simon br blue

Got the most recent print from shapeways. The first part is a complete class 24 bogie in 7mm printed in 'black strong and flexible'. I'm happy with the detail and that the steps and pipe run have printed OK There is only a couple of bits of brake rigging that I would need to add before using it (possibly also a couple of coats of paint to smooth the surface). Below I have put it under a class 24 shell (without wheels). I also has a 4mm class 24 and 25 printed in different materials to see how the tail light detail would show up. The camera doesn't show the detail very well so I've given the 24 cab a coat of primer to see if it helps. I also quickly blu tacked the cabs on to see how they lined upto a Bachmann and Hornby 25 bodies.

Just ordered a couple more parts from shapeways. I also had a quote back from Fineline and the price for a 4mm 25.3 cab was £150 in total. So I'll stick with shapeways at least until I've got the cab shape correct.

A quick update on the class 25 parts. I tried a print of the complete bogie but after ordering it I wasw told that it was not possible to print it due to the minimum wall thickness of some of the parts of the bogie. I have made a couple of changes and will try again when I next order. I did manage to get 2 other bogie parts printed. On the left is the components for the 24 bogie seperated and put onto a spur (to keep them together when being printed and to test how thin a part can be). It is printed in a material called Alumide which was ment to be smoother than 'white strong and flexible' (used on the part to the right which is the same except it has a bogie attached). I might try to make a resin casting of the bogie sideframe and then purchase sets of the detail parts to make a bogie for the Steve Beattie 24 shells I have. Below is the latest 4mm class 25 cab printed in Alumide. I tried this new material because it was ment to have a smoother surface finish but looking at it I think it is worse than white strong and flexible material. I also think that it must shrink at some point as the cab is smaller than previous cabs even though it was ment to be 1mm wider so it would match the Bachmann body. I have also added the horn grill covers near the headcode box and the lip around the headcode glass. Below is a pic of 3 different cabs made from 3 different materials. I have to say that I think the smoothest is 'white detail' (right in pic) but hte only problen is this material doesn't show the fine surface detail. I have already made some changes to the cabs above to produce V4. This will have the tail lights included and should hopefully fit the Bachmann shell perfectly. I will also get a 24 cab printed in 4mm and a 7mm cab profile (to see how it matches upto a Steve Beattie shell).

Finished a basic model for each of the cab types and have ordered some more test parts from shapeways (mostly bogie parts) but will post results when they arrive.

Done a bit more work on the class 24 cab. Here's a pic of work in progress.

Quick update- I've not ordered anymore prints yet. I've looked at the fineline site and tried a quote and got a message that they're not taking on new customers from the UK but got directed to a UK company that works with fineline so I'll have to speak to them when I get time. I have also modified the basic cab to produce a class 25/1, 24/1 and 24/0 (although the 24's are not finished yet and still need the bufferbeam skirt/valance adding). I have also made a class 40 bogie sideframe that I can hopefully use with a brass body purchased from ebay and a pair of MMP resin cabs.

I have given the cab a coat of paint and a sand and it does look better (I only sanded the lower cab front so that the original finish can be seen on the windows and roof). Another sand and paint and I think it would be ok. the other option would be to make a resin copy of it, sand detail and paint that and then use that as a master for some 25 cabs.

I use a program called Blender. The reason I chose it was because it was free. It's not too hard to master and the best way is to watch tutorials on youtube. Then start off with something simple like a loco roof or part of a car. The most important thing is to get some good drawings of the prototype (Side, end and roof) to work from. I got the drawings for the bogies from the National Rail Museum archive when I visited the museum last year.

They are 3D printed in layers. For information about the process-shapeways.com The surface finish seems to be the biggest problem with the process. In the pic below you can really see the layered effect. One of the other material does give a smoother finish but the detail level and minimum thickness of the material isn't as good. From a quick test I think it will be hard to smooth the material evenly, If the weather is ok later in the week I might try to paint a cab to see what the finish is like and then possibly try to sand and paint again afterwards. A couple of problems with the proces i have found so far is that each material has a minimum wall thickness. white strong and flexible can be used to produce the thinest walls (0.7mm)but it is also has a rough surface finish. But even using white strong and flexible some details didn't come out- The first cab had a surround to the tail lights but when printed it didn't show up very well. It was hard when drawing the bogie to make sure all the shapes involved had a 1mm thickness in all directions. I was planning to model the pipe that runs along the side of the bogie but it would have needed to be to overscale to be able to print it and had the same problem with the brake rodding/equipment. The costs are worked out with a set price per cm3 so the bigger the volume the more expensive it is (volume of the model not the dimensions of the model). The materials have different prices from 90p per cm3 (white strong and flexible) upto ??6.20 per cm3(for metal). The cabs cost roughly ??15.

The 7mm class 24s and 25s in the background are Steve Beattie resin shells purchased from ebay. I have got 8 bodies, some etched grills and some bogie castings. The quality of the steve beattie bogie detail castings are not too good so I might try to produce some resin castings (if I did I would need to get another sideframe printed with the details not attached to alow it to be cast). I would also like to try a class 25/3 cab in 7mm as the 25/3 in the picture is a modified 25/1 shell and I'm not happy with the windows. The pic below shows a test of a 7mm cab profile printed in clear material to see how well it matches the Steve Beattie body. There are 4 different materials used in the pic above- Right cab - white strong and flexible Left cab - white detail Bogie - Black strong and flexible 7mm cab profile- Transparent detail The pic above is a close up of the 7mm bogie to show the roughness of the surface. Looking at it in the flesh I would say it is fine for a bogie and the black material it was printed in gives it an almost dirty/oily finish and could be fitted to a model without painting. The cost of the sideframe in the black material was ??15.

After seeing a thread on the old forum about 3D printing I decided to have a go myself. As recomended on here I downloaded a free cad drawing program and set about learning how to use the program. Here are the first results- First I tried a class 24 roof. and developed that into a class 25/3 cab in 4mm. most recently I had a go at a Class 24/5 bogie in 7mm. I have just got some parts from the 3D printing company (shapeways as used by others on rmweb). Class 25 cab 4mm tests Class 24 7mm bogie sideframe Final pic of the cab against a Bachmann body.