3D Printed T-26

[tankme]

This is going to be a long term project as I learn my 3D printer. I was going to start with the T-35, but the T-26 is much more manageable for a first 3D printed tank IMO. I've been ordering parts to do the build, but in the meantime I've been printing the parts.

Been practicing with Polymaker ASA Army Green filament by printing the sprockets, road wheels, and the suspension. Finally confident enough in the ASA that I printed the turret and it came out great with no warping on my first attempt.

Right after cooling still sitting on the build plate:




Supports removed:




Gonna be a cool little build I think.

[Kaczor]

Interesting supports. What slicer do you use?

[tankme]

Using the Qidi slicer, but it's based on Cura. Those are "tree" supports.

[tankme]

Got the lower hull printed. Now that was a chore. First print I tried to do both at the same time since it's split in two and the full hull wouldn't fit on my build plate. The build plate shifted at some point so that print was ruined. Then I printed the back by itself which took 13hrs to print as I should've changed the layer height, but ended up printing at .02 which is why it took forever. Then I printed the front. It finished and it looked pretty good until I tried to mate the two pieces. Sometime in the night I ended up with a layer shift and it skewed the entire top where the turret goes. I thought I could work around it, but finally decided to scrap it and reprint. On my third attempt at the front hull the ASA shrank so bad in the middle of the print that it pulled the build plate off the magnets holding it. Basically it warped it like a U. Frustrated as hell at that point I said....OK...print it again. I changed the orientation of the part, put a brim on it to keep it from warping, and increased the layer height some.

Success! The two halves aren't mated yet, but being ASA any ABS glue will work on them. The funky lines on the inside are the remnants of the tree supports.



Also got the turret gear printed and fitted.



Printed the large deck pieces and did a dry fit of everything. The deck pieces are intentionally longer than needed I think as I had to sand quite a bit off the edges to get them to fit. Shown next to my IS-2 which I've been putting a new recoil mechanism in while I'm waiting for parts and prints for the T26. Just got the bolts to finish the IS-7 matlet so it may get some love today. You can see all my 3D printed organizers on the pegboard I practiced with before attempting a tank. There's more of them off camera. I actually freed up a lot of space for more stuff on the board by printing more compact holders for stuff.



Other side:



Next...print all the detail parts and start the actual assembly. Still need a set of plastic PZ3 tracks. Didn't know they would be so hard to find unless I order from China. Metal ones are easy to get, but the plastic ones aren't. Taigen doesn't have them (only metal). Toucan in the US doesn't have them (only metal).

[Ecam]

That has to be somewhat frustrating to find something goes wrong several hours into a print! Nice work/persistence, tank is looking great!

[tankme]

Yes it is. The one where the bed lifted was 8 hours into the print. Only had 1.5 hours left to go. I will take all the bad prints to the table saw and cut out whatever flat panels I can get to use in builds so that the plastic isn't completely wasted.

[Son of a gun-ner]

Check your PM's

[tankme]

Mick thanks for the PM. I got another idea while reading it. Since I also want to do an SU-76i, I might just buy a cheap PZ3 with plastic tracks. That way I can put metal tracks on the SU-76i...

[Son of a gun-ner]

Well, that certainly sounds like a good plan

[AlwynTurner]

If you look at forgebeartanks website he has pz4 plastic tracks (same as pz3) at £14.99 per set (and the service is excellent!).
Alwyn