by doodeman
This is a remix of the M3 Lee originally posted by Kpi1986, who found the model on Sketchup.
I've made several changes/options to make the model more print friendly, as well as make it more friendly to wargaming.
-The tracks are easier to print. The original had only one two sided model for the tracks; But to print it lying on either side, you needed lots and lots of supports on the inside; This made for error-prone printing, and was totally unnecessary, since the side facing the hull is not visible. There are now two separate models for each track; The side facing the hull has been extruded down and had it's hull-side flattened, removing most of the supports.
-The turret has had a peg added, and the hull has a corresponding hole. This means that you can place the turret on the hull without glue, so it can swivel around.
-The little turret is a separate piece, allowing you to align it independently from the parent turret.
-There are three variations of the hull:
-The hull with the gun and mantlet.
-The hull without the gun but with the mantlet, and a hole in it's place: I've found that when printing on 1:100, the barrel often got messed up, so I put a hole in it's place so you can easily fit a brass rod or a gun from another model.
-The hull without the gun or mantlet; The mantlet can be printed separately so you can align the gun differently for each printed copy. I found this important when printing whole units of the tank, since each tank aiming it's gun the same way was unpleasing
When printing, print the tracks with the smooth side to the plate. Print the turrets facing correct side up, with baseplate supports. You can print the hull aligned normally with baseplate supports, but I prefer to cut it in two using my slicer, and printing the front and rear facing up and then gluing. This minimizes layer lines and gives the sharpest detail, but gluing them back together without a visible seam is a hassle.
The model is 1:56 scale, which is more or less 28mm scale. To print at 15mm/1:100, scale to 56%.
