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Newman Miniatures: N and 00 Scale 3D-Printed Scratch Aids


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Recently upgrading the shape of Bulleid's 'Leader' in O Gauge, the decision to take this over to N etc as an improvement started a chain reaction of little tweaks that ultimately grew into discovering the model plans used were in areas completely wrong!  The result is a hyper-detailed model with as much as possible included and each element checked against multiple images and period plans to get as accurate a rendition as possible.  While the mechanics remain the same as an easy-build format the wheels are technically too small, so work has turned to hopefully develop a system for easy rewheeling of TomyTec chassis with BFB wheels.  There's a lot to prep and it might not be successful, but it's certainly worth trying...

#LeaderUpgraderRender#5.jpg

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On 22/01/2023 at 10:59, Rudititanic said:

A newly-upgraded 00 Planet Class has just been developed - perfect for the Hornby Era I coaches. 

https://www.shapeways.com/product/BS4SETZST/00-scale-planet-loco-scratch-aid-fine-detai

https://www.shapeways.com/product/VBQGJ9CE9/00-scale-planet-tender-scratch-aid-fine-detail

 

More images can be found on this post:

 

 

 

I have now received the further two motor-bogies from Scalelink that have been on back-order since the veginning of the year. 😁

 

These are to enable me to produce a further two Planet Class locos using Rudititanic's 3D prints.

 

These are the 24.5mm w/b with 10.5 dia. spoked wheels and are the mainstay of many of Rudititanic's prints of small early locos as they commonly use tender drive.

 

I mention this as my delivery suggests they are once more in-stock, so for anyone interested in one of the OO Gauage scratch aids, now would be a good time to take the plunge: Newman Miniatures

 

  

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On a current 3D development, Shapeways is increasing production costs of Smooth/Smoothest Fine Detail Plastic, and simultaneously promoting new materials - Gray and Clear Ultra Fine Detail Plastic.  Having now built a Head Wrightson in the new material, here are a few photos and thoughts:

 

The new plastic is easily as crisp as ‘Smoothest’ (if not more so) and seems to respond well to filing and paint (with primer).  It’s just as brittle as its predecessor though, and while the buffers/details/wheel shims glued with no issue the accidentally-snapped-off brake remained somewhat weak post-gluing.  Knocked off a few times I ultimately experimented in turn with superglue and plastic glue, both working if delicate (although this could be unfair to fault seeing how small the part is), and later shored up with some UHU at the coaling stage.  Comparison of the finish with ‘Smoothest’ is stark, but again in fairness the predecessor was an early-built example before realising the need to thoroughly clean prints.  Sometimes ‘Smoothest’ can have a slight crystalising issue especially where not cleaned so it waits to be seen if this is duplicated on the new model.  Lastly, while not knowing if Shapeways has already increased its prices or not, the new material appears to be cheaper – in the case of 00 locos quite substantially. 

 

Early days, but certainly worth considering. 

#IMG_7029.jpg

#IMG_7026.jpg

#IMG_6931.jpg

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vBNaB5J.jpg

 

A question if I may.  Has any forum member purchased and built one of these?  It's been ages since I purchased anything from Shapeways so I'm wondering what their White (or Black) Natural Versatile Plastic is like these days.  I see that the Y10 is set up for a Tenshodo motor bogie, but I have some small H0 0-4-0 switcher chassis and I'm wondering what my chances might be with fitting one of those in instead.

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13 hours ago, Annie said:

vBNaB5J.jpg

 

A question if I may.  Has any forum member purchased and built one of these?  It's been ages since I purchased anything from Shapeways so I'm wondering what their White (or Black) Natural Versatile Plastic is like these days.  I see that the Y10 is set up for a Tenshodo motor bogie, but I have some small H0 0-4-0 switcher chassis and I'm wondering what my chances might be with fitting one of those in instead.

 

So, the model will be designed to fit one of these (picture not necessarily the same wheels and w/b).

 

image.png.5f745c19d375f396ef4cfd7622418972.png

 

I have had several tenders designed for these motor bogies (Lion, Planet, Derwent) and the freelance steam tram (nearest in nature to your model). The underside of these models are printed to fit over the profile of the motor bogie, so my expectation is that the Y10 would be the same.

 

Thus, any other power unit will need, if smaller, packing, or, if larger/taller (far more likely in my view), a lot of excavation of this relatively brittle plastic material.

 

So, this is the freelance steam tram from the same range:

 

image.png.219a18770fddb1c6790c49c950a20640.png

 

Like the Y10, it's a supersized N gauge design.

 

I mention it for a particular reason. I wanted to lower the skirts to sit closer to the rail tops. I had to think long and hard about whether I wanted to do this as it involved trying to shave the interior underside down by a mm or two, which wasn't easy.

 

It worked, but, then, I was only trying to deepen the existing cavity a little, not carving out space for a different and larger power unit.

 

Frankly, I would not care to attempt this.

 

Turning to the material, my own view is that White Natural Versatile Plastic and Black ditto are pretty rubbish. I might use them for a chassis only print, but they are not great at detail and need to be sanded to extinction to get a reasonable finish.

 

My tram print was Smooth Fine Detail Plastic, which needs some sanding but is pretty good. The Planet prints were Smoothest Fine Detail Plastic, a little more refined.

 

However, see Dr Newman's post above yours. There is a new, cheaper material, which looks quite good, so that might be the ideal compromise between quality and price here.

 

I like this range. A Y10 is never going to suit my plans and periods, but I have several of Dr Newman's models for earlier periods. Using the power bogies with them is simplicity itself. If I did want this Y10 print, I would definitely buy the recommended motor bogie to go with.

 

Hope that assists.

 

 

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15 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

So, the model will be designed to fit one of these (picture not necessarily the same wheels and w/b).

 

image.png.5f745c19d375f396ef4cfd7622418972.png

 

I have had several tenders designed for these motor bogies (Lion, Planet, Derwent) and the freelance steam tram (nearest in nature to your model). The underside of these models are printed to fit over the profile of the motor bogie, so my expectation is that the Y10 would be the same.

 

Thus, any other power unit will need, if smaller, packing, or, if larger/taller (far more likely in my view), a lot of excavation of this relatively brittle plastic material.

 

So, this is the freelance steam tram from the same range:

 

image.png.219a18770fddb1c6790c49c950a20640.png

 

Like the Y10, it's a supersized N gauge design.

 

I mention it for a particular reason. I wanted to lower the skirts to sit closer to the rail tops. I had to think long and hard about whether I wanted to do this as it involved trying to shave the interior underside down by a mm or two, which wasn't easy.

 

It worked, but, then, I was only trying to deepen the existing cavity a little, not carving out space for a different and larger power unit.

 

Frankly, I would not care to attempt this.

 

Turning to the material, my own view is that White Natural Versatile Plastic and Black ditto are pretty rubbish. I might use them for a chassis only print, but they are not great at detail and need to be sanded to extinction to get a reasonable finish.

 

My tram print was Smooth Fine Detail Plastic, which needs some sanding but is pretty good. The Planet prints were Smoothest Fine Detail Plastic, a little more refined.

 

However, see Dr Newman's post above yours. There is a new, cheaper material, which looks quite good, so that might be the ideal compromise between quality and price here.

 

I like this range. A Y10 is never going to suit my plans and periods, but I have several of Dr Newman's models for earlier periods. Using the power bogies with them is simplicity itself. If I did want this Y10 print, I would definitely buy the recommended motor bogie to go with.

 

Hope that assists.

 

 

 Thank you kindly for your thoughtful reply James.  I used to buy 'G' scale sized fittings from Shapeways that were made in White Natural Versatile Plastic and in the larger scale the surface finish of the cheaper material hardly mattered at all.  However in 00 I would imagine it would like a scale version of a gravel road.

 

I imagine you've guessed that I'm considering the Y10 for my new 00 layout only I'm starting to be concerned that an expensive and brittle loco bodyshell might not be the best thing to put into my sometimes clumsy and sleepy hands.  This is annoying as if I still had my wits about me I'd knock something like a Y10 up out of recycled tinplate in no time at all.  

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10 minutes ago, Annie said:

 Thank you kindly for your thoughtful reply James.  I used to buy 'G' scale sized fittings from Shapeways that were made in White Natural Versatile Plastic and in the larger scale the surface finish of the cheaper material hardly mattered at all.  However in 00 I would imagine it would like a scale version of a gravel road.

 

I imagine you've guessed that I'm considering the Y10 for my new 00 layout only I'm starting to be concerned that an expensive and brittle loco bodyshell might not be the best thing to put into my sometimes clumsy and sleepy hands.  This is annoying as if I still had my wits about me I'd knock something like a Y10 up out of recycled tinplate in no time at all.  

 

I did wonder!  Well, potentially the Y10 print is ideal. 

 

If you go for a decent grade of material and the right motor bogie you have a model that requires a minimum of finishing and that practically motorises itself.

 

The material should be more than robust enough to cope with the handling it would need in such a circumstance.

 

It's a trade off between cost and ease.

 

A bit of extra weight will dramatically improve pulling power and you're away!

 

 

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9 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

I did wonder!  Well, potentially the Y10 print is ideal. 

 

If you go for a decent grade of material and the right motor bogie you have a model that requires a minimum of finishing and that practically motorises itself.

 

The material should be more than robust enough to cope with the handling it would need in such a circumstance.

 

It's a trade off between cost and ease.

 

A bit of extra weight will dramatically improve pulling power and you're away!

 

 

Thanks James.  I will continue to think about it since I have a big soft spot for Sentinels and the kind of shunting layout I'm considering would be the perfect playground for them.

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@Annie I think James has easily covered as much as I can in response to your questions, though to add with regard to the stronger/coarser plastic here are links covering more recent prints that hopefully you can gauge the finish from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVw3LrNFIG8

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/176628-newman-miniatures-crampton

 

As for motorising, it was designed for a specific motor-bogie chassis as James mentioned with no real intention for hollowing out per se, so I would recommend that type specifically.  If, however, you are set on a different chassis I am open to developing an alternate print for you that is as spacious as possible if wanted (you would need to design your own mounting point/s though).  At the very least I'm glad you find the model of interest!

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23 minutes ago, Rudititanic said:

@Annie I think James has easily covered as much as I can in response to your questions, though to add with regard to the stronger/coarser plastic here are links covering more recent prints that hopefully you can gauge the finish from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVw3LrNFIG8

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/176628-newman-miniatures-crampton

 

As for motorising, it was designed for a specific motor-bogie chassis as James mentioned with no real intention for hollowing out per se, so I would recommend that type specifically.  If, however, you are set on a different chassis I am open to developing an alternate print for you that is as spacious as possible if wanted (you would need to design your own mounting point/s though).  At the very least I'm glad you find the model of interest!

Thank you very much for responding to my enquiry.  I'm presently still weighing up questions of scale and gauge, but a Sentinel is still a part of my plans.  If I did go ahead with purchasing your Y10 model I think it would be better for me to source the intended mechanism rather than mess about with something found in one of my junk boxes.  I must comment though that I think your 19th century models are delightful and the N gauge ones are amazing little jewels.  To see them running in your Youtube video is an absolute delight.

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8 hours ago, Annie said:

Thank you very much for responding to my enquiry.  I'm presently still weighing up questions of scale and gauge, but a Sentinel is still a part of my plans.  If I did go ahead with purchasing your Y10 model I think it would be better for me to source the intended mechanism rather than mess about with something found in one of my junk boxes.  I must comment though that I think your 19th century models are delightful and the N gauge ones are amazing little jewels.  To see them running in your Youtube video is an absolute delight.

 

Very kind of you to say thanks.  The early days had such a distinct aesthetic and such variety what with their pioneering nature, it makes a bit of a difference from Big Four etc (along with saving space)!   As for the Sentinels, they're somewhat more modern but still just as distinctive and different in their own way so I certainly see their appeal.  Good luck with the layout plans.  

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For what it's worth, this is what White Processed Versatile (a.k.a. smoothed white strong and flexible) looks like with only the application of paint - no filling/sanding.

 

 

It's visibly knobbly, but not as bad as one would expect from the raw plastic finish.

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6 hours ago, TangoOscarMike said:

For what it's worth, this is what White Processed Versatile (a.k.a. smoothed white strong and flexible) looks like with only the application of paint - no filling/sanding.

 

 

It's visibly knobbly, but not as bad as one would expect from the raw plastic finish.

Thanks for that.  Yesterday I found an 009 double ended tram engine bodyshell that I must've ordered from Shapeways over eight years ago and never used, - and the 'white strong and flexible' plastic doesn't look that bad at all.  I used to buy large scale 16mm fittings made from 'white strong and flexible' plastic and on a large scale engine the as printed surface finish looked perfectly fine.

 

As it happens I've decided to go with On16.5 for my new layout rather than 00, but I may end up having another look about on Shapeways to see what I can find in that scale.

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8 hours ago, Annie said:

As it happens I've decided to go with On16.5 for my new layout rather than 00, but I may end up having another look about on Shapeways to see what I can find in that scale.

 

<captain_obvious>

Hopefully WS&F will work out better in larger scales, since scaled-up to 1:1 the "grain" size is smaller.

</captain_obvious>

 

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Sharing a new commission, the Listowel Lartigue monorail has been rescaled and refined for 00, including track, wheels, loco, two coaches and mobile steps. Nominally ‘static’, these are all free-rolling as in N so with the potential for motorising…

https://www.shapeways.com/product/G3CLRMRA2/00-scale-listowel-lartigue-locomotive

(More links on the 00 page)

#Untitled.jpg

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Finally complete, Bulleid’s Leader in N has been heavily upgraded to feature not only accurate super-detail (having even used the original prototype plans via the NRM) but also a redesigned chassis system with new scale BFB wheels in replacement of the under-scale rtr ones.  For those happy to compromise, however, a simple version with no chassis modifications is also available – videos have been produced explaining both of these construction methods.  Here though, the prototype shows her paces…

 

If anyone is interested in a more detailed breakdown of how the model was designed and built, I would be happy to explain and show photos etc. 

 

LeadVid#9.JPG

 

 

Edited by Rudititanic
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