3d printed buildings

[woko]

Im in the middle of making a series of 3d printed buildings for my dads model railway layout, the plan is to model a small hamlet with a series of stone cottages, a farm, with barn, and a Dairy/creamery building which will be fed by a small siding, and of course a village Pub!

I’m slowly beginning to make progress on the printing, and getting finer tolerances now, without the need for supports, so minimal clean up is required after these prints are printed, on my fdm printer using standard ABS. 

So I have printed up a bunch of stuff already, but feel now is perhaps a good time to post some of the kits i’m making to get folks thoughts and feedback. 

First up is the Dairy/Creamery the biggest building of the series so far with 9 separately printed parts. The pictures below show the model straight off the printer with raft removed, and a few supports all of which took no longer than 5-10 mins tops to clean up the entire model of support plastic. There is a small loading platform at the rear of the building, of which i’m still undecided whether to add a canopy over or not, any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

 

 

The process of modeling is in 3d max, after which some elements are exported to z-brush for greater detailing, then exported back into 3dsmax before being split into various sections to print separately for better printing results, and then the models are imported into meshmixer for cleaning up for printing along with exporting as STL for my printers native software z-suite where i then apply support material, and choose the type of material i want to print in before finaling exporting as print ready for the printer. Happy to go into more depth if wanted, though i’m conscious that i’m already gabbing on abit

hope you like, and feedback and comments most welcome.

 

 

 

 

[woko]

Oh I forgot to point out the building is only dry assembled, and not fixed, hoping to paint before fixing, and apply glazing which is easier obviously without roofs on

[calvin Streeting]

all fdm or resin ? ooo and nice

[Rowsley17D]

This looks very impressive. I take it it's 4mm scale? I particularly like the uneven slates on the roof. The mortar courses look a little deep and might benefit from a skim of plaster before painting.

[JimFin]

Just a suggestion, I model Continental outline and have done a few buildings in different prototype finishes and have found that to print the window frames, doors (and shutters) as a separate job makes finishing the final model a little easier. I would imagine you are thinking of some wash coats on the stone and being able to finish the walls without the complication of windows/doors etc does make life easier. This is the sort of thing I mean 

 

When added to the building -

 

By using light wood texture PLA I have only had to do a light wash on the shutters and the balcony and balustrades are "raw" dark wood PLA. 

 

I do like the dairy/creamery, the stone texture is very effective - what temperatures do you use for ABS, I have never been able to get a large print in ABS without warping and/or detaching from the bed?

 

[woko]

On 03/06/2019 at 10:21, calvin Streeting said:

all fdm or resin ? ooo and nice

Hi Calvin its all fdm, printed on a zortrax m200 bit oldskool now

 

On 03/06/2019 at 10:29, Rowsley17D said:

This looks very impressive. I take it it's 4mm scale? I particularly like the uneven slates on the roof. The mortar courses look a little deep and might benefit from a skim of plaster before painting.

This is all 4mm scale correct, the uneven tiles help make it feel less perfect, but yes the mortar courses are deep, as i have had experimented with this, but have found once painted this slight exaggeration really helps sell the stone feel I hope. I have added a previously posted picture of the stone painted, hope to show more soon with the farm buildings I have made.

 

Jimfin thanks for the tips, i agree printing the model in as many parts as possible really increases the detail, however i am printing the frames currently with the walls and adding acetate behind with drawn on window bars which seems to look ok, will post some progress of this soon, see what you think 

As for temperatures I have a predetermined heat settings on my zortrax, so its plug and print, but i did suffer lots of warping in the beginning but found using good old ABS juice made from ABS off cuts and acetone, until i have a sludge consistency fixes this warping issue. Just whack some down on your printer bed with a bit of kitchen roll, and it anchors the model firmly.

[Rowsley17D]

I see what you mean about the painted model and the dark mortar helps to lessen the perceived depth.

[Pete22]

Hi Woko,

These are really great buildings !, well done.

Can you let us know what software you used to draw the buildings ?

I am using Design Spark, and although it's good, drawing roof tiles & bricks is difficult, let alone making them realistic.

Thanks,

Pete...

[tabletopengineer]

Hi Woko,

To Petes point i guess you're using zbrush to add stonework detail? 

They look very impressive, will look fantastic when all complete.

[Edwardian]

A stunning and brilliant, but surely very expensive, way to produce some beautiful buildings. 

[JimFin]

The chalet I posted above cost me about £10 in material and 80p in electricity.

[woko]

On 04/06/2019 at 23:55, Pete22 said:

Hi Woko,

These are really great buildings !, well done.

Can you let us know what software you used to draw the buildings ?

I am using Design Spark, and although it's good, drawing roof tiles & bricks is difficult, let alone making them realistic.

Thanks,

Pete...

Hey Pete so I am using 3DS Max however Blender is perfectly fine if not better I hear for the modeling job, and free. I do use Z-Brush as well as a smoothing process, but by giving this mesh a smoothing modifer you can achieve the same look I feel. I hope to post some model drawings and process soon.

 

On 08/06/2019 at 15:57, Edwardian said:

A stunning and brilliant, but surely very expensive, way to produce some beautiful buildings. 

I agree this is expensive compared to scratch building as you do have to count the initial cost of the printer and software. However I do hope to one day get to the point where I can sell relatively inexpensive kits in some way to help fund this hobby of mine. So its a bit of an investment and lots of fun, every print you learn more and more, and weirdly there is the anticipation of seeing this thing rise from nothing on the print bed. And when it goes well its a bit of buzz... Or maybe I should really get out more

A few years back when I was considering getting a 3D printer I started with the 3D model of this GNR Fish van in 2016, I am hoping to resurrect this model now I have much more knowledge of 3d printing.

For instance I am already aware that some of the fine details  will need to be chunked up on this model to read well or even print properly.  So I hope to do some experiments on this and see how I go, it may even require a new printer to get some of these details to work, as my printer is a few years old now and the tech moves on so much! So I will post some progress hopefully soon, and ideally would love to build a whole range of pre-grouping freight wagons

 

 

[woko]

On 08/06/2019 at 15:39, tabletopengineer said:

Hi Woko,

To Petes point i guess you're using zbrush to add stonework detail? 

They look very impressive, will look fantastic when all complete.

Hi tabletopengineer yes I am using z brush to basically smooth off the details and take away that typical 3d model look, though I do think the same effect can be achieved with mesh smoothing modifers and soft selections as I feel its perhaps a bit excessive to purchase z-brush for this, I just use it as I have a copy for my work  

I do however believe the most important software I use is actually meshmixer from autodesk this baby is free, and really booleans the mesh together creating one skin/shell ready to export STL's from, since using this software my prints have become so much better.

[Edwardian]

16 minutes ago, woko said:

Hey Pete so I am using 3DS Max however Blender is perfectly fine if not better I hear for the modeling job, and free. I do use Z-Brush as well as a smoothing process, but by giving this mesh a smoothing modifer you can achieve the same look I feel. I hope to post some model drawings and process soon.

 

I agree this is expensive compared to scratch building as you do have to count the initial cost of the printer and software. However I do hope to one day get to the point where I can sell relatively inexpensive kits in some way to help fund this hobby of mine. So its a bit of an investment and lots of fun, every print you learn more and more, and weirdly there is the anticipation of seeing this thing rise from nothing on the print bed. And when it goes well its a bit of buzz... Or maybe I should really get out more

A few years back when I was considering getting a 3D printer I started with the 3D model of this GNR Fish van in 2016, I am hoping to resurrect this model now I have much more knowledge of 3d printing.

For instance I am already aware that some of the fine details  will need to be chunked up on this model to read well or even print properly.  So I hope to do some experiments on this and see how I go, it may even require a new printer to get some of these details to work, as my printer is a few years old now and the tech moves on so much! So I will post some progress hopefully soon, and ideally would love to build a whole range of pre-grouping freight wagons

 

 

 

No one could resist that fish van; well worth resurrecting.

[woko]

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

 

No one could resist that fish van; well worth resurrecting.

I best get on it then

[woko]

Almost finished this farmhouse and barn for my dads model railway in 4mm, , needs guttering, and final weathering pass, and then this should be good to go on my dads layout! 

 

Printed on my fdm printer in ABS, the barn being printed after the farmhouse, and the detail in the doors is noticeably better due to the tolerances in the model being adjusted to achieve a better detail and depth. 

 

 

 

[woko]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this but had a quick go at printing my GNR fish van in 4mm scale, the body seems pretty good, but the roof needs work as the vents on top where to tricky to print on the FDM printer, plus the wagon frame seems a wee bit sketchy, this is where Resin printers kick butt! So I may have to look into getting one at some point, especially as the new Prusa is out!

 

[JimFin]

Glad you are finding the same sort of issues that I have in pushing the limit of FDM printing in terms of resolution of fine detail. Makes me feel better! After many experiments, I concluded that there are some tasks very well suited to FDM and others that are not, potentially resin printing for side frames and detail or use of cast resin or whitemetal axle boxes and turned metal buffers. Vehicle roofs and surfaces which in real life are smooth metallic just don't print that well in my experience and do not show up well beside an injection moulded or cast / brass model. In my journey through printing so far, its been a lesson in choosing the most appropriate method and material for different parts of the model to get the best overall result. 

[woko]

I have been busily trying to solve some of those earlier printing issues, and think I have gone a long way to fixing the detail of the print. 

Jimfin i find its all about the orientation of the model on the print bed for fdm printing, the roof of this van was printed vertically, as opposed to horizontally which caused some serious banding issues, the underframe was also re-angled for a better result. I still think this can be improved as well and will be trying to push the underframe details in the next few printed versions.

 

Graham1960 i don’t doubt your resin printer would do an awesome job of this little van chap, I may even invest in a resin printer myself especially now Prusa are making one which will be off the chart! I want to push the fdm printing further see how I go, but may punt over the stl at a later date to see the difference. Out of interest what size is the build volume on your printer? And yes getting stuff to print is hard I know, as not many folks have the 3d experience and the software can have a steep learning curve at the beginning. 

 

[monkeysarefun]

The i3 Mega is an FDM printer, not resin.

 

https://www.anycubic.com/products/anycubic-i3-mega?variant=28759157080124

[woko]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

The i3 Mega is an FDM printer, not resin.

 

https://www.anycubic.com/products/anycubic-i3-mega?variant=28759157080124

Cheers I realised afterwards that I hadn't even checked and assumed it was.... schoolboy error  

[woko]

On 21/06/2019 at 23:22, Graham1960 said:

The anycubic has a build size of 210 x 210 x 205mm.

I don't get why your printer can't handle the buffers?

I am new to 3D printing and from what I have heard the best quality is the slowest speed.

The manual on mine says warping or curling could mean the bed temp is to high and that you need to match it with the filament. Or too much infill.

I don't know if these solutions are common to other printers, but you can try them.

 

Thanks Graham my printer is a few years old now, but I suspect its really just down to experimentation of breaking up the model more, and its angle on the build plate. Much like that signal you posted. The person who built that kit probably spent many hours breaking it down to its optimum amount of pieces to get a good printing result! I often find its the hard work put into the model that pays dividends in the end! Im literally going through this process now and looking at how i can get away with printing it in as least pieces as possible, but still get a solid result! So for instance the underframe needs breaking up into more components to yield a better printing result on those buffers, which is what im working on now, plus i broke one when i took it off the build bed!  So hopefully I will post some updates this week on the new improved van, and a new signal box, if i can get this blasted roof to print   

[woko]

1 hour ago, Graham1960 said:

Do you have STML file of the Roof? I could try it for you on my printer. If it does do it right you know that it is your printer and not the type of printer that's the problem.

Sure Graham sounds good much appreciated dude

 

 

 

otherwise I have been prototyping a new building, built this a while back but been cleaning it up, getting the window frames to print has been the trickiest part, but now just need to tidy up some of the shiplap and then paint it. I have modelled the interior as well although fairly basic with small fire place, timber floors and door.

[stadman]

On 04/06/2019 at 19:13, woko said:

Hi Calvin its all fdm, printed on a zortrax m200 bit oldskool now

 

This is all 4mm scale correct, the uneven tiles help make it feel less perfect, but yes the mortar courses are deep, as i have had experimented with this, but have found once painted this slight exaggeration really helps sell the stone feel I hope. I have added a previously posted picture of the stone painted, hope to show more soon with the farm buildings I have made.

 

Jimfin thanks for the tips, i agree printing the model in as many parts as possible really increases the detail, however i am printing the frames currently with the walls and adding acetate behind with drawn on window bars which seems to look ok, will post some progress of this soon, see what you think 

As for temperatures I have a predetermined heat settings on my zortrax, so its plug and print, but i did suffer lots of warping in the beginning but found using good old ABS juice made from ABS off cuts and acetone, until i have a sludge consistency fixes this warping issue. Just whack some down on your printer bed with a bit of kitchen roll, and it anchors the model firmly.

I think I've stayed in one of those cottages at Coniston

Nice modelling.

Kev

[woko]

Its been a few weeks since I have posted any updates but I have finally gotten round to finishing painting up the Dairy/Creamery building, plus since my tests on the wagons I'm now confident enough to get the FDM printer to print drain pipes which I have added to all my buildings. It was niggling at me that none of these buildings had any rainwater drainage solutions :)  This is the  3rd building for my dads model railway. Part of a Hamlet scene with a farm, a row of cottages and finally a pub which I am working on now! The plan is to have a building each for the Grand kids for when they visit, dad is looking to add LED's to the interior of these buildings, and I may add curtains as well. But mostly I'm looking forward to getting my hands dirty with building up the scenery now I have been practicing my painting techniques with these buildings I feel i'm slowly improving its been 25 odd years since I have picked up a paint brush to do any such painting but I am honestly thoroughly enjoying it. Plus switching to Vallejo & Tamiya paints has made it so much easier to paint than I remember using those little humbrol enamel jobbo's

Next up I hope to finish painting that signal box with the brick base, which makes a nice change from painting all this damn stonework! And working on the Pub building the final stone building in this Hamlet/village. I was lucky enough to catch the East Surrey Model railway club at a local village fair this weekend and seeing their fine work has kicked me up the a** to get cracking again :)