"M106 Mortar carrier 12mm Artistic Liberties" Topic

The great thing about sponsering a model is you get the CAD model to play with. So armed with my new found skills I decided I wanted an M106 mortar carrier. I wanted the base plate and tripod on the outside. Trouble is I cannot get all the webs on the base plate or even the number of radial "arms on it". I took the "one, two, some, lots" approach where I put only 8 arms and only the outside ring on the external baseplate. To me this is much better than not putting the base plate on at all. What is your opinion? Note I work on a Replicator 2 printer and it has the same detail size limits as Shipyards, so higher detail in another way is not an option as its a Wargames model so extra work is not acceptable.

At that scale, how many people would notice if you didn't say anything? If it looks good, go with what you have.

Sounds okay to me, conceptually, though I'd want to see it.

Would love to see some M113s in this scale, as well as the M106, and both with smoke dischargers on their front for the Bundeswehr.

Mako,
Post a pictuture of what you mean. It may be possible. Look at the shipyards model as we had it made

link

It may be possible to draw new dischargers this diameter (min size possible)in a straight array. They may be a bit oversize so you may not get quite as many.

How many would you want?

1/144 scale M113 by Dragon

link

Piccolo Model Factory (Kamide koro koro) | 1/144 M113A2 Iraq version #80

radjapan.ocnk.net/product/212

12mm 1/144 Minifigs. These match with Shipyards stuff.

link

Lots of US M113's

Not sure, but at least a platoon's worth (4 vehicles), plus perhaps a few more, for other things, e.g. 1 x M-577, 2 x M-106, etc.

A string of 8, aligned for the front of the APCs would be good, if you can produce them with a little splay, like in real life, so each is pointing in a slightly different direction.

Sets of 4 would also be useful for the turrets of German M48 tanks.

I didn't realize there was a M113 platoon on Shapeways. The pic looks pretty good.

How is the finish on the smooth sides of the vehicle, and the front glacis, when they're printed out?

I don't like the later variant of the Dragon M113. I need M113s, and/or M113A1s. Even the A2 variant is a bit late for my needs.

The $20 USD+ pricing on the resin tanks and APCs from Japan, and China are non-starters, for wargaming, since I might as well play with large scale models at that pricing (even the pre-painted ones).

In my book, to be viable, they 12mm stuff needs to be about $7.00 USD, or less, to be a realistic option, with all the nice 15mm stuff available at that price point.

Mako there is an M-577 on shapeways in the Shipyards section. The surface finish is not polished like injection moulding it's may and very slightly rough. Painted with Tamia paints it is not disernably at wargaming ranges.

I will be a couple of weeks before I can find time to look at the changes. At the minute is all go fo a show at Newark in March and we like to give visitors a bit of something diffrent. This time its a convoy of mainly 3D printed vehicals fom a home printer.

Regarding price. 3D printing is still not the cheap option. We tend to Sponsor stuff if we can't get it cheaper elsewhere. If we can buy it pre-painted in plastic Dragon etc, even we think its better. The home printer is fine for us but it would not suit moidellers as it does have a noticeable surface texture, At 4 ft the texture is invisible so its no issue if you are interested in the game as it still looks good at that range and you are working too hard to . Very cheap material but too slow for commecila use.

You don't need to modify the vehicle, just make them as an add-on, which can be glued in place.

Selling them separately might make sense for some customers.

Also, I think they'd be a great, small product edition for 15mm scale vehicles too, if you sold them in groups of a dozen or so, of each type, since they are small, and many 15mm scale vehicles could use them, e.g. Bundeswehr M48s (different layout of course, of four on each side of the turret), M113s, M577s, Jagdpanzer Kanones and Raketes, possibly the Jaguar 1 and 2, etc., also.

I'd love to see the M60A1 and Chieftian V tanks produced too, since the only ones I've seen sell on eBay for $36 USD, for ONE 1/144th scale vehicle, which is crazy.

Of course, perhaps Minifigs sells them too, but I'm not sure about that.