Every flavour of T-34

[ColemanCollector]

Holy moly, it just keeps getting better and better!

Mike.

[tankme]

Those front guards look like they are off an old Morris Minor 1000 !!
Lovely rolled compound curves, way too nice for a tank.

Correction...too nice for any of your tanks Herr Bix...

[Herr Dr. Professor]

At some point, every tank was a new baby. This one seems a likely candidate to replicate such a condition.

[Raminator]

Got a bit sidetracked, I changed out the resin for some clear stuff to try the headlight and taillight lenses. While I was at it, I thought I'd try printing the hull and coaxial DT machineguns in clear resin so that they can act as their own optic fibres; I didn't like my chances of drilling out such a fine and narrow barrel for a separate one. They've got a cup shape on one side to directly mate up against an LED.

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Now I just need some LEDs to test them with! I'll use SMD LEDs in the taillight so that the convoy and brake lights can be separate. It's a tight squeeze (the inside of the taillight is less than 6 millimetres in diameter), but they'll fit.

[HERMAN BIX]

Jeez they go alright Mr Ram
Headlight lenses are a royal PITA to just have available when needed.
I reckon having a handful would make the getting rid of the awful H/L offering so much easier.

[ColemanCollector]

Whoa, those are tasty, and incredibly accurate!

Will these be available to the tanking public? Have you considered breaking into the HL factory, smashing their Russian headlight molds and leaving a giant sack of these in their place?

Mike.

[Herr Dr. Professor]

Raminator: I hope you determine a price for those lenses and sell them by the bazillions so you can retire to a land of moderate climate. Well, like ColemanCollector Mike, I sure would be interested in a few dozen of them.

[Raminator]

I've been away from this for a long time due to illness, but things have been improving for me lately so it's time to get back to it. First task was winterising the printer; it's become much colder in the last few months (by our standards at least!). It's often around 17°C in the house in the morning, and the resin mix I'm using is way too viscous to print well at those kinds of temperatures. I've rigged up a series of springs and cable ties to wrap a fermentation belt around the printer to keep the resin at 30°C, which will do until I can make something a little more permanent.

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The last thing I was working on before the break was the bow DT machinegun, there's a three-part bracket to attach the ballmount and servo to the hull so it can be remotely controlled.

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Fitting it all together, the front of the tank is really taking shape with lots of little details here that aren't available anywhere else.

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The next big thing to turn this into a proper pre-war model is the running gear. The next update should be exciting!

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[HERMAN BIX]

Great to see you back up & running Mr Ram.
You are bang on with the fact that this stuff is simply not available anywhere else.
To produce parts that can accurately backdate a new T34/85 model to a pre or entry war version is fantastic.
Cant wait to get some hardware to hand when you are ready to start punching them out !

[Marco Peter]

Those tracks... WOW!