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Re: Desktop 3D printers - nkp_174 - 06-09-2013
I'd suggest real wood unless you go to the effort of designing accurate shiplap flooring. The cost of printing the deck of your flatcar would be comparable or even greater than the rest of the car (trucks, frame, and details). To add wood grain, use the same techniques you'd use with plastic or real wood. The technique for making plastics look just as good as wood is to use either washers, dry brushing, or a distressing based technique (the fiberglass scratch eraser technique).
Yes, 3D print the roof and then use it as a master for resin casting! My Oahu Railway cars will still mostly be resin castings, but with 3D printed masters instead of being fabricated from styrene. My detail parts and trucks will be 3D printed.
Re: Desktop 3D printers - AF350 - 06-10-2013
There is a lot that goes into a project like this, the 3D printer is just another tool but does have some limitations and hurdles to overcome as does the drawing up a model on the computer. Don't get me wrong it has been fun learning the ins and outs of the process but the puzzle is yet to be completed, still have not tried vacuum forming yet.
The next main hurdle is to find out if there is a big enough consumer base to justify the "hard work" as the "kits" would be undecorated less trucks and couplers, how many of us railroaders still paint up and build kits? Is there room for kits like what I envision? Should I design products that cover several scales? What color if any should the product be? Seems like a lot of railroads used the basic oxide red/brown scheme. If I go with Shapeways do they do any advertising or is that up to the designer? Would it be cost effective to order a bunch of kits assuming they print out right and sell them at a show? The more I think about it the less ready I am to take the plunge but the more I want to try it.
Re: Desktop 3D printers - AF350 - 06-11-2013
Applied to a few more employers but still have the shapeways 3D print idea on standby as plan B.
Had a thought that some how vacuume forming could be another component in bringing train kits to a reality, in this case E and F unit shells maybe??? I have a working idea of how to vacuume form a shell in one piece
But have no vacuume former may try to build one some day. I may still cast and mold with some 3D printing and vacuume forming if I start up something .
Re: Desktop 3D printers - e-paw - 06-11-2013
Good luck with it. I am very impressed with your efforts.
Re: Desktop 3D printers - nkp_174 - 06-11-2013
3D printing would be the way to produce the pattern used for vacuum forming, but vacuum forming is a less precise science...and far more of an art...than 3D printing. I'd avoid it like the plague and work on your design skills for 3D printing.
Shapeways handles the orders and fills them. You handle the design and spreading the word. It is free to upload a design, and they print only what is ordered/paid for. No pre-orders of stock unless you want to do that.
If you are making the items less trucks, you are missing out on a key element of 3D printing: I can print the item 98%+ assembled...they are essentially semi-kits...less wheelsets, paint, decals, and maybe couplers. The color of the material is irrelevant, because all models need to be painted regardless as to the plastic color. Keep working on your designs and don't get discouraged! Study prototype photos/dimensions and try drawing a pair of trucks. You can do it!
Many modelers do build not just kits but serious craftsman kits. I have a couple friends currently working on replacing all of their Athearn/MDC/etc rolling stock with resin kits...a daunting task for a basement-filling railroad...so that they can more accurately model their prototype. For those of us in narrow gauge (On30 partially excluded) are accustomed to most of our fleets being built from craftsman kits with 60-200+ detail parts. The result is a roster which looks good like Doctor Wayne's, but through a different path.
Re: Desktop 3D printers - AF350 - 06-11-2013
e-paw Wrote:Good luck with it. I am very impressed with your efforts.
Thank you,
I would have to say that this forum and its members has helped me grow skill wise in the train hobby a lot of talented modelers here.
Re: Desktop 3D printers - AF350 - 06-11-2013
nkp_174 Wrote:Keep working on your designs and don't get discouraged! Study prototype photos/dimensions and try drawing a pair of trucks. You can do it!
Thanks for the encouragement NKP 174.
When and if I go to "market" with some kits I may attend some shows with a table and maybe a couple dozen?? kits or so to get them seen and in the hands of local modelers and a big sign with Shapeways and the "store" website. My idea behind the trucks is to design the floor/chassis in such a way that a modeler can use scale or hirail trucks. 3 main items I have left to design are the brake wheel, ladders and grab irons they will be separate prints or add ons from other suppliers. As you said paint is not that big of a deal and there are a few custom decal places out there that the modeler can go to. The doors and the slide things and the chassis are on paper but have yet to be drawn on the PC. If I can make the doors functioning that would be great but one could fix the door permanently open or closed, future designs may have doors printed in the closed position. I think I will stay with the S and O scale models for the time being. I already have a list of rollingstock that I could draw without too much trouble mostly box cars along with some gondolas and flats and you gotta have a caboose as well
Re: Desktop 3D printers - nkp_174 - 06-12-2013
For S scale, is there a difference between hi-rail and scale trucks? I'm sure the wheelsets are different, but I don't know anything about high rail trucks in S or O.
Re: Desktop 3D printers - AF350 - 06-12-2013
nkp_174 Wrote:For S scale, is there a difference between hi-rail and scale trucks? I'm sure the wheelsets are different, but I don't know anything about high rail trucks in S or O.
In the world of S scale and gauge hirail track is too tall to be scale and sometimes will be compatible with both scale and hirail wheel sets where as tinplate AF track will only be usable for tinplate/highrail wheels which have realy big flanges, now as for trucks hirail most of the time has a coupler pocket built in on the truck or the truck some times has a coupler sandwiched between truck and car chassis. In S scale the trucks have scale wheel sets and the coupler more than likely an S scale Kadee mounted to the body of car. Also the trucks can be diecast or plastic. O scale has the same Hirail / scale properties only bigger.
O and S hirail wheelsets = HO pizza cutters
Played with sketchup and drew a 40' side of a car so I could try out the work around for the smaller circles...that is a pretty slick trick
Re: Desktop 3D printers - AF350 - 06-14-2013
Well have most of the detail rivets on the drawing, and I have the basic understanding of how to use the scale function of sketchup
The rivets are not drawn to a scale measurement but instead eyeballed to what looked good to me(can always go back and make them scale on another revision).
Now to make a better roof and floor for the latest rev. body, then after that may take a stab at some truck designs
hock: Once proven on the makerbot just might try shapeways.
Re: Desktop 3D printers - AF350 - 06-16-2013
AF350 Wrote:Once proven on the makerbot just might try shapeways.
At this point it is not a matter of if but of when
As for detail level I want to do some rolling stock that would look equally well behind postwar American Flyer or scale equipment. Will scour around for any sources of rolling stock diagrams and measurements.
One car I want to try is the B&O waggon top box cars always thought they were neat.
I may rejoin the NMRA to get access to the NMRA Library, are there any other sources out there?
May also branch out in scales Z, N, TT, HO, O and maybe even G(1:29) at some point.
I have to get started but will test the waters first after completing the first box car design.
If I can not find a job that is the right fit by this fall I will go for it, if I am employed by fall it will push back the start up but not shelve it.
Well have to get back to some research and then I have to get up early for the job hunt
Re: Desktop 3D printers - AF350 - 06-17-2013
Well landed a second interview with an employer on the 20th hope that is a good sign
The hours and shifts are right where I wanted and are close to home.
Anyway tonight will work some more on the box car roof and floor and maybe an operating door and door assembly.
Re: Desktop 3D printers - ngauger - 06-17-2013
Best of Luck AF!!!!! We'll be waiting to hear!!!!
Re: Desktop 3D printers - AF350 - 06-17-2013
Here is a 2D pic of the boxcarbody with rivets added(a very boaring job but looks great even if it is a little sloppy)
Re: Desktop 3D printers - AF350 - 06-17-2013
Here is a pic of the floor so far