Desert Covenanter (15mm)

This is my 3d-printed 15mm (1:100) Covenanter model, printed in white nylon by Shapeways.

There were not many Covenanters sent out to North Africa, but there were some — I've seen one in the background of a photograph of a tank park in Egypt, and they're briefly mentioned in one of the regimental diaries.


The Covenanter was a much-maligned tank, but in truth, by the time it was replaced by the Crusader (in which many of the same mistakes were made all over again), most of its issues had been fixed, and it was discarded more because the turret ring was incapable of supporting any weapon larger than the two-pounder rather than for any other issues. Much was made in the official literature about inadequate cooling, but it is notable that this issue is raised in none of the reports by the men who had to actually operate it.

It was retained as a primary training vehicle for some considerable time, at least up until late 1943.

To use this thing in Torch, I'd pretty much give it the exact same stats as a Crusader II, which is good enough for government work.

Nice modell, also those white nylon stuff has a very rough surface. Another material like "Smooth Fine Detail Plastic" would have been a better choice.

wolflord wrote:Nice modell, also those white nylon stuff has a  very rough surface.  Another material like "Smooth Fine Detail Plastic" would have been a better choice.

Certainly it would have been. It would have been a much more expensive choice too. In an ideal world, all my models would be highly-detailed precision miniatures, but in practice, this white nylon stuff looks just fine at tabletop distances. It does require quite a different method of painting though; you can't just bang on an overall wash and expect to get anything other than a horrible mess, and dry-brushing just looks like crap.

I have a troop of Covenanters painted up now (plus another in Home Service livery). I've experimented with a variety of methods to paint this sintered nylon 3d printing material, and I'm fairly happy with them as wargaming pieces. As I've said before on more than one occasion though, it's not adequate for fine modelling purposes.

Here's the one painted for the UK. I had this one printed before I adjusted the position of the road wheels, so it's a bit flatter than the final version.

Nice squadron. At table distance they look very fine.