Replace the engine with one that gets reasonable fuel mileage. Add a fume extractor so the main gun doesn’t choke the crew. Redo the wiring loops so they don’t burn as easily. Mount a new gunsight, commander vision system and the interior screens so you can actually see what’s going on outside. Attach the antennas and trackers needed for the modern army. Add a pylon mounted camera to let you spot the enemy and do your job while hull down.
Our brothers and sisters in the Kingdom might mock us for using tanks older than most of their crews, but I’d like to see them manage to do half of the things we have had to in order to make that Albion made piece of junk still work.
Unnamed Armoury Technician, Emirate of Bazistan
As I mentioned in the first post, I was waiting on some pieces from TT Immersion before continuing my CVR Upgrade Program. Well, obviously my words have a nasty habit of summoning 3d printed things and so the parts released over the weekend.
They are currently up on the store over on Gumroad and (as you can see) there is a nice mix of parts to add to modern vehicles. With element ranging from upgraded gun sights to long range comms antennas and Blue Force Tracker units, there are a lot of parts here to add some interesting visual elements to vehicles and make them look high tech.
Ideal for upgrading my CVRs!
However, before printing anything, I decided to mock up the layout in Chitubox. Luckily, I had all the parts unsupported so I could easily shift them around to get rough idea of how it would look. As you might expect, the CVR turret isn’t exactly brimming with space but I managed to get on all the stuff I wanted:
- Satellite Antenna (not on the render, already added to the turrets)
- Replacement Commander sight.
- Replacement gun sight. I scaled down the one from the pack as it was definitely on the large side seeing at it was designed for a M60.
- Rear mounted Blue Force Tracker module. To go extra fancy, I used the variant with the GPS add-on module and varied up the mounting bracket between the two vehicles.
- Rear mounted optical camera for recce work. I decided to use the partial height version and then trimmed off the lower housing. This makes it look a bit more permanent and also allows it to fit on the turret without impeding the 360 rotation.
I then left them all to print overnight and in the morning got them added to the tanks
And this is how they look. It’s still obviously a CVR underneath but I think the addition of the extra elements is a nice tweak. In game, I think I’ll be using these vehicles a bit like the Universal Carrier recce sections from the main game – a pair of lightly armoured but heavily armed weapon carriers that can work as a team and get to places that larger vehicles can’t.
While I’m showing off pictures, one thing I have noticed is how less bothered I am with misprints when I’m 3d printing vehicles myself vs buying in casts from other people. I think I need to double check my print settings but with some failed supports (hence the front mudguards being skewy) and some bowing on the back of the vehicle, these things aren’t pieces I’d even consider selling. But for my own personal projects, I’d rather have them printed, painted and on the table then 100% perfect display pieces. Once again, operating on the 3ft rule when it comes to how they look (although that may change now I have a camera capable of taking good photos.
So the next step with these boys is to get them painted. Most of my Bazi vehicles so far have been pure tan, but I think it might be time to break the airbrush out and give them some green camo strips. And then after that, I will attempt to print some heavier armour for the Bazi army. Once I fix… this issue.
Sigh.