JS3

[biertje]

Happy to help.
Looks greet mate
If you need any in the future let me know

Greetings tim

[wibblywobbly]

Trust me, there is no way on this earth that I could have created the turret using any CAD system. My genuine thanks to you for doing this.

[wibblywobbly]

I replaced the hatch area with a separately printed section, and glued it on, but I will have to copy the vents etc in Openscad as they were too fragile and simply fell away from the turret at the slightest touch. The hooks will be redone as well. Gave it a coat of fine white Squadron filler and sanded it lightly to get the rough cast finish. Went round the hull and smoothed over the joints, and gave the front the same treatment to cover the ridges left by the 3D printing.

I might buy a big bottle of superglue and stipple that onto the rest of the hull to get a light uneven finish, I've done that before and it worked really well. It sets like concrete so its a good finish to paint over.

A mantlet was done, though its not complete yet, though I coated that with Milliput to get the shape and the cast effect.

The barrel won't have elevation as the interior of the turret is so uneven that there is nothing to attach anything to, I never use elevation anyway so it's no great loss to me. I should be able to get a servo recoil in there though. Access is tight as the turret is one piece with a hole in the bottom.

[c.rainford73]

Mr Wibbly your ability to make your thoughts into reality are as impressive as your builds

[Model Builder 4]

This build is looking great Rob, it will be an imposing beast when it's finished, love the work with the filler and how it's turned out

Cheers, Lee.

[HERMAN BIX]

Got to say Mr Wobbly, this thing is both chunky(like a footpath outside a bar at 3 am) and smooth(like a gravy milkshake) all in one

On a more technical note, with a printed material as compared to a 'normal' I.M. produced version, how do you believe the weight and over all integrity to be between the two ?

Is it a compromise between versatility(the ability to think it and print it) and long -term robustness ?

[wibblywobbly]

It's absolutely solid, probably stronger than say a Heng Long moulding. The nice thing about designing the parts is that I can decide how thick the walls are, so 2-3mm thick plastic is plenty strong enough. I could happily drop the upper hull onto the floor and nothing would break. The turret walls are also 2mm thick, the only weak point was the hatch area, but that was only due to the scanning shortcomings. No one to blame for that, it was purely a by product of scanning something that the scanner can't see, so it guessed. I got around that, so the problem was solved. There were three tiny issues with the vents, but again, easily solved.

Currently printing the barrel...

[HERMAN BIX]

And heres the bit I do understand..................

"currently printing the barrel"

(with my feet up, cuppa in one hand- bride in the other- doing it tough)...............
Ok, printing is the schiznik,
I just wish that the print calculations would get to be voice controlled/programmed

[wibblywobbly]

Looking more like a tank now. Did the barrel in three parts, with push together joints, and it all came out ok. I'll get on with replacing the dodgy hooks and vents on the turret tomorrow.

[wibblywobbly]

Slow progress lately as I have a few other things going on in my life.

Turret vents, barrel lock, exhausts, and the plate at the rear of the vents now done. It's all small parts to do, apart from the fuel drums which are a ten minute design job. The turret was a pain to get sorted, but it's all done now, will make the brass rod hoops at some point. I managed to shoe horn in an IR emitter tube next to the barrel. The entire recoil, mantlet and barrel assembly goes in through the mantlet cavity...just!