RayP

Phil You are heading down the right track with the various parts drawn as separate components but as you have noted you will definitely have to thicken some of the parts for structural strength and print-ability. I have been drawing and selling a range of HO 3D printed signals for the New South Wales Government Railways (Australia) since 2014. I have a Shapeways shop and began having the signals printed in the White Versatile Plastic with Fine Detail Plastic detail parts such as arms finials, rear lamp blinds, counterweight levers, etc. Of course the Versatile Plastic is low resolution but has the advantage of being flexible and the Fine Detail Plastic is high resolution but is fragile. I later added signals in Fine Detail Plastic and finally in brass. Given the Shapeways price increases and the drop in our dollar over the last couple of years I finally began a range of lost wax cast signals made locally that are much cheaper than Shapeways. I am not trying to push my signal range here as UK modellers would not be interested, just wanted to let you know that it will be an interesting journey. I have just tried uploading two JPG files that are less than 1MB but they failed to load so I can only point you to my Signals Branch blog for a photo or two. Annoying!

MGR Hooper Assuming that you are looking at Smooth or Smoothest Fine Detail Plastic then yes, absolutely. Unfortunately it costs a bit more but it reduces the risk of breakage during cleaning and handling by Shapeways. I speak from experience. Ray P My Shapeways Signals Branch Shop Models of New South Wales Government Railways semaphore signals and other infrastructure