RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

I know its not 3d printing but has anyone used a 3d scanner for getting better measurements rather that fiddle about with a pair of verniers. What are they like and how accurate are they. I would like to scale from a 1/35 kit and scale up in size.

Depends on the scanner

You can use photogrammetry to an extent, but the details will be lacking

Alot of high end laser scanning equipment is very expensive and to get really good detailing the price will be out of most peoples budget

Handheld scanners say about £3-4 thousand will be good, great for reverse engineering parts, but complete assemblies maybe not

I've been dealing with 3D models coming from a scanner and they're not very useful for our purposes. While the cast elements will pass, the machined ones have too many errors.

I'm not using a scanner, it would take too much time on a full scale tank anyway. I'm using photogrammetry, I take about 400-500 pics of a tank with my smartphone, then when I'm back home, I use Agisoft photoscan to create a cloud points and a mesh (same result as a 3D scan). I can import that mesh into my 3D software (rhino in my case) then scale it to your need (1:1 or 1:16 for example). It's always a good idea too get a ruler that you put on the tank when you take pics so it's easier to scale it later. (ruler or a known object you can precisely know the size).
Once the mesh is scaler, you can take measurements on it or, in my case, use it as a base to fully 3d model the tank. I then can get blueprints, Stl to 3D print parts, CNC cut parts etc.

That's how I made my Churchill, you can see a video of the solve I made using photogrammetry of a Mk. IV Churchill tank :

viewtopic.php?t=34159