PaulaDoesTrains

I don't have space either but fortunately there's always outdoors which is where I cut out my baseboard using my jig saw with the sheet somewhat precariously balanced on my old B&D Workmate. Not a perfectly straight cut but good enough and I've put it at the back of the baseboard where the slight waviness won't show. I'm not convinced that the accuracy of a laser cutter is needed for baseboard unless it's some something like a helix. As for time saving each to their own but pretty sure I could make a small baseboard quicker than I could drive all the way over to Ikea and buy something.

Hi Rob, I'm also rubbish at woodwork (come to think about it I'm rubbish at everything else as well) but we're not talking about making reproduction Chippendale furniture here. Drill a hole and screw a screw in is about as advanced as it needs to get.

Even I can make a baseboard. I struggle to imagine how any remotely able-bodied person would believe that it's beyond their ability to make one.

I've found that replacing the old brush springs with modern ones helps enormously with start up. The old ones were made from a noticeably thicker wire than the ones you can currently get and I think that made it harder to find that Goldilocks pressure which is enough to give good electrical contact without excessive drag. The modern brush springs, being much finer, seem to be far more forgiving.

Sanity is over-rated much like growing up or being sensible.

Sounds like every glue (or paint) I've ever tried using 😀

Repeated applications of WD40 or a penetrating oil might help free it up.

NoI didn't know that. But at least they had the good taste to choose a nice shade of green to replace it so all is forgiven 🙂

TT-120 looks a big risk to me. Even if Hornby survive the recession (I'd say that's 50/50 at best) it's going to be years and years before there's a reasonable choice of locomotives and rolling stock; unless of course you're happy to build your own in which case 3mm would probably be a better choice as there's already a kit/scratch build ecosystem there. Realistically though you're choice is between OO and N gauge. Both have a wide choice of locos and rolling stock and, very importantly, both have a very good second-hand market. Railway modelling can get hideously expensive very quickly and even more so if you have to buy new.

At least the GWR used a nice shade of green unless the LNER who preferred a shade which you'd find a good match for in the toilet bowl after a heavy night on the Pernot. Proper railways of course chose Crimson Lake 😀

I've now a vision in my head of sailors landing on a remote island and eating every dictionary they can lay their hands on 😮

I had that issue with one of my Lima Crabs which I bought as a suitably priced non-runner. Thanks to a YouTube video by Mike at Model Railways Unlimited I was aware of the Mazak issues in advance of purchase. Anyway filing down the body weight until it was a slip fit in the chassis fixed the problem.

I've not yet tried a 0.2mm nozzle but I have a 0.3mm nozzle in one of my printers and get improved detail over the 0.4mm nozzle. There's also good evidence that the latest versions of Cura and Prusa Slicer give improved detail without swapping to a smaller nozzle.

Assuming you've got the 3D scanned files you print them in sections and glue the sections together. Cosplay fans do that.

But modern image has many huge advantages. All you need to do is have a row of newish houses along a lane named Old Station Road and you've got it 😀 You save a ton of money on stock 😀 And no fretting over things like DC/DCC or OO/EM/P4 😀 Alternately you could have a line but no trains running because you're modelling a particular day when they were on strike 😀

I believe at some point they were fitted with two motors. I remember watching OOBill's repair video where he couldn't get decent running because the motors seemed to be running at different speeds so he removed one. I find it interesting that during its service the 142 was castigated (perhaps deservedly so) yet as soon as the final withdrawal happened there was a scramble to save some. There are currently a couple at Chasewater which look well out of place amongst the preserved industrial and shunting engines and the nicely restored coaches.

Maybe a Pacer? http://www.hornbyguide.com/item_details.asp?itemid=664

Quite popular with us lightweight campers though. I've even got a Titanium one because well .... it's Titanium innit.

For glueing PLA I've had good success with superglue. I use the slower cure type which often seems to be marketed as 60 seconds glue or something similar. This allows me time to wiggle the parts into the correct position before the glue sets..

It can indeed but unless the OP wants to model something like a diesel loco the ability to model such complex shapes may not be needed. I've some fairly complex parts such as overhead gantries modelled in TinkerCAD.

For FreeCAD you'll need to install the Sheet Metal workbench. There's a good tutorial about it here

That's not a program I'm familiar with. In terms of what capabilities you'll need I think that depends on the complexity of the part you're trying to make. If it's a simple plate-like structure then a drawing package 9e.g.,Inkscape) would probably do the job. If there are any folds then a CAD package which supports sheet metal design (such as FreeCAD or Fusion 360) is probably the best way forward IMHO.

Aren't you using a CAD package already to design you 3D printed parts?

The latest Cura slicer, version 5, has a completely rewritten slicing engine which has been shown to produce noticeably improved detail compared to previous versions. The same engine can be found in the latest Prusa Slicer which I believe is still in beta.

Those are looking really good. A little bit of stringing but nothing that can't be easily cleaned up and a slight tweak to your slicer settings can probably get rid of it entirely.