Etched Pixels

Just catching up on some of this. The Hawksworth sleeper is an awkward one. The parts are on a sheet that produces lots of other Hawksworth stuff that nobody wants and one side of the original has significant errors so there is a replacement side on another sheet of stuff that is unrelated. It's probably one of those that is easier to redraw with modern tools and just use the bogies and underframe parts.

The artwork (Etched Pixels, Ultima, some older stuff inherited by Ultima) is now with the 2mm SA long with some etch stock. Please give them time to get a handle on it, there is a lot of stuff and it isn't always arranged in an obvious fashion. The Gresley overlays for Minitrix are now with the 2mmSA and they are one case the artwork is laid out in a fairly logical manner, although there are a lot of sides on the sheet and not always in the proportion that would be best!

Well if you'd like it or know a heritage site or something that would it's too heavy to post but I'm in Swansea proper

This was repurposed as a lintel and would be of some considerable age. Looking at the profile and the weight (it's very dense) I'm wondering a) is this old track of some form perhaps old mine rail as this is south wales b) is it of any historical relevance or does it just got to the scrappie Wanted to check so I don't accidentally bin something interesting

Yep. It's much easier if you print the roof, ends (to attach overlays), floor and maybe other bits in one go. I had real trouble with this, and ended up printing the roof and body as one, or in some cases where it needs to be removable printing the roof above where it should be attached to the ends by a sprue (so nothing bananas). Thickness is definitely a problem unless you print it as one or file it.

It's 3D print - just print different roofs for different products. All the 3D print Gresley I did have unique roofs for the models. They are holes because the tech wasn't at the time up to it so you still had to stuff the vents in by hand but the same holds. 3D print really does change the way you can think about product volume.

I'm working on a few plans, but there shouldn't be any need to panic. The hard stuff is actually the plastic mouldings (about which there are some conversations happening) because they require someone with a lot of skill and the right equipment to restore/manage. The 3D print stuff is trivial I've already put some of it on github for people to download/use/modify and more will follow. The etches I have digital artwork for I will if need be able to put the artwork up in some format although it may require some recovery work. The ones that are not may require some custodian unless I can persuade PPD to let anyone order them 8). The white metal bits are not going to be too hard - worst case is giving everyone on the planet non commercial rights to make their own copies or copies for their club members. Wheels and most brass buffers and fittings are from third party providers anyway. There are some other bits where the rights belong to someone else and Ultima just got to use them (the old 2mm PC models bits for example, and the Commonwealth bogie) but not too many. Those I can't do much about. I'd mostly agree with Chris about 3D printed coaches but we are starting to get to the point you can sensibly 3D print glazing the way the commercial plastic providers do to hide the thickness, it's also possible to mix 3D and etch (and 3D and vinyl and 3D and old Ultima printed sides it turns out too). Some bits really do need to go away as well. If you've ever tried packing loose white metal ventilators or counting them you'd understand - the £4.50 a set is something like £4 of handling and 50p of ventilators. They belong 3d printed into the roof. Alan

Should be back again now..

The acetate ones are old screen printing. For new stuff I cut them with a vinyl cutter on brown vinyl and stick that to clear plastic. 3D printing doesn't work well for it. I tried it early on for some 3D printed coach shells but the thicknesses are a pain so even for those I might print compartments and seat shapes but the corridor is a glue in strip using vinyl/clear plastic. Alan

Alan, and I don't mind in the slightest. I did end up on newer stuff combining the roof ends and floor into one - if you don't do that then add a small bar along the length just under where the roof will go otherwise Shapeways sometimes prints slightly bowed coaches. Alan

I use a mix of drawings (preferably old ones included so they were drawn by someone who actually saw the thing for real) and photographs. Enough book drawings are wrong (some hilariously bad where the photo next to the drawing shows its incorrect) that you want to check photographs and other evidence. Picking two drawings doesn't work - it just shows who copied which mistake from where! Even official drawings sometimes turn out to be as designed not as built. The Jenkinson/Campling book isn't bad - but there are errors I found. For some of the books the various societies actually keep 'errata' and those can be a great source. My favourite drawings disaster is the BR class 29 diesel. I don't think I've ever seen a drawing for it that passes the 'does it look like the photo' test. I've never gone to 3D printing entire bogie coaches because of the print quality and the prices. What I had a fair bit of success doing was to 3D print a shell (floor, roof, ends and interior as one) and overlay it with etched parts. For one offs I still find it easier to scratch build the shell (sometimes using the old BHE plastic profile bits) and etch the sides.

Not accurate thankfully they are never on site anyway but all live with PPD. Except for very old stuff (which I suspect never existed in digital form) I've also got digital copies of the artwork although I did have fun extracting them from very old Macintosh apps. There is old stuff that only exists/existed as stock (Bill Bedford parts, Commonwealth bogies, printed coach sides) and stuff it's not really practical to re-run for other reasons (from being old artwork mostly containing stuff I don't need to hand plastic moulding tools which are hard to get run nowdays). Various things escaped in the move - I'm still looking for some PC models 2mm shrunk clerestory etches and the like. No doubt one decade they will emerge from somewhere. Most stuff that is out of stock is out of stock because I've simply not had much time the past three years. I'm variously restoring an 1860s mansion where the surveyor said 'the only thing that works are the appliances' 8), having a somewhat busy work life (I work for a large chip manufacturer and ended up involved meltdown/spectre and other exciting things) and my new fiancee means I've also gone from childless and time rich to stepdad and no time at all 8) The 3D print stuff is partly out of stock because the current Shapeways prices with the state of the pound are ludicrous. That said given Farish prices nowdays I might have to bite the bullet, order some stuff and put the prices up accordingly 8( Alan