PaulaDoesTrains

I've created custom Cura profiles for the different nozzle sizes. The main thing is to set the line width. I've installed the .3mm nozzle on my Kingroon KP3S (my Ender 3 Pro will retain a larger nozzle and will be used for structural/utility prints). Initially I had the line width set to 0.3mm but the results were worse than I was getting with the 0.4mm nozzle. I increased the line width to 0.32mm and hey presto I'd got the detail back. I suspect that 0.3mm isn't an exact multiple of the X/Y resolution (likely 0.04mm) that was confusing the printer. Also the layer height shouldn't exceed 70-75% of the nozzle diameter. I tend to stick to the recommended multiples of 0.04mm for my layer height.

A smaller nozzle will give you better detail in the XY plane but not really in the Z, which is dictated by layer height and even large nozzles can print at a small layer height. Having said that, I've fitted one of my printers with a 0.3mm nozzle. I've not printed much though it yet, just a few speed restriction signs, but they did come out crisper than previous attempts with the 0.4mm nozzle. @JCLthose wagons are excellent. I wouldn't have guessed they'd been printed on an FDM printer.

If you need any inspiration as to what can be achieved with an FDM printer perhaps look at John Warner's YouTube Channel "Piccadilly Model Railway". He's done some fantastic modelling using a stock Ender 3 V2, most of it in 2mm.

Something worth experimenting with, which should work on any FDM printer, is Adaptive Layers (sometimes called Dynamic Layers). It can help reduce the "step" you get on slopes without having to use a very small layer height on the entire print.

I'm sorry you interpreted my post as sarcasm. It was not not meant as such. I did honestly believe that Hornby no longer had any manufacturing production capability.

Until I read your post I wasn't aware that Hornby actually produced anything. I thought they just got other companies to make stuff for them. I was clearly wrong in that assumption. Thanks for the clarification.

I do agree with you that the discipline of focusing on the authentically plausible can be a great help to those on a limited budget.

You don't have to justify anything to anyone. It's your railway. Run what makes you happy.

I'm also a fan of the Airfix 4F. I've got two of them (one LMS black and one BR black) and also two of the Hornby re-releases. I feel the originals are smoother runners than the Hornby ones. My BR one, 44454, carries the name "Shrewsbury" on its splashers. Whether it came from the factory like that or has been done at some later point I have no idea. It's very neatly done though.

Just be aware that the track spacing may not drop readily into Hornby track geometry.

If you use a downloadable brick paper and print it yourself then you can scale it down to whatever size you need. Really though with forced perspective I think you'd need to make one side smaller than the other to help force that perspective (easy to do in GIMP).

I'm not convinced that it's currently possible to produce a 3D printed body fully painted for £50 or anywhere near it. Looking on Shapeways 3d printed 4mm scale loco bodies by seem to start at about £25. That's for an unfinished body which then requires sanding and painting. And here's the problem with 3d prints - unlike injection-moulded items they don't have a level of finish which can be painted straight away. There's going to be significant extra labour costs there. Sorry but I don't see it as a commercially viable proposition.

How many units do you expect would sell and how much would you or others be prepared to pay for one? And is the source material (technical drawings, copious photos of the prototype) available?

This blog post is some years old now https://thebusinessofmodels.wordpress.com/2015/03/27/Hornby-paid-0-5m-to-end-its-chinese-supplier-misery/ but explains what happened when Bachmanns's parent company, Kader, bought Sanda Kan.

I've got "Historic Locomotive Drawing in 4mm Scale" by F.J.Roche. He doesn't give a dimension for the length of the Duchess nameplate but using dividers it's the same length on his drawing as the distance centre-to-centre of the middle and rear driving wheels which is stated at 7ft 3 inches. But for all I know the length may have varied depending on the name of the loco.

The easiest way is probably to use fine nickel-silver wire.

Back in the mists of time, when Hornby/Triang was an actual manufacturer as opposed to a bunch of badge-engineering sales droids, they used to make Pacifics which went around train set curves. They've pulled the same stunt with the current Duchesses - removed the rear pony truck and had the rear wheels floating unconvincingly above the track.

Not really. Michael at Teaching Tech on YouTube did a review a couple of years ago of an early production sample which was not without its issues IRC. I assume those have been addressed.

If you want to be able to easily take up track for future re-jigging the I recommend using track screws rather than track pins. I doubt your children will be bothered whether or not the track is ballasted. A simple and cheap compromise is to glue down shed roofing felt and lay the track on top of that. Rather than under the bed, could the layout be stored on edge somewhere when not in use?

The Ender 3 V2 has a 220 by 220 build plate so is smaller than what you're looking for. Their CR-10 MAX has a 450 by 450 build plate but is a lot more expensive.

So far I've done a few small prints for the layout. I had some old Triang "UD" milk wagons, two of which had missing hatches so I printed some replacement. On the layout (as opposed to under a microscope) you can't really tell which is which apart from them being a purer white unaffected by age. I won an Ebay auction for n old Hornby 75 ton crane complete with match trucks in very good condition apart from the usual missing chimney and a couple of the supporting legs missing. I was the only bidder and paid £9.99 plus postage. I'm not bothered about the missing legs as I don't intend to deploy it in "play" mode but I printed a new chimney for it. It's not something which will get a run out very often. I've printed a lever frame to go inside my Scalescenes signal box. I printed the base and levers separately with the levers being printed on their sides and assembled it using superglue. It's not turned out too bad and is way better than looking into an empty signal box. An ongoing project is a water crane. I could buy one for a few pounds but where's the modelling challenge in that? So I found an old photo of one online which I thought suitable and have done an approximation of it in FreeCAD. I printed it flat on the bed in two halves then glued them together. I used the variable layer height function (I think it's called dynamic layers) in Cura and it's come out quite well although a bit small so I'll print another one and scale it up in Cura. I think you can get good results in some circumstances from an FDM printer. The secret is in knowing what they're good at and what they're bad at and designing your part to avoid what they're bad at. For instance, if I were to print a wagon I'd split it down into to the various parts which can be printed flat, much like an injection-moulded kit.

I don't think it's fair to tar all YouTube channels with the same brush. There are plenty of smaller channels which are just someone sharing their love of the hobby rather than trying to make money out of it. Many of them are very knowledgeable Those are the channels that I gravitate towards.

That's the theory. But there are plenty of printers with direct-drive extruders producing good results so it's clearly not as clear-cut as that.

By "design files" do you mean .STL files? There's some stuff on Thingiverse.

I believe the problem usually lies in the wheel flange depth which was historically rather too generous for code 100 track so tends to bounce on the chairs and might be too bulky to reliably pass between rail and check rail on points. Without modification I fear it may not be possible to get your locos and stock running reliably on code 100 rail. Perhaps you could put a post in the Collectable/Vintage sub-forum? There will be modellers there who will have faced the same problem.