Being new to 3d printing (but not to 3d shape design) and re-reading Coox’s NOMONHAN for the third time, I decided to make printable wargame miniatures for the two armies at 1:200 scale. For aircraft, the latest Japanese fighter (Ki.27) and older Soviet fighter (I-153) are available in Captain_Ahab_62’s excellent for-Microarmor series, but not the older Japanese fighter or newer Soviet fighter, or light bombers and liaison/army-cooperation aircraft from that period. The models are to 1:100 scale but intended to be printed at 50% for 1:200 use.

Kawasaki Ki.10 - Japanese biplane fighter still in limited use during the campaign

Mitsubishi Ki.30 - Japanese monoplane bomber

Tachikawa Ki.36 - Japanese monoplane liaison/army coordination/light bomber

Polikarpov U-2 - Soviet biplane liaison/light bomber

Polikarpov I-16 - Soviet monoplane fighter which predominated later in the campaign

Tupolev SB-2 - Soviet monoplane fast bomber

All these aircraft except Ki.10 flew in combat during WW2, the U-2 gaining fame as a night/nuisance raider.

Elegoo Mars 2Pro

No

Yes

2K

Best printed at 45- or 90-degree climb angle to minimize support dimples. 50% scale for 1:200, light to medium supports in Chitubox Free.

Some small parts (pitot tubes, radio aerials/masts, flexible guns) are delicate at small scale, care required in removing supports.

I have experimentally printed the Ki.30 in clear resin with the idea of leaving the glazed areas unpainted; results were not very satisfactory (paint not opaque enough - black primer coat needed but would require masking?).

The Ki.30 and SB-2 were originally designed in Imagine for virtual reality display - their facets are large since Phong shading was used. The others were also designed initially in Imagine but all were converted to .3ds using AcuTrans, then modified to make them suitable for 3d printing in Blender and exported as .stl to finally be printed using Chitubox Free as slicer.