3D Printed 1/72 Carden Lloyd Mk.VI Tankette

[CliffB]

Aware that I was on the lookout for 1/72 Carden Lloyd Mk. VI Tankette for my Chaco War collection, Sgt. Squarehead kindly pointed me in the direction of this 3D printed offering.

Whilst I was aware of 3D printing, I'd never actually bought a model so I thought I would give it a go. Here's what arrived.....

It's a beautiful little thing, made out of a translucent plastic, with very fine surface detail and is hollow. Also, it is tiny!

The Bolivian machines were of a slightly later design (although still Mk.VIs), so will require me to fabricate a new superstructure and to shorten the running gear. Not too much of a problem though.

Just thought this might be of interest to any other '3D virgins' amonst us .

Cheers

Cliff

[Kuro Nezumi]

That is one of the most adorable little models I have ever seen! I can't wait to see it painted!

[Mike]

Saw one of these the other day... shame they don't do 1:35 too

[CliffB]

Thanks Kuro and Mike.

Shapeways also do a number of obscure aircraft types that I've not seen kitted before. Scales tend to be small though (1/144 etc.). I'm not sure what the limitations are (if any), on producing larger scales from the same CAD designs?

Cliff

[Mike]

I think it'll be money Cliff, as commercial 3D printed stuff hasn't come down in price that much because of the time it takes to print the items, and we all know that time is money

[Rob G]

3D printing is costed according to the type of material, the volume of material in the product, the time it will take to print, the time it will take to clean the support matrix away and the physical size of it, as smaller products allow them to put more things on the platen to be printed at one go - if the print head is moving over the platen, it may as well be covering as much area as possible. The only limits to the finished size of an object is the size of the platen and how deep your wallet is!

If there's something you particularly want but it's in the wrong scale, send a message to the designer, and there's every chance he'll (she'll) be able to resize it for you and put it into the shop. The designers are people like us, and they want to sell their stuff - once it's designed, it's not that hard to resize it in software (within limits, depending on how well it was drawn) and submit the new plans. I've had one thing done by Shapeways (I should make a move and get that thing going one day) and I know that at least one other member here has products in there as well.

I can actually forsee a future where there are no model shops as such - you'll buy an e-template online, which will get you a one-off code to allow use of it from the company (or sole trader!) you want to do business with, then get it printed at your local 3D printshop. Or printshops may spring up that have access to many templates for many things, and you'll pay them direct. And no doubt there'll be pirates selling hacks to allow you to reuse your template at home or through dodgy online printers...

[Mike]

I think there's a few designers on here actually Rob - I think it's going to be interesting in time

I thought that it wasn't just a case of "blowing things up" due to wall-thicknesses and such, but maybe that's more of an issue with styrene kits than a one-piece 3D printed thingy

[Rob G]

Mike, within limits a simple blow up would work, but yes, for a big change it'd need a bit of rework. However, with a good outside model, the inside shouldn't be that big a deal (unless you're old and stupid like me, when it would entail a major effort.) And I'm sure that there are more designers on here than I've run across (reminds me, I must get those Bentley suspension parts ordered!)

I have to agree, it's going to be interesting over the next few years - the biggest drawback right now is the cost, but that will come down (I recall Fine Scale Modeler magazine printing a 35th compressor 15(?) years ago and the cost was gobsmacking) and we'll see all manner of corrections and conversions rolling in.

[kev67]

Looks really good, I wonder what type of printer they use