I've always liked the ISU-122S with the big ball mantlet and long D-25. It'll be on my to-do list at some point!
It took longer to get here than I was hoping, I've been busy at work and getting the solid CAD drawing into a printable state was more involved than I'd planned. I've managed some test prints over the last two weeks though, and it's finally getting somewhere!
A comparison to my sculpted Milliput attempt from four and a half years ago. Where's the time gone? The printed one's much more dimensionally accurate and is only a fraction of the weight, so it'll put much less strain on the elevation servo mechanism.
Looks the business when it's all assembled! I also designed and printed a replacement muzzle brake, the aluminium one I had was slightly off-centre and it always bugged me. I've also added detail for the mounting bolts, the resolution's good enough that the slotted head of the screw is visible.
A much better looking profile now:
I've run into a problem, though. Now that I'm using more accurate references and have nearly got rid of the parts I had to compromise with, I've realised that the gun is mounted about 5 millimetres too far towards the vehicle's centreline. I'm worried that if I continue, the driver's visor (and its cover), the headlight, the horn and the pistol port will all be too crowded. I think I have three options:
- - do nothing about it and improvise/adapt/overcome later,
- hack apart the styrene casement and move everything to the vehicle's right,
- design and print an entirely new replacement casement.
I'd appreciate your thoughts and ideas, gents! What should I do next?