Aotrs Shipyards is a webstore on Shapeways.com, a 3D print house which had production and shipping facilities located in the USA and the Netherlands.

I managed to squeeze in, between holidays, illness and convention preparations, some time after all, so this month I can proudly present the BTR-80A (as has been requested) and the BTR-82A, in 144th!

These presented something of a challenge – the BTR-82A turret especially – due to the relative rarity of decent photos and the somewhat complex shape. However, I think I am, for rare occasion, perhaps going to slightly one-up the 35th scale kits. As far as photographs I have seen, the BTR-80A only has the three firing ports on the right-hand side, unlike the regular BTR-80’s four. I actually noticed because the BTR-82 very definitely only has the three in all the photos. The model kits of the 80A, however, all seem to have the 80 hull!

(It was also weird that I found in a couple of places an identical photo of the BTR-82, only someone had flipped the image. But it took a while for me to spot the one that was right=way around and caused me some consternation as to whether there was a handed-ness to BTR-82 turrets!)

Also a note – Shapeways has redesigned their website – badly, as is sadly typical for Shapeways. I apologise for it being considerably worse (the button, by-the-by for shopping you have to scroll down and click on explore on the main screen). Rest assured, now the release is out of the way, I will be voicing my concerns directly to the CEO later this week.

BTR-80A

BTR-82A

Photos, as usual, of Replicator 2 prototypes. A result of the new software, unlike the previous versions of the BTRs, I could actually print them as one piece, rather than one and bottom like I used to have to. The wheels are still a bit iffy, but not hugely more so than for the two-piece prints – and, as usual, Shapeways prints won’t have that problem either.

No immediate plans for next month (the ZBD-03 remains a possibility), so we’ll just have to see where we go!

We will be at Other Partizan on the 19th of August under our usual banner of the KB Club. We might possibly be at Chillcon in September, but we haven’t had confirmation yet and we did book in at the last minute, so we’ll see!

Shapeways, Aotrs Shipyards