RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Well the Tesco screen wash was a bust, tried it but it didn't work - it was just separating and not actually dissolving the resin, so back to the drawing board I guess in trying to find an alternative solution. Such a shame as it smelled nice as well. As for the roof print, it did shift, slightly, which was good and it meant I could just sand it flat again but it does mean that next time I print a big flat piece to just orient it vertically and not angled. The other half of the roof I was able to print without problems, I just needed to add extra support to the corners attached to the build plate so that they don't curl up during the printing process, a problem learnt from the first roof. I then joined the two pieces together, reinforced from underneath with plasticard and superglue - then it occurred to me that I could also weld the two pieces together using resin and cured with a UV torch, this i did in the upper structure - i will then sand this flat once it has fully cured. I also created a 'plug' to hold the gun barrel in place in case I decide to turn this into a running beast in the future, but in the mean time I needed a simple solution to keep the gun barrel in place and at the right length. This would have been more economical had I used the FDM printer and likely would have printed a lot faster as well(4hrs print time) but working in a box room, I just don't have the room for two printers - I can either have the FDM or the resin, one or the other. Really love the look of this tank, looks slightly slimline with that mantle I reckon but of course I'm biased and the 128mm gun barrel with the pepper pot muzzle brake is just so right for this tank =) This was the pepper pot muzzle brake I designed and had printed ages ago

More 3D printing progress I'm afraid, I've been very busy since the last update as I recently discovered these set of images for an alternate range finder design I love it and I thought it will lend itself well to my JST so I quickly fired up Fusion 360 and got to work again but in order to use the design I had to re-design the roof layout again. The range finder bar went through a few test prints in order to get a snug fit and the right sizing/look but this will be the final design I think!? So the plan is to print the roof base with my FDM printer or styrene sheets if i cannot get that to work and each components i.e. vents, grenade housing to be printed on my resin printer and placed on the roof manually. This I will do at some point when i can.

Whilst I was fiddling around with that design, I came across a set of wingnuts that I designed a while back and since my printer was idle, I thought why not and see just how small my printer can print. Printed at 0.04mm layer height. Pleased to say that it does the job very well =)

Also did two versions of the periscope to go inside the armoured cone I have printed the new range finder bar design with added rain cover and the square periscope but my wife and daughter are still sleeping so can't clean the prints without making a lot of noise so I'll have to leave that till this evening, after work.

Some very nice upgrades , like the wing nuts and the armoured periscope will be a one of a kind build.

Thanks Ronnie and yes, I'm very pleased that I was able to actually print my own set of wingnuts - they are slightly fragile but these things usually are anyway so no biggie.

I was able to do a bit of work on the JST roof design this morning before work, nothing major, just some detailing that I felt was missing from the range finder bar, like access panels. Then I had enough time to take close up pictures of the roof vent and vent cover, the vent cover will have lift handles installed at some point, just didn't have time to do one before the pics. So pleased my wingnuts fit like a dream as well, well chuffed and they look good if I do say so myself

Very nice indeed.
Resin printer quality = NICEEE
May have to get one also to go alongside the fdms

Must admit those wing nuts look awesome


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Thanks Will, and yeah resin printers - new age model making wonder

midlife306 They are aren't they? must print more as I'm sure I will be using a fair bit for this build heh

Now for a quick update - been busy these past few days on printing and making adjustments to the design. Also had a couple of failed prints, on both fdm and resin printers - one just wouldn't stick to the print bed, actually that's both of them so have re-leveled, cleaned the vat on the ANycubic and cleaned everything then re-leveled again first time after so many successful prints on it so not bad - whereas the FDM requires multiple re-leveling which takes a considerable amount of time - if i knew and have the time to figure out how to set up the autoleveler on the FDM, I would do it to save time in the long run but alas, I'm not very tech savvy.

Anyway, been refining the roof design, added the ammo shell discard hatch and have re-printed the roof base again - sadly the corners lifted again - I may print again and angle the base next time with support and rafts - will take much longer to print, probably 10hrs as opposed to the 6 but if it helps solve the problem, I'm all game for it. On top of that, I also decided to print one of my old engine crank designs to see how it would come out and pleased to say, it came out beautifully - i had to drill out the tiny little holes though but overall, quite pleased with it. This was printed at 0.04mm layers - I may reduce it down to 0.02 maybe and see if i can make those holes come out. Next phase of the design - I'm thinking of raising the commander's cupola up so that i can have different levels on the roof and also I figured I need to elevate it so as not to hinder the Commander's periscope view due to the big and bulky frontal armoured periscope housing. Naturally, I will need to design the new cupola but I am hoping to utilize the current metal hatch cover to save on time

Very nice work all the way around, PatrickH. Like your thought process on the roof layout. One thought on raising the height of the commander's cupola might be to make it more like the Panther cupola which has a more raised base to it, but I'm sure that fertile mind of yours will suss it out. Keep up the good work. Really enjoying this build report.

Brilliant work. Love all the redesigned features. You are doing impressive work

Most impressive work being displayed.