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3D Printed N Gauge Pendolino and On Track Plant


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Having started a bit of painting on the tamper, I have decided to change its identity. I'd planned on making this one of the white and blue Balfour Beatty tampers and had designed all the decals in advance, however I hadn't really given any thought to how on earth my painting skills were going to get the thin lines of blue on the girders....

 

As this is a test, I'm switching to an all yellow one, however it's hard to find where these actually are these days. Looks like a lot of te fastline tampers have either been scrapped or exported, though one now seems to exist under the name of B&R Track Services. Photos of it seem to show it on preserved lines, so whether this actually gets out and about I have no idea, but at least it is yellow!

 

David

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As this is a test, I'm switching to an all yellow one, however it's hard to find where these actually are these days. Looks like a lot of te fastline tampers have either been scrapped or exported, though one now seems to exist under the name of B&R Track Services. Photos of it seem to show it on preserved lines, so whether this actually gets out and about I have no idea, but at least it is yellow!

 

David

73274 (07-16 not 32) is preserved operational on the South Devon Railway. Ex- Jarvis Fastline etc, Merseyrail with 3rd rail tamping banks.

No longer in yellow, expected to be in P&DS railway for a while.

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Hello David

 

That does look rather nice.  If you're still thinking of yellow, how about this:

 

http://ukrailwaypics.smugmug.com/UKRailRollingstock/Z-Tops-codes/ZWA-On-Track-Plant/16754016_VvD65h#!i=1291844643&k=tN6HKsG&lb=1&s=L

 

You've already got the grey; simply mask those areas with strips of Tamiya tape and spray white, then mask off the roof and spray yellow!

 

I am looking forward to monitoring your progress!  And have you had the grinder printed yet?

 

cheers

 

Ben A. 

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Thanks guys, the ultra frosted detail is pretty remarkable, such a good print.

 

Ben, that might be just the colour scheme I need! Those carillon tampers seem to have gone before 2011 though (not in my abc book), but I think I can get away with them.

 

The rail grinder has been ordered in the same material, so I am very much looking forward to those arriving - they were ordered a few days after the tamper, so I'm expecting them middle of next week.

 

David

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I had a major disaster with the painting this morning.

 

I think what I'd done is spray over a coat of enamel paint that wasn't properly dry, and chaos ensued when I put masking strip on it and whole chunks of paint came off. Then it all started cracking, so given painting isn't a strong point of mine, I decided to use this as a bit of a learning curve and stripped all the paint off using brasso.

 

I managed to get back to a good finish on most of the model, but the cross beams and surfaces inside were almost impossible to clean right back, and to cover the awfulness of it all, I've had to use quite a few too many coats of yellow.

 

I'm not too disappointed as the reason I ordered the tamper print before the rail grinders was to practice painting and masking this new material so any disasters would happen here and not on the grinder.

 

Once this is completely (!!!) dry, I will paint the roof and then the tamping equipment. It's not going to be great, but at least I know what to do on the grinder painting - slow down and be patient!

 

David

 

post-6666-0-81096800-1359824474_thumb.jpg

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Well I think this print is going to be a write off. The paint is just getting worse and worse!

 

I'm going to use this as a pure test item now, see if I can figure out what is happening. It seems to be a mix of having not properly cleaned the wax residue off, and the primer not holding properly.

 

I've used brasso on a section of the body side and then used IPA to clean it even further, and sprayed a small area with primer. This I am going to leave 24 hours, then try spraying yellow against leave that 24 hours then see if it has held.

 

David

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David

FUD - told you so!

After proper cleaning with a solvent, and rinse with really hand-hot water, and

washing-up liquid with an old toothbrush: A coat of Halford's Primer should

be a good base coat for finishing.

Great model, and all the drafting done true justice with the print.

 

Noel

Edited by Dazzler Fan
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Work has commenced on the rail grinder bodyshells, and after a soak and scrub in soapy water and a going over with some IPA, all that sweet sticky support material residue seems to have gone.

 

A quick spray with some white primer, and here we are!

 

My only concern at the moment, and it's a big one, is the size of the model. I need to mount them on the chassis to be really surer but they feel quite large. I had to make a slight deminsional compromise to fit the bodies around the chassis, but I have a sinking feeling that they are about 1.5mm too wide (which actually doesn't show), but possibly the same tall - so they may loom over other rolling stock.

 

If this is the case, it will be an expensive error as these shells weren't cheap, but I can redimension the CAD for future prints if so.

 

The prints themselves I am over the moon with though, the detail is crisp and particularly around the roof grilles, has come out very well indeed.

 

David

 

post-6666-0-64831500-1360775999_thumb.jpg

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Unable to contain myself, I've roughly mounted one body onto a chassis, so excuse the slight wonky positioning! I'm less concerned now, they ARE slightly bigger than they should be, but the sense of oversize comes more from the fact they are bulky box shapes, but sit low on their bogies which are much smaller than standard locomotive ones, so once properly mounted, the height is okay.

 

Sat next to an 08 and a 92, it looks good enough to my eyes but I'd be keen for other views.

 

David

post-6666-0-23658300-1360776487_thumb.jpg

post-6666-0-94063700-1360776517_thumb.jpg

post-6666-0-62797000-1360776553_thumb.jpg

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Progress will slow for a week or so...I've decided, expensive though it is, to reprint a revised design of the model with more accurate vertical proportions. Luckily, in shrinking the design and thinning the internal walls so it still fits on the same chassis, the volume of material has dropped quite a bit, thus reducing the price!

 

Here are the before and after designs side by side:

 

post-6666-0-59769900-1360956845_thumb.jpg

 

A much better size I think, and I will use the 'larger' models as test beds for the cleaning and painting process - I am having a nightmare with a)still not getting all the wax off it, and b)yellow spray paint is just vile!

 

And once funds allow, I will reprint the 07 Tamper, and a first stab at the 09 Tamper - which is hideously expensive so has to go right first time!

 

David

 

post-6666-0-23268400-1360956953_thumb.jpg

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