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

Hold Until Relieved Board 2

The second photodump. on this board the more central of the two bridges serves as the objective.

~Bob

Hold Until Relieved Board 1

Bit of a photodump. I have been building up a fair amount or terrain over the course of Poole Gaming Society's Bolt action starter tournament. Up until now I have been building it as a contiguous 8'x4' board split into two or three sections dependant on the number of players and the points being used. For the finale tomorrow night I know the mission, the number of players and I know the points values: 2 games of hold until relived at 1000pts. So I have bent every effort to create two 4'x4' boards with a clear central objective for each. Admittedly 4'x4' is on the small size for 1000 points, but it still works

This first board is the simpler of the two. A nearly central cross road objective with a overlooking house, two more houses and two wooded area.

I am still in the process of painting up the buildings, in my initial painting I regrettably forgot to texture the walls. I will post the other board later tonight or tomorrow morning.

~Bob

Desert Vichy (Part 2): Senegalese Tirailleurs Review

Since I have been casting French Artillery I have often been asked where to find French crew, and because I do this fairly well I also get asked where to buy other hard to find French troops. Senegalese Tirailleurs are an excellent unit in Bolt Action, one of a tiny number of Regular units with the Tough Fighters Special rule. They were one of the better regarded French colonial troops, with their trademark Coupe-Coupe machete and Fez.

Their are no models for them, at least not for WW2. When hunting for French models remember that the uniform changes very little between the World Wars, just paint them Khaki green instead of horizon blue. The ones below come from Gripping Beast's Woodbine Design range.

Senegalese Section Pack 

Gripping Beast do a rage 10 man section packs, generic WWI French bodies in campaign dress with separate head options. In addition to the Senegalese heads I selected they have six other options, many of which are relatively suitable for WWII. I had to cut down the rather chunky bases on the Senegalese for them to fit on the 20mm bases I use .

 

 Senegalese with Coupe-coupe

To add a bit more character to units they also do packs containing four one-piece Senegalese, one pack with rifles and sheathed coupe-coupe, the other pack has them waiving their blades. Half are wearing campaign greatcoats, half in garrison dress.

 Range Comparison

There is a bit of a scale difference within the gripping beasts range. The one piece models are somewhat chubbier than their two-piece counterparts. Not enough to make a difference from more than a foot distance, but noticeable close up.
 

Warlord Games - Gripping Beast - Perry Miniatures

Warlord's French look surprisingly slight in this image. In general the three ranges are close enough in scale to serve in the same army, although I would hesitate in placing them in the same unit. The webbing on the French troops appears to change between the wars, packs remain in the mainly the same places with significant stylistic differences, the cut of the coat is practically identical.

Overall the Gripping Beast Tirailleurs fill and important place in any French player's army. The models had  minimal flash which was easily removed, the two-part models fitted together nicely with a secure join. The thick, wide and chunky integral base is a minor nuisance given the overall quality.

My Score 4/5

For the sake of completeness I must add that there is another company that does two part WWI French in the same vein, The Forgotten & Glorious Company of Art, regrettably their Senegalese are somewhat caricatured (British understatement - Incredibly Racist).

~ Bob

Making Hedges

The Hexboards I made a while back can be changed about quite a bit to make for varied terrain, but the sad fact is that there are a limited number combinations giving the need to link up hill, road and river sections. Also I have far to many hard cover buildings and not enough soft cover trees and hedges. To this end I have started making additional forest tiles and scatter terrain hedges. My Hedges are fairly cheap to make.

Materials

• Sponge Scourers
• BBQ Skewers
• MDF Scraps
• Sand
• PVA
• Clump Foliage

First cut and bevel the base for the hedges, these are roughly 8"x1", though half that length will do for shorter hedges. Holes are drilled every inch or so, just wide enough for the skewers.

Next the BBQ Skewers are cut into 1" lengths and sharpened at one end using a pencil sharpener. They are then glued into the holes with PVA.

The Sponge scourers are cut into 1" wide sections, the scourers tend to 4" long. They are roughed up with a pair of scissors.

 The base has sand glued to it and then painted up.

The sponge sections are rolled in green paint, I use an ice cream tub, a rubber glove and German Camo Dark Green.

Once dry the sponges are rolled in PVA and clump foliage and left in a airing cupboard for at least 24 hours. Flock is added to the bases, then the sponges are pinned down onto the skewer spikes.

All ready for gaming

~ Bob