The Cromwell is a kit from PSC, the Challenger and Comet are both 3d prints. The 17pdr and 77mm gun barrels are a bit chonky (for the sake of printing reliability), but they'll do me for the tabletop.
I'm still a bit in awe at the possibilities opened up by 3d printing, even with my relatively crude FDM prints. Kit-bashing together a Challenger in 1:100 scale would have been a pretty hefty job back in the day, when 15mm WWII gaming was getting off the ground.
Next day:
In the early 1950s, the up and coming tank in the British army was the Centurion 3. However, the supply of 20 pounder guns far outstripped the production of Centurions, which were coming along rather more slowly than had been hoped.
There was, however, a plentiful supply of Cromwell VII available. Their guns were clearly inadequate against the current crop of Soviet tanks, so they were given 20 pounders in a relatively lightly armoured turret, to be used as a stopgap until the Centurion 3 arrived in numbers.
It was called the Charioteer. It didn't last long in British service, but it was sold on around the world, especially the Middle East, and it was still in service there until 1980.
I printed this one mainly because it was there, and it overlaps with the Comet as an early Cold War tank.
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| PSC 15mm plastic kit on the left, the rest are 3d printed |
Later still:
Because they were rather more common than the Comets in 1945, I did a bunch of 15mm Cromwells (and there's that Challenger on the right for a bit of 17pdr punch).
The one to the left of the photo is a PSC kit, the rest are all 3d printed.
I've discovered that Vallejo's US Olive Green surface primer is as close as makes no never mind to their Russian Uniform, which is my base colour of choice for later-war British kit. That's handy, because it cuts out a whole painting step; I can start tittivating straight up from the primer coat.
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| Fairly terrible print |
I also added a Firefly to the mix, because why not?
But alas, that print is pretty terrible. I'll have to replace that gun at the very least, and it will need quite a bit of filler here and there. In fact, I'll just remodel the turret and add some built-in supports for the gun barrel, which should help a bit.
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| Turret edited for printing reliability |
Mind you, I've had worse resin models in the past, and it's not nearly as bad as that terrible plastic Sherman kit that BF put out for their intro box set a few years ago.
This post nicely illustrates both the advantage of printing at this scale and the drawbacks. The printed models are excellent playing pieces, that clearly represent the tank they are meant to be, but at the same time are thicker and less detailed in various places (tracks, wheels etc.). Given the relative costs and level of effort, the 3d prints clearly win out most of the time!
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