"Cheapest 28mm vehicles?" Topic

I am building a 45 Berlin board and so I want some vehicle wrecks to smatter across the table. Problems is 28mm vehicles are pricey for getting bulk amounts. Is there a cheaper alternative?

3D prints?

Yeah i might go that way. I'm sure there are cheap stls of tank wrecks available

Also look at the local equivalent of secondhand stores and rummage/garage sales. A tank missing some of its running wheels might be useless for gaming, but a great piece of scenery.

If there is some sort of Australian wargamers network, you might also enquire there for used equipment. People might have things they would give away or sell cheaply.

Grelber

I shall have a look and see.

Bring and Buy sales at shows or Flea Markets for those in the US are a good source of cheap 28mm vehicles. Same goes for online sites like EBay can often find job lots of stuff from people getting out of the period. Often badly painted and a bit battered, but fine for wrecks.

Some toys (esp 2nd hand) can be good value but you need to be aware of what scale you want – examples here blackshawgaming.wordpress.com/2016/11/25/%ef%bb%bftoy-tanks-for-bolt-action

Italeri is issuing a bunch of 1:56 armor kits that might meet your needs … depends on what you mean by "cheap"

3D printed. Do it yourself. Professional printers charge way to much.

pmwalt makes a pertinent point, depends what you mean by cheap.

FM, sorry to sound negative but having looked at ebay and a number of other sites I think you have set yourself a difficult task. I found the odd reasonably priced piece – although these were Airfix 1/72 scale – but none were AFVs used in the battle of Berlin. Good luck with the project.

A good resin printer (Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra is a good choice) will cost about $500. USD I know that sounds like a lot but you can print TONS of 28mm scale tanks and vehicles. I've done so myself and even factoring in the cost of the printer and resin, it's the only way to go. The number of tanks and vehicles I've printed in resin would have literally cost me thousands to buy from the manufacturers that actually make them in that scale. You can also print 28mm figures that turn out great! There are a lot of things you simply can't buy as a kit in that scale, so I think the 3D resin printer is the way to go.

Don't forget though, that 3d printing while cheaper than buying lots of vehicles, comes with a learning curve. That might mean ruined prints until you learn your machine and how it operates best, but with the plethora of free files available online balances it out.

-Jim

There are a couple here that may be useful.

link

Another plug for 3D prints…you can print as many as you want in any scale. Too easy!

P.

have you considered 3d paper PDF's? This site even has a free 251/9 in 28mm
link
I'm sure there are other paper model sites on line.

Lots of free STL Files of WWII vehicles for free on Thingiverse. More than enough variety for the average gamer too. I sometimes take my failed prints and turn them into wrecks when the prints are good enough for that but have a flaw that prevents it being used as a normal vehicle in usable condition.