Etched Pixels Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 Something I've been fiddling with. The dome is just for testing as I plan to use an existing casting for that, funnel and smokebox door. Similarly all the pipework will be wire. FUD pipework just leads to tears and breakages in N. This is all generated in OpenScad and it's an entirely parametric model so at build time you can select whether you want coal rails, GER buffers, the cab style, safety valve type etc. I've got a few things I need to fiddle with further - the 6" westinghouse that some locos had, the later cab roof profile and if I can find a decent image the push pull gear. It's intended to fit a Dapol 14xx chassis. The M7 would have been more ideal but that one is a shade too tall. I may see if it can be trimmed to fit however. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atso Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 That looks really good Alan! I'm surprised that you are not testing your 3D printed chassis experiments on this as I would have thought that this would be an ideal loco to do some additional testing on - I've got an LNER C12 as a future project which will have a test chassis printed to see if this is viable for a steam loco. I take it you're going to have this printed in FUD? Have you thought about iMaterialize's 'Prime Grey'? You can specify the print orientation on this although it isn't fine enough for the chimney or smoke box door the boiler and cab would come out fine. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Etched Pixels Posted June 28, 2012 Author Share Posted June 28, 2012 Couple of reasons - I've got a 14xx chassis sitting here, and its cheaper. The 14xx motor and wheels (trailer aside) are basically bang on. The trailing wheel is 1-2mm off unless you bore an extra hole. I've mostly cracked the chimney and dome flanging right now so next job is to do the various chimneys they had. Hopefully it'll then look the part behind the Gresley suburban push/pull. I'm still playing with the chassis stuff in the background. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Etched Pixels Posted June 29, 2012 Author Share Posted June 29, 2012 F4 with stove pipe funnel and number 34 boiler. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atso Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 Looks better and better the more I look at it. It is a bit out of my modelled location but I'm really tempted by this one! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Etched Pixels Posted May 23, 2013 Author Share Posted May 23, 2013 Been doing various bits of further work on this having had time to go back to it. I've fixed the dome size error and also added the ability to render the first 30 locos (with both styles of cylinder covers), and also the Wordsell built locos and number 33 boiler. Some of the further rails and piping is to fragile to add as it won't print so will still have to be added by hand, but I want to see if I can add printable versions of the front springs and moulded on style handrails. Still a few other things it can't do - a couple of the funnel types need adding as does the revised steel roof and the 6" westinghouse pump some carried. Alan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Etched Pixels Posted November 30, 2013 Author Share Posted November 30, 2013 Also finally done, and with a few minor tweaks I got it to print in brass at Shapeways too. Pricier, but heavier and looks almost too good to paint. In theory this means it'll also work gold plated. to Shapeways. Almost too good to paint though... Alan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atso Posted November 30, 2013 Share Posted November 30, 2013 Alan, that looks incredible. Is this the raw or polished brass? Having done some checking with my own models, yes that would've been pricy! All the details have come out well, what's the wall thickness? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Etched Pixels Posted November 30, 2013 Author Share Posted November 30, 2013 Polished brass, wall thickness is about 1mm Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve O. Posted November 30, 2013 Share Posted November 30, 2013 Wow! I didn't know that 3D brass was possible, is it a new option? Looks amazing. Great work! Cheers, Steve. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Corbs Posted November 30, 2013 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 30, 2013 That's amazing! Not seen anyone print models in brass before! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gareth Collier Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 Hi Alan, At what weight does the brass version come in at? Gareth Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
-missy- Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 Hello. Well technically it isnt printed in Brass, its printed in wax and then cast in Brass. I think I will wait until the price (and wall thicknesses etc) come down and improve. At roughly 10x the cost of WSF and 5x the price of FUD it makes into a very expensive method of producing things right now. Im going to stick with etching for the moment! M Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Etched Pixels Posted December 1, 2013 Author Share Posted December 1, 2013 I don't actually see the wall thickness as a problem. I want the body shell to have a bit of weight to it. It is pricy but not when you factor time into it. To design an etched version of the loco would take me a fair bit of time. I'd need to buy a range of third party cast parts and turnings and I'd need to spend several days assembling it. At that point the price looks extremely good. I do have separate etched footsteps for it (because of the wall thickness) but the fact it takes almost no time to assemble is a big win over etched brass. I imagine most people would go for the FUD one, but for the price difference for a model that is going to have a lot of careful detailing work and for the weight I felt it was actually a bargain (just don't tell Shapeways that in case they put the prices up !) Alan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Etched Pixels Posted December 1, 2013 Author Share Posted December 1, 2013 Hi Alan, At what weight does the brass version come in at? Gareth 19 grams for the body shell Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
justin1985 Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 Looks incredible there Alan! Definitely looks like a superior finish to either plastic, I assume because of the polishing. Is it the angle of the picture, or has the polishing done funny things to the shape of the dome and chimney though? Perhaps printing these separately might avoid problems? Completely agree on cost being less of an issue when you consider the time saved, even compared to priming sanding and finishing FUD. I'll have to think about a 2FS chassis for it - shouldn't be too difficult as a 2-4-2, and plenty of space for a motor. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edubs Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 Hello. Very interesting. Have you got any more pictures of this please? Cheers, Eddie. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Etched Pixels Posted December 1, 2013 Author Share Posted December 1, 2013 I think the dome is mostly the way the light catches it. It doesn't look wrong but its hard to photograph. The buffers have very slightly shifted though. For finescale work I can see a separate turned funnel perhaps being better. The cast one can't have the funnel hollow except for a little bit at the top. The downside for fine detailing v FUD of course is that drilling holes in solid polished brass for handrail knobs is going to involve much colourful language. Alan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
billbedford Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 I don't think so. I think SW have put sprues to the top of the chimney and dome as you can see where they have tried to make good the join. After having a piece of my own made in polished brass, I'd recommend you go for raw brass and place stubs around the model where the techs can sprue to. You should be able to get most of them onto places where cutting them off will not affect the the look of the finished model. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
richbrummitt Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 What I do like about the method is that the tank and bunker sides seem to have that not flat look that is hard to model but makes a model look more like the real thing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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