Brigade Models

Previews, new releases, interesting stuff … and cakes !

Brigade Models - Previews, new releases, interesting stuff … and cakes !

Category Archives: 3D WW2

New Shapeways Items

We’ve updated our Shapeways Store with a number of new items recently – not all of these are on our website yet, so you’ll need to straight to Shapeways website to see them.

Pegasus Bridge houses

These include more of the items from the Pegasus Bridge game, including the Vorpostenboot with which I had so much ‘fun’, more houses and a rather nice farmyard. There’s also an odd subject, a small (scale unspecified) model of a bridge (based on the design of Long Bien bridge in Vietnam) which we produced for a friend to use as a ground target for Vietnam-era aircraft games.

Farmyard

Vorpostenboot

Anyone following the saga of the Maidstone Wargames Society Pegasus Bridge game will be aware that one of the items needed is a German Vorpostenboot (literally ‘outpost boat’). No model of this is available in 1/300th scale, I once again went down the 3D printing route and created a computer model which we shipped off to Shapeways. The finished model has come back and once again we’re more than pleased with what we received.

Unpainted Vorpostenboot

Unpainted Vorpostenboot

The model was equipped with a selection of AA weapons from Heroics and Ros (thanks to Andy at H&R for sorting out something for the main gun !) and hurriedly painted for a run through of the game last weekend.

Vorpostenboot V 212 Fritz Busse on the Caen Canal

The model still needs finishing with detail painting and ink washes. If there is time I’d also like to give it a crew, but I suspect that pressures of finishing the rest of the models will count against me there.

Building a bridge … at last !

Anyone who’s been following the progress of our Pegasus Bridge game will realise that I’ve had a rather frustrating time getting hold of a model of the bridge itself. The 3D computer model has been submitted to and rejected by Shapeways on three or four occasions, but the Shapeways team have been very helpful in pointing out ways we could fix it, and at last we came up with a set of solutions. A copy of the model finally arrived at Brigade Towers yesterday, and to say I was pleased would be the understatement of the century. Just take a look …

Pegasus Bridge

Pegasus Bridge

Pegasus Bridge

The model is already on the painting table, ready for installation on our gameboards in the next week or two. There are also a bunch of other new items ready for our Shapeways store, but I’ll save those for later this week – I thought Pegasus deserved an entry all of its own.

If you want your own, the model is available for sale now in our Shapeways store. If anyone wants to pick one up at Salute, e-mail us by the end of this week (March 31st) and we’ll ensure one is waiting for you.

World of Water

Another bunch of models have just become available on our Shapeways store – two more Normandy buildings, and three water towers. Yes, three ! Why ? No idea really, I just sat down one day and decided to make them …

The two Normandy buildings are more variations on a similar theme, as I strive to make enough variety to cover my Pegasus Bridge table. All of the buildings in our range are based on real ones that I photographed while on holiday.

Normandy House

Normandy House

Now for the water towers. First, we have a fairly straightforward concrete ‘mushroom’ tower, based on the Roihuvuori one in Helsinki, Finland, although much scaled down – the real thing would be be about 6.5″ high at 1/300th scale !

Mushroom Water Tower

Next up is a spheroid tower, based this time on one at Darwin Airport.

Spheroid Water Tower

Finally, and my personal favourite, a British 30s water tower based on one at Tilehurst near Reading, complete with a first floor viewing gallery !

Tilehurst Water Tower

I promise some better photos soon, just as soon as I’ve painted these …

We’ve also been through our entire Shapeways store and reviewed our pricing. In the process we’ve knocked a little bit off the price of just about all of the models, so they’re even better value now.

Salute 2012

We have an ever-increasing number of 3D models on our Shapeways Store which are printed to order – we don’t generally hold any stock. However, if you want to avoid postage costs, we are taking advance orders on these models to be collected at Salute 2012 – just e-mail us a list of your requirements. We will then order these from Shapeways, and you can collect them on the day. Because of the lead-time on Shapeways production, we must have any orders by the end of Sunday April 1st at the latest. You can either pay in advance or on the day – but please note that we can’t offer any discount on Shapeways items. You will be able to see many of our Shapeways creations on the day at the Maidstone Wargames Society Pegasus Bridge game.

Normandy, here we come …

Some of you may have been following my 6mm Pegasus Bridge project for Maidstone Wargames Society (if you’re coming to Salute, be sure to pay it a visit). Many of the buildings and structures for this have been created as 3D computer models and printed out by Shapeways. Today we’re previewing a few more of these designs, which will be making their way into our Shapeways shop when we have had prototype prints back (due in the next few days, in case you want to check back then …).

The largest model by far is Benouville Church – this famously received a PIAT round through the tower on D-Day, as it was being used as a vantage point by German snipers.

Benouville Church

Benouville Church

Benouville Church

Apart from the church, most of this batch are all general-purpose houses that would serve for most regions of France (and probably a greater part of Western Europe, including Belgium, Holland and Germany). By careful design of the models (keeping the amount of material used to the absolute minimum), we think we can set the prices for these so that they are competitive with resin buildings of a similar size.

Normandy House 1

Normandy House 3

Normandy House 4

Normandy House 5

Additions to the Shapeways Shop

We previewed some more 3D models a few days back – we were waiting for some prototypes to turn up before we added them to the store, just to make sure they were all OK.

Well, the parcel arrived yesterday and I’ve very rapidly taken a few photographs just to show them off. All are available from our Shapeways Shop as of now.

Cooling tower (67mm tall)

Power Pylons

Small water tower

Horsa Bridge end pieces

More Shapeways Items

Following on from the launch of our Shapeways shop, we’ve been beavering away at new items that we can add to it. As mentioned, we’re sticking to subjects that would be difficult to offer in conventional materials, and the new offerings are no different. Pride of place must go to the magnificient 6mm Pegasus Bridge model which has been created for Maidstone Wargames Society’s display game which you’ll be able to see for the first time at Salute in April.

Pegasus Bridge

The power station Cooling Tower is a response to a request on the 6mm miniatures Yahoo list – it’s a bit small compared to some real world counterparts which would reach as much as 2 feet high on a wargames table at 6mm scale ! We’ll be offering this in two sizes, 60mm and 100m high.

Cooling Tower

Next up is a modern Power Pylon, again not based on anything specific but typical of the many that we see marching across the countryside here in rural Kent.

Power Pylons

Lastly for this preview comes a small Water Tower – again, this is for the Salute display game. It’s a pretty typical design, since I can’t find any photographic reference of the real thing that was in place on D-Day.

Water Tower

All of these models will be made available from our Shapeways store as soon as we’ve had prototypes back, just to prove that they work – probably 2-3 weeks (Pegasus Bridge might be a bit longer since the first attempt was rejected – which is why we get test prints first !!).

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