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Looking good Nick, I trust the W iron units and buffers went in without any issues? What couplings will you be using? There's not a lot of room back there. I'll get round to building (or even buying!) some of these myself at some point, but at the moment you're the trailblazer! Cheers, Eddie.

Hello Dave, Thanks, great photos! When I enlarge the van pics I can see it looks like it has been printed on one end, would have been even better if it was printed the "right" way up. Even so, credit to Shapeways, much better results than when I started to experiment a couple of years ago. I found that the plug-in door part needs a touch of fettling to sit properly. You can probably see that the end vents and door latches will need to be represented with tiny strips of styrene, there are recesses for these to plug in to on the model. Those opens look great. Really happy about that, I can't wait to see some finished and painted models. I've got a Stroudley era Open type "D" in the pipeline now, and after that probably a single bolster timber truck, and a dumb-buffered POW. Thanks very much to everyone who bought some of my wagons, Best of luck with getting them finished. Cheers, Eddie.

Yes, sorry about that, I don't think that there's much choice but a couple of strips of brass for the lever, guard and link, and a tiny bit of styrene for the brake shoe, at least there's only one shoe and lever per wagon, and the shoe was a relatively large lump of wood on the real thing. Cheers, Eddie. Edit: PS. Actually, there is a simple lever and single brake shoe that are fairly close on the 2mm scale association etched underframe kit for early RCH minerals, part no. 2-326.

Thanks Nick. That's great news. I know It's a fair amount of money to risk on such small items, so I'm glad we've been lucky so far with the results. Let me know if you have any further issues or queries. Fingers crossed now as I'm expecting to hear before long how the FXD wagons came out. Cheers, Eddie.

I've sent you a PM as well Gareth. Cheers, Eddie.

SER/SECR 6246-6249. These vans don't feature in that book, I got my information from Vol.5 of that series, "Southern wagons pictorial" by Mike King.

FXD items have passed manual checks and are now showing as shipped.

Thanks Gareth. That can't really be helped with the SER van, as the door planking runs parallel to the hinge straps, which need to be printed vertically to avoid overhang. Cheers, Eddie.

Excellent news! Many thanks Gareth. Let me know how you get on with finishing them? Cheers, Eddie

FUD items now shipped apparently. Dave's FXD items still undergoing manual checks.

Hello Steve, The SECR and GNR vans aren't really suitable for printing at Shapeways due to the amount of "overhanging" features, The wagons that are in my shop now have been designed to minimise the effect that results from the support material that Shapeways use, after much trial and error, and £s spent! Even so, as I have mentioned before, and anyone who has used Shapeways will know, the result depends very much upon which way up the models are printed. It seems that models shaped like a box with an open top are most likely to be printed the right way up, as my current designs are, to minimise the amount of support material used, but even this is not always how Shapeways do things, as I have had models back that were obviously printed on end, perhaps to fill a smaller space on the bed of the printer. Perhaps one day 3D printing technology will advance to the point where we don't have to worry about these issues. Cheers, Eddie.

Definitely worth getting!

Hello Nick The only Photos I have of the SER van are in "Southern Wagons Pictorial" by Mike King. Pages 138 and 139, but these aren't brilliant, one shows an accident damaged van from some distance, the other a grounded body still with W irons in BR days. I have worked from dimensions quoted in this book. I could do with more information on these vans myself, particularly underframe details, they don't feature in the SECR wagon book. Cheers, Eddie.

Hello Nick, Thanks. All are designed to take 2mm. Assoc. Etched W irons. Spacers on the rear of the solebars locate them correctly. These can be seen if you look at the rotating image on Shapeways and tilt the image to show the underside of the wagon. As for springs and axleboxes, It's either a case of using or adapting the closest looking as available from the association, or making your own. Ditto brake gear, but at least most wagons of this vintage had just one brake shoe and a simple lever on one side. Association buffers will fit the holes in the buffer beam. Cheers, Eddie.

Someone just bought a few more wagons, thank you, let me know how you get on please people!

Thanks Gareth, Again, keep me informed as to how you get on with those. Cheers, Eddie.

Thanks Dave. I've noticed that some people are having problems with existing models and FXD, seems I may have to re-upload the files before they will print. Let me know if any problems and I'll get straight on to it. I'll try and pop over to the show at the weekend anyway. Cheers, Eddie.

Ok, That's done. I've enabled FXD but that's actually a bit more expensive than I expected. I've left FUD as default. Good luck! https://www.shapeways.com/designer/stockprint

Hello Dave, How are you doing? Still going ahead with that layout project then? Ok I'll make these available then, and see how we go. I'm not sure if Shapeways will count a print as a "fail" if it's simply not printed the way up that we would prefer though. Please let me know how you get on. Cheers, Eddie.

Hello Gareth, Hopefully, but as I have designed to be printed in a specific orientation, they come out pretty bad if not printed in that orientation. I'm not too keen to put my name to a product if I can't be sure that it's going to be any good! Thanks for the interest though, let me know if you really want to take a chance, and I'll make them available for a while. Cheers, Eddie.

I'm almost tempted to try and print one of my designs in FXD, as it's only a couple of Euros more per wagon, but still I expect that until I can choose the orientation of print, It will be pot luck as to whether I get a useable item back or not. https://www.shapeways.com/designer/stockprint

Thanks for this.

Hello Gareth, Thanks for the comment, and apologies for the lateness of my reply, busy times at the moment, just bought a house and another child on the way. as you can see from my images on shapeways I have redesigned some of my models to take advantage of being able to choose the orientation of print, in order to minimise the ripple effect that occurs beneath overhanging parts of the model. Shapeways have said that they will introduce this feature sometime this year, they may have already done so. I'll resume work on this project when I get time, and report in this thread. Cheers, Eddie

Ok mate, thanks very much. That's all good to know.

Hello Mitchell, Sorry to stray from topic, but can you tell me when Shapeways are going to introduce choice of orientation of print?