3D-printing tanks... pt. VIII: Dorchester ACV

I have printed a couple of Dorchester ACV's...

I opted to print two different versions because, well, because I could... Two very different vehicles, but with the same function. These two vehicles don't have a place in any of my current projects, but I have a feeling I will be expanding my British forces sooner rather than later...

I love printing vehicles like this, it's very hard to get these otherwise... 

The big, 6-wheeled Dorchester...

The article in the picture above is well worth the read...

The smaller of the two, but only by a little...
This picture shows the early variant of the vehicle...

In my previous post I talked about how I botched up the first print of the 6x6 Dorchester (which I updated to include comparison pictures). But with a little care, these two models came out great!

I used Tinkercad to make them hollow, thus saving quite a bit of resin.

I equipped both models with antennas. I carefully drilled out the stubs on the roof of the vehicles. I opted for longer antennas than usual, I think it adds a touch of realism to these miniatures as well as make them stand out even more...

Both these designs are available on Thingiverse. They were done by m_bergman, and can be found here. I am slowly printing my way through his vast collection of incredible designs... 

These things are big... Bigger than a Churchill...

The Churchill tank on the picture above is no ordinary tank... It is an AVRE variant, equipped with a SBG assault bridge. More on this tank in a future post...

Review: 15mm British infantry and heavy weapons from Plastic Soldier Company

To serve as infantry support in my British/Canadian company I purchased two boxes of 15mm or 1:100 Late War British infantry and heavy weapons from Plastic Soldier Company...

A quick review of both boxes...

The Late War infantry box contains 144 models, including officers, PIAT-teams and light mortars. The models come in a nice variety of poses and the large number of miniatures means this box is enough to field a complete company of three platoons and command.

The Late War heavy weapons box contains Vickers HMG's, 3-Inch and 4-Inch mortars and a flamethrower. The set contains four of each of the heavy weapons, enough to provide the basic suport an infantry company needs.

Infantry sprue, fully packed with models...

Heavy weapons sprue...

As far as I can tell, uniforms and gear are all historically correct. Furtermore, the detail and character on these miniatures is very good.

Instruction manual... Quite straightforward...

For now I needed just a single platoon, but the rest of the models will be built as soon as I expand this company. I haven't even really started on the heavy weapons yet... The boxes contain enough models to build three platoons of infantry.

The completed platoon...

No PSC but 3D-printed... These Ram Kangaroos will serve as transports
for the infantry platoon...

The good
The boxes offer good value for money and cover all the basic needs whether you are starting an infantry company from scratch or just want to add some support to an armoured force...
The models are very detailed and I quite like the character of the models. I think these will paint up nicely.
The wide variety of poses means you can make each base unique.

The bad
None... Reallly? Nope... Well... Maybe... If I needed to offer some critisism it would be that some of the sprues had quite a bit of flash, but nothing that couldn't be solved with a sharp knife...

The verdict
PSC is always my first stop when it comes to buying 15mm miniatures. These Late War Brits are yet another great example of the quality PSC delivers. I will be back for more...

3D-printing a complete army... pt. I

Well, almost complete... I won't be printing the infantry for this project, but apart from that, everything else will come out of my Elegoo MARS 3D-printer...

As can be deduced by looking at the previous posts, I am slowly building a British/ Canadian company for games like Flames of War, Battlegroup or I Ain't Been Shot Mum.

While 3D-printing is by no means a fast process, a single print consisting of two vehicles takes an average of nine hours to complete (and that's excluded the cleaning and curing), but printing almost non-stop yields results...

The start of the projec: Rams, Shermans and Stagjhounds...

In most cases the level of detail in these prints is almost as good as other resin, plastic and metal models. In some respects it's even better, sometimes by far...

Staghounds... I have four different turrets available for these models...

Dailmer Armoured car and Dingo's, Staghound turrets and an Archer...

Ram Kangaroos... You will be hard-pressed to find a place that sells these...

I can't take any credit for these designs. Most of these were done by m_bergman, they can be found here. 

The Daimler armoured car was done by Kharn3655 and can be found here. This design comes with two different turrets, both of which I printed.

Daimler armoured car, with both turret options... All are magnetized...

I did adapt most of these designs to accommodate a set of magnets. I also hollowed out all of the barrels. 

At the moment I am printing the last couple of Shermans for this little project. I hope the paint, decals and infantry wil arrive tomorrow so I can begin the second phase of this project: painting!

3D-printing tanks... pt. IV: Sherman Firefly

After the Canadian Ram, the Sherman Firefly is the next proper tank to come out of my printer...

Firefly in France...

These vehicles are going to be used in a new British/Commonwealth project. First on a small scale, individual tanks for games of What a Tanker!, but I aim to expand the set to a playable Company for games like Flames of War, I Ain't Been Shot Mum and Battlegroup.

Firefly taking cover... 

Lovely models, the prints came out great! 

Front and rear view of the model... 

The files for this model can be found here, courtesy of Thingiverse and the designer, m_bergman...

For the Firefly, too, I opted to use the 0.025mm resolution, further increasing the level of detail on these models. The prints are of a great quality, thanks to the level of the design. When painted, these will be hard to distinguish from a plastic or metal miniature.

Talking of paint... I have ordered a couple of new paints to get me started on this project. I also purchased a set of British infantry and some decals from PSC.

Next are two pictures comparing the printed model to a Firefly from my wargaming buddy. His painted Firefly is a plastic miniature from Battlefront.

The printed Firefly next to a plastic model from Battlefront... 

The difference in size and detail is negligible...

As with the Ram, I adapted the model to accommodate a set of magnets and I hollowed out the barrel and muzzle break...

The converted turret and hull to accommodate the magnets... 

The hollowed out muzzle break... 

Plans for 2020...

While this is in no way a new-years resolution, I do have some plans listed for the coming year...

Hexes...
I aim to expand my Hex terrain considerably. Not only do I have plans to double the number of snowflake Hexes to enlarge the surface of my Hex terrain, but I also want to create more different Hexes to further increase the diversity of the set. The Hex Terrain Toolkit offers plenty of options I haven't even used yet...

6mm...
Even though I already finished quite a few of my new 6mm stuff, I still have plenty of tanks and armoured cars waiting to be painted. I hope to complete my stock of vehicles and infantry, expanding my range of models to be able to play larger battles.

Play more games, fight more battles...
In that regard 2019 has been a very, very slow year, but 2020 is looking to a lot better already... Having recently discovered What a Tanker!, getting in more games should be quite easy... I also want to try the Battlegroup, I Ain't Been Shot Mum and Crossfire rules in 6mm, ad well as play a few games of Flames of war, also in 6mm...

Dungeon...
While most of my hobby time and effort is being absorbed by the 6mm WW2 Hex terrain project, the Hirst Arts Dungeon isn't forgotten... I do have some interesting pieces waiting to be finished as well as an abundance of very nice furniture and assorted clutter. I also have a growing collection of NPC's and monsters to populate the massive dungeon...

3D-printing...
I already have a bit of experience when it comes to 3D-printing, as I have an Ultimaker 2+ in my classroom. While this is an excellent printer, it's hardly suited to print 15mm or 6mm miniatures. At the moment I am saving up to purchase a resin 3D-printer, most likely an Elegoo Mars, preferably the updated Pro version... This type of resin printer has become surprisingly affordable and seems to yield impressive results...

Whatever comes my way...
Last year, the whole Hex project and the 6mm miniatures came rather unexpected, so there's no knowing what I will stumble upon this year...

Cooling down from CRISIS 2019... The CRYPE is real! pt. III

Visited Crisis Antwerpen yesterday, and it was as good as ever... It must have been the 9th or 10th time I visited the show and it seems to get bigger and better every year.

This year, my main interest was getting some 6mm stuff. Several weeks ago I had placed a pre-order at Magister Miliitum. Quite ideal, as they have the option to pick up your order at one of the shows they visit. They had the order ready, neatly packaged, 100% complete and including the original order form.

About 2/3 of that order was for me, the remaining 1/3 was for my battle buddie. He ordered Early War French and British miniatures...

A total of 21 blisters of GHQ Micro Armour, my part of the order...
All Early War Germans.

I have already begun assembling and painting these, but that's something for another post...

Next on my list were some rulesets... I picked up the Crossfire rulebook first, which actually looks more like a magazine than a proper book; all black and white, soft cover and staples...

Astoundingly, this cost me €30,- I really hope the rules are as good as I have read/heard them to be...

Funny enough, I also paid €30,- for the two hardback, full colour Battlegroup books (picked those up at the PSC stand)... About 200 pages each, filled with interesting background information on the theatre, army lists, scenarios and inspiring pictures. I only intended to replace my digital rulebook with the paper one, but couldn't pass up on their special CRISIS offer... The army lists from both these books (Tobruk and Torch) should be compatible with our Seelöwe campaign...

And right across from the guys from PSC was the trade stand from Too Fat Lardies, where I purchased the I Ain't Been Shot Mum book. Forgot to pick up the cards though...

Next was some paint for my Early War German Panzers and Infantry, which I picked up at Foundry.

And last in the bag were some packs of grass tufts...

All in all a good haul! Assembling and painting the Micro Armour has started and we are getting ready for our first 6mm game.

Already looking forward to CRISIS 2020...