FranksLad

Great layouts and trade support. Had a full day and really enjoyed it. Very odd that hardly any locomotive / rolling stock manufacturers were in attendance though. Only KR models from memory. No Bachmann, Hornby, Dapol, Heljan, Accurascale, Cavalex. What’s the story there?

Yes ,Welby Lane.

This is her lit up. Before final details such as horns, handrails and wipers were added.

The bogies are nicked from a Lima 156, just dressed with steps, shoebeams and cables. This one is a dummy model for my friend’s RTC exhibition layout. Ill be doing a powered 2PEP and 4PEP for my own. The 4PEP will be as built so will need bogies drawing up.

This is CAD drawn and then printed hybrid FDM and SLA with laser cut parts and proprietary bogies. It’s a real “bitsa”, but necessary to achieve a model that is well detailed and straight.

There’s the rub. With all of the hype surrounding resin printing, people spend £200 on an Elegoo Mars and believe they’re going to be banging out Bachmann quality coach bodies left right and centre. They aren’t. SLA is a wet process, if you get a straight print you’ve done well and if you get two the same size it’s time to buy a lottery ticket. FDM is a better option for making straight and square items but the detail just isn’t there and the level of post print finishing required would make a resin purist’s hair fall out. For now, hybrid is the way to go. FDM for go, SLA for show. The skill is in how you break a model down to get the best result from each discipline. I’m getting there but it’s taken almost three years.

Very true. I’ve just completed an EMU in 4mm scale using hybrid printing and other digital techniques. I’ve had enquiries to release it as a kit as no alternative is available. However for me to produce would take around 35 hours per kit. Not really viable hence not many are doing that sort of thing.

Correct Bill. I uploaded a 1970s bus shelter to Shapeways that I’ve printed both FDM and SLA without issues. Rejected by Shapeways due to a part being too thin.

No difference at all, it’s still copyright theft. Someone is freely distributing something you gave to them in exchange for monetary reward. Years ago a commercial addon was released for Microsoft Train Simulator with some of my freeware work on it. I had never given permission for that so I sought legal advice and had the product withdrawn. This is no different. Even if you aren’t paid for it, it’s still your intellectual property. The only difference is is that you cannot see the financial impact of your stl files being passed around.

I was selling downloadable content for Microsoft Train Simulator back as far as 2003 using the open source platform OsCommerce. It is very easy to do with PayPal integration too. You could set up an OSCommerce store in a couple of evenings. However, I get asked about releasing STLs all the time, usually from people who openly boast about making money from Thingiverse downloads. Once you sell that STL, you wave goodbye to potentially hundreds of sales, or worse, hundreds of people printing your intellectual property and making money from it. I design in 3D and sell items to fund this hobby of mine so I can’t give stuff away.

I design, make, and sell my own 3D printed items for 4mm scale. I’d like to partner with a company that could take the production away from my SLA and FDM printers. However Shapeways isn’t the answer. I’ve heard nothing but negative comments about the quality of the pieces people have bought. I’ve bought small items from them as a kind of “trial” and these were fine, however I’m not in the market for a £96 EMU car especially if it comes back like a banana. As anyone who has printed resin coach or wagon bodies will testify, it’s a horrible process with sometimes unpredictable results. I guess that’s why many of the companies that offered it have gone. Printing a 4mm scale wagon can be a 4 hour print. How does one make money on those run rates?!

Not questioning the decoders. It would be Hornby’s next attempt at a 73 fit for 2023 that would trouble me.

Hopefully not. It will be indescribably awful in some way.

That would work. Just the awful pickups and intermittent “connected through fresh air” lighting to fix on the Dapol one then……… Please Heljan, give us a 4mm 73.