Battlefield 3D T12 75mm SP

 Along with the M8, another US vehicle I've been vaguely thinking of converting for ages, is the SP 75mm halftracks Tank Destroyer. I've got loads of unbuilt M3 halftracks and I've even got a spare long barrelled gun, but I've just never quite got around to to doing one.

But lo and behold, Battlefield 3D come riding to the rescue with this beautiful Night Sky Models rendering. Pete doesn't normally print the NSM models in 1/100th as they are so finely detailed, but this one came out really well.

This is the earlier model without the more enclosed gun shield. For some reason loads of 3D printers do the 105mm version (which is pretty useless for most things unless you want to do Kellys Heroes) but the 75mm version does not appear to exist apart from this one.

The detail is very fine as the master is aimed at larger scale models, you can just see the v. thin forward gun shield supports which are a fraction of a mm across. This is supplied as a multi part kit with separate wheels, tracks, driver, gun+crew and a separate loader. It went together easily with mixture of UHU and superglue though.

I really like the folded down front screen, and the driver is actually holding the wheel and gear stick, while wearing shirt sleeve order. He just looks so natural.

The main missing peice is a .50 cal AAMG which is supposed to be on that pole in the back, but there is no way I could figure out how to fix it on so it would stay there for any length of time. I might fix a plastic one with a tubular collar, but I think it nk it would still be very fragile. 

The two crew are printed integrally with the gun, so there is no need to position them in a fiddly manner. Why can't other printers do this? There was a third gunner holding a shell and he ended up in the turret of the M8. 

Like the driver, the figures are beautifully proportioned and animated. No bloated dwarves here, more like 1/100th scale AB miniatures.

I just did this plain OD with a liberal application of mud all over the lower areas. I picked out the tools but didn't add any markings as I have a vague idea some of these might have been sent to Russia (or maybe a 57mm variant?). Anyway, I'd like to keep the option.

I'm delighted with that and I'm planning on re-doing my Kasserine Pass scenario just so I can incorporate this into the game.