15mm Leman Russ main battle tank painted

 

I got round to painting the first of my 3d printed Leman Russ tanks. I haven't inked it yet and I'm in two minds as to whether or not to do so. But I'll see if I want to add some transfers, etc first before I commit to inking the blighter.

Alright. Now for some Orks.

15mm FDM Leman Russ and its Ork looted versions

 

Still playing around with my Bambu A1 FDM printer I got to thinking about my slowly growing 15mm "Not 40K" sci-fi armies that I intend using with One Page Rules. I wondered, "is it possible to make a main battle tank?" Well, the answer is yes. In fact, I've made three so far. Two of which have already been looted by the Orks! I'll need to make at least one more for the now out gunned Not-Imperial Guardsmen.

These were printed with a 0.4mm nozzle using PLA on my Bambu A1. The layer lines are easily visible and could probably be toned down by playing with the settings and also swapping to a 0.2mm nozzle. But for my purposes, these will do fine and they don't really look too layered from a distance. This is 15mm scale after all. The STL for the tank I found somewhere in a dark corner on the interwebs.

I had fun going to town kit bashing the two Ork Loota Tanks using bits and carboard (heavily coated in PVA to the point of rock hardness). I also used Gaslands weapons and accessories to spruce up the Loota's. You can see two Gobbo mechanics working on the back of one tank and both of the tractor blades are from Gaslands.

Now to get painting.

A 3d FDM printed dragon

 

I've been experimenting with my Bambu A1 FDM printer, and I saw this great night-light on their online Maker World. It just looked too cool not to try it out. So here it is in all its fiery glory.

The paint job is my own and not from the ABS. I printed it out with the 0.4mm nozzle to see how it would print out. If I swapped to my 0.2mm nozzle the results would be crisper. But I am very happy with this as it is.

Now to get up to some more shenanigans with the printer.

Skeleton Crew for Pirate Borg

 

Q: What's a pirate ship without a crew? Adrift.

OK, dad jokes aside. I needed a crew for my Pirate Borg rpg group. And these guys fit the bill. Most are from Reaper Miniatures, but the two zombie style crewmembers are from the Rum & Bones boardgame. Here they are as they come off the production line. All that's needed now is to finish basing them.

ShireCon 2026

 

ShireCon has just finished for 2026 and although it's a smaller affair than MOAB, it's growing bigger each year. This year saw a larger Bring and Buy area and there were a number of demo and competitive games being played.

I wasn't able to get any photos of the games as the space where these were being played was fairly tightly packed. However, apart from the obligatory 40K and AoS / Old World games, there were at least four tables for Warmaster (my favourite), and a couple of excellent 15mm Historical Medieval and Ancient games as well. Upstairs was a Bloodbowl competition with around eight to ten tables. So, a broader affair than just the usual 40k or AoS showing.

Of the demo games, there was a jousting game from around the 80's era of White Dwarf. Very obscure but one that I have heard was well designed though I've never had the chance to play it. If I had more time, I would have given it a shot. Hopefully it will be there again at MOAB. Demo wise, there was a WWII naval warfare game and Ma.K as well, both by their manufacturers.

Slave2Gaming was there, as was the producer of the naval demo game. I spent some time chatting to the owner of Slave2Gaming. Their 15mm sci-fi and Ma.K miniatures are excellent. They also had their 28mm alien and Elvis miniatures there as well as some 28mm WWII stuff that another attendee was grabbing for Konflikt 47.

For my part I was taken by all the 15mm sci-fi stuff including their new line of near-future Australian troops set in an alternative conflict where Oz is divided and in civil war. The premiss is that a tyrannical government has arisen (not so farfetched a concept when we remember COVID and what the State of Victoria's lock-down government did to its poor citizens) and the forces of resistance are fighting back from the inland desert. You can see the 15mm Desert Australia Korps (DAK) below as well as their other 15mm and 28mm goodies. I grabbed the 15mm DAK for a 15mm version of Konflikt 47 that I am working on.

Slave2Gaming are considering making their aliens also in 15mm sometime in the future. Great for Earth vs the Invaders and they have a great idea for their Elvis miniatures that will involve their 28mm alien range and Elvis. Mum on that one for now, but you can get some alien Elvis impersonators from S2G right now.

So that's it for ShireCon this year. Can't wait for MOAB.

Captain Hooq and Mr Smeg - Pirate Borg villains

 

No relation to Captain Hook and Mr Smee

What's a game without villains for the protagonists to protag against? Meet Captain Hooq and Mr Smeg. Not to be confused with their more famous cousins, Captain Hook and Mr Smee.

These gents will be the next villains for The Lads to encounter. Ostensibly, both Hooq and The Lads work for the same Pirate Boss, but there is no honour among thieves, right? So Hooq will make a good foil for my rpg players.

You may notice that both Capt. Hooq and Mr Smeg don't exactly look like they are in the best of health. That's because Hooq is a vampire and Mr Smeg is Hooq's loyal underling. Something halfway between a Thrall and a junior vampire. I'm not quite sure which yet. Hooq is the quintessential English gentlemen and Mr Smeg is Hook's valet and boson for The Jolly Roger. The Jolly Roger itself is crewed by the Bilge Rats, a small group of actual rat men who are small Skaven.

The figures come from Sally 4th's range of miniatures. I'm thinking of getting a Peter Pan and cutting the miniature's head off and attaching it to Hooq's belt. That would add to the villainous and cruel nature of Hooq contrasting against his outward gentlemanly demeanour. Have to think more about that idea. But it seems suitably bloody for a Pirate Borg game.

The Lads - A Pirate Borg miniature upgrade

 

The lads have been having fun with the excellent Pirate Borg (using our d20 lite version of Pirate Borg) and they are now Level 3. So, it seemed fitting to upgrade their miniature avatars to reflect their newfound confidence and their growing abilities.

Searching around the web, I found Black Scorpion Miniatures and their excellent line of Cutlass pirate miniatures. I purchased them for such a time as this, and it was now time to break them out and paint them up. I asked each of the lads what their favourite colour was, and this became the colour of the coats that each miniature has been painted with. I also wrote their names under the base of each model. Just in case we get confused.

So, for our next rpg session, the lads will have a new set of miniatures to wonder the lands and seas of Pirate Borg.