All,
I have been on a tear the last year or so, buying up 15mm stuff, from WWII to Vietnam to Moderns. And so when fellow TMPer "Bashytubits" bought a 3D Printer and began turning out Cold War NATO and Warsaw Pact vehicles, he had my attention. He's been advertising his wares on TMP and I liked the selection and how the initial pictures looked, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I guess it's been a couple weeks ago now, but I placed on order with him, shuttling funds via PayPal, and a few days later I was the recipient of some 15mm plastic Cold War goodness. I ordered more (a total of 13 vehicles), but haven't had the time to finish all of them, but I've got six vehicles completed and I really like them and wanted to show them off.
So below you'll see six plastic vehicles from BashTubits' 3d Printer: two T-62s, two BMP-1s, and two BTR-60s. I apologize as I now wish I'd have taken initial ("before") photos, but I apologize, you'll have to live with just the final ("after") photos. And I beg forgiveness on another note as well: these are definitely Cold War-era vehicles, but as I intend on using them in a fictional, Imagi-Nation-style dust-up, I actually painted them up in quasi-'modern' Russian camouflage. I've placed two Khurasan 15mm Private Military Contractors next to the vehicles for scale, in quite a few of the pics.
(https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xrnBIES3MRs/WLTUXNoxBDI/AAAAAAAAb7U/keQ00iROVAAN8qML2biMW6at_BWDHLTrwCLcB/s1600/IMG_0992.JPG)
The whole shebang, from left: two T-62s, two BMP-1s, and two BTR-60s. All of these vehicles are two piece, hull and turret, and when they arrive they are U-G-L-Y!!! Coming out of the 3D Printer, they've got a lot of plastic stuff that needs to be cleaned up. I'll admit that it was really ugly and I was really aggravated, but in the end I simply busted out my X-acto knife and it took me between 15 and 20 minutes per vehicle to clean up. I figure that's about the same as it's taken me to do other plastic vehicles (cleaning up and assembling). So you clean out all the excess plastic, then slap the turret on and spray prime them, no sweat.
(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0h_KrENIHKo/WLTUXQru5QI/AAAAAAAAb7Y/LA5oNLYtCXkADteNmpkXQE0vUEjZaPxMQCLcB/s1600/IMG_0993.JPG)
Another look, reverse.
(https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9QQ4wFAhOTM/WLTUc6EqJ_I/AAAAAAAAb7c/YS1tAJofg2Q6hydMB1g_7njQcv1IWf6wwCLcB/s1600/IMG_0995.JPG)
The T-62s.
(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pupY46gNNBU/WLTUtTH_oCI/AAAAAAAAb78/v5QmNi9JWrEm42mkWPeXhTZVV13mZfJLQCLcB/s1600/IMG_1004.JPG)
The BMPs, with 15mm troops for scale.
(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Vh1WAfxuKY4/WLTU1Qs_OuI/AAAAAAAAb8I/2gXiBzkREycgu7lKHZHz0rnonEbbwbZzgCLcB/s1600/IMG_1007.JPG)
The BTRs. For more pics, please visit the blog at:
http://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2017/02/3d-printed-sovietrussian-vehicles-from.html
I've had quite a few (e-mail) conversations with him, and Bashytubits is continuing to work on new models. If you're looking, I need that Warrior with Chobham armor!!! ;) And a Gepard, probably some M-60s...
On a side note, real life butted into my wargaming time in a serious way last weekend, and what little time I had I used to work on these. So sorry, no games :( But quite your whining, I'll get some in this coming weekend, and I've already posted twelve batreps in 2017!!!
V/R,
Jack
Very tasty!
How do they compare price wise and quality with PP, QRF and the new Battlefront stuff (assuming you have any suitable to compare against...)?
TP,
Thanks man! Regarding price, each of the above vehicles was $5 USD, and a couple bucks for shipping. In 15mm, I don't have any Battlefront models, just PP, QRF, Zvezda, and Flytrap Factory, but I'd say the quality is great. I don't really want to comment, just look at the pics!
Size-wise they fit with all those.
V/R,
Jack
Yeah, I posted that before I had a proper look :D
Quality looks really good, and as a bonus there's no seperate H-AAMG to lose or glue to your fingers!
The printer lines I can live with - in actual scale photo's they're not noticiable, and no worse than many cast figures imperfections. Or even real world stuff, having seen some things in 1:1 to scale that I think I'd send back to the manufacturer if I'd bought them as model ;)
And that's an awesome price, cheaper than lead.
No sweat man, sorry, I was just being a bit of a wise-ass. Though I do try to stay away from negative comparative commentary (i.e., "x's stuff is way better than y's stuff, y must have been blindfolded when he sculpted that one"); you know, if you don't have something nice to say...
Again, I'm very happy with the quality on these vehicles. Some of the other vehicles I ordered (not pictured) were a bit rougher, but he's actually working on new models and is sending them. I like the lack of parts; nothing on here is glued. I will say getting the turrets (which have a thick stem) into the hulls was a pain in the ass on some of them, with me having to do some filing down of imperfections in the stem. But it all worked out.
"Or even real world stuff, having seen some things in 1:1 to scale that I think I'd send back to the manufacturer if I'd bought them as model"
That cracked me up! Amen! Often times are little models look better than the real ones!
V/R,
Jack