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Friday, September 17, 2021

Normandy Navy

I have continued to experiment with the 3d printer over the past few months.  

Test prints of the various Landing Craft needed

I recently started planning to put on a set of large games around the Normandy Landings for June 2024.  I have a large number of the wonderful Leva (and more recently LegionsIVHire) bunkers and defensive positions.  But as I am doing this in 1/300 scale I have the opportunity to have a large number of landing craft of various types so that the seascape truly looks like "wall to wall ships" as various German reports stated on the morning.

So I have acquired various STL files for these craft and have been resizing and doing test prints.  This will allow me to realise a long held dream - many of these variants are not commercialy available in resin or lead.  As well the cost of those that are available range from 5-15 pounds.  So to put a lot of them on the table would have involved a significiant investment.  

At the moment they are simply undercoated.  I have some more work to do to tune the file and printer to get rid of some of the step marks - but otherwise I am delighted.   
LCT Mk3 and Gun and Flak versions
Plain LCT Mk4 and Gun, Flak and Rocket versions
LCT Mk5

LCI(L) - Landing Craft Infantry (Large)

LCI(S) - Landing Craft Infantry (Small)

A (small) 3d test printed of a gun for the Flak versions


8 comments:

  1. They look great Richard! A fleet of them will look spectacular!

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    1. Thanks John. There will be a lot - 8 of the rockets versions alone for instance.

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  2. That ‘s an endeavor! Which printer do you use?

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    1. Thanks. It is a lot of printing but once I have set it off I can come back in 4 or 5 hours to a finished boat and set the next one the way. I am using an Ender 5 Pro ..... but seriously considering a resin one for the Normandy specific buildings that I have to print. I will do a post soon of the ones that I have printed in FDM - they are OK.

      Richard

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  3. A fantastic project mate! Looking forward to the end goal, table and everything!

    cheers
    Matt

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    1. You'll have to be patient Matt. The 1813s are the focus at the moment and I still have a lot to do for the Pavia project. I reckon I can get this in between for June 2024 (and maybe Market Garden for September 2024 if I am on a roll)

      Richard

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  4. I have to wonder how long some of those prints take? I know on my FDM printer a simple 15mm building printed at high quality (0.2mm nozzle) can run to 30+ hours.

    But they look the business and it's great to have your next project already lined up.

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    1. Thanks Anthony.

      I am using a .2mm nozzle with .12mm line height for the 1/300th stuff. The LCT Mk3 & Mk4 takes just on 5 hours. The LCT 5 was around 3 hours with the Rocket version being a bit longer then the 5 hours.

      Richard

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