Just a very quick post tonight on a recent local purchase.
One of the advantages that seem to be accruing from the spread of good quality, competent 3 D printers, is that we (in New Zealand) now have access to some wargaming figures and vehicles that are the equal of anything we can get from overseas, and with the dual advantage of no international freight costs and no significant delay in receiving the goodies!
A case in point - I ordered a 28mm T34/85 tank and 5 tank riders from local (Wellington) producer Pot Belly Miniatures. The tank was NZ$25 and the tank riders $15 (halve it for sterling, somewhere in between for $US) They duly arrived yesterday, and I am pretty happy with them!
The tank came in 5 parts - tank crew (2) are just printed already in the turret - the gun was separate.
There was a little bit of trimming to remove some supports, mainly around the fuel drums and in the tracks, between the wheels,
Tank Riders added - I am not sure I can squeeze all five on one vehicle unless I glue them in place, and I don't want to do that - so may have ended up with enough riders for two tanks!
And finally, how the tank looks when painted up by Pot Belly - not sure mine will be quite this nice, but we can but try!
As I say, I think this is a good buy - a 28mm kit would be at least twice the price, and then you have all the hassle of building the thing (I don't enjoy kit building for its own sake - I do it because I want the end result!). It would be a pretty simple matter to buy one of these every couple of weeks for a month or two, and end up with all the mid-late war Soviet tanks I would ever want in this scale - its just a shame this is the one and only Soviet vehicle available from Pot Belly - if he had a T34/76, that is definitely what I would have bought first!
I have been wavering on the purchase or a 3D printer for nearly two years now. Your beautifully done 10mm collection notwithstanding, the four things that put me off are:
ReplyDelete1). The removal of the supports and the tidying up required
2). The brittleness of the figures; if I am going to spend hours painting something I want it to survive a few encounters on the table
3). The faffing about and false starts before I can triumphantly produce a spartan with half a leg missing.
The one thing that pushes me toward it though is the promise of being able to print either terrain or vehicles such as you have depicted above.
If you ever want a reason to purchase a 3D printer have a look at 3dprintterrain.de; Najewitz Modellbau. A lovely guy and I have a lot of his stuff, both pre- and post- his venture into 3D printing.
Which brings me on to the fourth reason; if I could actually print Jens's stuff at will, where would l I find the space to store it let alone paint it.
I suppose I'll still end up buying one though.
DeleteNice vehicle Keith. I guess we are lucky here with suppliers. I certainly have some 3D prints but also plastic and Resin. I’m sure we’ve all toyed with the idea of a printer in the garage but I know I would get very fed up fiddling with it etc… better for me at least to just buy stuff 👍
ReplyDelete