The final variants for the original tanks and a shipping update:

L-62

 As you may have seen a number of 'part ready' backers have received their first shipment (though not of the new designs), and most seem pretty happy with the vehicles. The questions I see asked in response are often variations on 'when will I be receiving mine?'
The November 'Part Ready' shipping wave did not go entirely to plan. Most was sent out before the end of November, though some got held up until early December. Large scale production and finishing up the backer kit both presented a fair number of challenges.

Stretch goals

If you have contacted me recently and have not had a reply, I'll get back to you soon. I have been somewhat overloaded by the success Hungarian tanks Kickstarter, all the preplanned stretch goals were reached in the first 48 hours.

The current set set of stretch goals are aimed at Hungarian prototypes, but after that I am adding in some items for those not interested in Hungarians.

The Hungarian Kickstarter is now Live!

Coming Next Week

The Hungarian Kickstarter will start next week, so here is a little preview:

A big thanks to Bryan Cook for sorting me out with such excellent graphics

More French Stuff

Berliet VUDB

A couple of new items and a Release schedule

 I have been asked to give a full list of what I produce and a list of planned releases. There are a couple of items that have been released very recently and a couple of items due for release within the next two weeks. I shall start with images of items recently released.

Lorraine 37/38L (without trailer)

New Products

I have had the masters waiting to be moulded up for a while, but I have finally got on top of things. I shall start with the largest and coolest item.

The Big Update

Two months and quite a bit has been going on. I'll start by updating you with what is already done and available. All the items I have been casting that are already available to buy, I've sold quite a lot since the end of January so many out there will already be familiar with what I have produced so far. Let's start with the artillery:

Canon de 105 mle 1913 Schneider - French Medium Howitzer

 

Designed by the French Schneider arms manufacturer during the Great War, this gun was widely sold between the wars to many European Nations. After the fall of France the Germans used captured guns under the designation 10.5 cm K 331(f), with many being used to equip the Atlantic wall emplacements.

Laffly S20TL Master

Second in the Box of masters was the Laffly S20TL French truck. A rather iconic vehicle because of its interesting wheel arrangement, the truck's six road wheels are supplemented with four smaller wheels that prevent grounding and ditching.

Lots of components for this one.

The main hull has integral seating head lamps and wheel arches to reduce the component count. I sometimes wish I had left the rear compartment seating separate to facilitate conversion to the varient that carried the 25mm antitank gun portee.

The chassis had to b printed separately to make it easier to cast. The axles are somewhat slender, and future projects will improve upon this design.

The assemble slots together rather well at this early stage.

I have printed two version of the windscreen. The uppermost is stronger and easier to cast in resin, the lower most would require white-metal casting, but looks a bit better.

The top driving wheel sprue is almost identical in design to the AMD 80 wheels, while the lower set are the tiny anti-grounding wheels.


The first half of the AMD 80AM moulds are in the pot, but the new rubber I am using takes a week to set.

~ Bob

Laffly 80AM master

So a box arrived this morning with a shed load of nylon masters. The most important one to me is the Laffly AMD 80 AM, the first piece of CAD design I created when I discovered 3D printing.

The design was started over 3 months ago, but teething problems cursed it. As the first design it was over detailed and difficult to troubleshoot even before I started looking for someone capable of printing it.

 

The wheels where often used as the test piece to see what level of detail could be printed, as such they have been vastly simplified from the earlier versions. There are two 'front wheel' on this sprue, both of which have one third cut away to slot on the front axle. The others are for the rear axle, with a spare wheel for stowage.

The main hull is currently hollow, which will be filled before casting to avoid damage.

The front axle has to support the mudguards, so the wheel are cut away. the rear mudguard have an interior that hugs the tyres for a sturdier model.

Fiddly bits sprues with HMG, Hatch and MMG. It will be a miracle if I can cast it successfully.

Turret front and back with locating lugs for the HMG/MMG


As I am currently experiencing difficulty casting the howitzers, this could prove a challenge. Moulding begins this weekend, so hopefully three weeks until I start a production run.

~ Bob

Howitzers...

The first two have CAD rendered images only. They have been printed, but assembly requires cutting away the shield locating lug used on the last two.

Type 4 15 cm Howitzer Japanese Heavy  Howitzer

Canon de 105 mle 1913 Schneider Medium Howitzer with French gun shield

Cannone da 105/28 modello 1913 Medium Howitzer with Italian gun shield

 

Canon de 155 C modèle 1917 Schneider French Heavy Howitzer

The chassis and gun barrel of the last three gun were all produced by the French Schneider company, but widely exported and used throughout WW1 and WW2. The first gun is the aberrant, I have used the same chassis, wheels and recoil spade from the other guns on a Japanese artillery piece that was independantly designed and produced. It looks close enough and there is a lack of Japanese WW2 field artillery in 28mm scale.

These are now all in the moulding process, annoyingly my new Silicone requires a week to set before casting. This little jumble is the stuff from my last post that has just been sent off to the printer:

 

 ~Bob

Laffly AMD 80 armoured car and S20TL Truck

A lot has been going on. The French howitzer I showed in September sold so well that the moulds broke, since I am still receiving requests for them I plan to do a new set of moulds. I have been learning to use CAD and 3D printing to improve the detail of my scratch modelling and among other items I have completely redone the French Howitzers in CAD.

The first piece of CAD I showed off back in October, a Laffly AMD 80AM armoured car. I have since had to rework the design as the tyre tread and rivet were far too detailed for the scale.

Following that I worked on a Laffly S20TL truck, so that my French could move about more efficiently. The Wheels in these pictures are copies of the over detailed ones on the original AMD80, I have since replaced them with the updated printer friendly versions seen above

These will be sent for printing this afternoon, and I shall put up another blog post in a few hours to show what has been happening with the Howitzers.

~ Bob