19JUN16 Father's Day and a 3D Game Changer

Happy Father's Day gentlemen!

Hopefully your days featured at least one good board or wargame with the kids!  Mine was Star Wars Clone Wars edition Risk with my eldest.  A few months back, we played Star Wars FUBAR.  He's getting into games.  Obviously, he enjoys the miniatures and terrain more than the games...  But hey, he's 10.  I really have to watch out for my middle son though, he's a shark at Pente and Battleship...

Last post I mentioned making 3D printed bases for my 15mm miniatures.  I'm proud to state I carried out that decision and published my first Thing on Thingiverse.  In order to use my penny based 15mm infantry in Flames of Wars based games, I developed a quick and dirty 3mm x 50mm x 65mm Penny base tray for 15mm wargames (yup, its a long, but unique title) using Design Spark Mechanical from Allied Electronics and Space Claim.  I highly recommend this free program for aspiring mechanical designers and those experimenting with 3D printing at home.  It is an easy parametric modeler to use, especially if you have SketchUp experience.  I did not align the holes or anything, so for those who are type A about how lined up their troops on a base are, these will drive you nuts.  Fine, go download the native file format on Thingiverse and fix it.  In fact, I made these bases public domain, use and abuse.  All I ask is that you paint them up real nice and take pictures with your miniatures on them and post them were I can find them!

15mm trays for 6 miniatures.

I also indulged in building some bases for one of my favorite Games Workshop rule sets, their Lord of the Rings based War of the Ring.  Sadly, this game is no longer published by GW, but hey, I enjoyed the rules set offering and the miniatures are top notch.  Too bad GW has massive cranial rectal inversion disorder at the moment.  Anyway, for anyone who has the miniatures, or ones similar that need such bases, here you go:  WotR Infantry & Cavalry Company Bases.  With the WotR bases, I used Solidworks and lined everything up pretty square.  I also left the SLDPT files there for editing.  Use, abuse, have fun.  Just post pictures and let me know!

WotR Infantry and Cavalry Company Bases 

No, my rant about game changing technology...  3D printers are awesome for gamers.  I think miniature gamers especially should own them.  You can just about print your army these days if you have the right model files.  If you are a 3D CAD guy who can sculpt digitally, your print resolution and the sky are the only limits.  My FDM Lulzbot Taz 5 printer only lets me get down to about .1mm (100 micron) resolution, and has thus far been unsuited to small figures.  However, vehicles, bases, and other game terrain are not limited.  Hopefully I can get some more stuff out there.  

12JUN16 Team Yankee Soviet Afgantsy Weapons

I am adding to my 15mm Soviet equipped force, this time infantry heavy weapons using Battlefront Miniatures Team Yankee miniatures this time.  I picked up some Afgantsy Weapons teams for $24 (US) at my local game shop, Dragons Lair Comics.

This weapons team gets me 9 AGS-17 (30mm automatic grenade launcher, similar to the US MK. 19 40mm launcher), and 9 AT-4 anti-tank missile launchers, along with associated assistant gunners and the like.

Compared to my Khurasan Soviet motorized infantry, the details are very similar, and the figures about the same height.  I don't think there will be too much difference painted up.  I'll likely mount them on pennies like the Khurasan miniatures, and then start building bases that will allow me to mount them for Team Yankee/Flames of War play.  What, a 3D printing project?  Sure, why not.  Perfect use for that machine.  What a shame...  I have to design something cool for my miniatures.

Cons of the Battlefront miniatures largely lie in the amount cleanup required.  Mold lines and sprue exist everywhere on these, such are the requirements of casting with soft metals!  Bent barrels and other features don't bother me in the least, after all 1:100 scale AK's and antennas will bend no matter what you do to protect the models!  I'm pleased with the level of detail.

15mm T-55 project

So, as I am about to embark upon making some Battlefront Miniatures Flames of War Arab-Israeli war T-55's...  a thought occurred to me.  Why not make them upgraded T-55AMV's of my fictional Red Equipped Nation (Upper or Lower Slobobia until I come up with a better name, as the US Army already uses Krasnovia at NTC for the fictitious name of the OPFOR).  A quick Internet search for images led me to this gem in 1:35



The Modelling News: In-Boxed: Takom's 35th scale T-55 AMV Russian Medium Tank



Wow, I'm almost ready to plunk down the money and get it in 1:35 as well.  It is an awesome kit!



In the mean time, I have Stackpole Books "Cold War Armored Fighting Vehicles" handy and have reduced the 1:72nd Scale drawing of the T-55AM down 72% to create a 1:100/15mm scale drawing of the tank for my project.  Check out the scale down guide from Fine Scale Modeler for other scale options.