M3 Grant (Lee?) scratchbuilt... or that's the plan anyway...

[HERMAN BIX]

If hes wasn't- he is now I bet !!

[Rob1970]

If hes wasn't- he is now I bet !!

Waaaay ahead of you...


I can probably make it move...


...but can I make it shoot? Hehehehe...

[Rob1970]

A lot of tinkering in Tinkercad later...


Good enough for some test prints...


The barrel fits... I've nailed the 15 degrees of left and right traverse, and it looks like I have enough room for the BB unit...


...even managed to add some of the rivet and bolt details, and managed to match the slope of the front glacis in the printed part.

Yeah, I'm happy sofar. Now I just hope my printer keeps behaving...

To Be Continued...

TTFN,
Rob

[Kaczor]

Looking great although printed rivets are not the best idea if you want sand those surfaces before painting

[Rob1970]

Looking great although printed rivets are not the best idea if you want sand those surfaces before painting

Actually, a quick flick with a flame will take away a lot of the roughness, and after that a coat of good primer takes care of the rest. The cast part of the sponson will get a generous dabbing with thinned Milliput to make it looks just right.

Just for shits and giggles I sliced and printed the file I have for the turret overnight, just for the look... came out pretty nice...


And some quick comparing to some data I have and the 1/35 Airfix Grant the size is pretty much spot-on...


Just need to lower that ring at the bottom and make it match with the HL Sherman turret cog...

To Be Continued...

TTFN,
Rob

[Herr Dr. Professor]

"I've nailed the 15 degrees of left and right traverse, and it looks like I have enough room for the BB unit..." Now that's an accomplishment in such tight space!

"{A] quick flick with a flame will take away a lot of the roughness, and after that a coat of good primer takes care of the rest." There are often striations in printed parts. Do you mean that these can be smoothed with a match? How do you do that trick without--unh--toasting a tank?

[Rob1970]

"I've nailed the 15 degrees of left and right traverse, and it looks like I have enough room for the BB unit..." Now that's an accomplishment in such tight space!

"{A] quick flick with a flame will take away a lot of the roughness, and after that a coat of good primer takes care of the rest." There are often striations in printed parts. Do you mean that these can be smoothed with a match? How do you do that trick without--unh--toasting a tank?

Well, the trick is print slow and high res, at the moment the parts I will be using are printed in 0.08mm (That's 0.003149606 inches for you non-metric idio... I mean folks... ) layers. So pretty fine. A well-adjusted printer also helps. I ran my test on my Sidewinder, but I run production on my QQ-S which is actually faster at high resolution.

The fine lines that do remain (mainly on the horizontal surfaces) can be melted ever so slightly so they flatten out. You can even do that during the printing process (with ironing). Little bits of fine hairs and nubbins from the printer head lifting can also be flashed off that way.

I don't know the setting the people selling 3D printed parts are printing at, but I don't think it's gonna be 0.08mm...

Example below; 0.12mm Vs. 0.2mm


This mantlet is printer at 0.08mm. That just needs a swipe with a sanding sponge...

[lmcq11]

FYI, could be an illusion from the pictures but it seems to me the angle of the mantlet is a bit too steep and the cupola a bit too much up front.

[Rob1970]

FYI, could be an illusion from the pictures but it seems to me the angle of the mantlet is a bit too steep and the cupola a bit too much up front.

What part are you talking about? The turret? I just dropped that on the hull, so it's probably the angle of the dangle...

[lmcq11]

hat part are you talking about?

The turret

M3 Grant turret

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