I once went to a Doctor Who convention and wrote 'Bad Wolf' in giant letters on Swansea beach outside, does that make me a geek too?

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"god help me, i do love it so" - Patton

For one, many GW models have different track sections. The Gorgon has different tracks than the Malcador (which uses Chimera or LRuss track sections).

Second, just because I have a track section doesn't mean the job is done. I have to duplicate the section around the path, and that takes tuning because the profile of the tanks are different. Since the track is a flat piece, it doesn't necessarily fit on a curved surface well, so I have to jigger the individual pieces around.

Then I have to combine all of those pieces with the main hull, since that's the way 3D printing goes. The model has to be a single contiguous surface, not just a kajillion subpieces. This is a curiously time consuming process that has lots of weird pitfalls.

That's why I took the shortcut that you saw. It probably saved me 3 or 4 hours of boring tedium that would otherwise cut into more interesting efforts.

The prototype and sample castings will demonstrate if this approach is a dead end. Gotta experiment, you know.

But let's take a new angle on the tread question - how do you guys feel about the FW tracks? Because these are definitely more detailed than FW chimerae, etc.

Personaly I find the FW tracks a bit weird. The Chimera variant treads are ok, but the russ ones look way too narrow. If I look at the EW Mbt, the tankette or the Gorgonzola these both look really nice  but I understand that they are somewhat time consuming to make. For large models like the Gorgonzola I still think the detailed links are the way to go, but for regular sized tanks I think a simplified tread is acceptable. The tankette would still look really nice with a set of treads like the FW chimera chassis

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Sofa General

Nobody expects the Inquisition!!!
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Then I have to combine all of those pieces with the main hull, since that's the way 3D printing goes. The model has to be a single contiguous surface, not just a kajillion subpieces.

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"god help me, i do love it so" - Patton

You cool.

does MOI have an intersect tool the same as sketchup?

say for instance, you build a model out of parts, over lapping and nasty.

then you click and tell it to 'intersect' and it auto adds lines along any two faces that well, intersect.

Or does it need to purely the one continuous surface, no internal geometry allowed?

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My shifting projects

It has a boolean union function, where 2 solids can be joined into a single solid. That particular function is rather tempermental, so I usually just join 2 solids at a time, rather than the dozens or hundreds that make up a model.

Glen's commentary, and the much feared Negative Criticism of Vermis (patent pending), have shamed me into revising the tracks.

"But wait!" the masses cry out, "Why aren't the track sections as wide as the side section."

To which I reply, "That's the way the model looks."

NICE !

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"god help me, i do love it so" - Patton

*cough* Glyn (it's a Welsh thing)

Looks great O-man! And you're right with the tracks

I dunno.  I like the latest version of the tracks, but I wasn't going to bite your face off...

But I'm not Welsh! As far as I know, anyway.

Terribly sorry. Please forgive my cultural insensitivity.

It's fine! I get it from English people this side of the pond too and I'm not bothered, just thought I’d correct it in passing. And indeed not or you’d be Ddyfrgiddyn instead    (or something like that anyway... my knowledge of my native country’s language is limited to 5 words or so, so I had to guess at it with an online translator site).

While I think of it ?  Any update on E&C's Malcafloors    Inquiring minds want to know ...  

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Legion 4 "Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War !" ... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

Well, otter is ddyfrgi, and man is ddyn, but in welsh compound nouns are the other way around to the germanic english way, for example mochyndaear is literally "pig earth" but is read as "earth pig", meaning badger. Therefore, otterman would be Ddynddyfrgi. Luckily "ddyfrgi" starts with the letter "Dd", which doesn't mutate, which would make it a lot harder.

Pronounciation is a little tricky, but phoenetically it'd be similar to:

"theen-thuver-gee"

Where "th" is pronounces as in "then", and "gee" has a hard G, and the "r" is rolled like in italian...

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http://www.troublemakergames.co.uk/
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