RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Just do a set & let the end user do the dirty work...............those keen enough will find a way.

That's true. If you are not selling them as finished items then buyers should be able to cope, just depends on their modelling skills.

The assembly fits, just, but l will need to modify the recoil and elevation connecting arms if l want to keep the barrel swivel axis correct.

Right now l'm modifying the Taigen upper hull to become a mod 43, strip all detail and refit with Trumpeter kit parts, including the front fenders. I had to take a bath this morning to soak the superglue off my fingers which l used as configurable vices while the glue went off!

The gain in using the Taigen deck is multiple, stronger deck, all wiring in situ, working turret ring and no down sides, plus you get a virtually complete kit hull to build (to which you can fit your T34/85 turret and detail parts!)
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Still detail to add but not before the base colour is down. Since that's easiest done outside, and it's raining just now (again), I'll show you progress.

Here's all the holes filled and the kit parts fitted. The climbing handles are very frail so l can see them being replaced by custom made metal parts but otherwise the hull is done. Back to the dreaded tiny turret!

I apologise for the intrusion of the naked knees. The rest of me is suitably attired. Honest!

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Nice progress General, I'm glad to see the Taigen hull working for you. Well spotted removing the side turret ring protectors!

HERMAN BIX wrote:Just do a set & let the end user do the dirty work...............those keen enough will find a way.

No, you'd need a lathe to make these usable. They're awful.
I cleaned up the lightening holes with a drillbit, but they were just as bad as the edge of the rim. The blobbing around the axle is the worst I've seen since setting the heater up, I don't know why so much semi-cured resin is accumulating there, it should have plenty of opportunity to drain off.

I might need to take a few steps back and make sure I can deal with supported prints before trying to print complex functional parts like these. Give me a few weeks!

There is no deadline Mr Ram...................I'm sorry I cant offer much in the way of advise, but you have me beat for smarts when it comes to this kind of voodoo-witchery

Been very busy at work, so progress has been slow. But finally, some good prints.
These are straight off the printer without any manual cleanup, they've just had an alcohol bath and then the supports removed by hand. I've given them a quick coat of primer so they're easier to photograph. The outside-facing portions of the wheels look great, the inside-facing portions only need a very minimal amount of sanding or filing to get them smooth:
In the interests of full disclosure, I'm still having problems with the printer itself so some parts of the print aren't great. I'm getting noticeable layer shifting and Z wobble on one side of the build plate, so I've been orienting the prints so that the visible face of the outer wheel is on the good side of the printer.
No worse than the lines you'd get on an FDM printer, but not what you'd expect printing in resin. I've got a local machinist to fabricate a steel reinforcement frame for the printer's Z-axis, and if that doesn't work the printer manufacturer is offering strengthened build plate supports. Not sure how much they cost or how long it'd take to get here, but it's nice to have a plan B ready and waiting.

Looking good. Sounds as though you have good background support. Is it vibration that is causing bed movement? I wonder if insulating feet , as used on floor standing speakers, might help if the bed is also fixed to the printer frame.

That said, my experience in the matter is zero!!!

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Knowing that you are a fastidious type, nothing I could say would make a difference, but, those last lot of wheels, are bloody marvelous
Painted, weathered and with pigment they would be as good as anything else given the same treatment.
They are roadwheels .................just have to work, not pass a "Concours-De'Elegance" at Pebble Beach !!

That printer caper is a very dark-art, so its no surprise that things are not just "point & squirt"

Thanks for the kind words lads, I'm glad to finally be making some progress. I honestly thought this would be a lot more "point and squirt" than it turned out to be!

Got a couple of the cast wheels done up recently. Like the previous stamped ones these have been taken off the printer, had their supports ripped off by hand, cured and then given a quick coat of primer. No sanding, filing, filling or post-processing; these are as rough as it gets. I'm pretty pleased with how they've turned out.
Bit lumpy and stripy on the insides, but nothing that a quick sand won't fix. Besides the rolling surface, most of this won't be visible once the tank's assembled anyway.
On that note, it won't be long until I give these a proper test:
Just waiting on some new bearings to arrive, and I'll assemble these on my T-34 to see how they hold up in the real world.

General Jumbo01 wrote:Looking good. Sounds as though you have good background support. Is it vibration that is causing bed movement? I wonder if insulating feet , as used on floor standing speakers, might help if the bed is also fixed to the printer frame.

It definitely would for a traditional filament-based printer, I've seen people setting up concrete pavers on top of thick foam slabs to absorb the vibration from the stepper motors. With a resin printer, there's just one axis of motion (and it's very slow, only one or two millimetres per second). Over the last few weeks, I've found out that my model of printer is notorious for its poor build plate support; anything bigger than a test print will create enough suction at the bottom of the vat to bend the arm holding the build plate as it travels upwards. Hopefully the reinforcement I'm getting made up will be ready soon. I'll chase the machinist tomorrow!

Great work Dan. Getting to grips with 3D printing takes some persistence. Mine has sat idle for a while.