Shapeways Purchases

The kids and I were supposed to leave today (Friday) to our annual Christmas travels to Chicago. Thanks to the incoming storm across the Midwest, I postponed the trip to Sunday. Its supposed to be horribly cold, but at least sunny and hopefully the roads will be clear. Although I'd like to be there sooner than later, I immediately felt the stress of driving 11+ hours in nasty weather with my kids fall off my shoulders once I made my decision.

Last week, a flood of figures came in. I probably shouldn't have, but I ordered a bunch of stuff from GHQ, C-in-C, Heroics & Ros, and Shapeways. I am still waiting on the C-in-C stuff, but everything else arrived in a span of four days. Most of the H&R minis were more of their 80s British infantry to fill some gaps from my previous order. I had some accumulated credit from Shapeways that I decided to cash in. At Shapeways, you place your order and hope it goes through. They seem to charge your credit card before they know if they can make the item or not. Not sure if that is ethical, but if they can't print something, they give you credit. I've been burned on a couple of things. I can't really blame the designers. There have been several times where the designer said an item had printed OK in the past, but for some reason, that same item could now not print. Anyway, here are a couple of things that I ordered from them.

First, are some VW vans from Masters of Military:

They have a big range of civilian vehicles. IMHO, this is a range that is sorely neglected by pretty much all microarmor companies. Unlike a lot of other Shapeways designers, they print a lot of their stuff in Ultra Frosted Detail. This material is translucent and very smooth, unless the more common stuff that is very rough. The only minus to MOM is that they are pretty darn expensive. I also order some delivery vans, but I didn't take a picture of them.

Next up is the Douglas A2D Skyshark by New Aragon Mechanical Works:

I think this is the first time I've ordered from this designer. He only does stuff in Strong, White & Flexible, which is very grainy. You can't tell from the crappy picture, but the tail end of the wings are very rough looking. I took a emery board and very gently sanded it down a little. I'm not sure why some of these designers still use this material other than because it's cheap. It has a belly drop tank that I will cut off to make room for a rare earth magnet. You get two planes with different payloads.  Here is what the real thing looked like, pudgy but cool:

U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation photo No. 1996.253.3377, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14582043

There were only 12 of these planes built. It had twin counter-rotating propellers powered by a turboprop engine. It was meant to be flown off of escort carriers. The Douglas Skyraider quickly replaced it....but not in my world! Fictional nations justify prototypes and odd ducks. Not sure who the lucky nation is that will get these.

Next, a Hawker Hart light bomber also from New Aragon Mechanical Works:

Sorry for the crappy picture, but I wasn't sure how to photograph it. Again, more frosty goodness. The Hawker Hart was part of a series of Hawker all-metal biplanes that came out in the late 20s. They were used mostly in far-flung reaches of the British Empire, or sold to minor nations.

So, why the old-timer aircraft? Well, I've been toying with the idea to revitalize an old (and I mean very old) solo campaign that I ran back in the late 80s. It was a semi-fictional battle between a not-Soviet Union and a not-Great Britain over an Iran-like nation set in the mid to late 1930s. There were lots of battles between BT-7's and Crusader I's. With a bunch of interwar tanks and planes coming out of Shapeways, I thought I'd add some minor nations to the mix. I'd keep it more of a desert theme, making terrain building less of an issue (I've been pretty burned out on terrain building lately). I have not invested a lot yet. It depends on how far I get on my Gambusia campaign.

Painted Shapeways Miniatures

I had ordered a bunch of stuff from Shapeways. So far, I had only painted a semi-truck. So, I got busy. Sadly, I picked a hot and humid day to prime the figures: BIG MISTAKE! To my defense, I've primed minis on hot, humid days in the past and managed to dodge the bullet. Not this time. Some of the Shapeways minis are fuzzy to begin with, but the primer make them fuzzier. I ended up using my fingernail to rub off a lot of the primer once it dried.

A-37 Dragonfly

A-37 Dragonfly

Prairie Hawk Gamers produces these. Previously, the only company that made these was Skyraider Miniatures which is no longer in existence. I think I have two by them, but I never got around to paint them. Prairie Hawk makes two versions; one with payload, one without. I bought both. Shown is that one without, but I added some bombs. A-37s were part of the emergency supply of weapons that the USA sent to Southern Chalupastan during the 1st Chalupastan War.  They consisted of hardware left over from the Vietnam War. They are still in service, though will be replaced by the Textron AirLand Scorpion light jet (see below). Its painted in the standard Southern Chalupastan camo, except I used GHQ's olive green rather than Vallejo's, because it been awhile and I forgot which I used for the lighter green.

Killdozer (or Dirt-truck as my 2-year old calls them)

I can't remember who made this bulldozer. It might have been the same as the semi that I had in a previous post. It, along with several others is made out of a rubbery vinyl material. This guy came with two brothers.  Now, I don't know if it was the humidity, or the primer itself, but when I sprayed them, they got sort of gooey! They never really dried. I went ahead and painted one of them. I tried to dirty it up as much as possible. After painting it a CAT yellow with dark grey treads, I mixed burnt sienna with Future Floor Wax and gave it a healthy wash.  I then dabbed some steel and silver paint along some of the edges along with its scoop. Last, I mixed some pale brown with some baking soda and a little Elmer's glue to make some globs of dirt that I place on the scoop and on the treads. Its a nice model, except I don't care for the front of the cab. It doesn't have an obvious window, so I painted a black square where I thought it ought to be.

O-1 Bird Dog

This is not from Shapeways, but from GHQ. I only sprayed one and it, too, suffered from the humidity. I wanted some civilian planes for the the airport/airfield I plan to make in the future, but no one makes them in microscale. I bought the Bird Dogs awhile ago for WWII gaming. I figure they look enough like a small civilian plane. It a very nice model, but they come without the struts that help hold the wing to the fuselage. I glued two styrene strips as shown on the left one. The one on the left is not quite finished. I need to paint the cockpit glass and maybe add a blue stripe to the tail. I do not plan to glue a magnet to the bottom of it an will just sit on the ground. The other will get a magnet, but I have not decided if it will be "civilianized" or not.

Works in Progress

L to R: Fiat G91, Trabant Kuebel, AirLand Scorpion, M-346 Master

These are ones that I primed and have yet to prime. The little car also suffered from the gooeys. They come with a top on and off. They are pretty tiny, but I figured that they would make for a good civilian vehicle. The Fiat G91 and the M-346 will probably join the Federal Republic of Gambusia Defense Force. The Scorpion will be part of the South's arsenal. Now that war has broken out between Northern and Southern Chalupastan, the A-37s will stay on.

Pre-Prototype of a Car in 1/300

Here is my first attempt at a scratch-built car in 1/300 scale:



Its supposed to be a Volvo C30. I make a chassis out of thin cardstock and then used a mixture of FIMO an Sculpy III polymer clay for the body and wheels. Not great, but ya gotta start somewhere, right?