Vickers Light Mk.VI (15mm, 3d print)

[Fitz]

The most common tank in the British arsenal at the beginning of WWII was the Vickers Light Tank Mk.VI, in two main variants: the VIb (bottom), armed with one .50 and one .303 Vickers machine-gun, and the VIc (above) with a 15mm BESA and co-axial 7.92mm BESA machine-gun.

Despite being the most common tank available to the BEF, I've had none at all in my wargaming force, because they are frankly pretty crap. They're bullet-proof (just), but fall to bits if confronted with anything heavier than rifle-calibre missiles, and their armament is wholly inadequate against almost any other tank, allied or enemy, they're likely to encounter in France.

However, I thought in the interests of historical veracity I'd better make some, so I have, half a dozen, which should provide plenty of cheap and easy targets for the Dirty Nazis.

The hull for the Mk.VIb and Mk.VIc is essentially identical, so I've just printed a pair of turrets for each hull.

The "B" markings for this particular model are made up, and will be different to all the others. That's because this one, the first one I printed, does not have turrets interchangeable with any of the other hulls, while the others all are, and I want to be able to distinguish it at a glance.

[jeffreythancock]

Did you try anything to address the visible striations on the tank hull before painting, or paint it as is?  The camo seems to help some and your painting is very good.

I will be more impressed with 3D models when the striations are less pronounced or when there is an easy way to address the striations.

Thank you for sharing!  Who modeled them and did you buy them from a commercial operation like Shapeways or Butler, or print them yourself?

[Fitz]

I didn't do anything about the layer lines except paint over them. They're really only visible at very close range; on the tabletop they look just fine.

The best and easiest way to address the issue at this time is to buy a more expensive printer. The Ancubic Photon is a DLP resin printer, which can achieve quite a bit higher print resolution than my Ender 3 FDM printer, but it goes for about $US500-ish compared with the Ender 3 $US200-ish, and the photosensitive resin is considerably pricier than PLA filament.

The models were designed by either m_bergman or TigerAce1945 on Thingiverse — they both do good work, and their collections are very complementary. I printed them myself on my Ender 3.

[Arrigo]

People always comments on the striations, but people always forgot that we had the habit (good or bad) to zoom in with pictures. When you realize the jolly good chap beside the tank for scale is actually 15mm...  It also made you to think twice anout the mighty Mk. VI (one of the few armoured vehicle,s together with the CV33/35 that makes me look like a giant!).

Very nice print and painting!

[jeffreythancock]

OK, the fact these were printed at home on a standard printer does impress me!

Thank you for your response.

Jeff

The best and easiest way to address the issue at this time is to buy a more expensive printer. The Ancubic Photon is a DLP resin printer, which can achieve quite a bit higher print resolution than my Ender 3 FDM printer, but it goes for about $US500-ish compared with the Ender 3 $US200-ish, and the

[Wellington Bonaparte]

Hi Fitz, I've been looking at your very impreszive stufc on shapeways, some is shown as 1/144 and others as 1/100(15mm).
Which would be best for 15mm peter pig and FOW figures for my VBCW armies as your vehicles are exactly what I'm after.
Cheers WB

[Fitz]

Hi Fitz, I've been looking at your very impreszive stufc on shapeways, some is shown as 1/144 and others as 1/100(15mm).
Which would be best for 15mm peter pig and FOW figures for my VBCW armies as your vehicles are exactly what I'm after.
Cheers WB

1:100 is best for 15mm figures. 1:144 would be for 12mm, and 1:200 for 10mm.

True 15mm, like the old figures by Charles Lamb, would actually scale out to about 1:112, but most "15"mm figures these days are more like 18mm, which makes them 6' tall at 1:100 scale.

[Wellington Bonaparte]

Thank you, thats brilliant as you have even more available in that  scale, cleared it with my senior management and will be ordering some goodies to add to my lead/plastic/resin mountain 

[Fitz]

Glad to hear it