BSTrains

Try Fiverr.com Plenty of 3d artists on there, just search for stl or 3d printing.

I Love the 9f and the Bachmann version is very good but it really does need updating, as I see many things on it that could be better, it is overpriced for what it is, so I am over the moon that Hornby will be updating their version. Hope they will do it justice and not just redesign it so they can produce the other variants more easily. improvements over the Bachmann version I would like to see would include better firebox/ash pan detail, and pipework below the footplate, reverser linkage, frame detail (specially the rhs motion brackets), rear frames detail, cab detailing, washout plugs, correct wheel designs and axle end details. Also hope they do not use the same type of cheap plastic which Bachman used for the regulator linkage and pipework.

That is a perennial problem but certainly in 4mm scale, accuracy does not need to be perfect, just good enough which often can be achieved with decent photographs. However on this occasion I was able to find a low res general arrangement drawing of the marine version of this engine with dimensions via an internet search. In practice it is very easy to get away with only the bare minimum of information and extrapolate it into a good enough model, in fact I found enough info on this engine online to produce an even more detailed model if I wished. By way of example the image below is of a Compressor that will go into the same model. it was made from just one photograph of the real thing in situ on a BR class 03. All I need to do, is to scale it to match the rest of the model when I print it.

I recently bought a 3d printer, but did not want to waste my first test prints on something I would not use, nor do how to design. My solution was to outsource the design using a well known freelancer website. I may have been lucky, but I had I really good experience having my idea made into a printable stl file in very short time for a great price. Here is the printed result (its a Gardner8L3 engine that would fit into a static Dapol drewrey shunter model)

I use The silhouette portrait cutter with acetate film, it cuts very accurately and by setting the pressure right with a little experimentation it can scribe lines for replicating sliding window handles etc. Mine cost me less than £100 and does all I need. The cameo sounds like a fine choice. These cutters are really invaluable and you will find many more modelling uses than you may think. I use mine one to to produce wall tie patress plates for instance.