The Great Bear

There was mention of this on this site at the start of the year, well in relation to the toplights, but I haven't seen any more news since then

How about YouChoos, they appear to do a 14xx soundfile on zimo chip?

So these are colour 3d printed (or similar) sides? Mind blowing if so - the colouring in particular. My own 3d printed efforts fall down with my painting and lining:(

Back in the autumn, as detailed in my 3d printing topic, I bought my own resin 3d printer. I'm finally getting around to finishing the models I've made with it. Most of the below are some of the earlier prints I did with it. D56 Brake Third: This was one of the fist prints I did with the machine whilst testing out resins, it's not perfect, nor is my finishing either! D52 Brake Third: E98 Composite: C25 Non-Corridor Third: This is one of the most recent prints. This diagram being a clerestory body but with an arced roof. My intent is to put this coach in to a rake to add to the Hornby non-corridor ones. There are some niggles with the above in addition to my painting and lining, the fit of the underframe to the body. I've a large backlog of other efforst to finish. Nonetheless I ought to tidy the layout and run some trains... All the best Jon

I have toyed with drawing up something and printing on my 3d printer, but was struggling with the boiler dimensions, trying to work out what dimensions given meant; I think they were exclusive of the cladding? Once I've got my printer back working I might go back to this project.

While they are all fabulous pictures, the one from beyond the fence looking up at the 28xx is a particular favourite. Great stuff:)

Looks good. This is something of interest to me. How easy was it to separate body from the chassis on the Dukedog? I suppose one has to saw the K's bulldog apart? Cheers Jon

Thanks for raising. That was me. it set off a reaction in the rest of my skin as well. It needed lots of sterioid cream, emolients and steroid tablets for a month to sort it out. Now I'm over-sensitised to concentrated alcohol in contact with my skin, so modelling products with a lot of alcohol in like Microsol I need to be careful with too. I now use water soluble resin (Amera labs) or use normal resins (the Amazon Elego resin being too cheap to resist) a detergent to clean models instead (Keytech Tek 1969). So gloves and covering other areas potentially in contact are a must - I use long cuff gloves, wear a lab coat and an apron and goggles. As for the fumes, some resins are worse than others.

That's what I've found with my 4mm coach underframes, except that leaving the supports attached isn't practical so instead I print stiffening beams attached to the top of the underframe which I then cut off when cured, again an hour plus.

Thanks, I have one of those stashed away somewhere I think with the same idea in mind!

I do like that Hall in wartime black, Rob.

Yes. See here. The plastic has a slight texture, I made a token effort to smooth, I could have done more but patience is not one of my strengths. My painting and transfer application not the best. All the best Jon

Thanks, but making a wheel is beyond my limited skill set! It was more the axle I was curious over, so thanks for measuring that - possibly make an elongated one via 3d print (Shapeways or similar) to suit outside frame locos along with self quartering cranks. (I believe the Markits ones the extended bit is circular leaving the quatering to skill/eyes. The former I mostly lack!) This link stll works for a 2013 catalogue for me Thanks again Jon

Hi What is the size of the square hole on the Markits/Romford wheels? I know it is to receve the Markits/Romford axles but I have neither any wheels or axles to hand and I could do with the measurement to explore an idea I have. Thanks Jon

The C25 was a stepping stone to a clerestory, as has the same body profile and details. So here's a C23. Based on one of the examples in Russell, I deleted some of the paneling to represent a coach in its last days. Trying Halfords filler primer again, I was perhaps a bit heavy handed (again) with it. I have quite a backlog of coaches to finish now, but this one will jump the queue as a quick win in wartime brown to go with the Collet non-corridor coaches I bought to make a 5 coach set. A corridor clerestory will be tje next project. All the best Jon

Glad you like them. From the drop down when ordering you can select them in black, albeit £1 or so more for each. The black version is not "processed": I've lost track of Shapeways changing product naming but probably that means has a rougher finish.

I am getting same error when trying to access bookmarked topics or results given by google. Site itself, view new content works ok

No problem, glad to help. The bogies include pocket for NEM couplings. If that doesn't suit I'd think you can snip it off and file away as required.

Stafford Road Models is the shop for some GWR bits on Shapeways. 9' Fish Belly Bogie here And here is what they look like in reality. The texture surface is a function of the printing process. I haven't painted mine, that might help.

Printing my own bits I've struggled with the underframes, warping being a problem. My latest attempt at fixing this is rather crude, adding stiffening beams t and then post curing the model for a long time over an hour under uv lighting. Only when that's complete do I remove the beams. Seems to work so far, holding shape once beams are removed. Do to fragility I'm also not printing the buffers and draw hooks in place but as shown. This would also allow for fitting alternatives. Battery box positions vary between individual diagrams so by printing three covers this, then snip off the one not needed. If this works then just the issue of end supports as per post above to resolve really... Jon

That's a good question, may be I'm better off placing supports on the panels not the beading! Just need to be precise with sandpaper...

After a few hiccups with the printer back to printing some more coaches Firstly something different. With some Hornby 57' bow ended suburban coaches on order, to make up the 5 car London division set that did a couple of services on my layout, I need a random all third non-corridor coach. So I have had a punt at a C25. This diagram had a clerestory style body but with a different roof, without the clerestory. So I made up a new bodyshell, using dimensions from an article by John Lewis in an old Model Railway Constructor Annual. Rather annoyingly this coach is an extra foot longer than the toplights at 58' which meant it is even tighter to fit in the build space I have, indeed didn't quite all come out (see bottom right corner). But it will serve my purpose. I also reduced the size of the supports required for printing at the end of the coach, so their remains are less visible. The photo shows I haven't managed to completely sand them down but it's better than previous efforts. I've also removed the moulded jumper cables idea being to use some thin wire for the cables. Also the moulding for the alarm gear allows for threading a wire through to complete that. In printing these I also increased the twist of the model around its longitudinal axis to 30 degrees which seems to have gotten rid of the small amounts of stepping on the tumblehome still visible in the previous few prints. In these prints I have marginally thinned down the body sides, the width behind the droplights being the constraint. I also tweaked the bollection detail to give a more prototypical shape tapering in to the glass I believe. Here's a similar approach on the end of a C30 Toplight I have also left the corridor off, but for me the printed corridor works so am printing some separately. I think what's shown is a reasonable balance between moulded bits and stuff to be added later? So I'm pretty happy and think I've got as good a result with the body as I'm going to get. The underframes remain a challenge, more on that soon. All the best Jon

Amera Labs do a water soluble resin, clean up using a solution of fairy liquid. I have been using it for a few weeks and am impressed, getting good results on my Phrozen Shuffle XL. Avoiding use of IPA is a plus for me, having had some skin problems resulting from it

I am pleased to see something so well advanced after all the previous iterations. You are definitely on the home straight now

A belated happy new you to all! So, several steps backward and a couple forward in the last two months. Three things I've managed to improve, mostly taking ideas from http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/139818-3d-printing-in-2mm-scale/ Remove the diagonal lines visible in post 169; I realised these were from the props I'd added between the model sides to increase rigidity of model until cured By having a lot more closely spaced props (every few mm) the marks on the side went but model sides end up being stiff it props left in until cured under UV lamp,they then pop out nice and easily, just some sanding on base of side and inside edge needed I experimented a lot with twisting the model, the larger the twist the smoother the sides. I've settled on 25 degrees, which I can just get away with without having to add supports to the sides of the coach which then would be a pain to get off Currently tryin a resin by Amera labs for LED printers which has benefit of being water washable. (I had a bad reaction to Isopropyl Alcohol in December, whilst cleaning resin vat and build plate I got a lot of IPA on my trousers, which then soaked into my skin over some time causing a reaction. Take care, don't just think it evaporates away like I did.) This new resin also has less shrikage, which seems to reduce warping in the coach ends too. Body props, lots of them. They pop out easily enough after curing, having done their job. So onto a sample of the coaches I've been printing in the last month or so A K22, I printed thisat 30 degree twist with supports on one side I didn't like having the supports on the side and having to sand them off, you can see the remants of them, I am not very patient. This print was done with Monocure Rapid Resin, I tried that for a while but never really got it "dialed in" giving results to my satisfaction. Onto a more recent print, something a bit obscure, a D88, conversion of ambulance train stock. This and what follows all using the Amera labs resin. I am liking it. 3/4 shots of the sides of the coach, showing a pretty smooth finish to the tumblehome I think the missing corners is carelessness after the print. I also rather overdosed the primer on the ends - what happens why you try and do this at night under an outside light and torch! This second shot shows one of the areas for improvement, this is the end neares the buld plate so you can see where the supports were. Not that I've made much effort here to clean them up. I need to give this aspect some thought, position the supports better to allow for their removal and not interfere with details - so don't put on the ribs of the panelling, Also, and noting comments made in this thread about leaving off the details, I'll give that another go it should make the support placement easier too. The Amera resin seems to have less shrinkage issues too, the ends of the coaches are less bowed vertically, pretty much flat, whereas with other resins this was really noticeable, Another coach obscurity, an E94 Brake Composite, of which only 3 were made (but having done an E95 this was an easy change) Only just noticed the scar by the right of the middle toilet. Looking at the photo of the print on the machine, looks like I may have done it after the print. Annyoing! I suppose a bit of filler would fix. Hmm A 3/4 view. Very minor stepping can just be made out on this side. I only noticed it in the photo, I made no attempt to sand it. The very lightest of sanding would remove this I'm sure. The other side is smoother And finally a side on shot showing the detail So, it's slowly moving forward. With regard to the bodies it's sorting out the end detail and supports left to address. The other big issue is resin usage, not least that the models need a lot of supporting structure. I am trying to optimise this, but it's a trade off against failed prints. The interiror seems to be a particular challenge needing a lot more supports than I thought. With body, interior and underframe I reckon I'd only get 4-5 coaches per 1kg bottle of resin. Reliabillity and repeatability is another challenge, trying to work out why things have gone wrong, what works and why. Right now more immediate challenge is last print managed to get a lot of gunk on the LCD screen, well just it's protecting film hopefully so I need to try and replace that. Meanwhile I have a good stock of coaches, albeit not all perfect but will do as layout pieces for my use, to paint up, Oh and I need to find the layout under all the junk associated with this printing malarkey - paper towels, rubber gloves... All the best Jon