Wednesday 16 May 2018

Rumbleslam Deluxe 3D Arena

When I bought the boxed starter set for Rumbleslam by TT Combat I also bought the 3D arena kit made of MDF at the same time. The kit was very easy to build but rather complicated to paint. Still, I took my time and it ended up just as I wanted. There was just one problem and that was what to do with the ropes? I should say that the kit does not come with ropes, so you must come up with your own solution. I dismissed using thread, because I thought that would snap too easily. My brother suggested using plastic wire, which he had used to hang a spaceship model from his bedroom ceiling. This seemed like a good idea but proved very difficult to tie knots in so I abandoned this idea. After much thinking, I eventually hit upon a solution that really appealed to me - brass rods. I use these for the stands of my miniature spaceships. I thought if I glued them in place at each corner with superglue, that would give me a solid bond and ropes that would look good and be very sturdy. Once glued in place and left to dry overnight, I painted them in red, white and blue.
Here is my arena set up for a four team match between the four teams I currently own - the Green Bruisers (orcs and goblins), the Twisted Shadows (dark elves, shadowlings and gorgons), the Heavy Pounders (humans, halflings and ogres) and the Cryptborn Nightmares (undead and werewolves).
The ropes look really good, especially when painted. The arena itself came unpainted. I left the central area its natural wood colour and very carefully painted the surrounding area and the signs and logos. This was painstakingly slow work and required a very steady hand but I never once made a mistake.
In addition to the arena, you get four stands to position over the four corner turnbuckles to allow any of the larger based characters to stand on top of the turnbuckles. These are useful additions that come with the three legs each - the fourth leg being the turnbuckle itself, which they partially rest on. Here I show all four in use at the same time.
In the centre of the arena is the referee. This is a limited edition figure that I was lucky enough to purchase. Stats are provided for him as a good ref or as an evil ref. He is a bald-headed human. I'll showcase him in a later post so you can get a closer look at him.
In this particularly memorable match, the huge creatures all leapt from the turnbuckles to surround the ref and...
...each one grabbed a limb and played "wishbone" with him, pulling him apart! The troll got an arm and the body, the others just got a limb. So, victory for the Green Bruisers. Referees? Who needs them anyway?
The Rumbleslam Deluxe Ring is available for purchase from the TT Combat webstore for £14.95. With the exact measurements as the flat play mat, this ring makes an excellent upgrade to your Rumbleslam matches. Now that I have it made and painted I hope to showcase some Rumbleslam batreps in the near future.

28 comments:

  1. The ring turned our really well Bryan, good use of the brass rod, you could have used plastic rod as well, which is cheaper than the brass rod

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    1. Thanks, Dave. That's a good point about the plastic rod, but I just happened to have lots of the brass rods spare, so used them.

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  2. Poor ref! ;-)
    That looks really snazzy Bryan and the rodding is a clever idea for the ropes.
    (but I'd have been tempted to paint the canvas - and added dried blood stains from 'previous bouts')

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    1. Many thanks, Greg. Don't feel too bad about the ref - he had it coming!
      I could still add blood stains to the canvas and to be honest, it was something I considered doing. Hmm, I'm undecided.

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  3. Brass rods that were laying around.... GENIUS!

    I've had RS on my wishlist for a while now, trying to maximize what I "need" with international shipping wait time. You get me ever closing to committing on this Bryan.

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    1. Much appreciated, Russ. The brass rods idea was pure serendipity. "Rumbleslam" is such a fun game but I understand your caution about international shipping costs. Nowadays, I order a lot less from abroad as I used to.

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  4. That is absolutely brilliant! I need to quit being lazy and get mine painted. They guy I bought mine off of, used wire, that looks like razor wire. It looked like he got three sides finished and gave up on the 4th. It took me five minutes to finish it, and it sits on the shelf.

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    1. Cheers, Tom. On the TT Combat webstore, they do suggest using barbed wire if you want to add a bit more lethality to your games. I like that idea!

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  5. That looks stunning Bryan, all the extra work you've put in to it has really paid dividends.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Many thanks, Roger. It was a lengthy process to get it looking this good, but it was time well spent.

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  6. Marvellous feast for the eyes, Bryan. Colourful and great-looking. Your BatReps should look excellent with such an arena accommodating your wrestling minis.

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    1. Greatly appreciated, Simon. I'm looking forward to getting some batreps posted in the near future.

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  7. That looks great, and the rods are clever. Looking forward to some match reports!

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    1. Many thanks, Barks. I'm also looking forward to some batreps.

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  8. That looks really cool. Nice job Bryan.

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  9. A nice bit of painting makes all the difference on MDF, this looks to be a great low cost, low space game, I'll be interested if you post a game report.

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    1. Spot on with all of your points, John. The painting totally transformed this model and it takes up little space on my gaming table aka the dining room table.

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  10. Looks awesome mate, I tried Rumbleslam at Salute and liked it, maybe a few batreps will persuade me to buy it? 😉

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    1. Cheers, Andy. It certainly is a fun game to play. Maybe some batreps of mine will persuade you to buy it.

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  11. As you Know I don't like sports games. But that aside the ring looks good, in an American way if you know what I mean. If you have brass rod brilliant (and you did) as mere mortals would need to look at cheaper methods.

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    1. Thanks, Clint. I know you're not a fan of sports games and that's fine with me. Dave mentioned above using plastic rods for the ropes. That would have been a much cheaper option, but I just used what I had available.

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  12. That brass wire works very well, doesn't it? Are all the logos and markings hand-painted, rather than decals? If so then I'll well impressed!

    Who'd be a referee, eh? Mind you, I'd be delighted if I could get my hands on the limited edition Judge Dredd referee miniature for Dreadball.
    Good luck breaking the rules with *him* in charge...

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    1. Thank you, Hugh. The logos are etched into the wood, but they still need painting and that requires a very steady hand!

      I was lucky enough to get the Dreadball Judge Dredd referee from a seller on eBay at a ridiculously cheap price - something like £3.00 if I recall correctly. They must be rare because I haven't seen one on eBay since.

      Playing with the ref is optional, so he won't appear in every match.

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  13. great read. love the idea of a fatal four way stable match. i will have to remember that, when i get my next two teams finished.

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