French 75 Mle 1897 with Limber 3D printed

[EPOCH3]

Hi - new project to go with the German 77mm Fk96 n/A -
I recently designed a 3D model of the French 75mm Mle 1897 as used late in WWI.
I looked at buying the Des kit in resin but I wasn't very happy with what was there
so I tried doing one myself. I also did the limber and ammo wagons to go with it.
Until the kinks are worked out, every time I get a new part for the first time its a
bit of "hold your breath" and "cross your fingers" as to whether it will come out right.
Got the first part back today and it looks pretty good. The Limber has some very small
railings and straps that I thought would not print right or get broken at best but it
showed up intact. Posted a few screen captures of the design and I will post a few
more pictures of parts as the other parts show up.

For those who are interested, printed cost for the main Limber assembly was $28.

Happy Modeling.

[EPOCH3]

Here are a few more pictures of the model and Limber just rec'd - due to the transparent nature of the
material, these small parts don't really photograph well.

Regards

[EPOCH3]

Some new parts for the project just in.

I attached a runner (to be cut off) across the top of the splinter shield to add some strength during build (and shipping) because I was concerned that it was too large a surface without adequate support and very thin (to try and stay in scale). The shield showed up still warped a bit but a little very hot water and it snapped into the right position.

I am printing two versions of the main gun chassis. One that has the brakes and seats etc all integrated into the part (this adds significant structural integrity) and the second version I am printing as a test to see if I can get away with making the brake assembly such that they will rotate 90 degrees (like the real gun) so that the model can be shown in both a transport mode as well as a firing mode (when firing, the wheels sit on the brakes). The second part shown is the brake assy/arm with tie rods - surprisingly, the tie rods "float" and printed separately (but all connected properly).

More later and happy modeling!

[EPOCH3]

Here is the brake assy

[EPOCH3]

Here are a couple of quick pictures of some new parts for the French 75mm I just made.

1) Mini-sprue I made for small parts (lower portion of folding splinter shield, trunnion caps, axle parts etc)

2) Included a slightly better shot of the main carriage assy previously posted.

3 Barrel and elevation mechanism. While the picture doesn't show it, the top gun is 1 single piece while the lower gun is two pieces. The lower barrel assy can slide back and forth so that firing various positions during recoil phase can be shown.



Happy Modeling!

[EPOCH3]

primer applied to the limber: I use a light coat of metalizer lacquer paint (Testors 1455 gun metal). I will then use a paper blending tool to slightly buff out the surfaces a little here and there to get a little more realistic metallic look prior to painting.

[EPOCH3]

A few quick pictures of several parts for the French 75mm project I just rec'd in the mail.

I printed an extra set of wheels in a new material offering which claims to be
a high resolution material but stronger than the photosensitive resin
I have printed in to date (which is a bit brittle). The material is identified as
High Definition Acrylate (black parts in the pictures). The sample parts I made
look very nice indeed with a look and feel almost like polystyrene... I do not
know yet if the more complicated parts can be printed in this material but
I plan to reprint the Limber assy (as shown in the previous photos) in this new
material to test that out.

For those interested - the wheel set in the translucent resin material is about $18 while
the same set in the black High Definition Acrylate is about $12.

Happy Modeling

[EPOCH3]

A couple of additional pictures for the French 75mm:

A) First two pics showing how the articulated brake assembly with "floating" tie rods can be rotated 90 degrees from traveling position to firing position. The brakes, brake assy, tie rods and slide were printed as a single part.

B) sighting assembly.

Happy Modeling!

[EPOCH3]

Here is a little better picture showing the detail
of how the tie rods connect to other parts.
These were printed as a multiple component, single part.

[Christoffer]

Terrific French Canon.

[Hauptmann Holston]

Another fantastic 3D printed cannon Epoch3

[gregoire14]

great job, when running 3D is great, by cons must know how the subject in 3D before printing is already hard (at least for me)
in any case, bravo

[EPOCH3]

Shapeways recently introduced a new High Definition Acrylate material which I decided to experiment with and use on the French 75mm Limber (see above). I had previously used it for some simple wheels which turned out very nice but it wasn't yet possible to do more complicated parts using this material. That seems to be changing - I recently resubmitted the limber design and was successful getting it printed in the High Definition Acrylate material. Shapeways is also testing a feature that will allow you to leave the supports on if you wish - this probably saves them a lot of money not removing them but I thought it was a good idea because it should help reduce breakage when the parts are shipped through the mail. I received the part just today and I am really surprised at how well this turned out. The supports need to be removed manually but for anyone interested, I am uploading some photos of the part as it was received. This material is strong but the supports are very thin and as a result are somewhat flexible. In most cases I made a simple cut using a utility knife and then just tore them away. I only did a first pass at removing the supports and will finish that up later as time permits. All in all I like this material very much and will definitely be using it where I can.

Kind Regards

[EPOCH3]

I few more picture -
Regards

[EPOCH3]

To test out how cylindrical geometries would print in this newer High Definition Acrylate material, I decided to do a test reprint of the barrel assy for the French 75mm model above. The test geometry is actually printed as two separate parts in the above photos but I decided to integrate them into a single part for the test. Please find attached a few pictures of the barrel assy that I just received. I printed this part with supports removed (so Shapeways expends the labor to remove them). One side looks pretty good while the reverse side (where the supports were) looks spotted and pitted somewhat. The pictures look worse that it does in physical form and should smooth out with a light sanding.

For anyone interested, I did another part test for large vertical surfaces and include here just for convenience. I recently designed a small German WWI narrow guage (0.6m) ammo wagon for a friend and decided to model it so that various side panel configurations could be easily made. One configuration employs all four side panels which was a good part to make in order to test thin walled, vertical surfaces. The model showed up very bent - like it had been squeezed/pressed (not happy). It was originally very distorted but I ran it through a quick bath of very hot water and to my pleasant surprise it snapped immediately back into shape with pretty much true corners (like in just 3 seconds). There is a slight waviness to some surfaces but again, it looks worse in the pictures than in physical form and I think would disappear when primed etc. I am quite pleased with the latch and little details etc. Overall I would give it a grade of B+.

I hope some of this info helps others who are interested in model making using 3D printers and alternative technologies but can't find relevant examples. Kind regards