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Been ages since I have posted been super busy with new jobs and all that life business that seems to get in the way of Model making sadly!! Have a few things on the go at the moment Continuing to focus on the Clubs layout with the addition of this Signal Box for Smithfield's I still need to add some additional elements inside, thinking a token machine and clock on the wall, along with painting up a chap to stand inside. Kevin the electrical genius at the club is going to fit some lighting inside, and get a light for inside the stove which i have hollowed out to take a small LED Bulb. I also need to knock up some guttering to finish the exterior Besides this Brighton Inspired Signal box, I have started work on a small supporting platelayers/storage Hut to sit alongside. Still a bit of cleaning up, windows to print and fix, but would like to create a little tool rack an table inside so we can light the interior up. Early days with this! Additionally been cracking on with the L77, N7 Loco, thanks to @thegreenhowards help we have managed to get the Dapol Jinty Chassis to fit this, I now need to knock up a small pony truck to sit behind the Jinty Chassis and then see how she runs! I don't think this will be my final print will do another and see if I can clean up some of the surface detail. I already have printed all the detail parts to go with the loco so hope to show some progress later on in the year! And finally some additional printing on this Brighton full brake in early white and Umber livery which is possibly a bit ambitious , I'm going to have a crack at lining soon, so shall see how that goes! And finally been working on a few more 7mm wagons in the background, which I have to say I do enjoy knocking these up! 7mm L&YR Fish van primed in white Hopefully I can find some time to finish this lot off and more, If I can get a successful finish on the LBSC coaches would love to knock up a rake of these for the Club Layout to run alongside the GNR coaches we have that also share the Terminus You can see progress on the club layout here Cheers Rob

Haha exactly why I want it too dude! To finally print O gauge Bogie coaches without having to slice the roofs or sides :)

Ahhh yes you are right I mean't the Jupiter will probably be receiving a 12k version at some point, im guessing!

I completely get where you are coming from Phil, I seem to have a collection of 3D printers now and becoming a bit of a 3D Printer Junkie! I sold 2 off this year as I just don't use them anymore, so now down to 5, and thinking of selling one of those as well! As with 8K and now 12K you really don't notice a great deal of difference when comparing prints, I think the speed on the M5s sounds interesting, anything to speed up the prints is a good thing! Especially on the larger printers where they deal with serious suction issues! My Anycubic Max and Phrozen Mega are close to 3seconds for a layer cure, and down to the slowest lift speeds to prevent the model tearing or ripping off the build plate! So if they can make this better on the bigger printers im going to chuck my pennies in! Until then i'm happy waiting a day or two for my large prints ;)

I'm very tempted also! I have used my MonoX for a few years now its an excellent printer, fantastic results. But I can't help thinking that Anycubic and Elegoo will produce a new Max/Saturn at 12k with the speed increase at some point this year and I would definitely want one of these bad boys! It will probably be a bit larger than the current printer build plate as well im guessing!

And some additional cracking photos by Kevin Martin of the dry run interior of the signal box! I now have tidy up the paintwork inside, add a token machine, and a chap operating it all, and finish painting the exterior and newly printed roof! Interior detail not quite finished, some more painting and glazing to add! Thanks Kev great pics.

Yes i did wonder they looked pretty reasonable have they hiked up a lot then?

Thanks John your advice has been very helpful and much appreciated sir hope you had a cracking Easter

Hello Jason I have heard about this hot water trick does it work? I sometimes use hot water to remove supports!

Ahh interesting to know John, I think you make some good points, ones I have heard before about starting with a solid chassis which will pay dividends in the end in terms of robustness! I do fancy having a go, and seeing if I can rise to the challenge of creating a reasonably good chassis base! Most of the fun for me is the building and the challenge/ Last year I finished a bunch of 7mm Howlden 6 wheel coaches, printed all bar the wheels and remarkably they have proven pretty robust so far, so will see how I get on! If it goes horribly wrong..... Premier chassis it is sir ;) Cheers Rob

This is very true, and when put like that 300 squid is not bad for a loco of this size in 7mm, assuming i don't cock it up several times that is ;) My first attempt using a donner Dapol Terrier chassis was this S56/J69 below, and now I have learnt a bit more in the process of building this and 3d printing it I would like top remake this, or perhaps an E22 instead! The lovely LNER version is curtesy of @thegreenhowards who I printed one for at the club, it was basically his idea to take the Dapol terrier chassis and build off of that!

Thanks Ian that is solid comment, I think you are right I have to do some work to make some amendments to this body anyway so It will be no issue to thin these right down on the next print much appreciated sir for your feedback :)

Looking forward to seeing that Steve

Hello Steve So sadly I don't I will have to print out another one of these as there is a bit of warping and i need to make adjustments to the base mesh to allow for motors, wheels etc. I haven't de-sprued my detail print yet, which im super pleased with so can grab a picture of that if you like to show how I have supported it? And next time I do a print will grab a picture for you if that is of any use sir? Assuming it comes out ok that is ;)

Thanks guys @hayfield and @doilum this is very helpful and giving me a much better understanding of what I need to research and get my head around, and thank you for the tip about Iain Rice's book on building chassis, I have just ordered his realistic railway modelling steam locomotives to help me get my head round it all. Thank you to everyone who replied to this thread I really appreciate all your help and advice, and hopefully I can do this next stage justice! Although this 7mm modelling malarkey ain't cheap is it ;) Adding all these bits up, wheels, motor, gearbox and coupling rods, combined with axle bushes, pickups, Couplings, etc we are well north of 200 squid! But luckily the cost of printing the body/Chassis and detail components of which I have now printed out, (will hope to show the progress of that tomorrow) is only going to be the cost of 1 bottle of resin around £20 so that is pretty good! Cheers Rob

Hello Jeff This is fantastic so no soldering involved in the chassis which will be a brucey bonus, i notice Premier are going to Reading in May so i might contact them beforehand and see about picking it all up at the show! I can also pick their brains about it. cheers Rob

Thanks Doilum i just realised i wasnt aware about brass wheel brushes do premier or slaters sell these? Also pick ups i haven’t a clue about either apologies but it is exactly this kind of info im finding is absolute gold dust from you lovely folks on here cheers Rob

First attempt at printing the body for the L77/N7 some warping to fix, and some amendments to make going forward for the chassis

This is looking cracking Neil nice work sir

Thank you both @Bucoopsand @doilumi will check out ABC motors and gearboxes also! And Premier seem the definite way to go in terms of coupling rods much appreciated guys, I have quite a bit of motors and gearbox research to do this weekend now :) As for the rear pony truck I’m already on the narrowing of the back of the chassis! I noticed this would be an issue when negotiating curves so figured it will have to narrow to allow the back pony truck axle to slide! Much like I built when I made my GNR 8 wheeler brakevan on sliding axles. Thank you Rob

Thanks John some good points! one of the reasons I wasn’t keen to buy an existing chassis is that I currently don’t have the skills to build one in metal. I have been told it’s quite tricky getting the chassis true/square in general so figured it may just be easier to print this? however you do make a solid argument, and looking at your link it’s not a great deal extra money wise, considering I need to buy coupling rods As for motors and gearboxes I’m completely in the dark here, so previous folks experience and advice is invaluable. I appreciate the advice will check out both Roxey and Slaters sets thank you thanks for your advice and help Rob

Thanks Doilum, some great info there! How you finding printing the chassis for the loco? Its working well? Do you end weighting the locomotive? But thank you for the information much appreciated

More 7mm Wagon builds this time GCR fish van, i need to make some custom decals for the Fish Van text, and get the amazing mr corbs to print them! Secondly 4 wheel Billinton Brake, built this for a chap at the club who is kindly helping me with some couplings for my GER 4 wheel coaches! this is only the test print to see f it goes together, have almost finished printing out the 2nd one for him, and i may do a 6 wheeler Billinton or a Stroudley to compliment it on the layout, undecided yet. Both need roofs fixing as i need to weight them both, and weathering still. Extra decals required I need to find some 7mm guard transfers for the Billinton doors, and Fish Van for the GCR truck, if anyone knows who does them? If not i may draw my own along with some additional LBSC components like the illiterate symbol, and Ballast truck and brake text!

Hello folks So im guessing I'm possibly going to open up a can of worms here, and ask a bunch of dumb questions so I would like to apologise in advance if you folks get this a lot, but I would greatly appreciate any help you can give me. So i'm looking for some advice on how to go about building a chassis and adding a motor, wheels and coupling rods for this L77/N7 I have porotype 3d printed. Originally I was thinking of using a Dapol Jinty Chassis, and fabricating a small pony truck at the back! @thegreenhowards Idea which is a sound idea and worked extremely well beforehand when we used the Dapol Terrier chassis for S56/J69. However I have since printed out the body for the N7 loco, and I have found the motor on the jinty sits far to forward, resulting in having to cut a section out of the boiler up to the first boiler band in order for the motor to fit properly, which in my opinion would spoil the look of the locomotive! So I am thinking Rob, why don't you just see if you can build/3d print a chassis for this loco instead, it be worth trying out, seeing if i can get it to work! I know I can source the wheels from Slaters I will need 3 pairs of 4'10 wheels, and a pair of 3'9 wheels for the trailing set at the back, this is as much as I know that I need so far! Not great I know ;) So my questions are: What motor should I go for, a biggie I know, but I haven't a clue about this, and where to start? Where is the best place to get coupling rods for the N7, I believe Premier Components do a set? Does anyone know the standard width for a 7mm chassis out of interest for when I start to build this in 3D? The hole diameter for the axles according to slaters is 4.763mm so making this slightly larger say 5mm would hopefully allow the axles/wheels to run fairly smooth? I could also create some wheel spacers to be set inside the chassis to add further support! Do I need to add weight to the chassis, and if so how much is recommended and what to use? Have I forgotten anything or over looked something glaringly obvious? And is there any previous threads or videos that I can take a gander at that help with a lot of these questions? Many thanks folks in advance an apologies for the Noob question on this but any advice is greatly appreciated here First test/prototype print below, still some cleaning up to do and there are some issues I need to fix, a bit of warping which just needs some supporting columns inside to fix this issue, and some strange chamfering off in the corner that was the result of an unsupported area I believe. All other details have been printed out separately for attaching later Cheers Rob CAD Model below

Errrr no its 3d printed still :)