More monkeying around with my 3d printer

 

 

a Curtiss A-12 fresh off the printer on the left, supports removed and a coat of paint to the right

       I have been slowly building a collection of 1930's air forces to wargame with. Out of old habit I selected 1/72 scale for my collection (this was back in the days before 3d printing and the internet). In this process I came to realize that there were a LOT of designs that were not available in 1/72 scale and  a good many there were available were very expensive limited-edition kits. Not having the money to buy, or the time to build, dozens of high-fidelity scale models I figured that I should give the 3d printing world a try. 

        To my surprise and delight I founds that there were dozens of generous souls out there who were creating and giving away STL files of aircraft (and tanks and ships, etc etc). Taking advantage of this kindness I promptly downloaded  some files and scaled them to 1/72 and fed them to my handy Bambu Mini. After a couple of hilarious misprints (always add the supports!) I managed to print a couple of  good looking models. These cost me about 60 cents worth of filament and a few hours print time. Cleaning up the prints takes less time than building a scale model so its a win regarding my time. 

 

inadequate supports created this Cuthulu-esque looking thing

 

I found this file of a Curtiss A-12 Shrike scaled at 1/100 and took a stab at scaling it up to 1/72

not perfect but the scale model runs over fifty bucks and this is less than a buck!

 

 

I did the same with this file of a P-36

by changing the orientation of the print to nose-down produced a much smoother print

the painted model is a 1/72 scale from Revell

       On top of the cost savings the 3d printed models are far tougher than scale models. This is going to make a huge difference in the speed that I expand my airfleets (and save me piles of cash).