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I am interested in "other than Shapeways" printing and possible 3 D catalogs that might have Railway/Railroad parts so I did a little google and came up with this:

 

https://all3dp.com/1/best-online-3d-printing-service-3d-print-services/

 

It may be a lead in to all3dp services and so be a little self serving but lacking another listing, I thought it might be worth sharing.

 

I have not yet found other catalogs of available Railway/Railroad objects than Shapeways and would be interested if anyone knows of any. I may also post this query on a North American train board to see if there are other responses.  I live in the US (well California which doesn't always think it is part of the US) and model in both UK 4mm/OO and US HO.

Edited by autocoach
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I use i.Materialise, one of the services listed at all3dp.com.  They have a "shop" similar to Shapeways with quite a few railway items available for sale.

 

They have a relatively new SLA resin, Standard Resin, which gives very good surface quality with minimal layering visible.

 

The attached photo is of my current diesel project in S scale.  The body and underframe are printed in Standard Resin which is a translucent yellow colour.  They have been painted with grey primer to show the detail.  The bogies and fuel tank are unpainted, and printed in Grey Resin (formerly Prime Gray), which I previously used but it is now considerably more expensive.

 

The motor and power bogies for this model are from a 4 mm scale UK Class 47 model by ViTrains.  The wheel size and axle spacing are very close to scale for this loco.

post-17456-0-92463500-1500432965_thumb.jpg

Edited by Marbelup
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  • 2 weeks later...

The i.Materialise Standard Resin is not the same as High Detail Resin and has the same level of detail as their Grey Resin (Prime Gray). The surface quality seems consistently good, and it is also stronger and more rigid compared to the Grey Resin. It has a very similar support structure, but it is a bit more difficult to remove supports as the translucent colour makes it harder to see what you are doing. It pays to put a coat of primer on to highlight the details prior to doing a final clean-up.

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Standard and Gray are SLA, High Detail Resin is Polyject. The latter is theoretically equivalent to Shapeways' FUD. 

 

As a price comparison:

 

Shapeways BHDA: £15.51

" Fud: £11.76

" FXD: £16.12

i.Materialise Gray: £17.93

" Standard: £9.77

" High Detail: £44.29

Sculpteo Polyject Resin €14.23

 

Personally, I want whatever Bill Bedford is using for his latest wagons, that stuff is brilliant! 

Edited by Quarryscapes
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Sods law strikes again I guess.

 

iMaterialise's prices look better for the standard.

 

Might have to try it although my walls are thinner than 1mm in placed so unsure. I heard you can't sell things there unless you buy each item so if that is true no use for variants.

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Well my test pieces from i.Materialise arrived today and they are stunning. If I said to you they'd been injection moulded you'd not be able to tell me otherwise. So long Shapeways, no more wagon bodies from you! The diesel locomotive above is a very good indicator of the appearance. 

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So, if I've followed this correctly you've ordered i.Materialise Standard Resin and it's better than Shapeways FUD or BHDA?

 

Better than any 3D print yet received to date, from any supplier in any material. I'm now putting together a more challenging test with some more intricate detail to really find out what it can do. So far though, it looks very promising! 

 

Edited to add a comparison pic - from bottom: i.Materialise Standard Resin, Grey Resin then Shapeways BHDA, FUD.

 

Standard resin has had a blow over with primer to highlight blemishes, grey resin has some overspray on it. BHD and FUD are painted up fully, BHDA shows supports that could not be removed easily, and has been cleaned up generally (though print orientation can still be discerned)  and FUD shows it's usual pattern despite attempts at cleaning up.  

 

The second pic shows the same but with a different FUD wagon showing what happens to FUD a few months down the line when it goes all waxy and glittery. 

 

I should also point out that sat at my desk with them 2-3 feet away I can see no difference at all between them! 

post-21854-0-63034100-1502394328_thumb.jpg

post-21854-0-04773600-1502394633_thumb.jpg

Edited by Quarryscapes
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They all look fine to me although the bottom one a win for sure.

 

I have thought of giving iMaterialize a try several times but as I want to offer my designs for others to buy I have heard several times that they only let you sell stuff if it has been purchased but that is no good if you have loads of variants with non critical geometry changes like a lot of my stuff. Plus their 1mm minimum wall thickness.

 

Or am I missing something here?

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