A Horde of Hurricanes

 

My latest Blender effort is a bunch of Hawker Hurricanes in 1/144 scale.

• The tan one is a Mk.II-D tankbuster, with two 40mm cannon under the wings. It only kept two .303 machine-guns for sighting the cannon. It has a tropical air cleaner/scoop under its chin.
• The blue one is a Mk.II-C, armed with four 20mm cannon, and sometimes six .303 machine-guns as well.
• The green one is a tropicalized version of the cannon-armed II-C.
• The pink one is the basic airframe, armed with eight or twelve .303 machine-guns.

They all have a 2.6mm diameter hole under the fuselage, for mounting on a flight stand.

The STLs are available at https://www.wargaming3d.com/product/hawker-hurricane-1144/

The model on the left was printed in FDM on my Ender 3, the one on the right is resin from my Mars Pro.

The resin model is a bit crisper, but on the other hand it's less sturdy and more trouble to print. Also, it seems to have been compressed slightly longitudinally.

Both of these are destined to join my Desert Air Force.

2024-01-28

I’ve added optional STLs for aircraft with visible ribs on the fabric-covered fuselage rear. In truth, the ribs are hugely over-scale, and in this scale should be barely discernible, but I think they do make the aeroplanes look more Hurricane-ish.

2024-02-01

I figured you can't have a Hurribomber without Hurribombs, so I made some.

The bomb racks are contoured to the under-surfaces of the wings, so they're not really interchangeable. Though I doubt anybody would notice if you accidentally got them the wrong way round.

Just make sure the pointy end is to the front.

SPAD XIII (1/144)

 

I designed this 1:144 scale SPAD XIII in Blender a couple of months ago, and have now got around to printing and painting it.

It was printed in FDM on my Ender 3. I might try it in resin one of these days, but it's not a high priority — it's adequate in FDM, and a much stronger gaming piece.

It's intended for use in Canvas Eagles, or similar WW1 aerial combat games. I guess you could use it for Wings of War, but you'd have to sort out an appropriate flight stand.

Henschel HS-123

I recently watched a video about the Henschel HS-123 dive bomber, and I thought I'd make one in 1/144 to help out my ever-so-slowly growing 15mm Afrika Korps.

Apparently it was very highly regarded in its ground-attack role, in spite of its archaic biplane configuration. It was very sturdy, and could take much more battle damage than the Ju87 Stuka and keep flying, as well as coping better with extreme weather conditions on the Eastern Front. The open cockpit must have been a bit of a trial though, flying in a Russian winter.

The harbour in the background is Malta, though the ships are Italian. The photograph was taken when the Italian fleet sailed into Malta to surrender.

No swastika on the tail-fin, because some sites get a bit antsy about that symbol being displayed, even in an historical or modeling context.

The model is enlarged to 1/144 scale from a 1/200 design by Roman Troyan.

Dead in the water... I think

 

My RPG campaign has been very much disrupted of late.

The last few months of 2023 I was away from home, due to some family stuff (my mother was dying). After I got home in December, we ran into all the scheduling issues that the Xmas period always brings. And this month, January, is also pretty much a dead loss as various members of the group, for one reason or another, can't play on our normal game night. Me included.

I suspect that the campaign is just dying a death, which is a bit of a pity really. Still, these things happen.

SU-76i

 

This is a 1:100 scale FDM print of Bergman's SU-76i model, slightly enhanced by me with a little bit of extra detail.

The SU-76i was a Soviet conversion of captured German Panzer III, with the turret removed and the Soviet 76.2mm gun mounted in a casemate.

This one is based on a photograph I saw of one that had been recaptured by the Germans, some time in 1943 I think.

A few days later...

Here's another one, this time still in Soviet hands.

Another FDM print from the same Bergman model, though this one was printed before I added the track and grill detail.

Works in Progress

 

Works in progress on my workbench at this moment: 15mm (1:100) StuGs for Africa, a Soviet PzIII SPG conversion recaptured by the Germans, and a couple of German beutepanzers cobbled together from bits and pieces.

Maybe some day I will actually stick to a theme and finish off an army, but that day is not this day.

The white SU and the yellow StuG are FDM off my Ender3. The two T-26 PaK 97-38 in front are resin, off my Mars Pro. And the red-primed StuG at back left is a Zvezda kit.

Beute Panzer - T-26 with PaK 97-38

 

This is another of the many, many German conversions of captured equipment. In this case, the chassis of a Soviet T-26 light tank has been married with the 75mm PaK 97-38 anti-tank gun, another conversion from captured French equipment.

The model is designed at 1:100 scale for 15mm gaming, but could easily be scaled up for 20mm or even 28mm games.

A driver figure has been included, but no other crew members.

STL is available at https://www.wargaming3d.com/product/t-26-with-pak-97-38/

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I learned that this mash-up had wings bolted on to the sides of the gun-shield, so I added them. Also, at some point a pair of side shields, and also a pair of large bins (for ammo, presumably) were added on the rear track-guards.

New for 2024, the StuG IIIb

 

My first model completed for 2024.

This is a 3d printed StuG IIIb destined for my 15mm DAK. The water can rack I designed in Blender and printed on my Mars Pro, the tarps and ammo box came from the PSC 15mm German Stowage set.

Apparently the only StuGs sent out to Africa (only 3 of them I believe) were Ausf D, but the Ausf B is what I've got, both in a digital file for print, and in the shape of some Zvezda 1:100 kits. So Ausf B is what they're going to get.