3D-printing Normandy... Pt. III

After printing a couple of houses and farms to replace my scratch-built foam buildings (more on that in another post) I figured I might as well update the rest of my scenery, too...

First up are my trees... Since no battlefield is complete without at least a few trees and my table measures 220x160cm I ended up having more than a few... My trees are split between single based trees and forest bases. A quick count yielded almost 30 forest bases and at least as many individual trees. 

Safe to say, I like my WW2 battlefields green, and for most of my games, I put all my trees on the board. 

A few months ago I picked up a set of trees to print as scatter terrain for D&D. Great looking Fantasy trees, suitably twisted and gnarly. 

The full set... As far as scatter terrain goes, this is all I need for D&D.

The design included a canopy, but I haven't printed those yet. These trees are meant to serve as scatter terrain for our D&D sessions, and the canopies would only get in the way and block our view of the board.

One of the many benefits of digital designs is that you can scale them any way you wish... I cut a bit of the bottom of the trees to remove the wide base of the trunk and made them a lot thinner. These trees are part of a Fantasy range of models and are thus scaled heroically (is that even a word?), by which I mean their shapes and measurements are slightly exaggerated, so to fit in with 15mm Historical terrain they needed some tweaking. 

I ended up with this set...

This batch represents four full plates on my Elegoo MARS. The tallest trees are using the maximum of height the MARS has to offer.  

I used round MDF bases to mount the trees on. I decided to use several different sizes, making a distinction between large and smaller trees.

There is no way I will be able to replace all my trees in one go, but this first batch is a nice start.

The painting was fast and easy; a basecoat of Dryad Bark and a very quick overbrush of Gorthor Brown. The bases were covered in a layer of textured paint. 

As soon as the textured paint has dried, I will give the dirt a quick drybrush with a lighter shade of brown. After that I plan on adding some static grass and larger tufts. For the trees I have several shades of clump foliage...

More pictures coming soon!

Déjà vu; here we go again...

Oh man, life goes on and typing this makes me feel a bit like deja-vu...

Over the last couple of months I have spent plenty of time on my hobby, but I haven't found/taken the time to keep his blog up to date...  

So, what have I been up to? 

Well... A lot of different things, actually... 

First up, I have purchased two new 3D-printers... After my two Elegoo MARS, the larger Elegoo SATURN is a proper upgrade; the larger print volume gives a lot more options. I also picked up a FDM-printer: A Creality CR-10S Pro V2... Having a FDM-printer with a large print surface, allows me to print bigger pieces of scenery. My printer prints at a very nice quality, mind you, it can't compare to resin, but for scenery or terrain it's perfect! It might not be faster, but the ability to print bigger makes all the difference, and that it's cheaper is a bonus, too.

I have printed a whole lot of resin 15mm buildings for my Flames of War scenery. Most of these still have to be painted, but my table now has a proper village. Even better, my friend and neighbour has been busy building and painting two whole armies and together we have been playing some games. 

Well, maybe not a proper village yet. Mind you, this is a 220X160 table...

I have completed a whole lot of pieces to decorate The Dungeon. I commisioned a set of full-plate armoured suits to put on display. I found the sculpter of Uncanny Minis on Thingiverse, joined his new Patreon and contacted him with a proposal. If you are interested in fantasy miniatures, check out his Patreon or his Thingiverse. Most of his models are absolutely free and, most important, very good! 

Two of the full plate armoured suits...

A painted example of one of his designs... 

After the set of armoured suits I asked him to design my D&D character: Gabnast, a Gnome Ranger wielding a heavy crossbow...

Meet Gabnast 'the bullfrog' Millwop... 

Speaking of D&D... Almost a year ago I joined a group of players for a new (and my first) D&D campaign. After our lockdown ended, we switched from online to physical game sessions. So far, I have printed and painted all the character for the players and I have been printing miniatures for our DM, too. 

I have also started printing scatter terrain for D&D. So far I have printed ánd painted (yes, I'm surprised, too) a set of trees, a complete cavern/mine set and a whole lot of ruins... We have been using my terrain during our sessions, which serves as a great motivation to actually paint all these pieces.

The cavern/mine set, all VaeVictis Miniatures...

Most of these ruins will form the basis of a new set of terrain for 40K. This set of terrain should help me to get back into playing 40K.

And because an update without some fresh pictures is just lame, here are a few from last weekend, if only as proof I actually printed and painted something...

These ruins are from Devious Games and are easy to print (they require minimal supports) and fun to paint... I think they are equally usable as scatter terrain for D&D or other Fantasy games as well as terrain for 40K.

I have designed a full set of detailed round bases, which I uploaded to Thingiverse. Originally I designed these for a project of my own, but for now, that project is on hold... Judging by the number of downloads, I think other hobbyists enjoy them, too. You can check them out HERE.

I sold my orange Feudal Guard army, clearing some space for a new Valour Korps force from The Makers Cult. Even though the VK models are pretty awesome to begin with, I found some room for improvement... 

I have kitbashed and designed a set of extra gear for the standard Korpsmen, resulting in kitted-out models which are a joy to paint! I digitally added bayonets and belts to all the lasguns, so I can print them as complete sets.

This army will get it's own series of posts. Well, that's the plan, anyway... 

So far, I have settled on a colour scheme, as can be seen below, and I have printed several squads of Korpsmen to get my army started.

A painted test model...

A squad of Korpsmen, equipped with extra gear...

Painted test model of a Sentinel...

This is the part where I normally say that more updates are coming soon, but looking back, I shouldn't be making any such promises...

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...

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

The printing part is done...

A 1750 points Late War company for Flames of War...

The first models I printed for this project were the Rams. These were done on March 14th. Yesterday, March 21st, I finished the last models, two Sherman V's... This entire company took me only a week to print. Admitted, if I weren't forced to work from home it would have taken me a bit longer, but only a couple of days... Consisting of 22 vehicles, this is quite a sizable force. I actually printed more vehicles than were needed for this list (like the Daimlers) and even did some prints for another player...

Apart from the infantry, these are from PSC, check them out here, everything is printed on my Elegoo MARS.

I used about an entire 1L bottle of Elegoo's water washable resin, meaning this army (excluding the infantry) costs me about €45,-/€50,- in raw material...

The company roster...

I know, fielding seven platoons is sub-optimal, but this is what looked right to me...

Some of you may notice I took the liberty to swap out the command Shermans for my Rams. I really wanted to include these models in my army, the miniatures just look too good not to use... In games they can easily pass as a Sherman, some players might not even notice... To be on yhe safe side, I will add a couple of Shermans to the company so I can swap them if the need arises.

With all the models completed I am waiting for my paint to arrive... I lacked the colours I wanted to use for this project and none of my local stores stock my brand of paint anymore...

3D-printing tanks... pt. VI: Daimler armoured car and Dingo

Ever since I started playing Flames of War, British armoured cars have always been a potential next project... Something about their design appeals to me. Availability always stopped me, but that's not a problem anymore...

As far as armoured vehicles go, the Dingo is very compact...

After the Staghound I decided to print a couple of Daimler Dingo's and Daimler armoured cars.

A set of Dingo's... 

I opted to print two different versions, opened and closed. For the open cars I will have to look for some models to crew them...

The Daimlef armoured car...

To complete the Recce platoon I also printed a set of Daimler armoured cars...

Daimler armoured car... This design comes with two different turrets...

Magnetized turrets... 

As with all the other tanks, I adapted the design to accommodate two smal magnets. I also hollowed out the barrels.

The Daimlers... The difference in size is striking...

When these came out of my printer I thought I had scaled one of them incorrectly. But after some quick onlime research it turned out the Daimler armoured car was quite a bit larger than the Dingo... These models will make for a nice Recce platoon.

I can't take any credit for these designs. The Dingo's 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.

More tanks to come!

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... 

3D-printing tanks... pt. III: Ram

Another tank I am keen to add to my collection is the Canadian built Ram cruiser tank... While this vehicle won't fit in with my U.S. or German forces (well, I could always substitute one or two for a couple of Shermans), it might just be the start of a British/Canadian project. At the very least it will see service in our games of What a Tanker!

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

This is what my desk looks like...

I have set up several files with different configurations. I decided to print the early and late version, both with the 6-pounder gun. After a little bit of cutting and pasting in Tinkercad I adapted the design to accommodate a set of small magnets. I also hollowed out the end of the gun's barrel...

The first two Rams were laid-out with a horizontally printed turret. While the rest of the vehicle printed quite well, this resulted in two crooked barrels. Apart from the barrels, the bottom of the turret wasn't as tight as it should be due to support failure and the hulls suffered some damage due to excess support (both totally my own fault).

Crooked barrel...

The difference in quality is obvious. 

After that I decided to tweak the set-up in Chitubox. I placed the turret verticaly, with the barrel pointing up and I removed a couple of unnecessary supports which were damaging detail on the hull.

Little detail shot of the damaged portion of the fenders...

Hollowed out barrel and magnethole (if that's even a word)...

The two versions... Both miniatures still need some clean-up and curing but
I am happy with the results.

The second and third batch came out a lot better. Which demonstrates (again) that working with Chitubox is a learning experience...

Third batch, fresh out of the printer...

For the fourth run I have set the layer height to 0.025mm instead of the standard 0.05mm... Doubling the print time, but worth waiting for if it will improve the quality of the model even further.

Left the print at 0.025mm and Ram on the right at 0.05mm...

Admitted, the difference is small, very small, barely visible with the naked eye and I doubt it will be visible at all when the miniature is painted. But I think it's worth the extra time...