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11 hours ago, maq1988 said:

 

Wow, I'd have thought it would be a lot higher than that.

 

Have you designed all the 3D printed items yourself?

 

9 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Really excellent work. I skipped past considering tinkecad for architectural modelling because I assumed it was a bit simplistic but you've managed wonders here. 

 

5 hours ago, brian777999 said:

 

Yes, I did not think Tinkercad was capable of this either. I have joined and taken the introductory lessons but I am no closer to producing work such as the above !

 

Thanks guys, yep I was surprised too at what was achievable in Tinkercad. These buildings were mostly built by mocking up a rough version with a few blocks to the correct width/height/depth, then adding individual OO scale bricks or stone blocks where appropriate. The windows, doors etc were made with cuts into the main body of the building.

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Did you print the building sections flat to the bed or upright?

 

I'm attempting the same kind of thing - building models in sections on a small resin 3D printer and am weighing up the advantages of flat printing which would be obviously much faster but I could only do one at a time, to upright, where I could probably fit 3 or more sections onto the printer at once stacked up close to each other, which would take a lot longer but I'd get all walls done at once and could leave it overnight and wake up to it all finished. 

 

Also to complicate it is do bricks print better flat or do the mortar joints fill with resin which is harder to clean out than printing upright where the resin would better drain away. And would warping be more an issue upright than flat, or vice versa? Also the possible difference in resolution of the Z axis vs the XY and so on and so on! (Not expecting you to answer these questions by the way - just thinking out loud!) 

 

Once again, brilliant  job - your paint skills also lift it all up on the realism scale by a huge amount. 

Edited by monkeysarefun
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9 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Did you print the building sections flat to the bed or upright?

 

I'm attempting the same kind of thing - building models in sections on a small resin 3D printer and am weighing up the advantages of flat printing which would be obviously much faster but I could only do one at a time, to upright, where I could probably fit 3 or more sections onto the printer at once stacked up close to each other, which would take a lot longer but I'd get all walls done at once and could leave it overnight and wake up to it all finished. 

 

Also to complicate it is do bricks print better flat or do the mortar joints fill with resin which is harder to clean out than printing upright where the resin would better drain away. And would warping be more an issue upright than flat, or vice versa? Also the possible difference in resolution of the Z axis vs the XY and so on and so on! (Not expecting you to answer these questions by the way - just thinking out loud!) 

 

Once again, brilliant  job - your paint skills also lift it all up on the realism scale by a huge amount. 

 

Thanks! All of the buildings on Frost's Mill were printed upright with the base directly on the build plate, and the odd support where needed, with the exception of the tin hut as it had all 4 walls present so printing directly would have caused too much suction. I found the bricks and mortar were better defined when printed this way than 'flat'. I also kept everything at right angles, i.e. the front of each buiding faced the front of the printer which uses the shape of the pixels to your advantage in keeping the brickwork smooth and even. I did get some warping when using the full build plate, presumably from the FEP being at different levels of tautness in the middle and at the edges, but once everything was cleaned up and painted it was barely noticable.

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Just to join in with what others have said, this is just some top class modelling and does show also how new technologies might actually be the new "craftsmanship" in the hobby - certainly it is a step linking the virtual world inside a computer with the physical world of a layout!

 

In fact, one materials science teacher I know is always looking for new ideas to stimulate interest in her classes beyond designing a money or jewellery box!  I'm going to suggest a simple Inglenook which pupils can then design appropriately scaled/sized buildings ... maybe having "set footprints" could allow different buildings to be "dropped in" by different pupils for photographing etc!  Hope you won't mind me assembling a PDF document to show her what might be achieved using photos from your thread?  Maybe this might stimulate a more general interest in railway modelling at the school, too... so many big rooms... :lol:

 

In other news, have just won a job lot of three link couplings off eBay - a lot of Smiths but also some other brands, mainly screw link couplings rather than three link or instanters!  Going to have to sort my wagons out into fitted and unfitted and work out what goes where!  (See what you've done, Alex!! :laugh_mini2:)

 

Steve S

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7 hours ago, SteveyDee68 said:

Just to join in with what others have said, this is just some top class modelling and does show also how new technologies might actually be the new "craftsmanship" in the hobby - certainly it is a step linking the virtual world inside a computer with the physical world of a layout!

 

In fact, one materials science teacher I know is always looking for new ideas to stimulate interest in her classes beyond designing a money or jewellery box!  I'm going to suggest a simple Inglenook which pupils can then design appropriately scaled/sized buildings ... maybe having "set footprints" could allow different buildings to be "dropped in" by different pupils for photographing etc!  Hope you won't mind me assembling a PDF document to show her what might be achieved using photos from your thread?  Maybe this might stimulate a more general interest in railway modelling at the school, too... so many big rooms... :lol:

 

In other news, have just won a job lot of three link couplings off eBay - a lot of Smiths but also some other brands, mainly screw link couplings rather than three link or instanters!  Going to have to sort my wagons out into fitted and unfitted and work out what goes where!  (See what you've done, Alex!! :laugh_mini2:)

 

Steve S

 

No problem at all Steve! Let me know how you get on!

 

5 hours ago, brian777999 said:

I read earlier that you are using resin for your 3D printing. Do you think you would get the same quality using PLA or ABS with a 0.2mm nozzle ? 

 

Unfortunately I very much doubt it tbh, these buildings are printed at a resolution of 0.04mm so I think you would struggle to get anywhere near the same detail with PLA/ABS. What I have seen people do though is use filament printers to print the main structure of a building and then clad it with brick or stone plasticard.

Edited by Locksley
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Just found this thread an absolutely staggered by the standard of modelling. Certainly given me food for thought! (Including giving up.)

 

A couple of questions if I may?

 

A) How easy was it to fit 3 links to the Ruston and the Sentinel?

 

B) Have you given any (more) thought to offering your printed buildings for sale?

 

Cheers

 

steve

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 15/05/2020 at 08:45, steve1 said:

Just found this thread an absolutely staggered by the standard of modelling. Certainly given me food for thought! (Including giving up.)

 

A couple of questions if I may?

 

A) How easy was it to fit 3 links to the Ruston and the Sentinel?

 

B) Have you given any (more) thought to offering your printed buildings for sale?

 

Cheers

 

steve

 

Thanks Steve!

 

A) Tbh it was easy peasy, the plastic Hornby hooks pull out with pliers. The shank of the 3-link hook was clipped off leaving a few mm which was then lightly filed down on the top and bottom so it would slide into the hole left in the bufferbeam. I then just popped them in with a blob of superglue. I can't comment on how they'd handle a full train but these wagons aren't light and they show no signs of giving up yet.

 

B) I have, though I'm still not sure of the route I'll go down. The issue is simply the time it takes to print them (these are around 12hrs per section) so I'm not sure how cost effective it would be to sell them as prints, but I'd possibly go down the route of making the STL files avaliable.

 

On 15/05/2020 at 10:55, steve1 said:

Something else on the Sentinel. Have you tried Laserglaze? Here’s one of mine with it. It’s dead easy and makes quite a change.

 

steve

 

 

I have thought about it tbh, it does look great. I may treat myself to a set at some point.

 

On 16/05/2020 at 02:58, brian777999 said:

Can you post a close-up photo of your points after all the scenic work was done please ? 

 

Sure, I'll try and get you some ASAP.

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Well, that's just stunning. Most inspirational.

I'm impressed by how well the 3D printing works for the buildings, though of course your painting and weathering skills bring them to wonderfully grubby life.

As for fitting lights to the Ruston and Sentinel...

A superb model, and thank you for sharing it.

 

Michael

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4 hours ago, luke the train spotter said:

Where do you source those turnout throws from? I've been looking for something like that for a long time for my micros. 

 

They're Caboose Industries N Scale levers. I bought them a few years back for another project and ended up with 2 spare, put them away and then couldn't find them when I started Frost's Mill so had to use a pair of Peco Dummy 009 levers instead. Turns out the Caboose Ind. ones were in the same drawer, just hadn't looked hard enough lol.

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Hi Alex

 

Delighted to see that you are making some of your 3D prints available for purchase, and also trialling the STL files as downloads.  I assume that there are terms of usage similar to other download vendors, which would make sense (I assume an STL is similar to a PDF file?)

 

I do hope this works out for you - I'd be delighted to order some of your prints, such as jerry cans, oil cans, tool boxes and the enhancement details for the Scalescenes box file you mentioned in another thread.  But to show support, I've downloaded the Canal Warehouse building - all I need now is software that runs on an iMac! (Oh, and a 3D printer!!)

 

Steve S

Edited by SteveyDee68
Correct name for download
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On 29/05/2020 at 16:29, SteveyDee68 said:

Hi Alex

 

Delighted to see that you are making some of your 3D prints available for purchase, and also trialling the STL files as downloads.  I assume that there are terms of usage similar to other download vendors, which would make sense (I assume an STL is similar to a PDF file?)

 

I do hope this works out for you - I'd be delighted to order some of your prints, such as jerry cans, oil cans, tool boxes and the enhancement details for the Scalescenes box file you mentioned in another thread.  But to show support, I've downloaded the Canal Warehouse building - all I need now is software that runs on an iMac! (Oh, and a 3D printer!!)

 

Steve S

 

Thanks again Steve! Much appreciated! I presume the checkout/download process went without a hitch?

 

I've added a terms of usage to the website for STLs, usual stuff, do whatever you want with it except sell it/prints of it really.

 

I use Chitubox with my Photon to slice the files, it looks like it has a Mac version :) .

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  • 3 months later...
On 29/05/2020 at 11:54, Locksley said:

If anybody is interested, I'm trialling an online store where I've made a couple of STL files available for a few squids. I don't know if I'll keep it going past the 3 month free trial but thought it was worth a try. There's also a few prints for sale on there too.

 

https://echorangemodels.co.uk/

 

Visiting your website today, I see it no longer exists. I assume that there wasn't sufficient interest shown during your three month free trial. A shame, as I was checking to see about mooring bollards, tool boxes, oil cans etc! I also wondered whether you might do your extra details for the Scalescenes boxfile - and your dockside crane would have been ideal for the new canalside boxfile model! 

 

Steve S

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On 28/09/2020 at 18:00, SteveyDee68 said:

 

Visiting your website today, I see it no longer exists. I assume that there wasn't sufficient interest shown during your three month free trial. A shame, as I was checking to see about mooring bollards, tool boxes, oil cans etc! I also wondered whether you might do your extra details for the Scalescenes boxfile - and your dockside crane would have been ideal for the new canalside boxfile model! 

 

Steve S

 

Yeah, unfortunately I only got about 10 visitors over the entire 3 month trial despite even Alan at Modelu putting a post out with a link. You were my first and last customer :) I may still put together a small portfolio style site but I still haven't got round to doing so. I'd still like to put together a Scalescenes detail pack too but it's something I've been meaning to do for the last year so I have no idea when I'll get to it. I currently have 6 model aircraft commissions sitting under the bench waiting to be built...

 

I do now have an FDM 3d printer after a workmate offered me his older Wanhao i3 at a price too good to refuse so I'm tempted to try printing out one of the buildings just out of morbid curiosity to see how it prints lol.

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