RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

I keep re-doing parts, the return rollers keep gnawing at me, they are wrong, should be wider so that they come out to the edge of the road wheels, and then I look at the road wheels and know that I could print them better.....and so it goes on...

wibblywobbly wrote:I keep re-doing parts, the return rollers keep gnawing at me, they are wrong, should be wider so that they come out to the edge of the road wheels, and then I look at the road wheels and know that I could print them better.....and so it goes on...

...Anything worth doing, is worth doing well; but it's unlikely to be easy. I often think of Michael Redgrave as Barnes Wallis, agonising over his brainchild -The Bouncing Bomb'- at moments like this.
Christian used the return rollers from the Pz 4, I think. I think Michael C also undertook a Comet..or was it Cromwell project? Anyway, it might be worth looking back at his solution for return rollers. You don't have to print an entire tank do you..or is that the goal?

I remember that movie well, I like all of those black and white WW2 ones. They portray an image of Englishness that vanished decades ago, the eccentrics, the stiff upper lip, everyone speaking English like it was supposed to be spoken, we will never see those times again.

As for the build, yes, the objective is to make everything that I can, just to see if I can. I've done plenty of builds before but it was done using styrene and spare parts. This project is to see whether it is possible to scratch build everything, and see what I can learn in the process. Like all builds, it's what I learn from doing one that makes the next one easier to do.

Pushing the boat out today, printing wafer thin engine deck covers, fortunately without warping. ignore the lines that you can see, it's just changes in the filament colour rather than ridges, though strangely all sections were printed using exactly the same settings, filament, etc etc. They have pre-positioned holes for brass wire handles etc, so they will all line up perfectly.

Of course now that I have the engine covers all to scale and placed where they will go, I have confirmed my own suspicions from early on in the build that the turret ring is too far forward. Currently moving it back, but if it all goes pear shaped its only 3 pieces of styrene and cut a new hole to make a complete upper hull.

Good afternoon, W.W.,
I've been following along and as with your earlier efforts, am really amazed at what you can get out of a 3D printer.
regards,
Painless

Now that I have gotten used to it, and more importantly how to design the parts so that they print using minimal filament and produce fine detail, I am more inclined to make use of it. I have two, one prints taller objects, one prints wider, so it widens my possibilities.

Managed to get the infernal turret ring in roughly the right position. Nothing is obvious on this tank hull and it took several different approaches to get things the right size, in the right place and the right thickness so that other parts will fit. Everything is balanced in place, not gluing anything until I know it's good enough.

Printer is printing panels down to transparency levels without warping, and doing tiny bolt heads so small that I can't photograph them in focus.

Beautiful work sir! Amazing what you fellas can make with these 3D machines

Amazing work Rob. I love following your build.
Alwyn

Decided to glue down what I have done so far and give it a quick blast of primer. It is smoothing the surface out so that's good, and shows up the detail better so that you can see what I have been doing with this. There are a few joints that need a bit of filler, but its getting there.