3D Printing Round Up

 Late last year I was fortunate to receive as a late Christmas gift a 3D printer. Since then I  hae been experimenting with it to produce models and terrain pieces. Most of what I have printed, I haven't taken photos of and as a result it hasn't made it on to the blog.

M1133 Stryker MEV upscaled to 1/72 scale

M1133 Stryker MEV file located here

As I don't know how to digitally model items in 3D, I am reliant on the hard work and talent of others. The files that I am using to print are sourced from:

• 3d printing community sites that host free files, 
• Websites that sell files,
• Kickstrarters, or
• By direct arrangement with the file creators.

I suspect that the vast bulk of people using 3D printers to produce gaming aids are reliant on the efforts of others to produce the files they print. Hopefully this potential market means that folk who create files find it worthwhile to continue doing so.

1/72 M1074 Joint Assault Bridge 

M1074 JAB file located here

105mm L118 light gun (file from here)

My 3D printer uses filament so doesn't produce models with the same crispness as a resin printer. I am planning to obtain a resin printer in the future in order to produce more detailed models and figures.

NZLAVs around a vehicle obstacle ( obstacle file here)

More NZLAVs

1/72 Scale Technical (file located here)

As I intend to post more on this blog there will be more 3D printe items in the future.

Offensive Support

This weekend I finished off some projects that had been on the back burner for the last couple of months. The first project was finishing off a pair of scratch-built US 4.2" mortars for Mr K. I used some mortar parts from a Battlefront M-113 sprue and some Esci sand bags to quickly bodge up something that roughly looks the part. I then neglected to paint them for around three months!

Foreground: US 4.2" Mortars. Background: 81mm Mortars.

The same as the picture above.

 The three 81mm Mortar teams are to go with the support weapons in my previous post. They are Pegasus WW2 Germans that has been crudely modified using a scalpel and liquid green stuff, and then given a rough paint conversion.

Crude but possibly effective.

Since there has been a trend towards having heavier mortars, I also converted some of the Pegasus WW2 German  120mm mortars and crew using the same methods.

120mm Mortars. A useful piece of indirect fire support.

The last piece of offensive support I finished off were four more 105mm Light Guns. Three of these are intended to replace the scratch built guns I made here. The forth gun will also replace one that had the barrel at a high angle and has been broken and repaired a couple of times this year.

105mm guns, made from the Airfix/JB Models kit.

A different view of the above.

 So all in all, a rather nice collection of offensive support elements!

A collection of mortars.

Of Washes and Varnishes

 Over the last couple of years I have become a fan of using washes to pop the detail in figures and models, and make my efforts at painting just look better.

Washed and unwashed.

 My wash of choice has been the various recent iterations of GW brown wash. However, for projects that require lots of wash, this can be rather expensive.

After and before......

I had heard that using the Army Painter dip system could be cheaper - however it is rather thin on the ground in the wilds of my current locale. I had heard that a similar effect could be achieved by using a much cheaper product, but my research initially led only to products that weren't available in NZ.

Spot the difference. Models are all 1/72 Bravo Team M-3A2 Bradleys.

But a chance conversation with an Australian came up with the fact that some modelers over there were using a product available there in local hardware stores as a substitute for the Army Painter dip.

The answer - available for around NZ$20 at Mitre 10.

This refocused my efforts on rather than looking for a particular product, I should hunt for a type of product - a polyurethane stain and varnish - and experiment with that. The methodology was brutally simple paint it on straight out the can (Note: It is a little like molasses, so do a test vehicle first)

The results (so far) on around a dozen tanks, three dozen APCs, and about half a dozen buildings, have been positive. On figures - less so. But I have another experiment planned for that.....

Making M-113s Part One

I've been quite busy making a variety of bits of pieces of late, but have been rather slack in actually posting anything. A while back, I started work on some cardboard M-113s  (click here if you want to know more)

A mixture of Bravo Team ready mades (at rear), Esci (unpainted front left), and cardboard model M-113s

The Esci kit was missing a few key pieces that I replaced using the usual methods of bodging out of plastic card, or finding something about right in the bits box.

One of those road wheels is not like the others.....

A wheel and tire from a jeep or light truck is given a outer ring of plastic card in order to make a new road wheel.

The green hatch is a spare from the Airfix M-113 Fire Support Vehicle kit.

I still have three more of the Esci kits to build, and I plan to build them as the straight APC version without any additional stowage. With the cardboard models, I have tried to add clutter and stowage to the vehicles in order to try and disguise any shortcomings in the models, and to see if I could pass them off as vehicles used by support elements, rather than teeth elements, while still maintaining flexibility to use them as such as needed.

Esci vs. Cardboard.

I don't think I have really succeeded in doing this - at best I have made three M-113s that have a certain air of clutter to them. I suspect I need to put more stowage on them, and/or items of auxiliary equipment that will earmark the vehicle into a support role.

Needs more stowage.....

And the tracks aren't quite right....

I could have put more effort into the rear doors, but I figured this was good enough...

On the cardboard front I have benefited from the generosity of Paul from Plastic Warriors sending me three rather nice scratch-built APCs (click here for details)

Esci vs Cardboard part II.

Now for my purposes, these M-113s from Paul being a little large is not a problem, as an imagination background allows for the creation of plausible back stories that can explain away a number of sins.

The fact that there existed earlier APCs, such as the M-75 and the M-44 (click here for details). that were somewhat larger than the M-113, makes it easier to declare these to be a hitherto unknown vehicle of a similar ilk.

Spot the Esci!

That, or field them in force with no other M-113s!

Once More Unto The Breach...

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility;
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger. . . .

Henry The Fifth Act 3, scene 1, 1–6

M1 Abrams tank with mine plough, and M-58 MICLIC on a M-200 tracked trailer.

 One of the gaps in my collection of models is a lack of modern engineering equipment capable of breaching minefields. Recently I have started to address this gap by  a combination of purchasing model kits and diecasts of suitable equipment, and to scratch building some items for immediate use.

Scratch built M-58 MICLIC on a M-200 tracked trailer.

The first item I built was a M-58 Mine Clearing Line Charge (MICLIC), on a M-200 trailer.I  built this as a result of being shown a picture of one being towed by a LAV. Unfortunately, while I could find photo references on the internet, I couldn't find anything that gave dimensions, so the model is probably quite out of scale.

Undercoating - I should of taken a phoito  of it unpainted!

 I built the model out of plastic card and stuff from my bits box. The wheels came from a plastic 1/72 scale trailer and I believe the track is from the Matchbox Churchill kit. The chassis of the trailer came from a plastic Hong Kong toy rocket trailer I was given by Ion.

Another view. This is before I added in the DAS to represent the line charge in the trailer tray.

I doubt I'll make another of these on a tracked trailer - in fact if I was to make more MICLICs I would make something simple and quite generic that would be simple to make.

And finished

 Of course once a breach has been made in a minefield, it needs to be confirmed by a mine plough or roller. Or you can use a mine plough to make the breach, but then you don't get to have the massive explosion from the line charge!

A toy Ertl diecast Abrams tank.

Since I have a shortage of 1/72 scale Abrams tanks, I used this Ertl diecast as the tank that on would put my plough on. While it is the right size, the running gear is extremely toy like, and the roof mounted commander's HMG is very cartoonish.

The underside showing the Ertl brand.

 I decided to base the model in order to protect the mine plough, and because I felt it might act to draw attention away from the running gear.

Based and ready to paint.

 The plough was made up from bits of plastic card and is loosely based on pictures from the internet. I have ordered the Trumpeter Abrams with Mine Plough kit, and will take comparison pictures once it arrives and I make it up.

Close up of the plough.

Undercoated and waiting the finial paint job and ink wash.

By building these models I hope to be able to add some variety to my games and potentially have them used as teaching aids. I now need to make up some minefield templates that can act as visual cues as to what they are, and blend into the tabletop. I have some ideas on how to achieve this, but I will need to do some reading first.

And painted!

I hope to make up some more modern engineering assets, so that I can have a similar range of equipment for this period as I do for WW2 games. I suspect that I might paint up some of the remaining Roco vehicles that I have to fill some of these roles, but I would prefer to use 1/72 scale models.

WIP Scratch-Building 105mm Guns

In my quest for obtaining another three L118 Light Guns (See previous post here) I remembered that the kit came with an additional gun barrel so the US version of the gun could be made. I considered trying to have a crack at scratch-building  some more guns, with the idea that I could hide most of my sins under  netting.

Something like this, but thicker. Source Wikicommons - click here for details.

So when Ion mentioned it in the comments section of my last post, I figured "Why Not?' With that in mind, I hunted through my collection of useful bits and started making some guns.

Spare barrels, plastic card , sprue, bent wire, and Airfix wheels on a sample Formica base.

Oh, and a toy poker chip for a turntable.

 I've always found that if I have to scratch-build something, it is just as easy to make two or more based on a simplified design, rather than make one awesome model that I can't be bothered replicating due to lack of parts or time. My LCVP project (click here for details) is a prime example of that philosophy at work.

Three WIPs and an actual assembled gun.

I thought I could use parts of a Chux cloth as the netting. This part of the plan is subject to change :)

 The part of the project that is potentially going to be the most difficult is getting the netting right. It needs to be able to obscure the gun, but not so much that what I have made is entirely unseen. Getting that balance right will be the key to making this work.

Artists medium added to base, wire poles installed and more bits added to guns.

 Fortunately, I have a few ideas on how to achieve this, and the Chux cloth is only one of a couple of possible material choices

Behold the dodgy recoil mechanism!

The gun trail - Bent wire and Liquid Green Stuff.

Another view with an actual model of the gun for comparison.

 Since I was doing work on artillery, I figured I should also dredge out my M-102 and give it a touch up and a rebasing so it can be at the same standard as my light guns. I have some Atlantic not 122mms that are also due for the same treatment.

Since I was basing guns I figured I should finish off my Britannia Models M-102 Howitzer.

Monday is looking to be a great day for painting stuff!