The Great Bear

Not sure if this is the kind of thing you have in mind?

Oh yes. I was referring to coming off the Midland Mainline platforms. Going the other way I use the lift, cuts some of the mall, that's what I do, anyway; I'm a lazy so and so so wouldn't walk further than necessary!

Or turn left and use underpass to Kings Cross, might be easier?

You should be able to reverse direction with one of the CV values

https://www.3dhubs.com/knowledge-base/how-design-parts-sla-3d-printing This suggests you want to keep the z axis cross-sectional area to minimise peeling forces, which answers why to not print horizontally (if it would fit); is it support for the model that points against doing it vertically, in that the model has to support it's own weight whereas at an angle it can be shared with supports? A lot to learn! I'm also wondering whether the hardness of the resin has an effect on the detail resolution and the rounding in the edges of the panelling, the stuff from 3d hubs was hard, whereas the one I got done was in a firm resin, so had some flex in it. The ventilator grooves were 0.016m deep full size so .21mm in the model, so not so fine as to be beyond printers' resolution; they are just about visible but a bit more would be better.

Thanks, so if I'm interpreting the photos correctly based on the above the model was printed at around 30 degrees off vertical?

I don't know how much room around each part would be needed or is advisable but roughly if the body and interiror rounded up with a bit to spare were 40mm x 40mm x 250mm and the underframe 40mm x 20mm x 250mm that would give an 80mm x 60mm footprint but that may well be too tight? Other issue is that to do a 70' coach that would need 300mm height or you angle it across the build envelope, which would have worked with the Photocentric HR2 one. I suppose another approach would a smaller (higher resolution) printer and print in halves! With the daylight resin I think in theory you can join bits together before they are cured. But not convinced this would work accurately or reliably enough!

The Kudo 3d is nearest to the above but at or above upper bound of pricing. Suspect one has to add duty / vat on the price. Combination of the specs of photocentrics LC precision 1.5 and HR2 would fit the bill. A larger build volume in the xy plane would allow multiple bodies and parts to be printed at once, bear in mind each of my designs has three parts.

As you can see from the machine specs Harlequin posted, the XY resolution is 97 microns and the layer height either 50 or 100 microns, the one I got done was at 100. Because of the print orientation, vertical I think, I don't think the smaller layer height would improve things, also then takes much longer to print, and as I believe the one shown took 36 hours that's probably unworkable. I was having trouble getting decent focus on the model so that might make it look a tad worse than it is but clearly not as crisp as the one done by 3d hubs. But that was on a machine I guess costing at least 5x more. Tweaking the design of the ventilator hoods with a bit more exaggeration might bring those details back. The other interesting comparison would be how the finish compares with the Slaters injection moulded ones, but I haven't got one of those to do that. My feeling is it is similar?

Yes that's it. Note the price above is excluding VAT

And would you really want to be in a 700 that long, no table, no charging, no wifi, uncomfortable seats...

Thank you, hopefully this works! So it looks to the public like a politician's threat has got a response and makes Grayling look good, when clearly this has been planned for a while!

Is that possible, even? For instance on my line (East Grinstead) before the peak hour only London Bridge service was class 377s, now they are 700s. Where have the spare 377s released by that gone? (It doesn't seem some of the Victoria services have been strengthened to 12 coaches with these spares so I guess they have gone elsewhere?)

So, reports today say GTR have two weeks to sort things out or lose their franchise, well, contract. To me it rather misses the point based on this thread as to where much of the blame lies, but having a private sector scapegoat suits the politicians, DafT and, ironically, I guess the unions. Given the issue primarily as I understand it (correct me if wrong) is route and traction knowledge for the expanded routes and Class 700s things have got to get better, haven't they? Time rather "nationalisation" would seem to be the thing to fix that...but again it would suit the politicians if their action now magically fixed things!

Latest print of a D45 brake third I've gotten done was by a UK company called Photocentric, a sample of what their LC HR2 printer can do - a machine costing a little under £2k so relatively "affordabe". This was done at 100 micron layer thickness. Not as clean as ones done by Ivan at 3d hubs and less resolution in details like the shell ventilators and door vents, but the small details on the sides, the hinges and door stops have come out, which for me is more important. There is some sign of stepping in the tumblehome but painting will hide this I think well enough. So overall I'm impressed and happy with the print - it's giving me food for thought as to getting a machine like this. That they are built in the UK and so support should be easier than something made on the opposite side of the world is a plus for me. Unlike machines like the Formlabs Form 2, this printer does not use UV light but uses an LCD screen to expose a resin which is daylight sensitive. Hence both machine and resin are more affordable. This coach was printed by Photocentric using their "firm" resin, it's a bit too soft the bottom of the coach is too flexible, if printing again I'd try their "hard" resin. There are other machines using same technology like the Anycubic Photon but their build size is much smaller. Painting of this coach is ongoing... Thanks for looking Jon

Few more of the same train:

Another train with a couple of my Toplights in it: Need to disguise / improve on the blu tack base for the telegraph pole and top up some of the ballast, All the best Jon

As the creator of the model to you are referring I would agree with much of that. Yes, as it stands, totting up the cost of the 3d printed bits and other stuff to make a complete kit adds up to the same as a David Geen kit for instance. For me building a Geen kit to a standard worthy of the kit is beyond my skills and with at the time I started dabbling with the unavailability of the Slaters kits (now supposedly returning) I decided to dabble with 3d printing. I haven't seen in the flesh a completed Geen kit but I have no doubt one constructed well would beat my efforts. Notwithstanding that I would query the point about surface finish. The sides of the resin prints (not the early ones done in SLS nylon or Shapeways FUD) I have got have been smooth and I would imagine would compare near enough with brass. Yes on some there has been signs of banding in the coach ends but I wouldn't see that as being critical. Very much depends on what your looking for. For me and I suspect many other the limitation isn't the standard of the kit but the ability to neatly paint and line it. Which I think builds on sem34090's point. I'm not sure comparing my coaches and printing for something 230mm long is comparable with things 1/20 of the size. It seems most consumer/small business (say £5k or under) SLA printing or similar machines can either offer the very finest of resolutions both in xy plane and layer height or a decent build volume. For the coaches you need the build volume and forgoing the very last bit of detail is a necessary compromise. Enough of this - I was a bit surprised to see my coach in this thread as I'm not really sure of its relevance to what Alan does but I thought seeing as one of my models was being referred to I should comment.

Fabulous

In addition to the liveries above, looking at the Russell books, some appear to have received the all over brown WW2 livery eg a few shots of an E88 compo spring to mind. The problem for the fastidious modeller for the pannelled diagrams is that as I'm sure has been mentioned previously in the thread, in their later lives certainly from 1940s onward many had some if not most of the pannels plated over in a random fashion. Then, later on, some had the the toplights plated over too. With the 3d printed ones I've been experimenting with (http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/130385-3d-printed-gwr-coaches-d56-completed/?p=3133192) doing this is pretty easy, not that I've printed any like that yet.

Modelmaster?

A complete kit like the ones I've built so body, interior, underframe, Stafford Road Model Works bogies, Gibson wheels, handrail wire, grab handles, glazing would I think work out at somewhere in the order of £110-120. Around 70% of that being the body, interior and underframe. The Rolls-Royce of kits, a David Geen brass one, is I think £95 plus another £10 or so if you want a better roof. A well built Geen kit would be appreciably better than my efforts I'd imagine (and given the designers knowledge more accurate I suspect). Admittedly my design requires minimal assembly work and a lot less skill. Also the future availability of the Geen kits is uncertain. The better comparison is the Slaters ones, what the re-introduced ones will sell for I don't know, my guess around £60.

The handles, some experimentation shows that 24 no in two rows works out cheapest at just over £16. Noting the comments about rejections and pleased with how they look I have ordered some more and that order has been accepted, so good so far. Regarding offering stuff for sale, I'm flattered that this of interest. This is what I wrote when asked whether they can be for sale in my layout thread. Once again, thanks for the interest shown.

Thanks, both. I don't have the space to use an airbrush nor likely the ability. Also there are the fiddly details like the bollections to get in the way of masking effectively and also needing brush painting. I do not hide that my painting and lining isn't living up to the full potential of the bare models. I think I am getting slowly better. I too would be curious to see what someone who knew what they were doing could achieve with them.

iMaterialise also doesn't add VAT until the checkout process so bear that in mind when looking at their prices too