Model Railway Structures

[wizmacnz]

Andy Y has kindly given his approval for me to promote my forthcoming products here on the forum.

 

I am in the process of establishing a craft hobby business that is aimed somewhere between the scratchbuilders and kit builders. As I am an architect, the products are building related. The first major area I have been looking at is platform canopies. All the products will be available via a Shapeways on-line shop. Products available are columns, roof trusses, valances and roof sections. Whilst it is possible to combine the pieces to make a complete "canopy kit" The components could also be combined with scalescenes on card, ratio valances etc.

The first batch of prototype is currently under manufacture at Shapeways. Nothing is being made available for purchase until I know that it prints and pieces fit as intended. The expected "go live" date is mid-march.

 

The online shop can be seen at https://www.shapeway...shops/modelrail This will give you an idea of the types of products I have in mind. Prices are only visible once an item is available for purchase. 

 

 A set of 3 platform trusses as per the picture above will cost $US 12.50 about 9.25 Euros. You could just add some card roofing and valance to this or buy other products in the range  to create your own complete platform canopy.

 

Some example sheets of how the canopy system all goes together are viewable as images on the Shapeways site. Being images of restricted size the writing is not that clear. When I have my own web-site up and running they will be available as downloadable PDF's. Send me a PM if you would like a copy in the interim.

 

Other products that will be available are scale furniture for dressing up your building interiors.

 

A tiny 00 Scale bathroom suite will be $4.00 US

 

I'm hoping that the forum will give me lots of feedback on the products available and the types of new products that you would like to see or really need.

 

Peter

 

 

[wizmacnz]

Nothing is more tedious to me than making model stairs so I've thrown up on Shapeways a simple domestic staircase.

 

 

There will be more to come to suit other applications.

 

 

Here are a couple for my own layout that I printed out on my Makerbot at home. If anyone wants a custom designed flight of steps just PM me. They really are quite quick to draw up.

[wizmacnz]

I'm slowly adding items to the up-coming range. Today's additions are a double bed and another domestic staircase for people who like to be able to see something when they peep in the windows of their model buildings.

 

Here is a rendering of the stairs from my computer.

 

 

Visit my online shop at Shapeways if you would like to see the double bed.

 

I've also been tweaking the more railway related structures as the prototypes go through the production process at Shapeways. I particularly had issues with the valances and some of the current printing limitations. I want everything to be printable in the lower cost white plastic to keep the prices down.

 

Peter

[PhilJ W]

I checked your online shop and all items are marked 'not for sale'?

[wizmacnz]

I checked your online shop and all items are marked 'not for sale'?

Hi Phil

 

Although I have test printed most of the items on my Makerbot at home, I haven't yet received Shapeways test prints. When I am sure that something is ok to sell  I need to check a little tick box on Shapeways and the item will then display as a purchasable item with the price shown. The first batch of products is due to leave Shapeways on 27 February. As I said in my first post above, I expect the shop to "go live" in mid March. 

 

When I am more confident of the end product being delivered as I intended, I expect the cycle of design to new product on sale to be much quicker.

[wizmacnz]

The first batches of test printing from Shapeways has now left the factory. I thought it was being printed in the USA, but I see from the tracking info that they are actually being printed in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. I guess that is good news for postage costs and delivery times for those in the UK.

 

 

 

 

Today's addition to the range is a spaceframe roof module for making modern roof structures. Although it could be used "as is", I envisage that anyone wanting to build something along these lines will probably want something quite specific to their design. It's relatively easy to knock up in CAD and cost effective to print so send me a PM if you have a potential project in mind.

[iak]

Fascinating and interesting.

[wizmacnz]

Today's addition is more domestic furniture at OO scale.

 

 

 

My wife thinks I should make some cushions.

[wizmacnz]

I've added a chimney stack to stick on the ridge line of a scratchbuilt house, to the displayed items at my on-line store. It's a bit of an experiment to see if I can achieve a brickwork texture at an affordable cost. It should print fine in the "Ultra Detail Frosted" material, but as a mortar course is only 0.13 of a mm at 1/76 scale, it is pushing things a bit for the cheaper white and flexible. 

 

I have lots of ideas for brick textured items, so it's worth giving it a try. If it doesn't come up to scratch I'll hold those ideas back until the UDF material significantly drops in price. (Its currently about three times the price.)

 

[wizmacnz]

Today I received a little box with a large number of bits and pieces from Shapeways.  I was very pleased with how things have turned out, so I have made the shop go live earlier than I anticipated. I will be photographing and adding pictures of the actual printed product over the next few days; in the mean time lots of things are now available to buy.

 

More products will be added as I get to them. At the moment I am working on a hip tile and ridge tile system to simplify the construction of hipped roofs.  I always struggle with putting those things together and this is intended to simplify things and look good too.

[bigwordsmith]

What an interesting site, and a very welcome addition to the trade, I wish you every success.

 

Having struggled long and hard with the challenge of building something unusual that looked architecturally right I think you've spotted a great opportunity. The challenge of course is the raw material cost for 3D print compared to punning out a ton of moulded or vac formed  components. I suspect you've been round that loop many times.

 

One thought - we're all being told that in the future the cost of 3D printers is going to drop like a stone - already it costs almost as much for a new set of cartridges as you pay for a 4-colour one today, so are you also offering a service where people will be able to buy files they can print on their own machines? The reason I ask is that if I wanted to build a station roof using correct architectural principles, I'd need to bay a lot of trusses and roofing material so using yours could work out prohibitively costly.

 

I may be at the wrong end of the modeller scale as most people don't set out to build a station with six ten foot long platforms, but if you think about canopying three quarters of their length and separate the truss posts at 30 foot intervals that's going to work out one very costly roof - it would look outstanding though!

 

One other thought, as an architect yourself have you thought about offering a CD service for modellers to get the bits to build their own scale model - for example a four rood curved train shed roof?

[wizmacnz]

Hi Bigwordsmith

 

You have correctly identified many of the current issues with 3D printing. I agree that the costs of home 3D printers will drop dramatically in the future. The other thing that will happen will be an increase in quality and speed. I use a Makerbot Replicator 2X as a prototype test machine (as well as printing things that are specific to my layout requirements but would have no application in a wider market).

 

The material cost on a Makerbot is very low, I can print a platform column for around 15p. The downside though is the quality is nothing like as good as Shapeways who use a fused powder system rather than extruded plastic. It also takes about 45 minutes to print one. I envisage in the future the business will switch from ordering the product from a printing bureau to paying for a downloaded file to print yourself (much like scalescenes with their card kits). Currently though it would be like trying to print a scalescenes kit on an old dot matrix printer (if you can remember those).

 

In developing the canopy system, I was in two minds about the roofing sections. They have a lot of material in them and therefore are more costly to buy. Shapeways charges are based on a per item fixed charge plus printed volume of material. They are also though the easiest components to make or replicate yourself using card or plasticard. In the end I decided to model them and include them in the range for "completeness" of the system. The trusses and columns are more affordable and are the pieces that someone would struggle to achieve them selves unless they were expert and dedicated scratch builders. I envisage far more sales of columns and trusses, with people using their own card or plastic to form the roof and possibly using card or ratio valances. For someone though who is not so budget conscious and who wants more instant results, the roof sections are a viable option.

 

Designing for 3D print has many challenges. Printing cost being one of the most significant. I have designed a very ingenious platform edging system, but it is just not currently commercially viable, it uses too much material and is not far enough ahead of the platform edging kits and systems already available. There is also the true scale versus "model scale" issue.  A steel beam printed to true scale dimensions in plastic would crumple like paper. There is always therefore the balance between what looks right and what is required to achieve structural functionality. Final key area is the limitations of the printer and printing process itself. I won't bore you with all the design criteria that have to be complied with to pass shapeways pre-print tests, but key ones are the minimum thickness of material that can be printed and minimum detail dimensions and separation distances.

 

I'm very much prepared to custom design. The cost of this though would be very dependent on how useful the item might be to other modelers who would buy the items and therefore pay back the design cost. I fear that I would probably be too expensive to hire to design exclusive "one offs", but who knows. Curved train shed roofs are very much on my agenda. My own layout currently under construction is based around an eight platform terminus station.

[wizmacnz]

Today being Saturday, it's the first real chance I have had to put some of my recently arrived Shapeways pieces together. (and take some photographs)

 

I'm sure I'm a much better designer than I am a builder. I'm in fact one of those modelers that ends up with his fingers glued to the model. The theory is that if I can put this stuff together then anyone can. You'll also soon realise that I'm not much of a photographer either.

 

I've assembled the pieces straight as they arrive from the factory so you can see the level of finish that is achieved. I've seen recommendations to use a coffee stirrer to polish the surface or even fine wet and dry. My first assembly though I intend to see what can be achieved with it "as is". I've used thick super glue as the adhesive.

 

Today I put together a number of the platform canopy components to make a short section of canopy. ( I quickly knocked together a piece of platform to stick it on.)

 

I made a hole in the card platform with an awl to place the first column.

 

 

Then made a hole for the second column, using a spine truss  to check the spacing, and glued the truss to the two columns.

 

 

Then glued on a cantilevered end truss.

 

 

You could stop using 3D printed parts at this point and complete the canopy using card or plasticard, however, if you continue down the 3D printed route, the next step is to add the intermediate trusses.

 

 

Although I've photographed them in place, if you are using the glazed roof sections it is actually easier to glue the truss to the roof sections first (they fit neatly between the rooflight frames). This way you can be sure that you have got the trusses spaced accurately. Accurate spacing is not critical if you are not using glazed roofing.

 

The glazed roof panel I selected to use has a representation of a zinc or mineral fibre roof on the upper surface.  Like this one (but with more rooflights).

 

 

And has a representation of timber boarding on the interior face.

 

 

Ironically the simplest roof panels to design have no rooflights, but as they use more material in production they cost the most.

 

 

A small section of plain roof fills in to the end of the cantilever truss. The trusses and roof section sizes are matched so no cutting to length is required.

 

The end gable boarding and valances have yet to arrive from Shapeways.  The first design of valance was rejected by Shapeways because the detail was too fine. Strangely the gable boarding which had the same board dimensions etc, passed through and was printed. Both have been redesigned with wider boards and should be with me on Monday. In the meantime I've stuck the old version onto the end gable.

 

 

Finally a couple of pictures of the canopy from low level. All still in white from the factory finish. I'm sure that when painted and lightly weathered the gleaming white will be eliminated and more of the detail will be apparent. I think painting is a job for next Saturday (if the lawns don't grow).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kris]

That looks great, even in the white. 

[bigwordsmith]

Cracking!

[wizmacnz]

Just some quick snapshots of the "privy" I've modeled for placing in terraced house back yards. 

 

 

I was quite pleased that the print has picked up the slate roof texture and flashing on the roof.

 

 

The toilet and cistern are already attached to the floor and the wall as part of the printing process.

 

 

I think the door could make the place a bit draughty in the colder months. Good to have good ventilation in these places though.

 

The door makes a good 6 foot high garden gate for rear yards etc. I'm making them available in a set of 10 as a separate item on Shapeways.

 

Sorry about the quality of the photos... as you can see I just slapped them on the keyboard at my desk. I don't think the camera wants to focus that close.

Edited March 10, 2014 by wizmacnz

[wizmacnz]

Here is the assembled "privy" after splashing on a bit of paint and sticking on some brick paper. The photograph was taken with it on a piece of paper on the dining room table under a single down light. It looks better to the normal eye than it does to the cruel camera closeup, but it gives an idea what you can do with the 3D printed privy. 

 

[wizmacnz]

My latest model is a lattice footbridge based on the footbridge at Kirby in Furness.

 

 

Currently just doing some minor tweaking to suit printing requirements. Likely to be available for sale in about 10 days.

 

 

[MRDBLUE17]

That Footbridge looks very good. Its nice to see your range developing.

 

All the best

Mark

[wizmacnz]

Thanks Mark,

 

I have loads of ideas, but the challenge is finding things with lots of air per plastic. The lattice bridge works well in that regard.

 

 

Peter

[wizmacnz]

My Chimney stack experiment has arrived from Shapeways and I was pleasantly surprised with the result. I'd modelled the bricks and mortar courses at true scale, which means that the mortar was only 0.16 of a mm wide. I really didn't expect the printer to make much of a texture.

 

I have quickly slapped some paint on it and placed it on a piece of paper on my desk to take a picture.




As you can see, you can definitely make out bricks.

Here it is balanced on the ridge of a Metcalfe corner shop I made (very badly) a few years ago, which gives you some idea of the size.  I see I missed a few cobwebs when I quickly brushed it down when I retrieved it from under the table in the railway room.

 

Now that I know that it works I will knock up a few variations and some larger ones (when I get time).

 

I've also released it on Shapeways at 7mm to the foot scale.

 

Peter

Edited March 18, 2014 by wizmacnz

[Downer]

My latest model is a lattice footbridge based on the footbridge at Kirby in Furness.

 

674x501_1783563_2362845_1394884734.jpg

 

Currently just doing some minor tweaking to suit printing requirements. Likely to be available for sale in about 10 days.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this looks like a platform-to-platform bridge, like most of the others on the market.  Would you consider a taller, non-station footbridge at some point in the future?  

[bigwordsmith]

The ridge looks good, but the corners look like they've been made from flat plates - shouldn't they be interlaced bricks?

[wizmacnz]

Hi bigwordsmith

 

The chimney stack is modeled with fully bonded brickwork, as per the Shapeways computer rendering image below. I think it's a combination of my photograph, my painting plus the subtlety of the texture as printed that makes it hard to see that. Overall thoughI have to say it looks much better "in the flesh" and has a much more realistic appearance than the cardboard alternative.

 

 

 

 

 

Peter

[wizmacnz]

Hi Downer

 

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this looks like a platform-to-platform bridge, like most of the others on the market.  Would you consider a taller, non-station footbridge at some point in the future?  

 

 

It is a platform-to-platform bridge because the prototype that it was based on was  Kirby. It's similar to the Hornby footbridge, but the Hornby bridge is way over scale. Bachmann have a nice looking lattice footbridge, but this would work out much cheaper. I can quickly add on a few more steps to make an alternative of this bridge, higher to suit non-platform use, however is there a particular bridge that you think would make for a good model?

 

Peter