25 November 2020

3D Printed Canadian AFVs

Recently my brand spanking new Elegoo Saturn 3D Printer arrived.  I've been waiting for it for a few months now, as I was lucky enough to get in on the pre-order sale.  So of course I've started to pump out some 1/72 scale models to try and finish off all the Armoured Fighting Vehicles I needed for my Canadian force.  It's very much been a learning experience, but I'm pretty happy with what I've managed to achieve so far.

Here's most of what I have printed for my Canadians thus far:




So in the rear row (from left to right) we have 2 M150 TOW Carriers followed by 2 M113 ADATS.
In the front row (from left to right) we have a M113 C&R Lynx, 2 M113's to carry a mortar team each, a M113 to carry a Blowpipe team and another Lynx.  

You can see I've replaced the barrels on the Lynxes .50 cal HMGs with a couple I found in my bits box.  The 3D printed ones were just a tad too chunky to my eye.

Of course once painted up I could use the 3 M113's for another Mech Infantry platoon - I'd just need to add 1 more M113.

I also printed these four AVGP Grizzly APC's:


and 2 Cougar FSV's seen clinging here to the print bed


But I have to admit I'm not 100% happy with them and am considering printing them again.  I'm being a bit pedantic, but I feel like the scale conversion is just off a wee bit and they are just a fraction too big.  There's every chance I'll just get over it, but we'll see.  I've also learnt a bit about supports since I printed them, and think I could do that a bit better as well.  I'd also never buy black resin again!

The only problem with 3D printing is that you have to stop printing after a while and start stowing, camming up and painting.  We'll see if I can do something about that this weekend.

That's it for now.  Have fun

Richard 



10 comments:

  1. Highly jealous hearing you've got the Saturn. As much as I love my Mars, I've been waiting on the Saturn to go on general sale, if only for the greater build area.

    Fully agree on the black resin. That stuff (at least Elegoo's Water Washable Black) is just horrible. It's like you just poured used motor oil into the resin tank. I used to use their grey, but have recently come to prefer their beige/"skin" for opaque jobs, and their clear resins are just wonderful to work with - I think that might be due to the better light transmission through the resin.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I felt pretty chuffed to snag one of these printers in the pre-order. Very lucky indeed. Unfortunately I've not been able to find any Elegoo resin in Australia, so I've been using Anycubic resin. For a while when I was waiting for it to arrive I could only find black resin, but I'm much happier with the result of the grey. Not yet tried one of the translucent ones, but I should give them a go at some point. Good luck when it goes on general sale.
      Richard

      Delete
  2. They look great Richard!
    I can understand the draw of printing more and more and then 'seeing' the unpainted pile!
    Regards, James

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks James - unfortunately the lure of printing more has completely overrun the stowing, camming and painting side of the hobby... Sigh...

      Delete
  3. Hey those are Great! Do you happen to know where to find WW3 BATTLEGROUP Modern war game rules that go with the WW2 BattleGroup Rules. The Northag Rules Do Not go well. :( I had them before but lost them on the Net Any help would be Great:) Thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Greywolf. My unofficial Battlegroup Cold War rules are still available at the top of this page, as are all the army lists, stats etc. Let me know if you have any issues with them.
      Richard

      Delete
  4. These models look pretty good to me- may i ask the source of the files? I may be "needing" a printer of my own- though likely to do this sort of thing in 1/100 scale. In either case well done.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Graham. All the files come from either Thingiverse or from Wargaming3D. All the Thingiverse files are free while I've paid for some files from Wargaming3D. One person in particular M_Bergmann has a huge number of AFVs on Thingiverse - all excellent files - all in 1/100. I have had to scale my files up to 1/76 or 1/72 - which seems to work fine.
      Hope that helps
      Richard

      Delete
  5. Hi Alan. I'm painting some now which hopefully will be up on the blog soon. I have actually found some stowage items on line and have printed them off. Mainly jerry cans, boxes, cable reels, buckets and even some wine bottles. I'm pretty happy with them and you should see some of them soon as well.
    I'm sure if you were a little more talented than me you could add stowage directly to the models before printing. I'm not that clever to sort that out and am perfectly happy just gluing it on old school!
    Thanks
    Richard

    ReplyDelete
  6. I should also say I think 3D printing is actually not so much of a black art once you have a go. All I've done is what quite a few clips on youtube and then have a go myself. Trial and error means I've learnt quite a lot over the last month or so - but I'm still doing pretty basic stuff.
    Richard

    ReplyDelete