BPM Char B1

 I actually ordered two extra Char Bs from QRF as I knew my existing Peter Pig one was a bit of a bloater, but they didn't turn up, so I just ordered a single one from BPM to see how it was. As they are quite large tanks, I went with the cheap APL(?) 3D print stuff.

Compared to the Somua, the state it arrived in was a  bit alarming. My experience of getting off the print residue has not been very positive with other manufacturers. 

My fears were unjustified though, and all the print flash came off very cleanly, even on the spindly 47mm gun barrel. I'd had visions of having to drill out the mantlet and replace it with wire.

And it came out really nice indeed.

You can see how clean the print is a bit better from this angle. The tracks and turret are very sharp, in fact the turret is almost as good as the resin one on the Somua. No obvious striations on the sloping hull front either.

I did this one in the same scheme as my Peter Pig one, minus the German crosses. You can see here that the grills on the engine deck and hull side aren't quite as clean as the resin Somua, but they are still pretty good. Interestingly the wash seemed to stain this one worse than the Somua, although whether it is a difference in material or just the size of the thing, I don't know. I touched it up a bit but in the end decided I preferred the dirty look on the sides. A light drybush lifted it a bit.

Here it is (left) next to the PP Char B (right) . I knew I the Peter Pig one was a bit oversized, like a lot of the older PP castings, but really... Anyway, it is good enough, even if the metal one does have exhaust pipes four times the diameter of the printed one.

The BPM model is lovely though, almost as good as an injection moulded plastic one, and as I've said in previous posts, time for the existing metal manufacturers to be very afraid.