19 March 2025
When Lance Corporal Doug Shellcot was told a piece of rubbish would be treated as a ‘mine’, he knew something had to change.
He’d been patrolling with his section on a promotion course when directing staff declared the rubbish would trigger a mine-response scenario.
This was at odds with his training, which was to recognise actual mines and respond accordingly.
There were also limitations on the inert mines his home unit used for training – sappers were so familiar with them, they worked from memory instead of drills.
“They’re no longer identifying and going through the [full drills]. They’re able to look at something and say, ‘That’s the Q store’s RPG-7, I’ve seen it 100 times’,” Lance Corporal Shellcot said.
This sent Lance Corporal Shellcot on a two-year journey to gain approval to produce 3D-printed replica mines and munitions.
Finding the correct dimensions, weight and colour and producing a 3D-printable file was the easy part.
But navigating concerns raised by the Q store, industry and ammunition technicians was a different story.
He even applied for and received legal approval to make sure his idea didn’t breach the Ottawa Treaty that forbids production of mines.
“I knew this was something we needed and I knew it would be looked on retrospectively as a really good idea,” Lance Corporal Shellcot said.
“At the ground level, everyone said, ‘Don’t stop what you’re doing, you need to keep pushing’.
“But they weren’t the ones who held all the decisions for what I’ve been trying to do.”
'All the drills work off a physical item you can identify – as opposed to trying to work with something that doesn’t exist.'
Along the way he was helped by Darwin MakerSpace staff, who directly engaged at higher levels to facilitate approvals.
“When I thought about giving up, MakerSpace said, ‘Keep going, you’re onto something’,” Lance Corporal Shellcot said.
After countless meetings and emails, a breakthrough came when ADF Joint Explosive Ordnance Support guided Lance Corporal Shellcot though doctrine.
They advised that 3D-printed replica munitions could be produced for research purposes and held by units. The word 'replica' and a serial number also had to be 3D printed into them.
He first printed Russian PFM-1 butterfly mines.
These mines are an area-denial weapon typically deployed in their thousands. They flutter to the ground scattering unpredictably, meaning clearance needs more planning than regular minefields with predictable designs.
There are drills to work against them, but even if a few are found, clean-up is difficult.
“You find five or 10, but which direction were they laid in? You can’t guess the angle, the spread gap or the quantity,” Lance Corporal Shellcot said.
He plans to use the replica butterfly mines to realistically test an engineer field squadron’s ability to find them, using the percentage of mines found as a measure of their drills.
“They can then identify where there’s any errors or shortfalls in training. All thanks to having an accurate training aid,” he said.
The PFM-1 replicas cost 20c each to produce and, after removing a screw simulating the fuse, they can be destroyed in place.
MakerSpace funded the project and acquired a specific printer and laptop for dedicated use by MakerSpace staff and involved personnel.
Lance Corporal Shellcot took this on a month-long deployment and made on-demand replica munitions for training.
This included contemporary mortar rounds, rockets, mines, along with scale vehicles and Zodiacs to help with delivering orders.
'They can then identify where there’s any errors or shortfalls in training. All thanks to having an accurate training aid.'
He used 8kg of filament and some days ran the printer for 24 hours, getting up in the middle of the night to swap out a print.
Many were used to help personnel recognise mines, cached munitions and unexploded ordnance, with some blown in place.
“Instead of us going, ‘Just pretend’, or, ‘Let’s say there’s a notional minefield, what are you going to do?’, they could look at it and see,” Lance Corporal Shellcot said.
“All the drills work off a physical item you can identify – as opposed to trying to work with something that doesn’t exist.”
Lance Corporal Shellcot had solved the original problem and using the equipment felt like his first big win.
“To have section commanders come back and say, ‘Serial numbers 30 through 40 are gone’, I was like, ‘This is perfect, this is exactly what we need’,” he said.
Any unit can now print replica munitions at their local MakerSpace, with CTC already having made 100 butterfly mines and plans to print more for enemy parties to use on exercises.
“For an engineer that needs to search for mines, one of the biggest things we need to look for is ground sign,” Lance Corporal Shellcot said.
“If you haven’t physically dug anything out there, you’re not giving anyone accurate training.
“They might have accurate first-aid training, but you haven’t given them a chance to survive because you haven’t put anything in the ground.”
Lance Corporal Shellcot plans to showcase the different munitions they can print, then use his first set of butterfly mines during 1st Combat Engineer Regiment’s crawl exercise.
“It should be second nature for people to be able to sign out a realistic munition,” he said.
