I keep meaning to post my prints, especially to encourage Cassidy (who is, I believe, the creator of these designs) to keep it up. I love these prints, I love the engineering, and I love fiddling with them. 😅
So, I did first print a Fury Express, but my Ender-3 v3 wasn't doing its best work, and there were some things that didn't want to go together, and that experience actually convinced me to take the advice of friends and get a Bambu A1. That ended up being a very good choice. At any rate, I didn't get the Fury Express out to take pictures of it, but it's very pink and you're not missing anything.
Instead, let's start with my Bastion Engine "Landcrawler" which I am setting up to be an Ash Wastes vehicle for my Ironhead Prospectors gang in Necromunda. I used four tracked axles instead of wheels, and I love the way this looks. I did a few modifications though - I designed a spacer that is on the axles so that the tracks are further out, so they are more visible under the catwalk that surrounds the vehicle. I also didn't want it bristling with heavy guns - I wanted it as more in the direction of a civilian vehicle. So, instead of more guns on the front, I modified the Conductor's Thorns into simple spikes. And that's how we get here:
I want the Bastion Engine to pull tracked flat cars and maybe a tracked "caboose," but I haven't gotten all the way there yet. Nonetheless, I love the cargo stuff, so I did take a photo of what I've printed:
That's all the further I am on my Landcrawler, but I want to at least paint the main engine first before I print another flat car and a caboose. Painting the tracked wheels effectively is going to be an interesting experiment, but I'll let you know what happens. Next: The amazing Crawler Crane!
I haven't decided on color schemes or anything yet, but in the meantime I've had my next "off the rails" idea, which I can sum up with this screenshot:
This isn't going to work well by just slapping the sides of the tank onto the train, but I am just kind of seeing how it looks all together. It might be a terrible monstrosity, but that might make it even more compelling. 😂
Thanks Cassidy! The note about differing heights of off-track conversions wasn't even a small criticism - they are different heights for good reasons, and I have gone waaaay off-book with what I'm doing. 🤣
Speaking of... I took the time yesterday while I was inspired to build the spacers in Blender, and I was able to work out the dimensions in one try!
My vision is almost complete! Now I'll probably take pieces from the WildTrack conversions or other bits and make some pieces to hide the big gaps around the big tires and the tracked wheels. And then I have to decide how many of which guns are going to go in all those holes on top...
Chuck, I really appreciate you sharing all this! It’s awesome seeing how much you’re enjoying the prints and making them your own. Stuff like this really keeps me motivated, so seriously, thanks for posting. Your builds are looking killer, I love the creativity you’re putting into them!
I’ve actually switched over to Bambu for almost all my printing now too, and I haven't looked back. They’re just solid machines.
Thank you for bringing up the off-track wheel height differences. That’s really good feedback, and it’s something I’ll keep in mind for future designs. Some extra spacer options might help make things easier for mixing different setups. Your fixes are pretty clever though, I’d really like to see how everything turns out once you get it painted up.
Keep us posted on the project, I’m really anxious to see how all of these pieces unfold. Always love seeing the fun custom builds people come up with!
Again, really appreciate all the support! Thanks again for sharing!
-Cassidy
For the OXKART, I absolutely loved it, but I want to use it as a Land Raider variant, so my main change is that I'm putting lascannons on the sides and I'm leaving off the turret. For the top attachment point, I'm considering either mounting a robed figure in a shrine a la the Ravenwing Darkshroud (and putting two heavy bolters on that shrine), or just going off the rails entirely and making some very custom doodad, or cannon. I've been looking through lore for obscure Land Raider patterns, but I haven't found one I like so far. Anyway, here's the OXKART so far!
I'll update this thread when I have new developments!
Okay, now on to my in-progress Slamtrak! I wanted this vehicle to be an off-track vehicle as well, so I decided it would be cool as a half-track. But in my mind, a set of wheels followed by three sets of tracks wouldn't look as cool. I also checked, and it turns out that mixing-and-matching off-track options doesn't work perfectly because they seem to be different heights. Darn. Well, I decided it would instead be a half-track - big wheels on the front, and a continuous track that goes over the rear three axles. I modified a track so that it was about the right length, and printed it. Of course, it was too loose. So I will have to actually offset the front and rear track axles so it's tighter (but more on that later). Now... the big tire conversion sits much higher than the tracked conversion. So I tried to make the big tires smaller to match the tracks. This turned out very ugly, which is sad because I spent quite some time messing with it. 😂 I looked again at the small tires, and I decided to go with them. I also added a spacer to lift the tracks to be even with the wheels. So, after all that, this is where I am with my SlamTrack:
But I have two problems - 1) I want the result to match what's in my brain, and 2) I hate waste. So, I don't love the small tires on this behemoth. That's fine - I can use them on another train or vehicle or whatever. Instead, I want to put big tires up front, because I think they'll look better. But the rear track is a bigger problem - with big tires, up front, the tracks have to be lifted more. But the tread is loose on the wheels, so I also want to tighten that up. So I am probably going to measure out and design a little piece to both lift the tracked axles and displace the front and rear tracked axles by about 5mm or so. Don't worry - I'll do the measurements. At any rate, this big monster is going to essentially be some sort of Space Marine or Imperial vehicle custom-made to carry the LocoChrono into battle. I haven't decided how many guns to add yet, but it'll probably be several. Next: My slightly customized OXKART!
So when the Crane Crawler came out, I knew I needed that. This time, I didn't mess with anything. The chain printed perfectly on the first try, so that was exciting - this was where the Bambu A1 really started to mock my poor Ender-3. I think I basically was running my Ender-3 at speeds that were too high to do a good job. Additionally, I would say it's hard to overstate how the "Active Flow Rate Compensation" feature on the Bambu printers really makes parts fit together better. While I constantly calculate flow rate, that doesn't make my corners square. Apparently, the Bambu is essentially calculating acceleration or jerk as it goes into a corner or angle, and it is on-the-fly recalculating the appropriate flow to get a clean shape. That's my understanding, at least. It really changes the ease with which parts go together without sanding, trimming, filling, etc. I hope this feature is going to be absolutely ubiquitous on FDM printers going forward.
Next: My customized (partially successfully) SlamTrak!