Submission #4 is a 28mm Scale Rolls Royce Armored Car from
TrenchWorx. I picked up this kit (along with way too many others) from a Kickstarter that was recently run by the Trenchworx guys. These models are resin casts made from 3D printed masters. Both the details and casting quality are amazing and I highly recommend their products.
This particular model was painted up in a fairly generic way and has no nationality markerings. I'll be using it for inter-war pulp (skirmish) gaming and it may even see it's way into a Bolt Action game or two.
The stowage in the back are custom cast by your's truly and are hold overs from my model railroading days. They're actually HO scale (1/87) but seem to look good in a 28mm (or 1/56) scale vehicle. The casting are pretty horrid and only work where I can hide some aspects of them. One of the great benefits of the Challenge is it does force one to use old inventories of modeling supplies!
You can see in the background one of my next projects for the Challenge - a 36 figure Napoleonic French infantry battalion (Perry plastics). After doing loads of American Civil War figures, I forgot how intricate Nappy uniforms are.
I think the Rolls Royce Armored Car should net me 15 points towards my tally!
From Curt:
Beautiful work Miles on one of the most elegant armoured cars of the period. I too just received my parcel from the Trenchworx Kickstarter and hope to have at least one of their models up for the Challenge in the coming months. I agree with you: the quality and detail of the models is really top-notch. I fiddled about and did some dry-fitting of the models and everything fit together seamlessly - very impressive. My only caveat to the models is their price, which is a bit eye-watering.
In regards to your Rolls I love the base sand colour you went with as it really helps to make the rivets, plate-seams and creases pop. I also really like the stowage you added as it really adds character to the model. My only suggestion would be to dirty up the tires, undercarriage and running boards, as from seeing photos from the period, these buggies would get incredibly filthy in the field.
Top shelf stuff Miles!
if this is typical of 3D printing we may be into a new Golden age of Modeling... Fine work.
ReplyDelete'Golden' Age is right when you see the retail prices of the things - yikes!
DeleteI thought the pricing wasn't bad Curt, in fact I was really happy with it. Then again, when compared to GW pricing, anything looks like a steal! If I remember correctly this one was $25 through the kickstarter and the tanks were $35 or $38. To me that's damn good. A GW tank or transport runs $45 - $95, so these are about 1/2, and don't even look at forgeworld resin!!!
DeleteOh, for the Kickstarter it was great but Buddy, their retail pricing is wallet-melting. A BT-7a, a light tank, is $85.00 and their T-28 is $169.50 USD! That starting to edge out even Forgeworld pricing. Also, using GW or Forgeworld for a pricing benchmark is not really fair. It's like using the Third Reich to measure other nations' mult-ethnic policies - everybody looks like a saint.
DeleteThere's a big price difference between the items that are actual 3d prints (like Curt referenced) and the items that are resin cast made from 3d printed masters (like the Kickstarter stuff, including the RR armored Car)
Delete3D printed originals can take up to 3 hours to fully print - which is very costly on a 100K + printer - resin casts are way cheaper to produce
Curt, you realize that the other stuff on their site are 3d prints, as Jmilesr states, right? Hence the price. The Kickstarter was to raise funds to get them into 3d print masters to molds to resin instead of just 3d printing. They don't have retail prices up for any of their resin mold stuff that I have seen yet, I expect it to be higher than the kickstarter, but not as high as their 3d print stuff. I would also kind of expect a kickstarter soon for some of their other 3d printed models to find their way into molds, just a guess though.
DeleteI think Trenchworkx would do themselves a big favour to explain to their potential customers what this means. To a lay person (me) the pricing just looks ridiculous. When I look at the website shop the supposed 3D print models have no description, just the price, while the others simply say 'resin cast'. By and large people don't like to read, instead they browse by jumping into the shop and taking a look around. And all they see is some very big pricetags. I guess what I'm saying is that they're not doing themselves any favours by not providing more information to their potential customers within their individual product descriptions.
DeleteI think your right on the descriptions - it's hard to understand the pricing rationale if your not familiar with the line - Like most providers in our hobby they started off as a side business before trying to grow - but Curt's comments are good feedback
DeleteI thought Curt was right as well with his comments, and even though I understood the difference, looking at their site it was not made clear to people without some background knowledge.
DeleteI therefore sent Trenchworx a message and pointed them at this thread so they could see the comments and why some people may get turned off by high prices and not realize why on some and never look at the others that are cast. I offered some suggestions based on your comments Curt and some of my ideas on how to clarify things.
One of them, Dave Barker, got back to me today and they have taken the comments to heart and changed up the website to make things much clearer. They now list the cast models on one page with an explination about them, and the 3d prints on another with even more data about them and why the cost. Pretty damn good customer service!!! One day and they made it much clearer to understand, and posted up the MSRP pricing for the cast models too, so final price on this one is $29 which to me is pretty good!
Well, a big bravo to the folks at Trenchworx! After I read your note Byron I scooted over to take a look at their website and its sooo much better. I like how they now explain both technologies (i.e. resin cast and 3D printing) to inform their customers to their basic mechanics and pricing rationale. I think their new approach to 'build-to-order' for their 3D models is the way to go. It keeps the pricing structure level (and affordable) with the resin range while still allowing the collector the opportunity to get their more premium models if they wish. Pretty impressive customer response I think. I think they'll be getting more of my business based on this efficiency and goodwill.
Deleteamazing quality and speed
ReplyDeleteThey did an amazing job with the 3D printing. Nice job of painting them up and good luck with the Napoleonics..
ReplyDeleteIt's always a pleasure to see a RR A/C. Top job sir!
ReplyDeleteLovely model, nicely finished!
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely model, though now I am dissapointed I never heard of this Kickstarter until now. Well done Miles!
ReplyDelete"More valuable than rubies" To quote TE Laurence in regard to armoured cars. You sir are a painting machine. Love it.
ReplyDeleteI've always loved the look of the Rolls Royce armoured car, so it's great to see someone painting one for the Challenge. Great work Miles
ReplyDeleteI agree with Tamsin - a great looking vehicle which you have done real justice to. Excellent stuff.
ReplyDeleteI really like the job you did on it, nice work! You have made me jealous though, that once again my kickstarter package is apparently at the bottom of the list for shipping... sigh
ReplyDeleteReally nice vehicle. The painting work is very clear and nice too. I like a lot that sand colour!
ReplyDeleteOh that's nice... I really want sme of these one day..
ReplyDeleteNice work Miles. One of my favourite ACs of the period and you've done a cracking job with it.
ReplyDeleteNice looking armoured car. Great colour choice. cheers
ReplyDeleteGreat work! Your speed is slightly depressing though. Already on your 4th submission!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind comments - I had a lot of fun with the Armored Car and have a second that will get tossed into the challenge fray in a bit.
ReplyDeleteBack to the ship yard - the HMS Warrior is proving a difficult hull to shape
She is a bute, will the Naps slow you down a little?
ReplyDeleteIan
Lovely looking car. Looks like she's a real beauty.
ReplyDeleteVery nice car, MIles. Excellent work!
ReplyDeleteLove the color choice. Such a lovely model.
ReplyDeleteThis car reminds me on the movie "Laurence of Arabia". Wasn't there one in it? Must see the movie again! Great work on this car!
ReplyDeleteGreetings
Peter