Boxer reconnaissance vehicle: CAD + scratchbuild

[GMK]

This is my second attempt at modelling this vehicle, my first effort may be found here:

 

 

Now that I’m a little bit more proficient with Fusion360, I’ve returned to the Boxer in its initial Australian ‘Block 1’ configuration, that is, fitted with a 30mm turret and intended to replace the ASLAV-25. 
 

Boxer CRV has started to be fielded by the Australian Army in 2021. Seen here pictured out field (credit: Australian Army):

 

 

Started with some basic shapes:

 

 

 

With a bit of work, turned those blocks into something a bit more involved. 
 

 

 

And an overall view. 
 

 

Thanks for looking. 

[GMK]

Have just started the transition from CAD to CAM. 

 

I design in Fusion360, slice the .stl file in Luban to create the gcode for the printer, then print. 

 

The rear of the drive module will take 269 hours - approximately eleven days - to print. 
 

 

And the first layer goes down:

 

 

Thanks for looking in. 

[GMK]

38 hours into the 269 hour print means that it’s time to see what the next component will look like, time & resources wise. 
 

The mission module!

 

 

This is the structure that’ll support the turret. This view is the component in the slicing software, oriented the way I want it. Slicing is the conversion from a basic object file - .stl - into manufacturing code for the printer, known as gcode. 
 

 

This tells us that the 3,253 layers will consume ~930 grams or 312 metres of filament, taking ~317 hours to complete. Brutal!

 

Thanks for checking in. 

[M3talpig]

On 28/12/2021 at 11:19, GMK said:

This tells us that the 3,253 layers will consume ~930 grams or 312 metres of filament, taking ~317 hours to complete. Brutal!

Thats 13 days give or take...wouldn't it be faster to just scratch build it...don't get me wrong i would want to use a new toy too but anything goes wrong during that 13 days...say a power cut or as is the want of tech it just throws a wobbly all that material and time is down the drain....... how much is 312 metres of filament money wise.....

 

oh and nice to see this sort of thing as i have wanted a 3D printer for a while but have no idea what's involved be tagging along ifin you don't mind 

[GMK]

1 hour ago, M3talpig said:

Thats 13 days give or take...wouldn't it be faster to just scratch build it...don't get me wrong i would want to use a new toy too but anything goes wrong during that 13 days...say a power cut or as is the want of tech it just throws a wobbly all that material and time is down the drain....... how much is 312 metres of filament money wise.....

That’s the question, isn’t it? With my time-poor lifestyle, this is a way to get some modelling done in the background. Effectively, I’m designing & building a limited-run kit of a

subject & scale that’s unlikely to ever eventuate. It can also be scaled as needed. A mate has used .stl files from my 1:16 Bushmaster CAD to print one in 1:25 scale for a truck model, for example. 

Funny you should mention wobblies. In this case, I made a poor decision on the orientation of the part on the print bed. I choose to prioritise post production treatment by inverting the part so that the surfaces that’d be covered by the mission module would be the ones that’d interface with the support structure. Simply put, the connection between the printed part & the printed support structure requires clean up, so I put it where it wouldn’t be seen. 
 

…but, the surface area of the part vs. the supports was way off, leading to this failure at the 54 hour mark.

 

Ah well, lesson learned. Don’t be lazy!
 

A lot of the time, I’m using a subject as an excuse to learn a new skill or tool, such as laser cutting or CNC milling. 
 

Price wise, 1kg of 1.75mm filament costs ~$25. I should really know the metres to mass price conversion, but I don’t! Call it $20. 

2 hours ago, M3talpig said:

oh and nice to see this sort of thing as i have wanted a 3D printer for a while but have no idea what's involved be tagging along ifin you don't mind 

 

Of course! This is a filament printer, not a resin printer, so it’s better suited to large structures without a lot of detail. 
 

With the failure of the rear of the drive module print, I took the opportunity to see whether combining the mission module & drive module rear was doable. 
 

 

On the 1:1 truck, the mission module is able to be swapped out. 
 

 

(image courtesy of RDA/Commonwealth)

 

To give options in future, the design mimicked the prototype. I train smashed them together for this print to reduce machine time & materials use. The overall design remains modular. 
 

 

 

This’ll be a longer single print, but shorter duration in overall time, plus about a 30-35% reduction in materials. Hopefully, a lot less risky!

 

cheers. 

[GMK]

Two more opportunities to demonstrate overcoming adversity! 
 

The current part requires ~900 grams of filament. I started the print with about 400 grams left of a 1kg roll on the machine, so rectifying a filament runout was always on the cards. 
 

Cunningly, I managed to switch the printer off. Cannot recommend. After switching it back on, the screen looked something like this;

 

 

Hitting ‘resume’, a moment later the filament on the machine ran out.

 

 

After conducting the immediate action to reload the filament, I took the opportunity to take a pic of the in-progress print. Here it is at 28%/87 hours in. 
 

 

This view shows the 2mm thick external walls as well as the 15% infill structure. 
 

Cheers!

[GMK]

While the printer does its thing in the background, preparation to transition this build from the virtual to actual world continues. 
 

First up is a building base. This is a recycled piece of MDF that will keep the build together until it’s complete. The nuts & bolts are M10, inserted from underneath. The remnants on the alignment bolts from my Bushmaster build are visible. That ruler is 30cm/1 foot in length. 
 

 

Also visible in this pic are the tyres, a draft wheel hub, the alignment peg (front left) for the front & rear half of the truck, as well as the commander’s SEOSS sight. The black cross sections are retrieved from the previous failed & cancelled prints. 
 

Thanks for looking. 

[GMK]

Cleaning up some of the design elements involved grouping some of the bodies. Grouping bodies makes turning views off and on much simpler. 
 

Here’s the suspension group as it stands. 
 

 

Viewed with the appliqué armour as applied to the underside of the hull/drive module.

 

 

Now with the basis of the drive module itself, sans the upper & glacis appliqué armour. 
 

 

It looks a bit different, hey?

 

Cheers.

[Bandsaw Steve]

Great subject! Was briefly looking at these as a possible scratchbuilding project once the PZH 2000 is done but… these have a lot of complex shapes. Probably won’t happen. 🤔

[GMK]

On 1/6/2022 at 2:44 PM, Bandsaw Steve said:

Great subject! Was briefly looking at these as a possible scratchbuilding project once the PZH 2000 is done but… these have a lot of complex shapes. Probably won’t happen. 🤔

It’s certainly pretty tricky. The Revell 1:35 kit was invaluable in clarifying some of the shapes. 
 

Rear hull print is 70% complete…with 260 hours elapsed!

 

 

Looking forward to finishing this part, tbh. Glad I upgraded the printer so it’s very quiet. 
 

Cheers. 

[Bandsaw Steve]

12 hours ago, GMK said:

It’s certainly pretty tricky. The Revell 1:35 kit was invaluable in clarifying some of the shapes. 
 

I’m pleased you have said that.
 

I have always previously followed the ‘rule’ that we should never use a model as a reference for another model. But on the PZH project I am more and more reverting to googling pictures of Meng’s 1/35 version to resolve uncertainty.  If I was to ever build another, I would buy the kit and use it as a supporting reference. In a sense a kit can be considered another set of plans.
 

 

[GMK]

On 1/9/2022 at 7:54 PM, Bandsaw Steve said:

I’m pleased you have said that.
 

I have always previously followed the ‘rule’ that we should never use a model as a reference for another model. But on the PZH project I am more and more reverting to googling pictures of Meng’s 1/35 version to resolve uncertainty.  If I was to ever build another, I would buy the kit and use it as a supporting reference. In a sense a kit can be considered another set of plans.
 

 

I understand that rule, but I apply it to paint finishes, stowage, that kind of thing. In the case of the Boxer, Revell licensed the design & name, so their interpretation is much more likely to steer me right. As always, I check reference pics to confirm finer details. This is important as there’s more than a few variants & iterations in service. 

[Bandsaw Steve]

Good point about the licensing - I had not thought of that angle.

 

 

 

[GMK]

Well, the back half of the truck is done. Took a while. 
 

 

The raw print looks like this. 

 

Up the right way & after some cleanup, it looks like this. 

 

None of the surfaces of part visible in this shot will be visible on the finished model, so don’t be too concerned about the surface finish. 
 

With a baby 1:87 scale version:

 

Well, the front end substrate is printing now. Estimated time to print is 11 days. 
 

Cheers. 

[GMK]

The front end isn’t small, either at 181mm x 115mm x 249mm/7.1” x  4.5” x 9.8 “.

 

 

In that orientation, there’ll be 3,111 layers that’ll consume 807 grams of filament.

 

Some of that mass will be “support material”, seen here in blue/purple. Support material is physically the same filament as the structure itself, but printed in a way that allows it to be removed upon completion. Functionally, it provides a surface for a structure to be printed that’s not “mid air”. 

 

 

Thanks again for stopping by. 

[GMK]

The front of the vehicle just hit 70% completion on the printer, just over three days to go. 
 

On the design front, the appliqué armour for the mission module is at the front of the queue. 
 

 

This view shows the locating lugs that also link the roof to the walls. 
 

 

When dropped into the Luban slicer, it looks like this.

 

 

Not sure about the orientation, tbh. Will have to give it some thought. When sliced to produce the manufacturing gcode, it spits out…

 

 

So, 133 hours of print time & 198 grams/66 metres of filament. 

It’ll look something like this on the truck itself. 
 

 

Thanks for looking in. 

[GMK]

Whilst adding some more of the placeholder surface detail on the appliqué armour, I realised I’d made a mistake with some of the panels. 

The interface between three of the appliqué panels has a dogleg. The erroneous parts are on the left, with the corrected bits on the right. 

 

 

That correction will help the finalisation of the edge details ahead of production. 
 

Here’s the design, less stowage, as it stands. 
 

 

 

Cheers. 

[GMK]

The front end has finished is 256 hour epic print. 
 

 

After a little cleanup, I plugged it into the back end. 
 

 

Other side, 1:87 baby next to it. Markings on the mat are 1” square. 
 

 

In 2016 I bought a CNC-milled styrene flat pack Boxer from Germany. It depicted a flat top (i.e. not turreted) Bundeswehr vehicle & was intended for R/C, using off-the-shelf suspension units etc. As such, some of the hull dimensions weren’t quite right. 
 

Here is my print alongside the CNC milled iteration. 
 

 

The design work continues, with an emphasis on surface detailing. 
 

 

 

Thanks for looking. 

[GMK]

Been working on surface detailing of the appliqué armour recently. 
 

 

This was made easier by indenting where the bosses for the armour were located. Then, a detailed boss was drawn up, followed by copying them into the previous locations. Simple, if a little tedious. 
 

The bosses are highlighted here in blue:

 

Once completed, these parts will be printed using a resin printer so they’re clean enough to use. 
 

 

Thanks for looking in. 

[GMK]

Had some issues producing a useful front end of the Boxer, due to bad design on my part, and some quality issues with some batches of filament. 
 

Each of the big parts take 10-12 days or so to print, with the hull comprising two parts. The evolving design/bad filament meant that two back ends & four front ends were printed in the end.
 

Here’s the collection of front hulls that show the different designs. 
 

Front view:

 

 

So, here we are. 
 

 

Each square on the cutting mat is 1” x 1”. 
 

 

Getting the basic hull done has taken a lot longer than anticipated, but has been a great learning activity. 

[GMK]

Now with automotive high-build primer. 
 

 

 

Now the real work begins!

[Bandsaw Steve]

Wow! That’s a lot of printing. 
 

Looking great though. 👍

[GMK]

On 3/22/2022 at 10:23 AM, Bandsaw Steve said:

Wow! That’s a lot of printing. 
 

Looking great though. 👍

Thanks Steve. It’s been a journey. 
 

Now, on to the turret. 
 

 

This is the crew protection module that’s at the centre of the Lance turret. The projection at the front left is for the gunner’s SEOSS sight. 
 

 

The turret race & plug will locate the turret. 
 

 

With the .stl file dumped into Luban, a slicing software, to generate gcode. 
 

Thanks for looking in. 

[GMK]

With the core of the turret printed, time to do a test print of the turret appliqué & stowage. These aren’t complete atm. The finished designs will require printing in resin due to the fine details. 
 

 

 

Dumped in the slicing software. 
 

 

64 hours, 11 minutes later, the raw print looks like this:

 

 

Test fit with the turret & gunner’s SEOSS sight:

 

 

‘tother side:

 

 

Looks about right from first impressions. 
 

cheers. 

[GMK]

Well, the turret test prints continue. 
 

 

Happy with the general shapes, but there’s a lot more to do, then texturing can commence. 
 

 

Compared to my 1:35 scratch built “RMA” turret. 
 

 

Test fit - but not pressed home - on the hull:

 

 

It’s a big truck! No doubt that as soon as I finish it, a kit of the turreted Bundeswehr Boxer will be released!