As with so much in life, the last 20% of the effort seems to take 80% of the time! In this case, the turret has consumed a lot of additional time to detail & refine.
Both the commander’s & gunner’s sight unit heads need a little bit more work done, but that’s the turret almost complete, design wise.
As we move closer to final prints, it’s time to sketch out the camouflage pattern. To aid that, I’ve used the digital model to generate some orthogonal views to sketch.
I’m back to experimenting with deflecting the front pair of wheels. Due to my earlier design decisions that fixed the steering arms, this may or may not work. Here’s r
The experiment with 7.5° deflection.
I’m also refining the 76mm smoke grenade dischargers to separate the protective rubber cap, open up the tubes, & incorporate the chains that connect them to the launcher base. I think this is workable.
Hopefully the last update on the MBSGD design piece! The caps should now be able to accommodate their retention chains.
I’m modelling a “10th Recon & Combat Battalion” vehicle, registration number 25-2307. This is the battalion insignia:
As much as I’d like someone else to tackle the markings on my behalf, I’m learning how to use a
cutter to make stencils.
.
Here’s the draft artwork.
It’s a pretty steep learning curve & the software isn’t the greatest to use, but here we are.
Seems as thought the JGSDF isn’t a big fan of standardised camouflage patterns on the 87 RCV. To map the pattern on the hull & turret roofs, I’ve dug out the coloured pencils & coloured in the ortho views.
Part of the upper hull tweaking is adding pioneers tools (except for the shovel, which I’m trying to figure out how to design!) & some transversal stiffening.
Here’s a comparison between the early & late 1:48 test print upper hulls showing how the design has evolved.
Merry Christmas* all.
Adding some more detail to the upper hull, in this case pioneer tools & fittings.
Hope you all get a break & time with friends & family.
*insert denominationally appropriate greeting
A bit more detail for those non-87 RCV autists.
Until the resin resupply lands next month, I’m stuck without the means to print a physical model.
Scratching around for fittings & fixtures to add to the design. In this case, the bottle jack on the rear left light cluster needed to be added.
Still need to tackle the shovel, but I’m procrastinating on that one.
After some deliberation, I decided to deflect the front steering. This necessitated significant modifications to the lower hull to ensure good alignment & enough strength to support the weight of the model.
The model will use 3mm brass tubing for the axles, these are mocked up here, seen in blue.
The blocks inside the hull are the anchor points for the axles.
a good solution here
The vehicle I’m depicting has hard demarcations between the camouflage colours. Part of this project’s “skill stretch” is learning to use a silhouette cutter, so designing the camouflage mask set is an open goal.
To that end, I drew up an “unfolded” or flat pack upper hull to plot the pattern on.
Here’s the design:
And the resultant drawing.
The logical follow up to the unfolded hull is the unfolded turret. Here’s the design:
And the derived drawing.
All about “arts & crafts” atm, mapping the camouflage when there’s no overhead views available & the pattern isn’t standardised.
Think it’s about ready to be plotted electronically.
I’m sure there’s a less man-draulic way to get all this done, but here we are. Last week I drew out the angled hull in the “unfolded” state. This was so I could transfer the camouflage pattern onto the surface with all surfaces perpendicular. The edge start & finish points were then measured using the “arts & crafts” coloured in drawing printed in 1:16, plotted on the unfolded turret, connected, then extruded.
The A2 drawing of this was then updated, creating the lines for the camouflage demarcation.
The idea is then to use this drawing as the basis for the cut program to cut camouflage masks.
Plotting now completed for both the hull & turret.
The drawings will be exported as .svg files, which will allow them to be used as cut files for the mask set.
Last update on the deflected front steering - digital verification.
Happy that there’s no issues. Looks like we’re good to print.
Finalised prints are starting to come together now that resin has arrived. Parts are dry fit with additional cleanup required. Work travel for 2026 has now commenced, so won’t be able to work on the physical model until the end of January.
