Monday, 5 October 2026

MOAB 2026 - Mother Of All Battles this October long weekend


MOAB 2026

The main hall's retail area at the front.

This year's Bring-n-Buy bargain buy area located in the main hall.

MOAB has been on this long weekend. The Southerland Shire Wargaming Clubs Mother of all Battles, Sydney's largest wargaming convention is always well attended. Once again, I made the long journey to visit and spend way too much money on cool stuff. But it is always worth it. I managed to get around the main hall and some of the side galleries. But didn't get to see all the games in action. Here's the photos I took on the Saturday.

Chain of Command











Warmaster



Ogre Kingdoms


Star Wars











Display and Historical Games







This table was a display game for Fjord Serpents and Blade Wrath.


Ma.K. in both 28mm and 15mm from Slave2Gaming.


This was a 15mm historical game from Two Fat Lardies, I believe.

I have an interesting observation on MOAB recently that I shared in another post. But that's it for this year's MOAB.

Sunday, 4 October 2026

MOAB - an observation

The game table allocations at MOAB 2026

Where has all the Warhammer 40k players gone?

I've noticed a trend at MOAB the last few years and it's been reflected in the mid-year ShireCon event as well. Warhammer 40K used to dominate the table space every convention. However, I noticed its footprint decrease over the last few years. Now, at this latest MOAB, its nowhere to be seen.

What am I missing here? I don't play 11th Edition. I stick to 3rd Edition as its still slightly gonzo (not as wonderfully gonzo as 2nd Edition however). I also play it in 15mm scale for that more epic feel.

I know 11th Edition is now more designed to be a tournament game rather than a fun wargame played with mates over the home gaming table. But to be non-existent at MOAB. What happened?

The Bring-n-Buy has always been packed with 40k models and they sell very well. So, I don't think the game has died. It's just no longer appearing at MOAB and perhaps 11th Edition isn't what players are gravitating too.

Warhammer 40k tournaments aren't even listed at MOAB this year.

So, what happened?

No painting competition

Sadly, there was no painting competition at MOAB this year. There is usually one with the finalists displayed in the glass case for all to marvel upon. But nothing this year. So that's a bummer. Some truly excellent paint work has been on display in previous years.

Rise of the Other Games

I noticed more of a presence of games like Warmaster, Turnip28, Bloodbowl, The 9th Age, Warhammer Fantasy 8th Edition, etc. What once was dominated by Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40k is now taken over by Flames of War, Chain of Command and older GW games. That's a lot more choice and very welcome to see in my opinion.

Anyway, just an observation from a MOAB attendee.

Sunday, 20 September 2026

Rogue Trader era Dreadnaught - a 3d print


I recently experimented with printing a Rogue Trader era Dreadnaught and thought I would show off the result. Once again, this was printed in FDM on my Bambu Lab A1 3d printer using a 0.4" nozzle.

I set the layer to 0.16mm layer height. You can see the layer lines on the model in the photos below. I've since realised that I get much better results on the 0.4" nozzle with a layer height of 0.08mm. Something I expected was too small a scale for a 0.4" nozzle but am pleasantly surprised to discover that it handles easily. So, I plan to make another print of the model to compare between the two.

Here the Dreadnaught is printed for the original 28mm scale. But I plan to use it for my 15mm 40K scale miniatures. I'm thinking of making it an Iron Man rogue AI model that has survived over 20 millennia and comes from the Dark Times of Technology. I have printed more "modern" 40K dreadnaughts for my Space Marines hence why I plan to use this fellow as a rogue AI. It's also going to feature in future adventures for my roleplaying group.


Fort Rust'N Nails is built with Gaslands and 15mm 40K Orks in mind. But ol' Rogie here looks menacingly like he could have some fun at the Orks expense using the Space Marines Dreadnaught profile. I use Warhammer 40K Third Edition rules, by the way.




Love the massive bolters this guy is packing.




The heavy wire here that you can see below the arm and feeding to the back power unit is white string that's about the diameter of a shoelace. I twisted the ends of the string and glued them with Superglue. Once that was set, I glued each end to the attachment points on the model. Once that was set, I covered the remaining string in PVA White Glue and let it set. Once that was dry, it was simply a matter of priming the model and then painting the 'wire' in a Gunbolt metal. He is based on a 40mm round base.


Menacing!

Sunday, 13 September 2026

Rogue Trader era Space Ork Kan in 15mm

 

I came across some 3d files for the Rogue Trader/Warhammer 2nd Edition Dreadnaught and Space Ork Killa Kan and had to try them out in FDM. The dreadnaught is nearly painted and will feature in a future post. The Space Orks' Kan however is done.

Here again I used my Bambu Labs A1 FDM printer with a 0.4" nozzle and grey PLA filament. The Gretchin is from Troublemaker Games on the Vanguard Miniatures webstore.

The miniature was primed in Chaos Black spray from GW, and when dry, I did an overall drybrush in Boltgun metal. That done, I then went to work with more Citadel paints to make this look like an industrial mech.


This Kan came with an open top configuration, and I just had to shove a 15mm Gretchin into it (minus the Gretchin's legs, mind you). I plan to use this as a Gobbo Construction Kan normally used for building Ork spaceships. But here it's been converted for krump'n!




I added an exhaust pipe to the back and a small machine gun to the cannon to add spice to the model. These extras came from the Gaslands Reloaded Implements of Carnage sprues and give it a little more character, I feel.


I have some variant poses of this model and may make some more in the future. But for now, the Gobbo's have some serious backup. In Warhammer 40K Third Edition (or was it Forth Ed... or both?), Gobbos got wired into Killa Kans. This Kan I view as being more of a mech, than a Gobbo-wired-up Kan. Its stats will be the same regardless.

Tuesday, 18 August 2026

Pirate Borg Adventure - The Jolly Roger and Friends (part 2)

 The Jolly Roger and Friends - part 2


The scenario breakdown for last weekend's Pirate Borg game can be found here. But I kicked the lads off by having them on their longboat hunting down their long-lost ship, the SS Stinky. Now resplendent in their Blessed Coats (a score from their last gaming session), as they sailed to the main island, they noticed that they were ringed by a series of tentacles that were fast closing in on them.



One tentacle was shot and blown away before reaching their boat, but the other seven soon closed in. With one tentacle on each lad (excluding Cythis) three were able to grab onto the boat and attempt each round to pull the thing under.


To the lad's credit, they were able to make fast work of the tentacles grabbing at them despite one of the lads almost being dragged into the sea. That would have been interesting as, being Skeletons, they wouldn't drown but they couldn't swim either.

Once the individual threats were dealt with, they focused on the tentacles pulling the boat down. With little time left before water poured over the side, they dispatched the remaining tentacles and luckily escaped.


From there they were able to close on the island and finally, with Cythis preternatural guidance, find their lost ship at anchor in a lagoon.

Incredibly they were able to sneak up on the ship and the smaller Jolly Roger next to it without anyone noticing. An amazing feat given that it was broad daylight. Dropping off their Buccaneer sniper on the sand bank, the rest of the team made for the stern of the Stinky where they found boarding ropes already in place.

Another set of excellent rolls saw them board their ship whilst the Buccaneer scurried up a tree to take aim at the unwanted boarders. After a short parley, Captain Hook decided he had had enough and called on Mr Smeg to drop the sack he was carrying. This was a Bag of Bones that contained ten or so Skeleton Pirates. With Hook's vampiric powers in play, the Skeletons quickly took shape and rushed our intrepid lads. Angelica, seeing this, dived for the Captain's Cabin and quickly locked herself safely away. The actual crew of the Stinky (i.e. its alcoholic Skeleton Crew) quickly dived overboard and onto the longboat where Cythis was waiting. This took them all out of the fight and left the lads to face the music.

With a crack, one of the Skeleton Pirates was felled by a shot from the Buccaneer over in the trees. The rat crew (The Bilge Rats), Hook and Smeg realised they were in a difficult position and did their best to hide behind the enormous rotting fish head that was the Stinky's figurehead. As the rats fired off their pistols, shot peppered the trunk of the tree where the Buccaneer was staged but it didn't break the tree trunk. Meanwhile, the Skeleton Pirates attacked the other lads on the aft deck of the ship.

The lads expected to make short work of the Skeleton Pirates, but no sooner was one felled, then after a round it returned, thanks to the vampiric abilities of Hook.


As the pressure was on, the Buccaneer decided to dive down into the sea, get back onto the beach and quickly make for the cliffs where he would have a much better sight of the deck. Thus, he would be able to ply his trade with impunity. But when he dived into the water he came almost face to snout with an enormous crocodilian creature. Fortunately, the Buccaneer was the less shocked of the two and hightailed it out of the water.

As the battle raged on the ship, suddenly the voice of Hook could be heard bellowing out to everyone to stop fighting. Everyone froze. Hook called out, "Do you hear that?" Bewildered everyone just stood there. One of the lads however passed a Wisdom roll and spoke. "Is that a ticking clock I hear?"

Sudden panic ensued as Hook went into meltdown and begged Mr Smeg to save him. The Bilge Rats scrambled overboard for The Jolly Roger. Mr Smeg picked up Hook and dumped him over the side onto the Jolly Roger before jumping down there himself. The Buccaneer bolted for the cliffs and the Skeleton Pirates re-engaged the lads on the aft deck.

With Hook, Smeg and The Bilge Rats hightailing it out of there on The Jolly Roger, the Crocodilian Monster lost interest in the SS Stinky and headed after the submersible. Without Hooks powers reforming the Skeleton Pirates, eventually the lads were able to overcome their foe and regain control of their ship.





With the SS Stinky back under their control, the lads then addressed Miss Fairweather, who refused to come out of the cabin. Eventually, they had to concede taking her on as a temporary passenger and dropping her off where she wished. But she did tell them of some nice treasure that was supposed to be in the caves behind them. Setting a guard, the lads set off to find the treasure and, after some ghostly shenanigans, did manage to score some nice loot.

Now they have their ship, they can go anywhere. I'll be handing the reigns over to one of the other lads to Game Master the next adventure. So, I need to get my own Player Miniature painted up for the next game.