Life Need Not be a Train Wreck. Let the train take the strain 1940 France

When I was in India the start of the year I ordered this rather lovely 3d printed train wreck in 1/72 scale. More or less finished it today as a bit of a displacement activity to avoid more pressing jobs.

I’ve also done about five feet of track to go with it. Not a bad job though I say so myself.

3D Printing in Bangalore

 I found I had few .stl files on my laptop so after shopping around and struggling with the language and cultural issues of explaining what wargaming is, I found a guy who normally prints stuff for hospitals, the aerospace industry and things like that. He was up for a challenge so he ran these off for me and I am very happy with them all.

The two shots of houses are Leipzig townhouses from https://www.3dprintterrain.de/
They’ve been printed in 1/56 scale. I gave up trying to explain that I would like them rescaled to 1/72 so they’re a little larger than I would have liked but as well as the buildings shown they printed out some extra floors, initially as test pieces but all perfectly useable with a scratch built roof. Very reasonable price compared to buying them in the UK ready printed (about half the cost). We were coming here anyway so no need to factor in the cost of the flights!

The houses were done using FDM on a printer with a very large print plate (18” x 12”). They ran these Piano Wargames Miniatures https://pianowargames.de/  early Napoleonic Hessians off in resin. There are two battalions of 32, some skirmishers, a dozen cavalry, a battery of two guns and crew plus some mounted officers. They’re 28mm and as good as anything I’ve had from the UK, if not better in some cases. They worked out at a little under £1 a figure so while I can get them cheaper at home I don’t have the often long lead in times. Of course if I could get my own printer fixed…..but I need the space and don’t like the mess, not to mention impatient. I’m messy enough as it is without dollops of resin all over the place!

We are also speaking to some art students we have contacts with through the family network and so forth before we return, to see if they would be interested in doing some painting for me next time we visit. Guaranteed to be very affordable although I’d need to factor in getting the paints and materials to them. Not an insurmountable problem and worth exploring for the next visit probably in the new year.

Exciting isn’t it.

28mm Russian Cavalry 3D prints

As readers may know I’m building an early/mid-Napoleonic Russian army. Most of the figures were as someone might recall, bought on three successive Foundry Xmas Sales, the up to 25% off one. Long term army planning supreme.

Then I saw these 3d resin prints on eBay sold by Hoplite Miniatures. They do a wide range of miniatures beyond these Napoleonic ones, but the ones that got me going were these Russian cuirassiers. Also in the range are dragoons, hussars and a variety of infantry. A set of 12 cavalry costs about £28, sometimes as little as £26, so not much more than £2 a figure. Compared to the price of a similar metal casting these are a no brainer for a pensioner such as me, e.g. the same money would get you a mere six Foundry cavalrymen, and not many more for most manufacturers.

All 36 of my prints were all clean and the details pretty good; ok not as much depth as a metal figure but  enough for me. They’re quite robustly made and feel strong too. Anyway see what you think…..

3D printer test runs

 

I blame the virus and lockdown but I’ve just bought a 3D printer. Why? A displacement activity of some form? I don’t have a clue beyond an idea that I can print out some bits for my Vauban fortress and maybe some 19th century ships or even ancient or renaissance galleys.

So here we are. The big one is a galliot in 1/600 I think. Not bad and should do the job once painted and sails etc added.  The silly round thing is an 1880’s Russian coastal defence battleship, the Admiral Popov. I’ve found where I can acquire 19thC .stl files for late 19thC Turks and Russians so that might generate some fun games. 

Back to normal stuff soon.