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3D Modelling and Printing


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The 3D printing and modelling is something I trialled several years ago, when 3D printers were a relatively new concept. However I found the finished model was flimsy and brittle! At the time I was using PTC Pro|Engineer Wildfire which I guess was probably 7/8 years ago!

 

Anyway I have been reading some of the recent threads on here and I see some of you have had more rewarding and useful results.

 

I guess I have a couple of questions that I would like answered and see if the 3D printing has improved and hopefully you guys can answer them;

 

 

  • What would a typical open hopper wagon in 4mm cost to produce (HDA body and chassis) with Shapeways or similar company?
  • How strong are the finished models?
  • How fine can you go on the detail?
  • How much post printing work is required before paint can be applied to the model?

Thanks for anyone who can help with my questions, I will try and post some of the work I had previously done so you can see the wagon that I produced and see what results I had.

 

 

 

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What would a typical open hopper wagon in 4mm cost to produce (HDA body and chassis) with Shapeways or similar company?

 

Hard to make an accurate estimation as it depends on so many things but my best guess would be in the 20-30$ range from Shapeways

 

 

How strong are the finished models?

 

The WSF material is incredibly strong - I trod on one of my own wagons - broke the axles not the wagon.

FD/FUD less so - still quite strong in normal use, will flex and can be bent back into shape after, but also has a glass like brittle quality if you drop it.

 

 

How fine can you go on the detail?

 

0.2 MM or 0.1 mm if you go to FUD -note you haven got any shape defined at this resolution, it's just a blob - but you can't really see any detail either, so it's fairly irrelevant

.

How much post printing work is required before paint can be applied to the model?

 

With FUD it's basically a case of making sure all the wax support material is cleaned off - an ultrasonic cleaner seems to be best method here - use a water based cleaning solution.

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I'd say the detail on tractions t-gauge 67's was even better than 0.1mm BUT he did use a specialist firm to design and develop it so while definitely 3D printing, the company were using an element of 'secret knowledge'. That said they weren't terribly expensive, especially when considering they did all the modelling and development.

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