I decided to design and print a new commanders hatch.

I had a Trumpeter kit handy, so I used that for measurements. If I were going to model this for production, it would be a more lengthy process involving research, photographs of the real article, more detailed base drawing construction, etc…

In this case, I just wanted to get the CAD model out for print ASAP due to a rapidly approaching deadline, so I modeled what I had, then scaled it down to 1:48 scale.

I may wait until I have the finished hatch in hand before I grind off the existing one on the turret.

Here you can see the original 1:35 scale model and the reduced 1:48 scale version.

And a quick Photoshop of the new hatch in place.

We’ll see how it actually turns out. It should be here around April 6th, so stay tuned.

Thanks for looking!