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Metropolitan Railway - Chesham Set - using 3D printing.


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Matt, these coaches are really impressive. I look forward to seeing a fully lined out finished article, as you have more than proved your prowess in this area!

 

Whilst I notice you model the Bluebell in a contemporary scene, might you consider making a second set in the dark brown livery in which they arrived on the Bluebell?

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Hi Chris.
Sadly I won't be lining these out been having quite a lot of trouble with my sight recently, as well as a steady hand, I have  got one fully transferred up just awaiting some windows to be fitted, which will be some point next week.
 Would be an idea, but mine would incorrect to model or paint it as they were slightly different, the brake and the all 3rd ends, as well as the sides of the brake as well, but from the sound of things, another company has that in mind.

 

http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/pics/coach387.html



 

Edited by Bluebell Model Railway
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  • 3 weeks later...

Not said much for nearly a month a bit of an update.
All 4 carriage bodies have been made in CAD, so over the next month or 2, I will have all 4 complete hoping there are no problems to compared to the number I have had with this Brake 3rd. The Brake 3rd has been re-printed now twice, second in print at the moment, mainly down to it's orientation and position in the printer which I hope has now been resolved.
Mean while on the all 3rd, It is nearly complete apart from its vac pipes ect.... Comet jumper cables have been fitted to the ends, and a few touch ups and changes to the paint and it's pretty much there... I plan to change the bogies for the redesigned stronger type, as it's still on its original which were pretty weak.

 

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Thanks Matt, yes finally getting somewhere after a whole year of trying, I have all 4 coaches now ready for printing which is exciting, hopefully they come out as good as the one above. The brake hopefully will arrive again next week, after a couple of weeks of discussion with Shapeways, as I had an orientation problem the 1st time, then it was put the right way up, then that got squashed and distorted due to it's position in the tray... I tell you that brake coach has a curse on it... I just hope it's been resolved so I can actually start it.
Thanks for the comment :)
 

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

I have just started finishing off the final composite coach in this set, which has been a bit of a struggle in recent weeks due to the failure rate from Shapeways... guess they haven't heard of quality control before sending it out... Because of this I chose a different route on this last coach which was due to be finished at the end of June.. now in July I went with a local 3D print company called Graphite Additive Manufacturing, a company that does more checks on a print than you can think about.. which I like!
This last coach has been printed by SLA printer, so a laser curing resin to create the model.

I picked up the final print on Wednesday, and the qaulity was quite amazing, despite missing some smaller bits which was due to them being under the minimal print margins, the model was a lot smoother, the material is called ABS-Like.. although looking at other companies I Materialise does some thing similar called Prime Grey. It maybe double the cost but if your looking for a decent finish on a model then you have to be prepared to pay for it.
SLS Nylon - £23 
SLA ABS-Like - £49


Anyway I hope to finish this model by the 19th July hopefully in time for High Wycombe club open day.
Here's some following images of the new print,
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Additional parts added, Roof vents, rain strips, also primer applied.
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  • RMweb Gold

Very nice, but there's a question just begging to be asked.  I know you started this because you wanted this particular rake, but given all the work you've done, are there economies of scale to be had by (re)using some of the work to produce a 3 car set as used by LT in latter days?  No prizes for guessing what I want  :no: 

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  • RMweb Gold

I take it your looking at the steam push pull set? With modified brake and all 3rd? If so, I believe there are being done by Radley.

 

Yes I was, and no I wasn't aware he was doing it.  Thanks

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  • RMweb Gold

Yes it's been mention on this very topic quite a few pages back, as I doubt he would of done the preserved examples, this is why I continued with these as no-one i don't think would do these, there's to much of a small market.

 

Ah yes I'd forgotten about that, but upon re-reading  all the posts in this thread am totally confused as to what Radley IS producing apart from confusion!!!!

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My own efforts are slowly progressing. The first samples from this proposed kit have come back. The kit is a mixture of resin and metal. The chassis and roof are resin along with the plain ends. The rest will be metal. The first samples are shown along with a very quick and basic assembly to get a feel for the kit.

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  • RMweb Gold

Kits of the MET p&p bogie coaches are also available from London Road Models.

 

I haven't the confidence to spend the price they want for a 3 car set and build it in brass (which I've never done).  Lord of Narnia seems to be following a 'keep it simple' approach which suits me better.  I've built a 4 car Q stock set from Little Bus Co resin kits but not sure I could face doing brass.

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I haven't the confidence to spend the price they want for a 3 car set and build it in brass (which I've never done).  Lord of Narnia seems to be following a 'keep it simple' approach which suits me better.  I've built a 4 car Q stock set from Little Bus Co resin kits but not sure I could face doing brass.

Carriage kits are not generally difficult to build, provided you use a suitable soldering iron, solder and flux.  Brian Mosby (Mozzer Models) did a write up on RMweb on the LRM kits when he built a set some years ago. A quick look seems to indicate that the price of the complete etched kits doesn't seem much different from the sort of prices quoted on Shapeways for body only printed coaches.

 

3D printed models (at least the ones I have seen) haven't yet achieved the surface finish and crisp detailing that etched brass or moulded plastic achieves.

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Well managed to sell one via Shapeways in the past week which is nice, just hope shapeways do a decent print which is always my main concern.
I am not a fan of Brass kits, probably because I just haven't got around to trying one or buying the equipment necessary to build one plus the cost of the kit itself...

I can offer a better surface finish of that which you see above, problem is it depends if people or customers want to pay for it a similar conversation to do you want detail... or do you want design clever?

The kit in resin / Metal looks very nice, although not the same as what I have done, is the general direction of what I am possible looking at doing, would be interested in seeing some more images of it, if possible as it does look promising, had some small interest from the LT Museum also, and a few magazines so should be interesting going forwards.

Meanwhile, I did manage to get a picture of all 4 coaches completed on a fellow club members layout, with his K's A-Class tank.

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Edited by Bluebell Model Railway
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Thank you, yes they are getting quite a lot of attention, recently featured on an article for 3DPrint.com which was rather cool, wasn't expecting it... London Transport museum have been watching and are trying to borrow them... although nothing concrete on that.
I shall keep an eye on your resin ones, they do look nice people do want these coaches so will look forward to seeing more progress from you.

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  • 4 years later...

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