3Dprinted T-34 Hulls

Finally, our secret project started successfull.

My mate Olli and I bought a cheap 3D printer kit from the bay, an Anet A8, because we want to print or own scenery and models. We had to build this thing together but that was not too complicated, even when we made 2 or 3 dumb mistakes.

But now we are making our own stuff, what is very nice. Sure, the prints do not have the quality of an hi-end 3D printer, but for 250 Euros, 150 for the printer and 100 for extra parts/filament, this machine gives good results.

One of the first models that I printed were four T-34 hulls. The quality could be better but I am totally new into 3D printing and I think the printer can do better when it is fully finished. I am planning to use the sparetracks of my Plastic Soldier Company T-34, some other bits/scratchbuilt things and the turrets I already painted for my Soviet TANKS!! squad.

I will also do this for for my US tank squadron, where 4 lonely Sherman turrets are waiting for their counterparts, but then I will have to print the tracks too.

The model is in 15mm/1:100 scale and needed about 60 to 70 minutes to print.

 This is the T-34 fresh from the printer. The support material is still there.

The T-34 hull without the support material. I tried to sand a little piece, but I personally think that sanding is absolutely necessary. The print is ok but I think I can get better results by recallibrating the machine and change some settings in the slicer software.

The printed hull with tracks and a turret compared to a Plastic soldier company T-34. They are almost the same size. Except for the printing lines there will be no big difference if these two tanks stand side by side on the battlefield.

Tomorrows project: Reinforcing my Soviet troops.

Faces Of War (3)

This time I would like to show you pictures from an (for me) unknown side of the family. Most of the pictures were not too interesting, these are the more interesting ones, but if you would to see the more boring ones leave a comment. I can not say who is shown on the pictures. And I can not say when or where these pictures were made.

The last picture is a postcard, maybe some reader can read the old german handwriting.

While I know that some of the pictures from my Grandfather include some shoots of himself, I do not know, if the soldiers on the picture somehow belong to my family.

The last picture shows the front and back of a postcard from these harsh times. Sent in 1941, I have no clue about the content, but I may try to find somone who can read the old German handwriting.

Dieses Werk ist lizenziert unter einer Creative Commons Namensnennung

 - Nicht kommerziell - Keine Bearbeitungen 4.0 International Lizenz. -

TANKS By Galeforce 9: Bad Pictures Of A Forgotten Battle

There is much work here at the moment plus one of my mates is moving and I was helping out.

But while I was browsing my pictures on my mobile, I found pictures of a game of Tanks I played with a friend.

I can not remember the whole battle, but I remember it was a nice game (that I lost). The attackers platoon consisted of 4 T34/76 and a SU76, while my defending tank platoon had 2 Sherman Firefly, a Comet and one Cromwell.

My mate Olli and I are still working on our "secret project" but this will take some weeks until we can present it here. Meanwhile I traded my old Playstation with some games for a better compressor with 2 good airguns, I can't wait for this to arrive.

TANKS By Galeforce 9: Optimizing The Gameplay

When we played the last time a game of "TANKS", we had 20+ tanks on the table. All these tanks needed a card for themselves and some of them had equipment cards too. And these cards needed a lot of space that we had to use an ironing board and a makeshift table to lay them out. Several times one of us hit the table/ironing and mixed up the cards.

Now we found a way to optimize the gameplay a little more. On the first picture you see a standard 9 pocket page for trading or gamecards. I cut one row of it and changed it into a little organizer for the tanks. On the second page you see an equipped Persing tank with lots of spaces for crews, equipment, damage and other cards, placed in the 6 pocket page that is unfortunately hard too see.

I think it is a great idea, there won't be chaos anymore, all tanks and their equipment are protected against dirt and "falling damage" and it will not take too much space for the cards.

15mm US Forces For Tanks By Galeforce 9

My next finished platoon for Tanks by GF9. Four M4 Shermans with changeable turrets to play them as 75mm or 76mm version and one lonely M26 Pershing. Two of the M4 76mm earned their first hitmarks for destroying enemy tanks and surviving the battle.

As basecolor I used Revell Aquacolor Khakibraun then the tanks got some drybrushing with Revell Aquacolor Helloliv. After a wash with a 50/50 mix of GW Nuln Oil and War-Ter® I added some decals from the sparebook  (1/72 and 1/144 scale). Each of the Sherman hulls got an individual sign (Cross,Flower,Square,Arrow) to tell them apart while gaming. Sadly, the callsign decals got a little silverish because I forgot to add a glossy coat on that spot before applying them. For sealing I used Revell Aquacolor Clear/Matt as usual.

They still have no box, because I think I will add some more troops in the near future but more no this topic in two weeks (at least). But when the American tank force is finish I will get an old ammo box to store them properly.

I still have to finish the commanders of the tanks.

While this tank platoon is ready for some action I am still struggling with the decals for my British tank force. These fraking Battlefront decals keep sticking on the paper no matter how long I keep them in water and if I get them from the paper they are so §&$"$! thin that they tear apart so easy.

Even several layers of clearcoat and decals solution don not fix this problem.

I tried the 15mm decals from the Plastic Soldier Company and it was nice to work with them, no problems while I applied them. But in the PSC decal set are not all of the decals I need.

The next step is to order a third set of decals, this time from Skytrex or Dom's Decals, I hope this will be the last British decals I have to order to get the tank markings I want.