Leichter panzer Sd.Kfz 222, modelled and 3d-printed.
I got the idea at some point that I wanted to make a scene from the invasion of denmark in 1940. The so called Unternehmen Weserübung. It was a very short affair. The danish troops was vastly outnumbered and outgunned, but managed to do considerable damage to the invading germans. In the context of the war it was a very small engagement, hardly even a battle , but by danish standards it was still something.
I want to make and print some of the vehicles and troops involved in order to make a small diorama, and since the Sd.Kfz 222 has always been one of my favourites I decided to start with that.
I started off with finding some blueprints on the web and used these as background in the modelling window in blender. Usually you can get by with only these since most vehicles are fairly straight forward, but the 222 has alot of weird angles and it caused me some trouble to get them to match up .
The texturing was easy on the other hand. This isnt strictly necessary when you are going to print something because the colours are going to be lost anyway but since I was planning on making a few rendered images of it anyway I went ahead. I chose the camouflage scheme from the northafrican campaign since i really like desert camouflage and since the scheme used on the ones in denmark was a bit boring, just a dark greygreen.
When modelling for prints you need to be caraful with some things. all surfaces must be closed and every part must have a volume and a thickness . Further , you have to take printdirection intoaccount so i ended up taking the entire thing apart and laying it out as on a modelling sprue.
This of cause means that it requires a bit of assembly but I have always enjoyed building scalemodels so this is not so different.
finally , just for my own pleasure, I made a turntable animation of it with a disassembly to show of the undercarriage.
There is still lots of work to do on this. I made a preliminary print and apart from being a bit small (i went for around 1/54) which would theoretically fit with warhammer miniatures but I think I should go for something closer to 1/34 to make sure I get all the details perfect.
I still havent planned out the diorama or made any of the other vehicles or troops. It takes a long time to do these things and unfortunately I have limited time for it. But I will get there and I will be sure to post about it here on Steemit.
Thats all for now. Thanks for taking time to read this.
What printer did you use and is this model printed with PLA ?
Do you have a Thingiverse account or a place where you share your models for download ?
Nice model and great and amazing work you did on it !
Hi techtek. thanks for the follow and upvote. I use an ultimaker 2 its a really nice printer with very nice details. This modle is printed in the original ultimaker pla. but it works fine with noname pla as well. I have a spool of abs but havent started using it yet. It should work fine on an ultimaker though. I dont have anywhere to share my models just yet. I am building a website for myself and might put them up there, never really got around to sharing on thingiverse. I dont know why. I might try it though.
Ultimakers are very good machines but also expansive, i have worked with them as well and liked it a lot.
For home use i prefer to use a much cheaper Chinese model (Micromake/kossel) and get good results from it as wel.
It does need calibration and maintenance from time to time. recently the nozzle didn't want to let trough filament which resulted in a skipping extruder motor.
(Tip to fix this issue: i didn't know this trick but its very useful and can safe money, frustration, and time)
To fix and clean out the nozzle, unscrew the nozzle and put it in acetone for around 12 hours, and clean it with a thin metal wire, this fixed the clogged nozzle issue.
Did you have any problems with the Ultimaker2?
BTW i love dioramas and 3d printing and looking forward to the next update on your "Unternehmen Weserübung Diorama"
Yes I have had some problems with it ... or with the filament, not sure whos fault it is. sometimes the filaments breaks (i think its because its to dry) and sometimes the feeder skips in the beginning of a print. I fixed this by upping the temp about 5 degrees celsius. usually i can set it back down after a couple of layers but I am not always close by for the entire print. In these cases i just let the temp be higher for the entire print. hasnt done anything bad for the results yet. otherwise its a very solid machine, but as you say expensive.
very hard work but unique........I love it ..... its need a lot of time talent and hard-work to make this model.....
thanks
welcome......
Welcome @evilhippie .....
Nice post
thanks
nice details
thanks
Hey guys! Would you mind taking a look at my blog? And maybe tell me what you think about it.
Thank you :)
Beautiful. want to see the next stage
wow
I have a Prusa i3 that has to be calibrated everytime I need to use it and it is stored since my last move... I think I never achieved that quality level. This kind of projects make me want to start using it again
Hi @metabs
Try Facebook groups and search Thingiverse goups for Pursa i3 there should be updated settings for your machine. (the new settings should give you very good results, also tighten everything check the bolts screws and nuts)
And you could also look into new Slicer software. (Cura is not that good compared to Simplify3D)
Thanks for the recommendation. I learnt everything I know from forum based communities and I share your view that it is probably the best way to keep the printer running properly and continue learning