Seeing as I am on the look out for armor loads for flat cars, something other than Shermans, I came across this company on Ebay that makes 3D printed tanks, trucks, half tracks, artillery and so forth and will print them in 1/48 scale. They have a lot of different kinds of pieces. A lot of German, of course, also Russian, French and British. Among the American pieces available are: M3 Lee, M5 Stuart, M24 Chaffee, M26 Pershing, M18 Hellcat, M10 Tank destroyer and Shermans in a number of models. The good news is these are not bank busters at $12 a piece.
I decided to order an M3 lee. Here is what you get...
The first thing that struck me the size of the model. It's larger than I thought it should be. But after consulting some published dimensions, it scales very close to true 1/48. The next thing that struck me was the amount of detail (printed?) on the model. Things like extra wheel sprockets, a spare piece of track (I think), and gas cans along the back. Among the disappointing features were the gun barrels. These I thought were poorly rendered. Curiously, there was no detail on the tracks themselves. Also there was a lot of flash, I guess that is the word for it, hanging all over the model. No doubt the result of the printing process.
So with a sharp Exacto knife and sand paper, went to work cleaning the model up and painted it. Prior to painting, I gave it a good bath and primed it with some rattle can primer, Tamiya I believe. Next I spray painted it with Testor's Olive Drab again in a spray can. I hand brushed the tracks an details using both Model Master enamels and Vallejo Acrylics. After the paint was dried, a spray of clear flat and a wash of Craft store acrylics to weather it slightly.
I used Archer Dry Transfers for the markings and star.
So after all the work here is what you get...
Oh, I forgot to mention the turent is a separate piece and is removable...
Here is the Lee compared to a Solido 1/50 scale Sherman, for a size comparison...
And this is how it looks on a scale flat car...
So there you have it, a "different" armor load for your flat car. The Verdict...
Pros: Hard to find prototypes available...
scale sized...
relatively inexpensive (as compared to die-cast)...
not very heavy, so making up a long train won't strain you locos (again, compared to die-cast).
Cons: Overall print quality nowhere as nice a a die-cast piece or built plastic model (if you can find one)...
some work involved to clean, prep and paint to make it presentable, not ready-to-run, out of the box.
Overall, I think these are not too bad. Although some what crude, I feel they will pass a 3 foot rule. What say you?
