the cab. 

The ram bars are various swords and blade from plastic guardsmen and a cut down piece of sprue.

Last up is the gangs heavy vehicle 'knock knock' together with driver Ziggy and Simius's right hand man; Krump the Ape'prentice.

Ziggy is the slightly flamboyant fellow armed with a sword and Krump (definitely inspired by beyond thunderdome bad dude 'ironbar') is entrusted with a deadly double barrelled shotgun.

'Knock Knock' stared out as a an old corgi bread van (a Bedford?) like this one, though sadly not with the lucozade markings which I might have tried to keep somehow.

The van was heavily knocked about, dented and bullet holed, the plough was made from chimera track guards mounted on hunter killer missile rails. 

Other leftover chimera parts (my best friend in this project) became armour panels and firing ports and a whole mess of stowage was added to the roof.

So that's the first 'starter gang' complete. Next up the 'good guys'

At 600 points (the rule books sample gangs are 650) theres room to expand the crew with a new member or two without slowing gameplay down too much.

For anyone that's interested below is the gang roster for the sons....

Gang 1 - Marauders 'Sons of Simius'

Simius the invincible (hero) - 30

Bard - 15

Driver - 7

Fighter - 10

Mechanic - 15

Strong - 6

Skilled - 20

Pistol - 70

Large weapon (punch dagger) - 10

x1 hand grenade - 10

Total - 193

'Cheryl' (buggy) - 20 (driven by Simius) 

Race tuned - 15

Turbo - 15

Safety features - 10

Sound system - 10

Total - 70 

Wibber (goon) - 10

Driver - 5

Rammer - 5

Fighter - 6

Large weapon (chain) - 10

Total - 36

Redneck (Truck) - 30

Ram bars - 15

Nitro x2 - 20

Supercharger - 25

Total - 70

Ziggy (driver) - 15

Driver - free

Fighter - 6

Sword - 5

Total - 26

'Knock Knock' (truck) - 30 (driven by ziggy)

Extra armour - 30

Plough - 15

Total - 75

Ape'prentice Krump (soldier) - 20

Marksman - 4

Fighter - 8

Strong - 5

Shotgun - 80

Knife- 5

Total - 122

Simius and Cheryl - 263

Wibber and redneck - 106

Krump, ziggy and knock knock - 223

Total - 592

Nuclear Renaissance - Wrecked vehicles terrain and inspiration restored

After a long period of inactivity my output over the last few weeks has shot right back up, it's amazing what a bit of inspiration can do.

So what's brought this on?

It all started with a conversation with a mate of mine who played a lot of fantasy and necromunda back in the mid nineties before (like many, including myself) dropping out of the hobby in his teens.

The conversation basically went along the lines of...

"I'd like to have a go at a tabletop wargame if it wasn't for the exorbitant costs and long winded rules learning"

My first thought went to necromunda as I have enough orlock and van saar for a couple of gangs, plus we would both have a (very hazy) familiarity with the basic mechanics of playing a game.

However i'd been reading through 'Ramshackle Games' Nuclear Renaissance (free pdf!!!!) a vehicular gang skirmish game set in a post apocalyptic wasteland, and been quite taken with its simple game mechanics, and open character and vehicle building structure. After reading through it I think it's actually quite an elegant streamlined system that let's you build any kind of gang/crew/unit/cult/robotic cyber octopus with chaingun tentacles that you desire (within a points limit of course)

This was perfect for me as I'm a huge fanboy sucker for mad max, dark future and the like, and perfect for my friend as the game rules seem to be easy to learn but with enough depth to keep us interested.

This particular friend has been a real lifesaver in the past so I offered to make us a pair of gangs and some scenery to play a game.

It would be the perfect antidote to my never ending constantly spiralling 40k projects, and a great chance to do some great '28mm on the cheap'

Already having the em4 miniatures scavenger (in my last post) I purchased some other figures from the same range and began to chop up some old 1/43 scale cars I found in the attic to create the two crews vehicles. I've had to buy two more diecast cars in 1/43 and my bits box has been heavily depleted by the exercise but the total spend for the two gangs with a combined total of six vehicles and seven minis is currently under £25 with no further spend necessary.

My own crew will be the 'Convoy' a supply run with law enforcement riding shotgun, channeling a mix of the original mad Max's MFP and the us cavalry of dark future.

My friends gang will be the 'Sons of the Ape', a group of vicious marauders in the vein of the road warrior's Lord Humungus, with a few special touches to make them personal to my friend. 

I'm really happy with how things are going, with about half the vehicles and miniatures finished. I'll start posting them up as soon as I get the individual vehicles and drivers done, but for now here are the first two bits of terrain I've knocked up in preparation for our inaugural game.

The idea was to do thing on the cheap and these definitely qualify, based on CDs, and built from leftover toy car carcasses and pieces from my bits box.

A pair of rusty long dead car wrecks for our combatants to swerve round or hide behind.

Auto Wreck One - 'Ballsnippers Tomb'

The Ballsnipper was a particularly infamous gang boss of years past who inspired so much love, respect or perhaps dread in his followers that when he inevitably met his bloody and violent end, they created a crude barrow by entombing him in the scorched wreckage of his custom road rod with chunks of concrete and rubble.

Since then, the grave/crash site has become an unlikely shrine of sorts, attracting all stripes of savages, bikers, marauders, raiders, anarchists and loonies wishing to pay their respects to a brutal psychopath who would've most likely removed their gonads with a cheesewire had their paths ever crossed.

Auto Wreck Two - 'Stopping Distances'

"Ere'lies dead,

Our mate Fred, 

When the light went red,

E' adnt worn his seatbelt,

So he smashed his head'."