I got a great Christmas present.
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| Flashforge Adventurer 3. |
Since I have been able to get it going it seems, to my wife at least, to have been running non-stop. At one point it seems that a cooling fan failed causing all sorts of clogging issues resulting in failed prints. Once that was sorted out though...
What really got me started on this new adventure was a friend giving me a printed Blitz truck that demonstrated what was possible.
So from then I was kinda hooked. Now I haven't just printed tanks etc. I have printed out a spool holder for the printer, designed and printed headphone holders for the entire family. Still...
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| A simple "Warthog" from the Halo games for role playing. Low-res fast print. |
The first completed and painted was the Finnish BT-42. This was on the "standard" setting of the printer and took a few hours. When it first came of the build plate it looked awesome but undercoating and then painting has brought out the build lines. Still, looks pretty good at 4 feet.
Next most advanced thus far is the T-28, also for the Finns. Think I might have printed the wrong version buso be it. Again the build lines are showing up more once painted. Besides, who else makes this thing in 1/72 - 20mm scale?
The unbiquitous FT-17.
Other Russian stuff.
Having though I'd resolved my clogging issues I thought I would be brave. The 203mm howitzer and the BA-64 AC both turned out well. But no one seems to have had a T-50 file anywhere. And ok so there weren't many of them but the Finns used one as a command vehicle so...
Anyway I ended up finding a free .stl file on the web that I thought I could just print out, so away I went.Well wasn't that a mistake! The .stl file format isn't just for printing but for 3D images and animations and one of the short cuts you can then make is not to show all those fiddly parts you can't see anyway and do things like, I don't know, connect the running gear to the hull say. Anyway after a number of failed prints, where the tracks did not form properly or just fell off, I managed to "fix" the file enough for it to print. But this did mean I had to slice the two sides of the model off from the main body for a sucessful print before regluing them on. Didn't work to badly on the starboard side but the port side...
Another model I have been after for a long time but is either difficult to find or very expensive is the Italian M11/39 and/or the L6. Both I managed to print out.
The M11/39 was done on the default settings as was the hull of the L6. I printed the L6 turrent at a higher detail setting hoping to remove more of the build lines.
Others of mention including a Toldi I light tank so a small Hungarian force now looks to be in my future, a Landsverk mobile AA gun for the Finns, and another much needed model but hard to get a Sdkfz 11 for my Germans. This last one is a lovely model, prints in four parts and looks just great.
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| Prints as front, back and two sides. You can make out the joins here. |
And finally back to more normal model building, a Ki-43 "Oscar" by Hasegawa. The camoflague is actually Thai but it looked so cool I just couldn't resist. Couldn't find suitable markings for such an aircraft in Thai service so Japanese ones is what it gets.
