15mm Swedish S-tank Stridsvagn 103

thingiverse

ThatPrintinator did an excellent job creating the Swedish S-tank Stridsvagn 103 (1-100) which has an amazing level of detail. Unfortunately, I was having some issues printing it and, like always with the Printalotapotamus, I figured that if I'm going to spend some time working on the model to make it easier to print then I might as well upload it for everyone else to enjoy if they like. I typically use these models for 15mm science fiction wargaming so I sometimes take a little liberty with the designs as well. Changes to this model: Barrel. It seemed a bit fragile. I sacrificed being accurate to the real tank in exchange for enhancing durability. These are game pieces for me and will get handled, packed away, and handled again over and over every few weekends. Treads. I noticed the wheels of the treads easily snapped off the model and the treads themselves were very thin and had trouble with a good angle for printing. To resolve this, I separated them completely, added a fill to tie them all together, thickened the tread itself, and added a little 1mm guide tab at the top of the tread to keep them from pushing right up against the body when gluing them in. Exhaust. It was a very thin-walled pipe which again was giving me more trouble than I wanted. I am more than happy to chop a few pieces off to make this work for my Gruntz games. Headlights. The headlights were very small and thin. I gave them a solid backing but left the fine detail on the front of them. Barrel-less model. I ended up having a heckin time printing that barrel even after I thickened it. It might be my retraction settings, but the point that it connects to the rest of the model kept printing thinner than the rest of the barrel making it super fragile. So, I've created another version that actually excludes most of the barrel. I'll be using a 2mm piece of brass pipe and the printed barrel end model to make a sturdy barrel that won't snap off. I have laid it out already with supports and lined up the best way possible to print for you and included the separate pieces as well. I believe you should always print tank barrels vertically. They are weaker this way, but printing them horizontally makes the stepping of your printer layers VERY obvious and makes the bottom of the barrel a total mess. Another option is to use small 2mm brass rods or pipe for the barrels. So there you go. Another EZ remix by Printalotapotamus. Be sure to thank ThatEmuGuy for the original model. He did all the real work here.