Category: Armor

New Project Time?

Imperial German Navy, WWI Torpedo Boat: V69
German Navy, WW2 Schnellboot
US Navey, WWI Destroyer: USS Clemson
Japanese Navy,WW2 Battleship, IJN Yamato
Japanese Navy, WWi & WW2 Destroyer, IJN Minikaze
US Army, M26 Pershing Heavy Tank
German WW2 King Tiger Tank
US Navy, 40mm Quad Botors AA Mount
Collection of WW2 Japanese Air Force planes

I still have the Revell USS Arizona WWI conversion project to finish, it’s been more challenging than expected but once she’s done, I’ve a choice to make.

Over the last few years, mostly while printing, building and recovering from Charles Martel, I’ve kept busy in Blender revisiting some of my earlier, favorite designs, rebuilding them from the ground up to be reprinted on my Elegoo Saturn. This allowed/required me to increase their detail levels to take advantage of the Saturn’s capabilities and also because I’ll be printing some of them in a larger scale. During this time I also completed a couple totally new designs, IJN Yamato and a German Schnellboot, and last and yes least, there’s my tiny Japanese WWII plane collection in 1/450 scale, intended to augment some of my “finished” Japanese ships. They’re fairly simple and were fun Blender designs to create, only taking a day or so each.
I’m almost ready to dive in, but which to start?
Decisions, decisions!

My m26 Pershing is complete!

WW2 US Pershing Heavy Tank
WW2 US Pershing Heavy Tank
WW2 US Pershing Heavy Tank
WW2 US Pershing Heavy Tank

Posted: Jan 1, 2021.
Happy New Year everybody!
My WW2 US m26 Pershing heavy tank project is complete!
I’m very happy with the Blender design and my Creality Ender 3 Pro & LD-002r 3D printers did a great job rendering the parts for this project. Assembly and painting went well and tricking her out and weathering her was a blast.

I’m totally remembering why my 15 year old self loved building armor 🙂

Check out the m26 Pershing project page for all details and pictures.

US Pershing Heavy Tank, Assembled and Primed

WW2 US Pershing Heavy Tank primed
WW2 US Pershing Heavy Tank primed
WW2 US Pershing Heavy Tank primed
WW2 US Pershing Heavy Tank primed
WW2 US Pershing Heavy Tank assembled
WW2 US Pershing Heavy Tank assembled

Posted: 12/23/2020
The hard parts are done, now my favorite aspect of model building starts, the finish painting and weathering.

If I ever make this model again I’ll definitely make some design changes. shown is my third turret design and I’m still not 100% happy with it. Also missed a flaring out of the tread covers on the rear insides. The treads and wheels were a pain to assemble and I wasn’t able to pull off functional treads as I had hoped, ended up gluing them all together, oh well, in a larger scale it would have worked!

All in all though, I like the looks of her so far.

Update: 1/1/2021
My m26 Pershing is now complete, visit the new project page for more details and the finished model pictures.

M26 Pershing Project, 3D printed parts using Creality Ender 3 Pro and LD-002r printers

WW2 US Pershing Heavy Tank model 3D printed parts
WW2 US Pershing Heavy Tank model 3D printed parts
WW2 US Pershing Heavy Tank model 3D printed parts
WW2 US Pershing Heavy Tank model 3D printed parts
WW2 US Pershing Heavy Tank model 3D printed parts
WW2 US Pershing Heavy Tank model 3D printed parts
WW2 US Pershing Heavy Tank model 3D printed parts
WW2 US Pershing Heavy Tank model 3D printed parts
WW2 US Pershing Heavy Tank model 3D printed parts
WW2 US Pershing Heavy Tank model 3D printed parts

Posted: 12/21/2020
Printing for this project went smoothly, even though the LD-002r bits were printed in my unheated shed with temps in the mid to upper 30s. The turret shown is my 3rd printed – due to poor designs on my part and no fault of the printer. The first just looked too fat and the second one’s rear extension was all wrong. As I mentioned in an earlier post much of the hull assembly is already done so, initial build pictures may be up before Christmas.

Update: 1/1/2021
My m26 Pershing is now complete, visit the new project page for more details and the finished model pictures.

Blender M26 Pershing

WW2 US Pershing Heavy Tank blender design
WW2 US Pershing Heavy Tank blender design
WW2 US Pershing Heavy Tank blender design

Posted: 12/19/2020
I’ve been working on my M26 Perching design sporadically since I finished the King Tiger. Every time I thought I was done I’d find a picture online that told me I wasn’t. This incarnation, while nowhere near perfect, I feel I can live with. I find designs in armor scales need to be more precise than those of ships. Small errors and intentional design simplifications are hardly noticeable in 1/450 scale but seem glaringly obvious in 1/35.

Most of the parts are now printed. As with my latest ship models I used both my Ender 3 Pro and LD-002r printers on this project. With winter here to stay, I won’t be using the LD-002r again till it warms up. Much to my surprise, I was able to keep on printing with it out in the tool shed, while outside temps were only in the upper 30’s. So if you have a garage (and a sensitive spouse) you’ll probably still be able to print year round – even if you live up north.

Much of the assembly is also complete, so more posts are sure to come.

Update: 1/1/2021
My m26 Pershing is now complete, visit the new project page for more details and the finished model pictures.