Deweycat Nz Schofield Tank Stl Pack

Ask most wargamers to name a uniquely “New Zealand Tank” and they will invariably shout out “the Bob Semple” and immediately start laughing, picturing that corrugated metal garden shed on tracks.

But we sell our Kiwi friends short, because when the going got tough in the early war years, they demonstrated “thinking outside the box” well before that phrase became hackneyed.

With a population of just over one million and isolated far from its allies, New Zealand still had no shortage of motivated engineers. One of them was John Schofield, who was intrigued by the wheels-and-tracks concept: an armoured vehicle fitted with both systems could combine the road speed of a wheeled vehicle with the cross-country mobility of a tracked one. His early experiments led to the Schofield tank. Unlike anything else built in the Commonwealth, it was a fully functional armoured vehicle capable of operating in either mode. Built from a modified commercial truck, it was designed for relatively easy manufacture, while its tracks and suspension came from the Universal Carrier, then in production in New Zealand. Armed with a 2-pounder anti-tank gun and a coaxial MMG, the Schofield offered an effective light tank.

Back in 2019, at the request of Michael Earley, creator of and a proud Kiwi, I put together a quick, admittedly crude Schofield STL. With the tank now included in the new Armies of the Commonwealth book, I revisited the model: I created new, more detailed tracks and wheels, added hull detail, and produced a resin STL version. The test print in the photo is unpainted because I recently moved and have not yet set up a new painting station. In the unit listing, the vehicle can switch operating modes each turn, choosing either wheeled or tracked movement. I only made the tracked version, so players can simply announce the mode at the start of the turn.

In an effort to encourage players to try these historically unique AFVs, I have loaded this STL pack as a free download, both at My Mini Factory, and at . This pack is suitable for both FDM and resin printing, including pre-supported resin files.