As I take a small break from horses and work this morning I decided to work on another guide to help Flames of War players build up their armies using the free models found on the internet. This time we’re going to work on The Fighting First from the new North Africa book. What Battlefront has done with this book is compiled several of the nations into one large book, this makes it easier for players to literally get the most bang for their buck by offering several nations in one compendium.
Since this book focuses on mid-war forces, The Fighting First will have some different models in it than the previous guide I wrote about last week or so. There will also be some models that are the same and can be used for both. The ability to “overlap” forces makes it easy to play the game in different points of the war without breaking the bank… but we’re not going to break the bank because we’re going to print out forces out hopefully.
Presently there are no infantry models out there I am willing to add and say you need to use. I’ve learned on my own that getting infantry to look AND print right is somewhat of a challenge. It’s no secret that I am not fond of the squashed look which is required to get consistently good prints without risking smaller or thinner bits not printing or coming off when you remove supports. So with that said, right now I am not including infantry… this might change later if I have time to develop mine more or if someone happens to release them.
So without any further gilding the lily, let’s get into the links for the models to 3D print your own Fighting First mid-war army:
- *The Sherman’s can all be taken care of with one link but I’ve included it with each model below, TigerAce over on Thingiverse was nice enough to bundle these all into one nice bunch so not only are they are easy to find, but there’s also bonus tanks like Oddball’s tank in there.
- **Several other vehicles can also be found in one large pack, and the models are often referred to as “Bergman’s”, seems the big zip file is broken due to its size so scroll through and just download the vehicles you want on the page.
- M4 Sherman*: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2318834
- M3 Lee: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3553160
- M3 Stuart: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3553160
- M10 Tank Destroyer: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2476519
- M27: COMING SOON
- M6 Heavy Tank: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3174913 ( needs to be rescaled )
- T55 Interceptor: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2500006
- T14 Assault Tank: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5205225
- M3 Halftrack: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4577576 ( multipart model )
- M4 Armored 81mm Mortar Halftrack: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3553160
- T30 75mm Assault Gun Halftrack: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3055895
- T28E1 37mm AAA Haltrack: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4784949
- M3 Stuart OP: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3553160 ( just a regular old M3 Stuart )
- M7 Priest**: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3553160
- Jeep**: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3553160
- Jeep 60mm Mortar: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3419825
- M3A1 Armored Car: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3553160
- P40 Warhawk: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1365054 ( A simple yet effective model )
- The Stowage Project: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2485741 this is great for adding greeblies to otherwise plain or too simple vehicles, there’s all kinds of fun goodies in there. And here’s another one with some different things you can use for various vehicles: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5189324
When it comes to getting the scale of things right you can do a search for the vehicle, something like “M7 Priest Length” and it will give you the full size length, from there you can use this nifty little tool I found online: https://www.ginifab.com/feeds/cm_to_inch/scale_converter.html .
So there you have it, minus the artillery pieces and infantry that’s everything in the North Africa book for The Fighting First. I’ll get some pics of mine that I’ve printed and have been using.
Other than that, have fun and get printing !!! I will see what I can do to put together more guides like this for Flames of War, Fate of a Nation, and Team Yankee and the various nationalities… no promises on what and when I will do it though so please DO NOT HOLD YOUR BREATH !!! You’ll friggin’ pass out or die for sure !!! I will also try to get some pics of the prints I do as I finish them… like I said before, I like to have a whole separate army so it might take a bit although I’ve got a fair headstart already.