15mm Chieftain - 3D Printing - Part One

I first started printing 15mm Modern vehicles for Team Yankee some 2 years ago! https://timstanks.blogspot.com/2018/02/3d-printed-15mm-fv432-team-yankee.html

My initial attempts were of FV432 APC's and Chieftains that I'd found on line in Thingiverse  designed by Steve Lava (lava808).

They were sipmle models but served the purpose, looking just fine on the tabletop, but not perhaps surviving close-up inspection.

Needless to say, I became distracted and failed to complete printing the full army......

....now I've been saved by my dear internet friend, Yuri. He has just completed his latest .stl file of the Cold-War Chieftain - in both it's standard form and the later "Stillbrew" up-armoured version.

This model is in a completely different league to my previous attempt and has fantastic detail. It is also a multi-part kit (the track runs & bazooka plates are seperate to the hull, and there is a choice of open or closed commander cupola) that make printing easier, so less time is wasted removing support material and cleaning up.

I printed these examples out on my rather basic Wanhao Duplicator i3 Mini, which does not have a heated bed giving me regular adhesion problems.

To try and guarantee adhesion I've come to a conclusion that I first clean the bed with Meths, then attach Red, Hi-Tack masking tape, followed by double sided tape!

The first attempt was an abject failure. My dear wife has just bought me a new laptop, and I downloaded the latest version of Cura (4.3 I think). I thought I'd try it out with my new Chieftain file and didn't notice that the newer software defaults to raft on and support off!

Needless to say, printing an unsupported tank model was destined to fail and you can see the outcome in the phote below.

For my second attempt I opted to print the hull and tracks seperate to the turret and cupola. The Mini has a very small print area and over-filling it just leads to parts starting to lift and warp.

Hull parts with support material still attached

I printed two hulls seperately (around 5.5 hours each) and the two turrets + cupolas afterwards (around 4 hours for the two)

Hull assembled and gaps filled

The only support material to clean off was below the hull and turret which was quick and easy to accomplish.

Though being naturally clumsy, I managed to break off both gun barrels in the process. These were easily re-attached with super-glue. I use a scalpel to remove the odd little bits of stringing etc. to clean up the model as much as possible.

Then it was just a case of super-gluing the track units on, a little filling to hide the join, a bit of work to open up the turret hole to allow free movement and were were there.

The new Chieftain with my old model in the background.

I think these models are superb. The work Yuri has put into the 3D masters is fantastic and I can only imagine how good they'd look printed in one of the new resin printers.

I cannot recommend them enough and I only hope they don't embaress my old versions too much, otherwise I'll have to replace them!!

Painted images to follow in Part Two......