3D Print: The Ursa Troop Transport by Culverin Models

I'm still playing my Chem-Dogs. Even winning occasionally. And I am still expanding the force, although I've largely abandoned the idea if building in 500 point blocks. I'm still learning the army, and feeling out what I need for a typically 1000 point force. And that's not about having the units that are necessarily the most powerful. Its about having something I enjoy playing, and suits the theme. I could double-up on Rogal Dorns, and I'll no doubt allow myself one eventually, but blasting the enemy off the table isn’t the entire game. So, I've sourcing more mobile units, which includes today's subject.

The Ursa is an in-house design by Culverin Models, one of a range of 3D printed vehicles, with an implicit eye towards being used in Warhammer 40k, although they do historical stuff too, and you can see the crossover. There’s a lot of these printing enterprises around on Etsy and eBay, although CM makes its own designs rather than merely printing commonly available files. Stuff like this will undoubtedly cause GW problems down the road, but that's what happens when you hit the big time and run your business like a walled garden. I mean, I can get very left wing, but the fact things like this exist and dramatically undercut GW is just the free market at work. My first impression of the Ursa was it was pretty good for the price but it needed some serious prep-work. The basic model comes with a selection of weapons and pegs together without glue. If you were in a hurry, you could have this in a playable state in 'bout a minute, and that's an unexpected plus. The downside is that the model has numerous artefacts from the 3D printing process that a drybrush will readily reveal. I did manage to clean a lot of that up, not all as some bits were hard to sand out, and it took ages. Then again, this was markedly cheaper than any other not-Chimera I've come across, were in the sub-20-quid bracket here, so I suppose you get what you pay for. If you’re getting one of these, get yourself some cheap primer too, because you’re probably gonna need to file, spray, and file again a couple of times before things become acceptable.

I then proceeded to replace the weapons with stuff from my bitz box, fill gaps, and add rivets for visual interest. There's not a huge amount of fine detail, it looks a bit like an M3 Grant I think, and its honestly big for a Chimera, but there was potential with this model. The materials used, once properly prepared, don't forget the sanding, were fairly easy to cut and modify. Its closer to plastic then brittle resin. I added rivets to the flanks as they were a bit plain, the HK missile is another Ramshackle Games piece, while the heavy stubber is a Wargames Atlantic weapon from the Builldogs sprue. The multilaser and heavy bolter are salvaged GW pieces, while the lagun array was represented by rows of tokens. You may be wondering what a lasgun array is, and, well, its basically an artefact of GW going back and forth on how firing ports for passengers work. Currently, an amalgamated weapon profile plus a roof hatch is how the Chimera treats such things. The above is a fairly typical load-out for a chimera; other options exist, like a famed dual flamethrower version, but I wanted to keep it conventional as future proofing and to help it be recognisable as a Chimera proxy. Its a decidedly odd thing in use in game though, its a lot of shots, but its a bit disjointed.

 

Painting was achieved via the spraycan method, in much the same manner as the Hellhound. I was however as careful as possible when applying washes. Even with the sanding I had done, I was still worried about the Agrax Earthshade revealing the subtle lines of the print. I think I managed to avoid that, but its something you can see in hand, if not on tabletop. But yeah, this turned out OK, and I’ll hopefully do better with the sanding issue next time.

With Culverin Models, I seem to have found a competitor to Ramshackle Games. Neither is necessarily A tier stuff, but both are cheap and cheerful in their way. Their way being small, seemingly one-man enterprises offering inexpensive models to miserly bastards like myself. Ramshackle Games probably has the advantage for sheer quantity of model bits, but Culverin seems to be challenging them on delivery times, sticker price, and resin quality. I’m probably gonna get something of theirs again. And if the sanding requirement is reduced or otherwise mitigated? I may have a new favourite.