Digital modelling

[Happy Wanderer]

"It starts at about $19 in WSF plastic, and goes up to about a gajillion bucks for the super-duper-ultra-detail resin."

That's smart salemanship! That is a very reasonable price and the 3D print material certainly looks suitable enough. One thing about the interwar vehicles is that a slightly rougher look to them kind of adds to their period charm and for me a perfectly machined and 'smoothed' surface isn't necessarily required to achieve the proper look...within reason.

If you can get the Vickers Light Mk III in that price range I'll be taking a few of your hands required by the TAC list for the British 8th Hussars in CoC.

https://abyssiniancrisis.wordpress.com/2015/12/20/chain-of-commandabyssinia-hussars/

Happy W

[Fitz]

At long last the first examples of Shapeways' "White Strong & Flexible" 3d printing has arrived. It's the cheapest medium available from them, and the only one that would be affordable for 15mm vehicles for the penurious likes of me.

My opinion: it could be worse. It does show quite a decent degree of detail, but the surface is very granular, more so than I was expecting, and it shows nowhere near as much detail as their own material renders would suggest.

Shapeways' own material render (enhanced for contrast)

The surface can be polished, using steel burnishing tools, to mitigate this granularity somewhat. It doesn't get rid of it entirely though. Shapeways can do this themselves, but they do it by tumbling the item with little plastic balls, which (of course) pummel out not only the surface granularity, but also any small raised details, so it's no good for my purposes.

The final proof of the pudding will be in the painting, of course. I'll be interested to see how that turns out.

I suspect that the material would be fine for wargaming pieces, but it's certainly not fine enough for general scale modeling purposes.

New turret and wheels for Battlefront's 15mm Rolls Royce armoured car

[Happy Wanderer]

That looks pretty good to me. With a suitable undercoat then one or two layer on top and a dry brush that should come up OK. If it has a camo scheme this will further make the texture less of an issue.

As soon as you get a 1/56 Vickers Light Mk III tank on Shapeways I'll order one, paint it up and review on The Abyssinian Crisis blog. 
https://abyssiniancrisis.wordpress.com


Cheers

Happy W

[Fitz]

 I've painted my 3d-printed Vickers Medium Mk.III, and here it is with some 15mm WW1 Brits from Peter Pig.

The WSF material from Shapeways takes a bit of preparation before it's ready for painting.

The printing process is one of laser sintering in a bed of powdered resin, and when the model is cleaned up the excess powder is blown away with compressed air. That leaves quite a bit of powder still hiding in the various crevices and around detail elements, and that needs to be cleared away or else the paint will solidify it. The ideal tool for this would be a dentist's ultrasonic water pick, but since I don't have one of those, I use various steel modeling probes.

Also, the printed surface is very granular, with a texture like fine sponge. That gives a fine tooth for paint, but it's not ideal for small-scale modeling purposes. It can be smoothed down to a certain extent by burnishing, but it can't feasibly be eliminated entirely.

Hopefully, the cost of higher-resolution printing will come down within the foreseeable future. This plastic is OK, but it's not the best option, and I only entertain it because it's the only material Shapeways offer that I can afford in this scale..

[Fitz]

My next project, while I'm waiting for my Big Boy's Big Book of Big Plans to arrive from bookdepository.com, is a Lancia armoured truck of about 1921.

It's all pretty straightforward, except in one respect: I have only the haziest notion of what goes on underneath a truck.

The drawings I'm working from show front, rear, and side elevations, with no details at all of the chassis, suspension or steering linkages. I have a photograph of a restored vehicle that gives me a glimpse of the front suspension, but that's it.

I guess the thing to do is to fake it.

[Fitz]

After trawling through a bunch of photos of vintage trucks in various stages of dilapidation, I cobbled together what I think is a reasonable representation of a chassis for this truck — good enough for wargaming purposes, anyway. The model's up on Shapeways now, at http://shpws.me/LO5f. Just 15mm at the moment; I'll do a 28mm re-scale, but bumping it up in size also massively inflates the price.

The vehicle I modeled it on also had an A-frame anti-grenade/rock/bottle mesh covering the open back. It would be a simple matter to add the frame, but again, it would increase the price quite substantially as it bumps up the machine space required to print the thing, even though the actual increase in material required would be trivial.

Edit: The 28mm version is up now, at http://shpws.me/LOlX, starting from about $22.

[David]

I am still looking for a Vickers Mk III ? or Mk II model for my Greek army,  
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=b99c5fadfb7ff56071186a42f8ca805d&topic=80001.0
otherwise I will have to convert Company B model

[Fitz]

Unfortunately my great hope, George Bradford's otherwise excellent book 1914-1938 Armored Fighting Vehicles, turns out not to have any drawings of the Vickers Light Mark II or III. So, I shall have to do what I can from photographs.

I don't have any shots from the rear or above; if anyone has any they could share I'd be grateful.

[Vintage Wargaming]

Unfortunately my great hope, George Bradford's otherwise excellent book 1914-1938 Armored Fighting Vehicles, turns out not to have any drawings of the Vickers Light Mark II or III. So, I shall have to do what I can from photographs.

I don't have any shots from the rear or above; if anyone has any they could share I'd be grateful.

I'm sorry to hear that.

There is another Bradford book

British Armored Fighting Vehicles (World War II AFV Plans)

which I know has some light tank plans, though I don't know which Mark(s)

The recent Osprey British Light Tanks 1927-45 has lots of photos and drawings (not plans) including the Mk 11 and Mk III.

David Fletcher's Mechanised Force has a single side plan for the Mk 11B India pattern (p75)  and a set of plans for the Mk IV A India pattern on p 77. It also has a single side (exploded internal) view of the Mk II (p52), a set of maker's drawings of the Mk V (p56) and there may be more in his Great Tank Scandal, but I can't lay my hands on my copy just now.

I only realised recently the Medium Mark II was originally designated as Light Mark II by Vickers, which caused me some confusion with photo identification before the penny dropped.

[Happy Wanderer]

Hey Fitz,

The Osprey book doesn't have alot of useful stuff in it really....the internet has better pics.

Here's s side shot of MK III light tank with scale...so that's useful.

Here's the page that it is in. Check out the dimensions and File data.

http://www.wardrawings.be/WW2/Files/1-Vehicles/Allies/3-UK/01-LightTanks/Vickers-Mk1-6/Vickers-Mk3.htm

Nice pic here

Then there is still this useful link though I was hoping for plans...good info though

http://ciar.org/ttk/mbt/afv_weapons_profile_pack/afv_weapons_profile_05__light_tanks_i-v.pdf

Here's a link to a Mk II model by Milicast. It has some nice detail on it.
http://www.milicast.com/shop/product.php?productid=1878&cat=0&page=2


Though not of the Mk III light its still a good link for you...
https://books.google.com.au/books?id=nT3zle-U3jgC&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=vickers+MK+III+light+tank+model&source=bl&ots=BjaZrAwCjG&sig=CmCLFf0RGVDDEVSMTgp9PHWqkfc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiJ4Oyth6HLAhWFJZQKHWocCeUQ6AEIVjAM#v=onepage&q=vickers%20MK%20III%20light%20tank%20model&f=false

That's about all I can dig up...no plans for the Mk III...look like you'll be ht sonly one with them once you crack it!

HW

[David]

Hi there is a model out in 20mm scale
http://www.ebay.es/itm/Mk-IIIB-Dutchman-Light-Tank-Wespe-Models-1-72-/231822142303
you could up scale this to 28mm ?
other info
https://uk.images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A2KLktmRltZWokoAE91NBQx.;_ylu=X3oDMTBsZ29xY3ZzBHNlYwNzZWFyY2gEc2xrA2J1dHRvbg--;_ylc=X1MDMjExNDcxNzAwNQRfcgMyBGJjawMyNGZwcWc5YmQydmZhJTI2YiUzRDQlMjZkJTNEeVNVOE1BOXBZRUtmVDdDemVnQU5NZmNvLkJiU2FzTzNmTTg4JTI2cyUzRGN1JTI2aSUzRFhLb0dybF9lVDZfSW1IN3MzQ2xGBGZyA3lmcC10LTIwNARncHJpZAMzbmtZVGx5UVNsT1VPTWtObU82R0VBBG10ZXN0aWQDbnVsbARuX3N1Z2cDMTAEb3JpZ2luA3VrLmltYWdlcy5zZWFyY2gueWFob28uY29tBHBvcwMwBHBxc3RyAwRwcXN0cmwDBHFzdHJsAzE4BHF1ZXJ5A2R1dGNobWVuIHRhbmsgMTkzNgR0X3N0bXADMTQ1NjkwNDExNQR2dGVzdGlkA251bGw-?gprid=3nkYTlyQSlOUOMkNmO6GEA&pvid=xubodzcyLjMiPzqCVtF96gV_ODYuMQAAAADbA4v1&p=dutchmen+tank+1936&fr=yfp-t-204&fr2=sb-top-uk.images.search.yahoo.com&ei=UTF-8&n=60&x=wrt

[Arlequín]

I understood that the 'Dutchman' tanks sent to Greece were C-L commercial models, which had been in British service as "Tank Light, Vickers Carden Loyd, Model 1936", surely if they were MK. IIIBs, they would have been called that? Certainly the turret is similar to one used on the MK. II.

While I'm quite enthusiastic about the idea of a MK. III, I do wonder how much Shapeways would charge for a 1/56th scale version? Unit price for a Light Tank MK. VIC in 1940 was around £6K, do you think Shapeways can beat that price?

 

[Fitz]

While I'm quite enthusiastic about the idea of a MK. III, I do wonder how much Shapeways would charge for a 1/56th scale version? Unit price for a Light Tank MK. VIC in 1940 was around £6K, do you think Shapeways can beat that price?

Based on what they charged for the 28mm Carden-Loyd Mk.VIII, which is much the same size, a 28mm Vickers Light Mk.II or III should be around $18 - $20-ish in WSF.

[Vintage Wargaming]

I've ordered the second Bradford plans book. When it arrives I'll let you know if there is anything useful in it.
Let me know if you will think of doing anything in 20mm. There's a crying need for a Russian T-27 tankette

[David]

I am still looking for a Vickers light tank 1936 (Dutchman) model for my Greek army, as show in the picture.
The Greek army had 10. and 70 Bren carriers and loads of motorbikes.
see picture in link.
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=b99c5fadfb7ff56071186a42f8ca805d&topic=80001.0
I had got one of these which I was going to convert
http://thewcp.co.uk/product.php?ItemID=2878