SdKfz 251 ambulance

 

This 15mm (1/100 scale) Hanomag SdKfz 251 half-track ambulance is a model I designed and printed some considerable time ago, but the print was a partial failure — the nose of the vehicle is distorted, and the wheels didn't print at all. I just got around to making some new wheels and gluing them in place.

I'll add it to the rest of the ambulances I've been modelling over recent years. I've got a few of them now. 

Found (again)

 

I'm in the process of re-re-re-re-reorganising my workroom, and I found some 15mm WWII figures I've been looking for for quite a while.

They're Battlefront 15mm WWII Mediterranean Brits in BD trousers and shirt-sleeves, ideal for representing troops in Italy in summer. It's quite an old set, and I don't think they're still available any more.

Plus, I found some other Brits that I didn't even know I had, and have no idea where they came from: to the left of the photo are a bunch of prone figures, some in stocking caps, and a couple of Bren gunners in berets.

In the background are some PSC 15mm kits: a "Pheasant" 17pdr on the 25pdr carriage, a Morris Quad and limber, and a Loyd carrier. I put them together some years ago, and then they got shunted to the back of the queue and eventually put away "somewhere safe".

So anyway, there's my next painting project. 

 Next day....

This is what you get when you combine ownership of a 3d printer and the attention span of a mayfly. These have been sitting in their file drawers for who knows how long, and there are more stashes all around my workroom.

I really should do something about getting one or two things finished before I make any more. (It's probably helpful that neither of my 3d printers are operating very successfully at the moment). 

Mystery Mini

 

I got this figure in a mixed lot of 15mm medievals and ancients some time back in the early(ish) 1980s.

 I'm not familiar with ancients though, and I'm not at all sure what it might be. I thought maybe a clibanophoros, but I'm really just guessing.

 I also don't know who the manufacturer was.

Pantherturm (15mm)

 This is a freebie STL of a WWII German Pantherturm, an emplaced Panther tank turret used extensively in the Italian campaign and during the fall of the Reich as a (relatively) cheap protected anti-tank bunker.

 https://www.wargaming3d.com/product/mojobob_hoochyman_pantherturm

The model is designed at 1:100 scale for 15mm, but it will scale up for 20mm without any issues, and even 28mm at a pinch. It'd also scale down to 1:150 or 1:144 for 10-12mm gaming, though the gun barrel might start getting a little fragile then.

Both the turret and the base have sockets to accommodate round magnets up to 10x1.5mm.

 It printed successfully on my Ender 3 FDM printer, but the print failed on my Mars Pro resin printer — I don't know why. That printer's been getting quite flaky in recent times, and the failure rate has increased markedly. 

The base will need to be embedded in an appropriate terrain diorama. For Italy, that would be most often rural terrain, but in the invasion of Germany they were often dug into city streets to overwatch important road junctions. 

 Here are a couple just sitting on top of a terrain sheet, and they look okay just like this. I'd still like to embed at least one of them in a scenic base though.

2026-03-13

I've now included a groundwork STL that the base piece can be pressed into, for those who don't want the trouble of making a scenic base the traditional way.

 2026-03-14

Here are my prints, now encapsulated with grass and dirt collars so they look more dug-in. 

These are 3d-printed bases, but really it would be a trivial matter to make the exact same thing out of air-drying clay or the like. 

 2026-03-16

Here's one in a base better suited for urban rubble, this time created from scratch using traditional modelling techniques and materials (polyfilla, kitty-litter and matchsticks). 

15mm Afrika Korps

 

I've had these Battlefront 15mm Afrika Korps sitting around, based, primed and waiting for paint, for years now. I don't know for sure exactly how many years.

I've finally pulled finger and got them sufficiently finished that I can use them in a game without being utterly ashamed.

For some reason, and I can't quite put my finger on exactly why, I just don't enjoy painting infantry. So they tend to get shoved to the back of the queue again and again.

Note: The idiots have assembled the tripod for their MG34 back to front. You just can't get good help any more. 

For reference, the paints I've used are as follows:

• Helmets and other metalwork, plus trousers — VMC Desert Yellow
• Jackets — VMC Green Brown
• Helmets, jackets and trousers all dry-brushed with VMC Iraqi Sand 
• Rifle stocks — VMC Flat Brown
• Gun barrels etc. — VMA Gunmetal 
• Boots, ammo pouches, water bottles — VMC Saddle Brown
• Faces and hands — VMC Flat Flesh 
• Bases — VMC Iraqi Sand 
• Overall wash — Citadel Seraphim Sepia 

 

The wash tends to pool on the top of the helmets, creating a blob of the darker colour.

Ideally, I should have just wicked it off with a brush while it was fresh and wet, but I often forget.

So instead I go back afterwards and paint a highlight in Iraqi Sand on top of the helmet, and at the same time I take the opportunity to crisp up the lines of the flared brim of the stahlhelm.

 

The Seraphim Sepia wash isn't usually my first choice — that would be Agrax Earthshade. However, in this case the Agrax would have darkened everything too much; the Sepia remains brighter.

 This is a 28mm model, a freebie from a Kickstarter, scaled down to 15mm to fit in with my BF metals.

For the most part, the scaling worked without issues, but the rifle definitely should be replaced with something a bit chunkier and sturdier — the barrel just printed, but the sling is nearly all gone. 

Also, I need a much better macro photography setup. This is taken with my iPhone, and none of my fancy-schmancy DSLRs would produce anything as sharp.

 2026-01-31

I've taken that Kickstarter STL and done some head-swapping, as well as giving it a beefed-up rifle that should print a lot better.

I haven't tried printing them yet, but since the original printed just fine I don't anticipate any major issues. 

15mm Stuff for Italy

 

This is all the 15mm stuff I currently have that is suitably painted for a 15mm British force in Italy 1943-ish. It's not a lot, but it's a decent start. Now that my copy of Battlegroup: Italy has arrived, I've got them out and dusted them off.

At a pinch, I could draft in some of my North Africa kit as well, but they tend to be painted for the earlier pre-Tunisia campaigns. 

Somewhere I have some old BF "Mediterranean" British infantry, which I shall have to find and dig out. They're modelled in shirt-sleeves and BD trousers, so they look the part — in fact, if I recall correctly, they were some of BF's better offerings in metal, which were a bit.... shall we say, variable in quality. 

Raupenschlepper Ost 1942 - test print

Quite some time ago, I designed this model in Blender. It's a simplified version of the Raupenschlepper Ost, with the cab made from plywood instead of stamped from steel, and with a canvas roof. They went into production in 1942, with the aim of making production faster and cheaper.

But I never did actually get around to printing it. Mainly because its hollow cab would have made printing quite difficult.

Today I filled in the cab and cargo bed with a solid block, but in the cab I kept half of each of two crewmen visible, so that they could be painted in a kind of bas-relief style. It seems to have worked reasonably well, and the model printed on my Ender 3 without any issues at all (except that I initially assembled the running gear the wrong way round, and had to tear it off and re-glue it). 

It means, of course, that there's no interior detail visible, but for a gaming model that doesn't disturb me too much. 

 Several days later...

I've got it painted now, in a post-1943 colour scheme. All in all, I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out. 

More Italian Artillery

 

Another Italian 75mm, this time painted up for Europe or Russia.

Exactly the same model and figures as last time, with just a different colour scheme. 

Italian 75mm Howitzer (15mm)

 

Finished (more or less) the Battlefront 15mm WWII Italian 75mm howitzer base I've been using as a learning exercise for myself.

Overall, I'm fairly happy with it. And I've figured out a few things that will make building future ones a bit smoother. 

Shells for bases

 

I made some artillery bits to populate some of my 15mm artillery bases, to give them a bit more of a lived-in look.

The STLs are available at 

https://www.wargaming3d.com/product/mojobob_hoochyman_howitzer_shells_15mm_ for a couple of bucks.

They're specifically modelled as WWII Italian 75m howitzer shells, but they're pretty generic and could stand in for a whole bunch of short-case one-piece ammunition variants.

There are three sizes of ready-ammo stacks in the set, plus an array of individual shells, plus one of expended empty cases.

The gun and 15mm minis shown here are from Battlefront. 

Flak 36-38 88mm (15mm)

 

This is the 3d printed 15mm Flak 36-38 88mm gun that I've been working on the last couple of days.

The crew are all Command Decision 15mm metals. 

Overall I'm reasonably happy with it, except that the groundwork is a bit garish. I might hit it with the airbrush and see if I can tone it down a bit. 

 A bit later...

The groundwork is now definitely less gaudy, but I don't know that it's really any improvement.

Ah well, never mind. 

Germanic Test Painting

I've been trying to find a set of pre-mixed paints that I'm satisfied with for painting my 15mm WWII German foot-sloggers and artillerymen. They've almost always turned out too dark, sometimes too light.

This bloke, a Command Decision 15mm artilleryman with a binocular rangefinder, I base-coated in Vallejo ModelColor 759 German Tank Crew, and then dry-brushed (or moist-brushed really) fairly heavily with 886 Grey Green. I added an overall wash of Citadel Agrax Earthshade (my favourite), which darkened everything a tad, and then came back in with 886 again for the highlights.

This method gives me a field grey that I'm satisfied with. I know that German field grey is a vague and uncertain colour anyway, but I do want something that looks good to me.

I could have done the base coat in 830 German Field Grey, which is tonally similar to 759, but warmer. Once the wash has gone on, I doubt that it would make much difference.
 

Marder 1 (Lorraine)

 

I started work on this model, a German WWII Marder 1, quite some time ago. But then I forgot all about it, until I happened upon the beginnings of the project a few days ago, and finished it off. Working on the digital file zoomed in all the time, it was easy to lose track of how small these vehicles were.

I've put the STLs online at https://www.wargaming3d.com/product/mojobob_hoochyman_marder_1_lorraine_ 

I did a test-print this evening, which was mostly okay, though there are a couple of things that I think might need attention.

 

The main issue is the gun shield:  printing at the angle I did meant that it was lying pretty flat to the platen, and I got some delamination and distortion at the corners. I think it might be best to detach it and print it as a separate component.

Nashorn Crew

 

I like to include some crew figures in my little 15mm (1:100) model tanks, both to give a sense of scale, and also so that it doesn't look like a bunch of autonomous robot machines tootling about on the wargames table.

I think the Nashorn actually had a crew of about six, but any more than these two in the fighting compartment would be unfeasibly crowded, so these guys are symbolic of the crew rather than actually representative of it as a whole. 

I kitbashed these figures from a bunch of others. The main bodies came from 3dBreed, but things like hats and helmets and shells and so forth I made myself and added to the cut-up original figures. They were printed on my Mars Pro resin printer.

Arrrr, me hearties!

 

I've been kitbashing some STLs from various sources to create some crewmen for my German SPGs, and printing far more than I need.

Which is a good thing, because the print failure rate has been pretty high, and in every case it's because one of the legs hasn't printed, leaving the figure with an amputation at the knee or hip.

Yesterdays lot, a variety of figures, rendered me about 50% usable figures. Today I did a whole platen of duplicates of just one figure, and that returned 13 out of 20 fully-formed little men. I've been, if anything, over-supporting the prints, and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to where on the platen the failures occur.

I don't really know enough about resin printers to know for sure what's what, but I guess I'll try replacing the FEP and re-leveling the machine. It's a pain, but it might work.

Hummel (15mm)

 

This is a 1:100 (15mm) model of the German 150mm SPG Hummel (Bumblebee), a 15cm gun-howitzer mounted on a PzIV chassis.

I've painted this one for North Africa, but it would also do for Italy. 

I still have to do some crewmen for it (and for some other models as well), and they're in the pipeline. 

Hummel WiP

NOTE: photos will be displayed from newest to oldest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

5) Initial dry-brushing, plus an oil-wash and some streaking.

4) I'm painting the Hummel for North Africa and/or Italy.

Primed in dark brown, then a base coat of VMA Yellow Brown, and panel-shaded with VMA Camo Brown.

3) Primed overall dark brown. This is a 50/50 mix of red-brown and olive-green Vallejo Surface Primer.

2) Printing did not go entirely smoothly.

The body and superstructure both printed on my Mars Pro in resin without issues, but the running gear component absolutely would not work, even with several changes of position and orientation.

I ended up having to print them on my Ender 3 in PLA, and in fact they're not too bad.

1) Ages ago, I took someone's existing Hummel model (I think it was Zac Kuvalich, though I'm not sure) and split it up for ease of printing.

However, I don't think I ever actually printed it, which surprises me. I've looked all over the place, but I can't find a printed model anywhere, so that's my printing task for today.

Nashorn

 

I've been rummaging in amongst a bunch of stuff that I 3d printed ages ago and never got around to painting, and one of them is this 1:100 (15mm) WWII German Nashorn SPAT, also called Hornisse. It was a very potent anti-tank weapon, with the long L71 88mm, but it had a real glass jaw, with very light armour. It was intended for long-range sniping rather than mixing it up with other armoured vehicles.

 I'm not sure who originally designed this model, though I think it might have been Zac Kuvalich (TigerAce1945 on Thingiverse). I took his model and cut it up into several components to ease printing, but not until after I printed this one, which was printed in one piece on my Ender 3 FDM machine.

I've painted this one in a scheme that would be suitable for Italy. 

ADDENDUM

 At about the same time I did the Nashorn, I also cut up the accompanying Hummel model.

I thought I had printed it, but having looked all over the place, I haven't been able to find it, so I guess not.

 Now I've done some initial printing, and the body and superstructure both printed fine, but the running gear components need a bit of tweaking.

 I printed the body and superstructure just fine on my resin printer, but I absolutely could not get the running gear components to print successfully on that machine. So I had to do them on my FDM Ender 3, and though not as crisp as the resin, I think they'll do fine.

Assembled and primed

 

 

Making Tracks

 

PzIII J-N running gear

This project has been on my back-burner for quite some time now.

I decided to make a set of decently detailed running gear for a 15mm (1:100 scale) Panzer III.

The hull is from an old PzIII model by Zac Kuvalich.

I haven't yet done a test print, because it's currently winter in New Zealand, and my workroom, where the printers are, is bloody freezing. 

PzIII E-F running gear

PzIII G-H running gear

The style of both the sprocket wheel and idler changed as the Panzer III was developed. I've done a couple of running gear modules that reflect those changes.

To a certain extent, it's possible to use an earlier style of running gear on later models, as existing vehicles were upgraded to later specifications. 

Somua S-35

 

 

 

The French Somua S-35 is widely regarded as one of the best tanks in the world in 1940, when the Germans invaded.

It was well armed, well armoured, and with decent mobility. Its only major flaw was common to almost all French tanks of the time in that it had only a one-man turret, meaning that the tank commander also had to act as loader, and was thus overworked. While he was attending to the gun, he wasn't looking at the battlefield for dangers or targets.

 

 

The model is 1:100 scale (15mm), FDM printed  on my elderly Ender 3, from a design by M. Bergman. I've done some structural tinkering to get it to print more reliably, but I haven't added any extra detail this time around.

[EDIT] 

I forgot that I'd printed a Beutepanzer version of this machine way back in 2019.

The Germans gave it a new commander's cupola, but otherwise didn't alter it at all.