heraldcoupe

On 27/04/2024 at 17:35, tomparryharry said:

Hello Folks. Some months back, I espied a a 3D printed model for a Bulldog on Ebay, plus other parts. The problem is, I can't find the listings now.

I've had a few of my Bulldog and Duke bodies listed on ebay, with quite a few more selling through various forums by word of mouth.
I have the three major frame types of Bulldogs and wide/narrow Duke cab variants. Beyond this, I've built a library of 3D components which make a lot of individual loco configurations possible, but not all have been committed to print.

As mentioned elsewhere, I have a few other projects in the works. 
I am working towards an ecommerce website, but a demanding day job keeps getting in the way. I pick up messages here and will quite happily sell this way whilst getting my act together on the website front,

Cheers

Bill.

11 hours ago, Donw said:

I think the real benefit of 3D printing is that it is suited to low volume customer tailored out put.  it would be possible to offer say a 517 body with all sorts of variations  just specify your needs. 

It's good in theory, but many (most?) people offered a choice don't relish the complication. I've patterned and printed all 10 of the Dukes which survived past nationalisation, most customers have just asked me for wide or narrow cab variations, the rest is just unwanted noise. SImilarly the Bulldogs, beyond straight/curved/deep frames, not that many people are concerned.

Cheers

Bill

56 minutes ago, Miss Prism said:

I feel the radii in your footplate kink are a bit too small - here is the Finney etch, where there is nearly no straight part inbetween:

 

 

There seems to have been variation from what I can determine in photos, though finding any images taken from a helpful angle is a challenge.

9 hours ago, Mikkel said:

Above is the Bulldog body on the Bachmann Dukedog donor chassis, for which it has been designed.  If I understand correctly, Bill's body shells represent latter-day Bulldogs, modelled after particular prototypes.

 

This one was something of a one-off, a two-off I suppose as this was the first attempt which had the aforementioned defects. Most of my subjects are later examples, but this one was based on this 1920s image of 3330 Orion and has many earlier features:

http://www.gwr.org.uk/440-pics/3330-orion.jpg

32 minutes ago, richbrummitt said:

I wish for a 2mm version 🙁 My wife’s maiden name is Starling. Seems like too good an opportunity. 

Scaling down is sadly a lot more difficult than scaling up.

A lot of the details in 4mm sit at the limit of what can be reproduced. Increasing size means features can sometimes be further refined, but they're there and will stay there.

In 2mm scale, things have to be beefed up before they'll print at all. I did some trials of an unmodified Duke in 2mm scale and while the overall shape was recognisable, all the fine detail turned to mush, or was too fine to support itself.

It can be done, but it's essentially starting again, with a lot more compromises to be made.

1 hour ago, Mikkel said:

Well that's a dilemma! 🙂 Probably best not to, it would distract me every time I looked at it, prototypical or not. 

 

The kink in the footplate is already there, as is the step which I'm afraid you don't need...

1 minute ago, ChrisN said:

Do you have a website or is it just by personal contact?  I am assuming this is not your business.

Personal contact at the moment, but I am trying to get more organised in terms of a website. As well as my full-time job, I run a (very) small part-time business making classic car parts, however making locomotive bodyshells has become a much more in-demand activity. 

I've only ever formally listed my development reject shells on ebay, but I am about to put list of the finished products as it's a more straightforward sales route than expecting people to find me online. As something that's growing organically, there's been little planning...

6 minutes ago, Mikkel said:

In RCTS Part 7, photo G31 shows 3307 with top feed in 1913, but that has the boxes (D2 boiler though). Maybe the topfeed and boxes/covers go together, timewise.

 

That matches my observations so far, but always aware that absence of proof isn't proof of absence...

13 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

What else does @heraldcoupe do? Is he going to be the saviour who leads us into the land of milk and honey and saddle tanks?

😁

I am very interested in producing saddle tanks and have some rough patterns done. The Bachmann chassis will be a good starting point for those sharing the same wheelbase and wheel size. I'm hoping many of the major structures will carry across to a Buffalo (and others?) in due course, but I've not done a deep dive on that yet. The latter will have it's own mechanism, the design features of that being proven on my Aberdare project.

26 minutes ago, Mikkel said:

 

Thank you, it would certainly be nice to leave them on, as it will be tricky to conceal the cut-out completely. I have so far found only one photo of a pre-WW1 curved-frame Bulldog that has the covers mounted, but will investigate more.

 

If you find an image of one with topfeed but lacks the boxes, I'd be very interested to see it. I've built a library of parts which takes me some way to printing other early examples, but I don't have enough reference material to be certain on exact spec for given subjects.

2 hours ago, Mikkel said:

 

I

What would need doing:

• Make portholes in cab front
• Remove "boxes" at bottom of firebox (what are they?)

The boxes cover the firebox mounting brackets. I don't know their purpose, but they were introduced quite early and I've always associated them with the introduction of topfeed. I'm not convinced they're absent on 3301, the perspective of the photo would put them largely behind the splasher and nameplate. There appear to have been some which were shorter than those I've modelled.

2 hours ago, Mikkel said:

• Replace tender. Is that a Dean 3000 gallon tender on Powderham? If so, Bachmann's City tender would match
• Standard name and no. plates from Light Railway Stores (Powderham did not have the special plates).

The “tiebars” below the cranks were always going to be tricky, regardless of date. I want to be able to remove the body, so must either come up with something detachable (micro magnets?) or just leave them off.

 

The tiebars are included in Bachmann's accessory pack for the Earl. The shell is designed for them to fit.

45 minutes ago, heraldcoupe said:

When enlarging them, I've filled in the boiler underside and opened out between the frames as these are dictated by the Bachmann mechanism on the regular product.

 

Equally relevant I guess, I have done 4mm shells with open frames and boiler underfill for those looking at a finescale chassis.

2 hours ago, drduncan said:

When I've been carving my 3d prints around I've successfully used dental type burs in a minidrill or similar (a parallel sided spiral flute one being particularly helpful when used in a drill press almost as a mill... but I digress). Where I have had problems - in other words the print breaking/shattering - is when I've been using drills oir reamers in pin vices, especially when the print is thin. So' I'd advocate great caution in drilling the portholes and I think using a minidrill might be best, counter-intuitive though this may seem.

Good advice.

As the designer/producer of this Bulldog bodyshell, there's been an awful ot of thought and testing on suitable materials. They're currently being printed in Siraya Tech's 'Build' resin, which was chosen for a number of reasons, not least because it is drillable. Not that care shouldn't be taken, but that it should behave better than some other resin prints.

5 hours ago, TrevorP1 said:

 

I’m weakening. I don't need one but I want one. I've always liked Bulldogs... Even if it goes 'in the stash' while I acquire the other bits for building next winter. 3335 Tregothnan I think - actually not withdrawn from Exeter in 1948 but transferred to Cornwall... 🙂

Which by coincidence, is one of two (the other is 3313) curved frame shells I've produced, in it's latest condition...

As far as possible, my shells are based on specific subjects where I have photographs at a known point in time.

2 hours ago, Harlequin said:

 

3D resin printers are getting better and better all the time.

 

Possibly giving away my secrets here, but I drew a line when the print quality reached a certain resolution. There are better printters on the market than those I am using, at least in terms of finesse, and for little money. That increase in resolution brings with it increased maintenance, and limitations on which resins can be used. Many resins have proven quite unsuitable in terms of long term stability, so if I can't use a material I already know is fit for purpose, testing has to start all over again.

1 hour ago, 1466 said:

My 3d printed body of a curved frame Bulldog arrived today . Captain Kernow commented that they are in the first rank of 3 d manufacturers and I agree .

Ive struggled to add photos but will try again . I think that my example is well detailed and exquisite . I have no interest or connection with the manufacturer except as a contented customer .

 

 

The cab photo reminds me. That reversing wheel/lever is very fragile, and right in the line of fire when the bodies are taken of the supports structure. Consequently, they often lose one or both handles, so you'll find a spare piece in your bag of bits with the shell,

Cheers

Bill.

8 minutes ago, Harlequin said:

 

Some weight needs to be embodied in the model in the chassis or the body for decent pulling power. So perhaps the chassis is more suited to being CNC milled out of metal than 3D Printed.

 

The shapes shown above don't look too complicated for a desktop milling machine.

 

Indeed not, it would also remove the need for captive nuts as holes could be tapped instead, further simplifying.

1 hour ago, Captain Kernow said:

So although you say (above) that you were 'keen to produce something which got away from reliance on soldering and precision assembly' (my highlights), my initial alarm at the thought of something not being assembled with precision gave way to the conviction that you actually meant that the precision (necessary in any mechanism of this nature) would be part of your chassis design...?

The precision is in-built to the design, no folding/soldering/alignment, just screws and nuts to hold it together. I've acquired so many poorly assembled etched chassis' as abandoned projects through the years, it's left me wondering what the ratio of completed to abandoned kits might be.

1 hour ago, Captain Kernow said:

As regards the Aberdare, I think you said that it was designed with Bachmann 08 wheels in mind. Would the design also allow the use of EM or P4 substitute wheels for the Bachmann 08 by the likes of Alan Gibson or Ultrascale?

I've designed the prototype to run with Hornby 08 wheels as they come with pre-installed bearings where the Bachmann set runs direct in the block. But that's just to get a running mule, Alan Gibson does the right wheels and I will be getting a few sets in to test once the basic design is proven. 

Cheers

Bill.

12 hours ago, Mikkel said:

 

I'm a long-time friend of the Bachmann 57xx/8750 chassis, but there is also the Accurascale 57xx chassis coming up...

 

I could make a case that a large number of Bachmann chassis' will suddenly become 'surplus'...

10 hours ago, Limpley Stoker said:

With the forthcoming Dapol autocoach there is, I’m sure, a need for a 517 class or metro tank. The Shapeways 517 on offer is at a much lowered resolution than your  products . The problem would a RTR 0-4-2 chassis of the correct length.

These are two real needs I recognise. 

5 minutes ago, Captain Kernow said:

Well, for what it's worth,  I was thinking of an older pannier, such as a 2021...

I'm looking at an earlier 0-6-0 tank in the near future. Focus is on a saddle tank, but core design work will be the same for a Pannier (or side tank). There's an obvious incentive to create something which fits on a RTR chassis such as Bachmann's 57xx (or 64xx I supppose) but I keep getting drawn to the 1076. If the Aberdare's chassis works out then I'll have a functional design which can be modded to other wheelbases.

1 hour ago, Graham T said:

 

How long before @Neal Ball is asking for a Saint?  🙂

I was toying with the idea of a Saint, but there's no easy RTR chassis to be used, and even correct wheels from the specialists don't  seem readily available

1 hour ago, Captain Kernow said:

May I just ask @heraldcoupe a question, please, which is asked in the context of your 3-D prints being the best 4mm model railway ones I've ever seen... - do you take requests? 🙂

 

🙂

I'm always open to suggestions...