Here’s to a productive ’25! Happy New Year All.

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Really happy with the end result. It’s not intended to be any specific Adeptus Mechanicus forge world, uses a bit of inspiration from the Ryza colour scheme, but also one of the Kastellan robot schemes.

The orange took a stupid amount of steps, uses Jokaero base orange, then an Xpress paint used as a glaze, then a shade finally Hot Orange to highlight. But happy with the vibrancy of the result. And a good example of why you should buy your paints in person, the Jokaero orange was nowhere near the brightness I was hoping for!

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After dragging my wife around many pound shops and lots searches destined to confuse Amazon’s algorithm, I found the part I needed. So here I present my first of no doubt many, Binary Bob, the Beadbot.

Made in authentic Bill style, he’s wooden beads at the core, armature wire, then plastic styrene and EVA foam. The backpack is made from constituent parts of a barbecue lighter, and the rivets are all nail art rhinestones. Lots of glue (so much glue), then simple paint job topped off with my first ever oil wash.

This was such good fun to build. The step of going from “this looks crap!” to discovering there might be something there was somehow amplified with this one. Kitbashing is a lot easier to see the finished product. When you have some wire and a pile of beads, all in bright pastel colours you really have to work to see what it could be… a beadbot!

Bob is a LoadBot. Hulking robots built purely for lifting strength, LoadBots serve in the inhospitable northern volcanic wastes. At numerous ports they load and offload goods between the hover skiffs and the waiting starliners. Their programming is limited and their moods tend to monotone. 

Many decades in the harsh climate have weathered not only Bob's outer casing, but also his personality. Bob knows a joke* (learned from a deckhand who should have known better), which he now repeats ad nauseam to his own amusement.

I’ve already started by second one, this time a Junkbot. And I have lots of ideas, finding this genuinely inspiring. It’s why I chose to be a patreon backer of Bill’s!

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Other than an introductory paragraph everything included was created using AI. It’s completely free, and I have to say includes some jaw dropping AI art. A far cry from the deformed creatures it was spitting out just six months ago.

If you want to give it a look then you can find it at https://gtazz.com/kambara Like I say, completely free so if you want to share it around do so (though it’d be great if you pointed people to the link above so they get the context).

Kambara Magazine Issue 1

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So when they launched the Mantic Vault, their 3D subscription service similar to Patreon, I had to jump in. I got the early bird discount too, so it’s cheaper than my One Page Rules patreon. It’ll take time to properly evaluate the value proposition of course, but so far it seems pretty good bang for the buck. A lot of Armada ships have already been released in the first three month’s packs, along with some full kits (halfling balloons!!) and upgrades for existing kits.

I think this is very exciting, it needed a big company like Mantic to take the plunge and try to augment their range with 3D files, we’ll see where it leads. Whatever happens they’re making GW suddenly look very old fashioned.

Here’s what I’ve printed and painted so far, the start of my dwarf fleet. Then I’m going to do an Empire of Dust one, and a Basilean one, then my gaming group can try our first battle and see if it sinks or swims.

Oh and like all good subscription services, the Mantic Vault has an ever growing welcome pack which has an interesting collection including two upgrades for the goblin Giant.

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The original RT rules even talked about how the gretchin pilots are so used to being bullied by orks that when they get their hands on a little power they tend to go crazy. First time they get into hand to hand range with an enemy they MUST charge in and let off some steam. Fun, characterful, not a WAAC in site. Love it.

So when I was rummaging around the web, as you do, and I found a rather fantastic looking 3D print version of the now long oop dreadnought I had to get myself a copy. Produced by Fanath Miniatures, it has all the similar components as the original, with clean sharp lines and a couple of fun extras.

Even just seeing the 3D render above makes me grin. Oh and it’s about the same price as a Starbuck’s coffee. Nice.

I printed one out and decided to make the smaller version that appeared on the old Rogue Trader era advert. Painted up in Bad Moon colours of course and here’s the result.

I’m so happy with it. The details are so sharp, miles away from the old lead model. And of course the exuberant pilot is a new twist.

So of course the wonder of 3D printing is you don’t just have to print one. I decided to do one for each of the ork clans. I’ve already started the snakebite and evil sunz ones, full photos to follow. But for direct comparison, the 3D print vs the old lead.

Now I’m as nostalgic as the next middle aged bloke, but for me this is everything great about new technology. The old charm and fun, but far superior quality. I’ve never been one for getting into bidding wars with other middle aged blokes over a small piece of metal. I think my opinion on this is probably why my post was removed from the Oldhammer facebook group!

Oh and I should add, I am most definitely not a fan of the generic ‘space mareen’ 3D models that get churned out by every other hack on Patreon. IP theft is a shady business. But when it comes to something that’s out of print for 20 odd years and the only route is to pay about £50 on ebay (none of which goes to the IP owner), then my pov gets more relaxed. Let your own conscience be your guide.

Rogue Trader Ork Dreadnoughts, gotta love the little egg shaped bastards!

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The scouts are from Tyranid Attack, the old boxed game that was kind of like a slimmed down Advanced Space Crusade. Enjoyable enough as I recall, but I bought it back then mainly for the models. As you can probably tell if you’re a regular reader, I get a bit erm, skittish when it comes to holding onto projects. So I like to bounce around wherever my inspiration takes me. As a kid that took me through several space marine chapters. And alas no, I never used to strip the minis before repainting.

Considering how much paint is on these bad boys they don’t look awful. I mean they’re rudimentary and the details on the chests and faces is a little filled in, but still. However no more. Enter the hero of the hour:

Only £4.99 from the local B&M (think slightly upmarket dollar store) I found this stuff through a forum post or possibly facebook a few years ago. It’s great, takes paint off plastic and metal, doesn’t damage the models and doesn’t smell too bad. Erm, disclaimer though, it looks pretty awful….

Eugh. Can’t say you weren’t warned! Drop in the models, leave them for half an hour or so and it’s wicked witch of the west time.

Then five minutes with hot water and an old toothbrush and tada…

You can see the right leg and left armed are stained red (told you, he was a Howling Griffon in a former life). A few stubborn bits in the crevices, but chuck him back in for a second bath and ready for the reveal.

Can’t tell these guys are pushing 30 can you? Very happy with the way they cleaned up.

Finally after a fresh coat of contrast paints the Eagle Warrior Scouts are now ready for get on a table. Or more realistically stand around in a cabinet waiting for the rest of the army to be painted. But still, very happy with the results.

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As always, the parts were printed on my Elegoo Mars 2 (still loving this little machine), in thankfully the last of my grey Elegoo resin. Holy crap that stuff stinks. Thankfully I got another bottle of Beige/Skin colour and it’s back to sweet smelling printing for me. Lesson learned.

Paint job was pretty straight forward. Needed a reasonably steady hand to get the lines, but after many touch ups I got something I’m happy with. I then did some edge highlighting to pick out the panels a bit more. The windscreen was a random technique I saw on FB, someone had done a female Mad Max character with chromed glasses. I think it works ok, bit more interesting than just black anyway.

I also got myself some Dirty Down Rust for painting all this series, seemed fitting. Going to take some getting used to, but the girder on the back I think works particularly well. Finally a liberal coating of sandy weathering powder and tis done.

Really happy with the completed Mad Max Interceptor, next up is a post apocalyptic VW Campervan/Bus. Already printed and assembled, just needs a spot of gap filling then it’s off to the paint table.

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Based using Luke’s base ready mix to fit in with the Eagle Warriors, whom this’ll be supporting.

Really proud of this guy, I always liked the build but to finally have it complete is a great feeling! Now just to finish painting my Stompa and I’ll have both of my custom big guys done.

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First I printed out a few of the Fat Dragon Games models I’d previously printed on my Ender 3. The difference was staggering.

Next I late pledged to an EC3D kickstarter and got a load of sci-fi models to print. I also found a few free star wars models I want to use in Legion (if I ever get to play).

Then at the end of July I decided to finally join a patreon. I want for One Page Rules, they’d sponsored a few content creator videos around that time and having seen what people were printing I decided I wanted in. Since then I’ve printed out a decent sized Mummified Undead army, and with more great models coming in October’s release I think it’ll keep growing.

To date I’ve printed 115 miniatures using a single bottle of resin costing about forty quid. The patreon is less than a tenner a month, the Kickstarter was a bit more, about 30 dollars I think. But value for money with a 3D resin printer is insane.

I should also say if you’re contemplating your first printer and thinking of going for FDM because resin is complicated, or you have an FDM printer and are worried about moving to resin, don’t be. Resin printing for me has been a factor of 10 more straight forward than FDM. I was constantly tweaking my Ender 3 trying to get decent enough settings for clean prints. In a resin printer there’s really only one mechanical aspect you need to focus on, and that’s levelling the build plate. Something I did every print on my Ender 3, and have done a total of 4 times on my Mars 2.

Clean up requires a process, but mine is pretty straightforward. Sensible safety precautions like gloves and a respirator as obviously a must, but same applies to a lot of what we do in this hobby.

Overall 3D resin printing is such a phenomenal tool, and my Mars 2 is easily my best hobby purchase of my 30+ years of doing this. It’s even encouraged me to paint more!

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