TurboSnail

Dug out the prototype this morning for a bit of a comparison, so if anyone feels like playing spot the difference...

Why does the G6 work in 3mm but not OO?

The kit is now available on Shapeways! Link here. I may have got a little carried away with the branding and instructions... The list of modifications from the prototype shown in the video: - rivet detail increased in size to avoid being lost during polishing and sanding process - buffer mountings increased in size slightly - wheelbase shortened to make use of better 4F conrods and screws - pickup locations adjusted - gearset changed This is why we test things! It is now also available in FUD, as well as the WSF that mine is made from. The major change is the gearset - the one I was using did not mesh properly as the gears were not designed to fit together. This, plus lack of lubrication, wore out the plastic drive gear in about an hour of heavy use. As such, the chassis design has been changed to use a scale-link gearset, specifically designed to fit together and all metal, which will be much more robust. As such, I can't guarantee everything will be perfect, it all fits in CAD, so if anyone runs into any issues, please let me know so I can fix it! I'm not expecting this to be a big seller, for me it was an exercise in trying out a new technique, so the markup is very small. All in, mine cost about £50 (motor, gears, handrail wire, buffers, everything included) which included buying full packs of stuff that most people will have in their spares box, and was nice and easy to build. The new gearset is also slightly cheaper. You could build it for a lot less if you used parts from scrap/spares or changed some of the details. I may also be able to supply some of the leftovers from my build to further reduce the cost. I've edited the first post of this thread to include a feature list and a copy of the parts list and instructions, so do check that out if you're interested. Got a couple more 'kits' in the pipeline, starting with a replacement Wrenn R1 chassis. Not sure 'kit' is exactly the right word, given that you have to source most of it yourself! TS01 Instructions & Parts List.pdf

I wasn't suggesting using plasticard to laser - I've made that mistake before, resulting in a 'polite' conversation with the lab tech. Will this picture do?

On the loco front, laser cutting would be a real benefit - I can make a body work in WSF but it takes a fair bit of sanding to make it look good (image attached is my Maunsell(ish) shunter, completed this morning!). 3D printing comes in to its own for the chassis though, as most people won't notice the surfacing as much, they're pretty cheap as they are much smaller than the body and you can make it easy to fit cheap or readily available motors/gear etc - next project is a replacement R1 chassis, since you mention it. I'm planning a few models that use a hybrid of 3D printing and card/plasticard parts but if I could get access to a laser cutter it could be much better. Also, how similar is the LSBCR 4 wheeler to the LCDR one? I have a Roxey brass kit of an LCDR brake, would be nice to turn it into a full rake... EDIT: forgot to attach pic.

The build is now complete! Transfers from HMRS finish it off (the only ones small enough to fit on the sides), with glazing using that gluey stuff I can't quite remember the name of right now. Before making the model available on Shapeways, I'm making a few minor changes to the design - if there's anything you think I should change, now would be an excellent time to let me know. I'll produce some basic instructions too, although this thread should be detailed enough that people can follow the steps I did. I'll make a video of it running when I'm home for Easter and can access my layout, so stay tuned for that in a day or two.

Just roof, transfers, final details, matt varnish and glazing to go! Not looking bad, even if I say so myself.

Seconded - the old chassis is still pretty good, so a nicer detailed body in the sub-£20 region would be great. If buying a second hand donor chassis you'd be looking at less than half the price of the new one, even assuming the old ones don't lose their value (here's hoping they do...). Maybe I could finally make my model of SECR 751 have the correct boiler! At the moment it just has the smokebox front modified.

Not much cab detail, but it'll do. And took the opportunity to add some more ballast and stop the motor being visible through the radiator. It widens out at the bottom, so there's more steel in there than it looks.

Painting in progress, gloss black means it should take transfers reasonably well. I had to take the grille out to replace it as it gets blocked up if you do anything other than multiple very light coats. Hopefully I can keep the coats light enough on the buffers so they stay springy.

Tempted by the SECR version, wondering if they're making different tooling for it, being neither an A1 or an A1x. Also hoping they don't do one in SECR grey as I already have one of those. Maybe this will mean Hornby finally move their version into the Railroad range? Would be nice to have a cheap small 0-6-0 chassis to mess about with...

Had a few minutes free last night, so the shunter now has some additional weight under the bonnet. A small engine like this is going to make or break on whether it can be heavy enough, and I think this one will be fine - there's still some additional places I want to add ballast to and it's fairly hefty already. And with a shot of primer:

The wiring is now a bit neater, the pickups are wired to a terminal block, which just makes the assembly a bit easier. It now works by touching the power supply to the wheels, so in theory it will work on track, I just need to wait until I'm home for Easter before I can test that. Moving on to painting the body next, it's not too far off being finished!

Right. Chassis working! One slight tight spot, but the flywheel more or less covers it and I can't be bothered to fiddle about with the conrod alignment any more. Sticking 3v directly onto the motor is shown in the video below, all I had lying around was a cheap wall transformer, so a proper controller should be able to make it smoother and slower. The motor is slightly raised at the back (see the bits of paper wedged under it) - this is because I didn't measure the motor height properly so the gear didn't mesh 1st time, but I will correct it for the purchasable (is that a word?) version. The next step is to make it all nice and neat and solder up the pickups so it will run on track.

So the chassis issue I alluded to earlier is that the wheels tend to bind at a certain point during their revolution due to the 0-4-0 conrods being slightly the wrong length and having too much play in them (the old 0-4-0 crankpins are massive compared to the 4F ones I'm using). Been irritating me for a while, but I may have solved the issue with some plasticard and some bodging. Not a difficult fix, but it took some aligning. More to follow tomorrow if I have time to get the gears meshed.

That's very cool, I have a bit of a thing for the tiny oddball locos. That's probably why I like the SECR so much, as they had a great 'odd' collection, clearly I need to start looking at other railway companies too! Motorising it would be fun, I think it could make quite a nice standard gauge industrial-type loco too. EDITED: for spelling

What is that?!? I'm currently trying to design a 3D print of the SECR crane tank, but even that looks massive compared to this thing. Evidently they also had issues stopping it...

Coursework has taken over my life at the moment, so all I've had time to do recently is make the roof and fit the radiator mesh. Cardboard won the roof experiments, the plastic one distorted too much and shrank. The chassis has hit a stumbling block in that using 0-4-0 conrods with 4F retaining screws leaves a massive amount of play in the rods, so I'm trying to fix that as well. I'll be adapting the CAD model to use the 4F conrods for the final version so this issue doesn't arise.

I do actually have slight justification for this, as I'm planning to use it on a (distant) future preservation era layout, hence it would have a few bits and pieces added by later operators... Also the air horns are much easier to get hold of!

I'll have a go at a couple of different roofing methods and see what works - the original plan was to use 0.5mm plasticard so I'll try heat-softening that first. In the meantime... Lamp irons are staples (probably slightly overscale), engine bay doors are 0.5mm plasticard. Not sure if the air horns are strictly correct for a 1930s loco, but I like the look of them, so they're staying.

Early steam locos had no cab roof, why not early diesels too? It's on the way, as soon as I figure out how to bend plasticard to a small radius without it cracking. Probably involving a soldering iron.

The wheels are now fitted to the chassis with the new gear in place. Rather than the traditional assembly from each side, the wheels slot in from the bottom as a complete assembly - this makes them much easier to align properly using a back-to-back gauge as they're very difficult to get parallel otherwise. A dab of superglue on top of the bearings holds them in place and is removable if necessary. The pickups give the wheels a self-centreing effect as well. Couldn't resist putting the body on too!

Yep, it's the Deluxe Materials steel one. Phew!

We'll see! I've never had any issues with this combo before, maybe some people just got a bad batch?

To counteract the light weight of the chassis and give the shunter some traction and good electrical contact, the chassis has been designed with a couple of ballast bins at the front and back. These can be filled with lead/scrap or in my case, Liquid Gravity (do this after fitting the pickups, as gluing ballast in place locks the pickup nuts in place!). This makes a surprisingly big difference, and once the heavy flywheel and some extra weight in the body are added, it should be a pretty weighty little beast.