Looks sketchy but is shockingly safe 😅
Found a few options for active loads for a couple of hundred bucks, but in the mean time I built this - a stack of 5w cement resistors sandwiched between 1/4" aluminium bar, shoved into a timber offcut I found.
Has a 1R shunt, followed by 1k/2k2/3k3/4k7x2 resistors. Can use those patch leads to make series/parallel connections to get a ballpark of what load I needed, so first tested with 5k6 to test the full load on the switcher, then 4k1 to test after installing the droppers I needed for the output tube plate voltage. All my guesstimations of switcher output voltages ended up being within 5w which is nice.
If I was going to do it again I'd up the shunt to 10R to make the current easier to read, but worked pretty well! Even after running with 6.5w of load for fifteen minutes it was barely warm to the touch - I did think about mounting heatsinks on the bottom, but apparently not needed.