Back in December I did a mini review on some 3-D printed vehicles I got from Butlers Printed Models. This time round I’ve got some vehicles from Paint & Glue Miniatures, so I thought I’d feature them. I wouldn’t have bought these if I hadn’t seen Chris feature some of their other models over at Not Quite Mechanised, so I’m laying the blame squarely on him!
Bit of a disclaimer first – of the three models shown here (you can see them in the picture below), which are all quite nice, I’ve made a complete hash of painting one of them, so don’t judge that one on its paint job!

The three 20mm/1:76 scale models are (left to right) a Japanese Type 98 So-Da armoured personnel carrier, a Russian STZ-5 artillery tractor and a German 15 cm sIG 33 (Sf) auf Panzerkampfwagen I Ausf B, commonly called a Bison. None of these are particularly large vehicles, as you can hopefully tell from the Japanese cyclist in the foreground. I’m not going to do any background on the vehicles themselves in this post, since all of them will feature in some upcoming posts along with related vehicles.

The Bison is a single piece model and quite a complicated shape, since it consisted of a 150mm sIG 33 heavy infantry gun, complete with wheels, slapped on to the top of a stripped down Panzer I light tank chassis with some armour plate welded around the gun to protect the crew. The model has printed well and although there are some horizontal print lines on the armoured superstructure, these aren’t all that noticeable after a few coats of paint. I maybe thought this model might have been better printed in four parts (hull, gun and two tracks) because it was difficult getting a paint brush into some areas, particularly under the gun, but in the end I just used an Army Painter wash in a dropper bottle to get into those tricky spots (which are not easily visible anyway). Overall, a nice model that captures the character of this vehicle! I should mention that I’d originally bought a model of this vehicle from elsewhere that wasn’t up to scratch, so I replaced it with this Paint & Glue model and I’m very pleased with it!

The STZ-5 is available from Paint & Glue in two versions, with a canvas tilt over the cargo area or with the cargo area open. I opted for the version with the canvas tilt. This is a one piece model and pretty easy to get a paintbrush into all round. There are some print marks evident on the top of the canvas tilt because of its shallow slope that I maybe could have covered with putty, but they aren’t that obvious once it’s painted. Another model with plenty of character I think.

Lastly, the Japanese So-Da, a small but nice model that I failed to paint up decently! This came in three parts (hull and two tracks) and I think it was a resin print because the finish was very clean and it went together with no problems. I painted it in a three tone camouflage scheme, but then overdid both the black/brown wash and the drybrushed highlight, which on such a small vehicle just looks crap! I painted three other Japanese vehicles at the same time and made a hash of them as well! So, the base model’s pretty decent, but the paint finish isn’t!
So, overall, three nice vehicles from Paint & Glue Models! I’ve already got my next order placed, so I just need to get some painting practice in now!
Interesting post John. I must say the 3D printing has changed the availability of rarer vehicles. I always enjoy your painting style, and I think these all look fine – especially the Russian artillery tractor, though hopefully it will be destroyed by a Finnish StuG!
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Thanks Mark! 🙂 It is nice to be able to get models of some of those not too common vehicles I must admit. I think it’ll be a while before my Finnish StuG destroys anything though (it remains built, primed and safely stored away, probably somewhere not far from the Ark Of The Covenant)!
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Great looking additions to your forces John, and some unusual looking vehicles
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Thanks Dave! 🙂 Can never have too many unusual vehicles!
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Looking good dude! Still yet to try 3D printing but getting progressively more impressed by the results 👍
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Thanks mate! 🙂 It’d be right up your street – I think of it as scratchbuilding with 21st century technology (although cardboard takes a lot of beating)!
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Those are very nice, I might be being a bit dense here but I take it you bought the vehicles complete from Paint and Glue, and not the files that you print yourself?
If so what is the advantage over other (not printed) models are they cheaper than say “£Grubby Tanks” etc…?
That said the siG is a lovely model.
Cheers Roger.
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Thanks Roger! 🙂 You’re not being dense, I just haven’t explained everything properly! Paint & Glue printed the models for me, cleaned ’em up and shipped ’em out! I’m still at the stage where I think owning a 3-D printer will have to wait until they become much simpler to use and maintain.
Grubby Tanks is maybe a bad example to use, since I reckon their resin products are very good but definitely under-priced. The prints produced by Paint & Glue and Butlers Printed Models tend to be cheaper than resin or metal vehicles – surface finish is not as good as moulded resin models (not far off with printed resin though) but I’ve had some metal vehicles in the past that had absolutely shocking mismatched mould lines on them! Any print lines that are there tend to either not be visible at anything over a foot away or be smoothed out after paint and varnish. The main attraction for me is now the range of models available, coupled with a decent price. BPM also have a good set up on their shop that allows you to buy things like tank turrets separately, which is great for allowing you to represent different nationality vehicles just be switching turrets around.
The other good thing about 3-D prints is that you can just get ’em out of the pack and paint them – some cleaning up and minimal assembly if you’re a bit OCD about these things like me!
I agree with you on the sIG! Just had to have one!
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Thanks for the explanation John. 😀
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As others have said John an interesting post with some unusual vehicles. The future of 3D printing is an interesting one. I suspect the day will come when not only will we print our own rather than buy but we will be designing our own minis too.
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Thanks Dave! 🙂 I agree with you wholeheartedly!
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Very nice, John, though I still can’t take my eyes of that Japanese cyclist, I think he’s brilliant!
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Thanks Justin! 🙂 That probably means you haven’t yet spotted the badly painted Japanese vehicle he standing next to!
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Lol! I’ve taken another look and nope, still can’t see any badly painted vehicles!
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Those are great. Love the Tractor. How widely used was the Japanese APC?
Cheers,
Pete.
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Thanks Pete! 🙂 I’m going to do a post soon (hopefully) that’ll feature Japanese APCs. I’ve got a source with production figures but have a feeling that the Type 98 So-Da was not all that common, whereas the later, larger Type 1 Ho-Ki (think I’ve got that right) was produced in larger numbers and deployed in China, Manchuria and Luzon (maybe also Burma).
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I really like the STZ-5 model, the windows and canvas work great with it.
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Thanks Lord Commander! 🙂 The STZ-5 is a favourite of mine. I like the one with the cover on it, but could be tempted to buy another one with the open back! The only downside was I’d painted the STZ, already had a gun crew but then had to paint a gun to go with them all!
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I’m not a vehicles painter so what do I know but they all look really great to me. The Bison is probably my favourite of the bunch – so unusual.
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Thanks Marvin! 🙂 I think the So-Da must be the elephant in the room, ’cause there’s only me mentioned its poor paint job! I like the Bison as well, although I think the STZ-5 is my favourite out of this lot!
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Nice little collection of little models; interesting too to see another Bison. I particularly like what you did with the windows on the STZ-5 and the bicyclist was first rate. I think you have a knack for velocipedes. 🙂
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Thanks Ann! 🙂 I suspect that, as the first of the self-propelled sIG 33s, this version somehow got called the Bison and all the following types were referred to by the same name, even though they were officially called Crickets (and I suspect that the name Bison stuck because it was a bit more intimidating! “I’ll set my crickets on you” doesn’t really sound like much of threat)!
The tractor’s windows are painted in my usual method for glazed cabs, although finding the right colour to fit in with the overall vehicle colour is sometimes tricky. I’m glad you like the cyclist!
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I suspect you are right, “I’ll set my crickets on you!” just doesn’t do it. Then again … 🙂
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Er … this is the link I meant to send:
The other one is a link someone sent me to let me know that one of the major, local theaters in our area is closing down permanently.
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This link’s just that little bit more creepy, but I’ve posted your other comment ’cause featuring a bit of people’s local news is maybe not a bad thing to be doing in these interesting times 🙂
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Pretty sad about the theater. We used to go there a lot. They had the most comfy seats by far and they also had this huge flight of stairs that I liked to sprint up for fun when there weren’t too many people around. The place will be missed.
As for the crickets, well, one can always eat them. Back when my husband was going through his bug-eating faze I used to peruse sites like this one: https://www.insectgourmet.com/cricket-recipes/
One thing about people, if you want less of some creature in the world simply promote the idea of eating eating it….
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Know what you mean about these sorts of places closing! I’m not going to risk clicking on that link – it sounds a bit too much like a Nurgle-sponsored site to me! 😉
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A little Nurgle is good for you! Surely you don’t want to miss out on learning how to make a “Green Breakfast Smoothie.” It is really good for you, having (among other things), lemon, ginger, and cricket protein powder, which you can buy prepared or make your own … especially if you live near San Antonio at certain times of the year, apparently!
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I like that Bison. Never heard of it before. Nice paint work on all the vehicles though. Like Mark said 3D printing has definitely broadened the scope of what can be bought, painted and played with these days.
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Thanks IRO! 🙂 That version of the Bison always strikes me as the sort of thing you’d come up with, cobbled together from what’s at hand, but it does the job it was meant to! 3-D printing’s been good for me and lets me fill in some gaps in my forces that otherwise I’d find difficult!
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If I remember correctly, this puts you at 250+ vehicles so congratulations on that milestone! These do indeed look quite small and I’m impressed by how well you painted them. After a bit of a quiet period, I feel spoiled to get two updates in the span of a week from you, John! 🙂 Keep them coming!
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Thanks Jeff! 🙂 I think the quiet period has just been while I’ve been waiting to get stuff varnished and photographed and painting has actually been going on at a steady rate, and all vehicles as well (although I think burn-out is fast approaching)! The bottleneck now is getting blog posts done!
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That makes sense to me. I’m looking forward to regular updates then as I always find your posts informative and a nice window into WW2 gaming as well 🙂
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Looking good, John …. and guilty as charged 🙂
Regards, Chris
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Thanks Chris! 🙂 You continue to remain a bad influence – more Russian stuff to come!
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They all look good to me, John – but that’s the thing about real-world vehicles – they’re not perfectly painted in Ultramarine Blue or Space Wolves Grey (or whatever) with perfect(ly unrealistic) edge highlighting and no wear and tear. I’d be good with facing any and all of them acros the table!
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Thanks Azazel, I appreciate that! 🙂 I do like that I can now get those more obscure vehicles as 3-D prints!
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The guy on the bike though 😍. He is ace!
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Thanks Amy! 🙂 I’m going to stop featuring the cyclists – they always seem to steal the show! 😉
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