3D Printed Battlefleet Gothic Ships

For anyone who still plays Battlefleet Gothic you will well know that it can be pretty damn hard getting hold of the minis. Since it was discontinued more than four years ago the pickings on eBay and the like for this models have become pretty slim... and if you do find them you are likely going to pay a fortune!

So to answer the call, the 3D Printing community has stepped up to fill the need, making it possible to get proxies (or in many cases quiet faithful copies) of just about any Battlefleet Gothic minis!

The first proxies in my set are Eldar Nightshade Class Destroyers. Eldar ships are very expensive points wise, so thankfully I only needed a few proxies to complete my fleet.

These models are very faithful recreations of the Nightshade Destroyer model and are perfectly scaled.

The next model I had printed was this version of the Space Marine Gladius Class Frigate. Frankly the original Games Workshop model looked pretty stupid, and not at all like the design in the book. So this Gladius Frigate is remade to look more like a miniature strike cruiser keeping that Space Marine aesthetic a little more consistent.

The final minis I had printed was this Space Marine Strike Cruiser. Perhaps a little longer then the Game Workshop model, but it captures the look and feel of the powerful Space Marine Light cruisers, and even includes two flat circles on the bow that allow you to pain your faction's insignia!

All of these ships will be included in the 840pt "tutorial" fleets that I have created to teach Wesley and Ivan to play BFG before we include some games in our Curse of the Relictors 40k Campaign. So I am very excited to get these minis finished and all the table!

All of these minis were found and printed off of thingiverse, where you can find proxies for just about any fleet you can imagine!

Written by: Andrew Gregory

Dave's 3 Unusual D&D Campaign Ideas

Ever since JADE started playing D&D as a group Dave has come up with tons of fantastical, and high concept D&D Campaigns. Using the rules and different role play elements he has encountered over the years, these games pit characters and players in unique circumstances that are always just enough within the rules to work very well with the dungeons and dragons system, but enough outside the box the make the quite unique

With Dave not having a lot of time these days, most of these ideas never get off the drawing board, but they always sounded like a fun adventure and we thought maybe you would be interested in fleshing out some of these concepts for your own table.

So, here are three campaign ideas that Dave is particularly fond of, and that we never used:

1. Captain Kyle Hempwick and the Sky Gnomes

As the leader of a band of heroic sky faring adventurers in this Steam-Punk inspired campaign, One player would take on the role of Captain Kyle Hempwick as he commands his Sky Ship, and crew of gnomes. Players are encouraged to create several gnomish characters to fill out the crew, and rotate the role they wished to play based on the adventure, with the mantle of Captain Kyle getting passed off to a different player each round.

This idea is clearly suited for romantic swashbuckling adventurers, where the bad-guys are over the top and the good guys always win!

2. Toddlers and Dragons

Inspired by TV shows like Rugrats, in Toddlers and Dragons players play as children between the ages of 1-3. Imagining a world of fantasy, dragons and adventure, the toddlers go on quests and adventures around their homes and daycare with adults, and various child-proofing devices serving as obstacles to over come.

Works best with contained one off adventures, rather than a grand sprawling story. Since all fantasy aspects of the game are imagined, it means there is no player death, and all D&D classes and races are acceptable. Remember though that you are only small children acting like these roles, so there is some meta-gaming going on here as you are playing a player who is playing a character.

3. The Haunted House

Being a huge horror fan, Dave has long wanted to host a Horror themed campaign. One of his many ideas around this concept is simply called "The Haunted House". Controlling several characters (one per session) players make their way through a a shifting haunted maze with the purpose of escaping, or perhaps reaching the centre and battling the villain there.

This dungeon is designed to gruelling and ever changing so you cannot go back to correct a mistake, the only way out is forward, or in a coffin.

Dave actually started to work on this game by creating a deck of cards that he would shuffle to create the room encounters, but as usual we never got further than that. So, a Classic Dungeon Crawl with a unique twist as you can never enter the same room twice!

If you are inspired by any of these ideas feel free to expand upon them and use them around your table top! And we would love to hear what you came up with!


Written by: Andrew Gregory

Art by: Adrienne Gregory

Check out more of her amazing sketches fantasy art on instagram @addiedoesart

Battlefleet Gothic Eldar Aurora Class Light Cruiser

After finishing my Eldar Eclipse Class Cruiser I found the motivation I needed to keep painting those Battlefleet Gothic ships that I had snagged a long time ago.

One of my more prized models in my collection was this Eldar Aurora Class Light Cruiser, made by Forge World and discontinued many years ago.

The Aurora Class Light Cruiser is from the Battlefleet Gothic: Armada book, one less common expansion books released by Games Workshop. As well as adding in Dark Eldar, Space Marines and Tau forces, Armada also expanded the Imperial, Chaos, Ork and Eldar fleets with about half a dozen new ships or so.

BFG: Armada released a ton of new light cruisers to add to any fleet, which created a great in between a cruiser and an escort vessel that really helped balance the points in opposing fleets without needing to field yet another squadron of escort vessels. And for the oddly pointed and expensive Eldar Fleets a couple of light cruisers made it much easier.

Compared to the Eclipse Class Cruiser, the Aurora Class Light Cruiser is much more lightly armed,:featuring only a handful of weapons, and notably no hangar. I suspect that the Aurora will not have a huge punch in our next game but will more likely be used to support the eclipse and escorts tilting the balance where needed.

With all this being said, I have yet to use this ship in fight, and really have no idea how it will preform. Even before I get to found out, I still have to finish the Relictor Space Marine Fleet, and the opposing Death Guard Fleet.

So I have some work ahead of me until we are ready to go, but I am slowly making progress!


Written by: Andrew Gregory

JADE's New D&D 5 Campaign: Caverns & Coffers

As anyone who follows JADE knows, we don't play a lot of 5th ed and honestly that is a shame.  While we love playing 2nd ed for it's crunchiness, expansive options and never ending supply of books, 5th ed is an amazing system and we definitely need to play it more.

To remedy this sad situation Dave has come up with a new campaign using 5th Ed that he calls Cavers & Coffers. The premise is simple: around the world creatures are emerging from these mysterious doors that lie on ancient and long forgotten paths deep in the wilderness.

Our quest is to investigate these caves, kill the monsters within and venture deep down into the Underdark and discover who or what is sending these vile beasts forth to harm our world.

Like our Arachnophobia campaign, Caverns and Coffers will be a large expansive world with multiple parties out on their own separate adventures. Sure they may join up or cross paths but every party will be on it's own to get to the route of the problem.

Think of this game as an massive dungeon crawl with some topside wilderness survival and encounters to tie all the events together.

So, it has been a while since we played 5th, and to give this new game idea a test and to get used to the most modern edition of D&D, Dave and I did a small adventure called Caverns and Coffers: The Dorset Dungeon. I played as the Half-Elf Paladin Davreak Gillman, a freshly recruited soldier, who was ordered with the rest of his unit to investigate a group of goblins attacking the enchantingly peaceful vineyard town of Dorset.

Following the trail of the goblins lead to the discovery of one of those mysterious doors deep in the woods outside of town. The goblins had set up a camp inside the door and following them down into the dark, Davreak and his three companions discovered that the goblins had broken into a further chamber unleashing a horde of Grimlocks! 

Barely surviving his encounter with Grimlocks Davreak investigated the ruins and discovered mosaics depicting doors all over the world - each containing it's own type of monster: Werewolves, Vampires, and of course Grimlocks, among dozens of others. In the centre of this room there was a door that the goblins had managed to open. Through it lay a stairwell that descended deep into the darkness, that none in Davreak's group dared to enter. 

Fleeing the scene and determined to report what he has seen to his sire the Lord Montague, Davreak has decided he wants to investigate these ruins... But he dare not enter the doors that lead deeper into the Underdark. That is a place he knows that he will never return from.

I am looking forward to continuing this campaign and seeing how the world grows and expands. It has also been a long time since Dave was in the DM's seat and we all think it is time for him to make a return.

Written by: Andrew Gregory

Foetid Bloat-Drone with Fleshmower

For the past three games of Warhammer 40k, I have been shamefully using my Death Guard Dreadnought to represent a Foetid Bloat-Drone with a Fleshmower...

I know, I know, don't worry I was hanging my head in shame, but now I have rectified that horrific situation.

To pair to my other Bloat-Drone, who swings in first with the plaguespitter, this one mops up the remaining troops using it's deadly fleshmower.

The downside here is that it looses any ranged capability so I wouldn't do it for all my Bloat-drones, but on one or two, it's totally worth it.

When I first saw these things I wasn't too sure about them, but given how well they preform in game, and how much of a pleasure they are to paint I have come to love them

Frankly I would do a Death Guard army build without them.

The next project for my Death Guard army will be to get my Plague Burst Crawler up and running, but first I have a bunch of Battlefleet Gothic Ships to get ready!


Written by: Andrew Gregory

3D Printed Space Wolf Stormfangs

Stormfangs are absolutely awesome. They are like flying Land Raiders with an endless stream of firepower and Wounds. The only down side they are both expensive to field and expensive to buy.

To get around one of those problems, I had my buddy Coy 3D print these two Stormfangs. We found the designs on thingiverse, although there was a problem... The model was designed originally to be used in Epic 40k: the 6mm scale version of Warhammer 40k. So scaling them up to 28mm meant that we lost a fair amount of detail, and was also difficult because I had to find an approximate length of one of these things (it's 8 inches by the way) which wasn't really listed on line.

However all said and done as a proxy model I think they do the trick perfectly!


Written by: Andrew Gregory

Battlefleet Gothic Eldar Eclipse Class Cruiser

It has been over two whole years since I painted a Battlefleet Gothic Ship, and honestly almost as long since I have played. However with JADE's Curse of the Relictors campaign coming up and at least two Battlefleet Gothic games planned for the first act, I had to get the fleets ready.

So while Battlefleet Gothic was discontinued in 2014 and was largely picked up by the 3D Printing community, this is in fact a real Games Workshop model. I bought it off Ebay just before the game was discontinued so it was a bargain compared to today's prices.

So this is a heavy model, made entirely out of pewter.

In the game Eldar ships are really interesting. Their movement speed depends on what edge of the board they are facing in relation to the "Sun Edge". The more their solar sails are to the sun the faster these things go.

Eldar ships also have a holofield which allows them to ignore damage. I have only ever fought against these guys once using my chaos fleet, but they absolutely destroyed me. They are quick, deadly a hard to kill.

Thankfully when you do hit them their ships have 2 fewer hits than your standard vessel of the same size... But you do have to hit them first.

All this said, before we get to use these fleets in a game and with the Deadline Scenario in our campaign, I need to teach the guys how to play BFG first. So look forward to our tutorial battle coming soon!

Written by: Andrew Gregory

The Tabletop Space Cannon Project Part 1

Every since Games Workshop released their Battfleet Gothic: Invasion rules in 2002 I have wanted to use them. Invasion gave you rules that allowed you to combine Battlefleet Gothic's fleet actions, with Warhammer 40k's land based fire fights. These included actually fighting out a BFG boarding action on a custom made "starship interior" tabletop. Other missions allowed the out come of one game to effect your 40k or BFG Game.

One particular scenarion in BFG invasion is called The Deadline. The game starts off with a 40k battle. Two players, one acting as the defender and the other as the attacker. The defender (who has the smaller force) must defend 3 bunkers that house the exhausts/power generators for the the Macro Cannon - a Large Orbital Defense Battery... A Space Cannon.

The attacker must destroy as many of the three bunkers as they can before the scenario ends. After the battle, the two players then play through a BFG game. If the defender managed to save all three Bunkers then they get to fire the Space Cannon every turn at their opponent. If they only save two bunkers they can fire it every other turn, and if they only saved one then it can fire every third turn.  If all three of the bunkers were destroyed then the cannon is inoperable.

One of the future games of JADE's Curse of the Relictors Warhammer 40k Campaign will feature this Deadline battle, of course updated to use 8th ed 40k rules. But before we can do that, we actually need to construct a cannon that is worth fighting over. So I have assembled the various pieces above to help me do just that.

I have a barrel from a Nerf gun, several pieces from an Ikea lamp, two pieces of wood that used to be part of shelf, some plasticard a few pieces of styrofoam. I thick that should give me everything I need, and I have a few tools around the house to help with the process.

Now I am not much of a sketch artist, but this is more or less what I intend to make with all of those components. Essentially a large skyward pointing cannon, on a platformed base.

This will be my first major terrain project so I am pretty excited, and I am of course getting some help from the guys. As usual we will be posting regular updates as it gets built so follow along and see how it turns out!


Written by: Andrew Gregory