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Unfortunately, there is no really good ACW artillery set to date.
Even the representation of the usual standard guns is so bad in the available plastic sets that you can only shake your head.
The same situation as with Prussian artillery from the Napoleonic Wars...unfortunately only bad sets available...and only with three men to operate the gun..
At some point I went my own way with 3D printing because it would have taken more time to correct these bad sets than to redesign them straight away.
I'm currently working on expanding my ACW artillery again. In the last weeks i constructed three different horse teams (standing still, trotting, running) for the gun limbers.
And i have already painted the first prototypes.
I think I'll be able to show you some photos of it soon.
If you don’t mind Gerd could you explain how you created these artillery teams a little more specifically? They are absolutely beautiful. And if you’re telling me that they’re available for 3D printing… I may have to invest in a printer!
here are some images of my new designed horse-teams for my ACW-artillery limbers.
I created them by using the BLENDER-Software and some SLT-files of horses.
You can load the SLT-files into the BLENDER-program and then you are able to scale their size or "drill holes" in them. Or construct and "glue" a harness or saddle on the horses.
Finally you can copy the ready designed SLT-Files in the slicing-software of your 3D-Printer, which creates a control program for your printer. In the end you copy this slice-file on USB-Stick.
Then you put the USB-Stick in your printer and start the printer... The newest 3D-Printer have a Bluetooth-receiver, so its possible to send the files direct from PC to 3 D-printer.
First get some information from youtube...search "3 D-Printing"... f.e. : https://youtu.be/6TZ2R88rPoo
You may find many information for beginners there.
It needs some time to learn how to handle the software, but in the end you have infinite possibilities to create characters or animals. :astonished:
Unfortunately, there are also some problems with 3D-printing, because printer-resin is poisonous and smells very unpleasant. So you have to work with protective equipment (gloves, mask, glasses). I therefore always operate my printer in the garage and not in the house. :mask: :skull:
And one more piece of information:
Printer's resin is cured with UV light after cleaning the figures in alcohol/isopropanol. This is also time-consuming and odor-intensive.
After that, the material is very hard but also very brittle (like thin Chinese porcelain). If you fall off a resin horse like this, several legs are usually broken off. Therefore you have to handle and store these figures very carefully afterwards... I've broken off dozens of figures like this (legs of horses, bayonets on rifles, heads of soldiers).
Figures made from elastic injection-moulded plastic are therefore much easier to care for.
And you don't have to handle chemicals to get them. :+1:
Thank you all..
I'm glad you like my ACW horse teams.
Image 2 shows the first finished version.
There the saddles are still too far back on the horses, so that the riders did not fit properly. But this has now been corrected..
I then continued to work on and improved more and more.
Image 1 shows a more developed version. And images 3 + 4 show the final stage of this development process.
Horse teams with complete harness are a realy big challenge...
To create such teams in injection-moulded plastic is enormously complex.
In addition, not as many sets are bought as sets of infantry units. Therefore, the technical effort is often disproportionate to the financial result.
So my favorite for a nice ACW set from STRELETS would also be:
He uses a very, very large printer....
My MARS PRO-printer has a quarter of this size, but this is really enough space for 1:72-figures..
But the basic steps are equal..
So you get a good feeling for the things you need and the handling with chemicals.
3-D-printing is a little bit like "working in a chemical labor"... :warning: :biohazard_sign: