Product Review: Ramshackle Games Rhebok

     So, it's finally that time where my hard-spent money of months ago is coming back to me in the form of lovely little lumps of resin, metal, and plastic. Very soon I will be tearing into mounds of Warzone and Deadzone figures (what's with everyone and their "zones" anyway? ) as well as the remainder of the Spinespur models. TokenGamerChic is already hard at work painting our (read: her) Dwarven Forge Dwarvenite Tiles. For today, the Iron Brotherhood Rhebok gets it's day in the sun. Or, at least, the sun-equivalent painting lamp, since we all know gamers never leave our dungeons to venture into the daylight.
     As a warning, most of these early pics aren't the best quality. You'll have to excuse that, since all of them had to be taken with a phone, and most of them weren't even taken at my house. A lot of my absence from the blog has been due to work hours and work travel, so most of these were taken on the road. (Yes, I brought a model to a sales conference. Geek Points.)

     So, let's begin with material quality. You're pretty much looking at your standard weight, run of the mill resin here- nothing crazy, just the tried and true stuff that I've handled for 20 years. For the most part, the casts are really bubble free- an advantage of resincast vehicles over people figures is that there's often a large avenue of escape for trapped gasses I guess. The only real issue was the tires, which run into "figure issues." fortunately they only got gribbly in one spot, so it's easy enough to make sure that points down.  

     On to the model itself. First, I have to credit Ramshackle Games with a neat appearance for the vehicle. It's Dieselpunk (which seems to be very "in" this year) blended with some historic tank features and scifi/wargame elements that are very familiar, giving it a comfortable yet unique aspect. Second is the options. oh lordy, there are options. Not only did you have to decide between wheeled or tracked, longbodied or shortbodied, bulldozer or bully bar, turret or cupola, but even after all that there are a healthy smattering weapon options, vehicle gear, and accessory do-dads- enough to make an indecisive gamer quake in fear. Seriously, you'll note I have *two
different pairs* of forward facing lights on the rig. There were even more.
 
     The biggest problems with the kit are attributable to "well, resin'll do that." First off, yes there are some bubbles. Not a bad amount, but enough that it's always possible you could get a badly damaged gun barrel if the quality control wasn't right. Fortunately it looks like the quality control is spot on though. The most annoying part was the bully bar needing to be "cut down" on the bottom. It was longer than the piece was supposed to be, and slightly sloping. (Resin molds are sometimes cut long to avoid miscasting by molds, as the bubbled and shaken surface will be beyond
the kit. It's okay if you're really careful with your level and resin flow, so it was just a smidge off- nothing a jeweler's saw can't solve.) Additionally there was a little warpage between the two principle chassis pieces, but nothing some creative sanding didn't fix quickly. Finally, almost all of the accessories had a fair amount of overflow flashing, meaning that you either have to leave them as is and have the vehicle elements be ever so slightly taller/thicker than intended, of delicately file them down. Your mileage may vary on what is acceptable to you, which changes how much/little a concern that really is.

     We're mid-assembly right now, and I gotta say it's looking smart. The appearane of the vehicle is spot on for the "urban assault vehicle" APC I wanted out of this kit. I'm sure the treaded version would be just as nice, but I'm really happy I went with the six wheeled "lunar lander" look.

     For painting, I wanted to go with a "scrap" or polydactic camo pattern, in blues and greys- partly because they are common enough urban colors, and partly for the artistic look that camo will have on my Warzone Cybertronic force, which I planned on fielding this vehicle with most likely.

     The paint scheme you're seeing is grey made from Army Painter Matte Black & Matte White in a 1:3 ratio, while the blue is Army Painter Deep Blue and Matte White in 2:1. My personal preference is for dropper bottles to find the mix I want, then make HUGE quantities of paints I'll use a lot. As this was a test for my intended camo for my upcoming Warzone force, I made a lot once I got the colors I wanted.

     And then, disaster struck in the form of intellectual failure. In an attempt to age and shade thevehicle, I hit it with a sepia wash. Sepia is a great go-to...unleess you have light blue, and a blue-based grey. Then it just makes everything green. I'm going to blame this on Big Jim's Capitolians sneaking into the motorpool in the middle of the night. Sadly, this meant a repaint was needed, so back to the table it went.

     Now, you would think one tragedy was enough for a single kit, but you'd be surprised. Back in the days where B97 & I worked in some other gaming company's store together, he earned the nickname of "warp storm." This was due in large part to projects jumping off the shelves with suicidal abandon when he was nearby. Well, you'd think I'd know better, but I handed him the repainted kit before taking photos. The turret was (of course) not glued on, and as he turned the Rhebok sideways it fell of. He caught it... by letting go of the Rhebok. Turret safely in hand, the Rhebok (perhaps christened "Caliope?") crashed to the ground, breaking into about a dozen pieces. Fortunately, this resin broke really cleanly, and the reassemble went pretty well.

There's the finished work of art. Ramshackle Games has them available on their website to

purchase, and I might just be picking up a few more. A good model at a good price that you can reasonably add into almost any dieselpunk or dark scifi setting. If anyone else picked one up, send me some pictures. I'd love to do a followup with more images.

(Here's a few extras, plucked from their website. Go look, go buy, with your choice of optional bits!)
 

     That's it for me today. I've got some Spinespur action, Warzone and Deadzone reviews, as a special little Christmas surprise conversion coming for you as well!


See you on the other side of the table,
The Second Class Elitist