Adam FW

Thanks, I'm really impressed with it to. I don't have many pictures of the raw prints from my old printer to compare but this new one is brilliant so far and a definite step up in quality particularly on flat sided shapes where the print layers are much subtler. the terminations for the vertical handrails were designed as a test bed to see how I could make them function on a different model I've been working on as a collaboration with another modeller. So there are multiple different solutions I'd designed to try it out, sadly due to my Anycubic Photon playing up the collaboration got printed first without all the experimenting. But in the end simply having a bulbous end with a hole through it (sort of like a donut) worked and they don't even need drilling out though I'll show the collaboration off once the prints are with both of us involved and we're both happy with it as we have grand plans for the model The springs were me pushing my luck with such thinly supported small details knowing that if the test prints didn't work I could easily change the design to be chunkier and less detailed or remove the springs entirely but to my surprise they worked fine, but I think I need to move them outwards slightly to clear the boiler more easily The test print has worked brilliantly as it's highlighted multiple problems to rectify, mostly around the firebox area as I must have messed up a chassis measurement around there as the print doesn't fit right at all. But is also proves there space for a decoder which was a concern The best image I've got showing what the printer can do is this safety valve, it's on a cotton ear bud for scale and so you can see it (it's a printed part, not earwax, honest) but you can make out the coils to imitate the springs and this thing is minuscule

The first Manning Wardle test pieces came off the printer a couple of hours ago, they need longer to cure in the sun as it's been so dim today (I should really get a UV lamp at some point) but I couldn't resist a test fit I'm happy with the running board, bunker and 'cab' side panels but the saddle tank needs work. it's too flimsy and the boiler extension side pieces (to blend in with the boiler detail on the terrier chassis) were too thin. I think I also need to increase clearances around the chassis, its a bit too tight even before paint. On the plus side the details look excellent, every rivet is well defined, the flat sides look nice and smooth, the vertical handrail holes and the hand brake lever are intact and you can make out all of the leaf spring layers

getting ready to print the main components of my Manning Wardle, I've never had the smokebox printed on the running board rather than the saddle tank so lets see how that works, it will certainly make painting easier but I should have split the chimney into a separate piece, it's way higher than anything else so may add 2 hours to the print run time. As this is a one off test piece I've gone with densely packed support material I'll print the safety valve, spectacle plate and boiler back plate on a separate run along with any parts I want to change or that printed poorly from this batch

You're half right I didn't design it but the original designer claims it's based on Neuschwanstein and Schloss Lichtenstein, originally it was a huge multi part print for an FDM 3D printer https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:862724 someone else then scaled it down to be a resin test piece which requires no support material, this combined with the fine detail and complex shape I feel works well to test the printer and people really like the model so I tend to give the prints away rather than just bin them like some other tests pieces.

Cheers Matt I swear at some point I'll get around to finishing the Kitson, theres so little left to do on it. My anycubic was brilliant, but it seems the touchscreen is a known problem area with them which is really annoying when theres no spares for that part available. So far the mars pro has been the better machine, I don't know if it's down to the linear rail but flat surfaces are much more consistent than with the photon and prints stick to the bed more reliably. The only thing it's struggled with is one of my go to test prints, the fantasy castle https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3846058 as you may be able to see the roofs for the large and mid sized spires have windows and arches holding them up, I've never had them not print on the anycubic whereas on the mars only 2 printed successfully and one of those fell off in the cleaning vat. I can only imagine it's down to the antialiasing which I never used on the photon and that was the only difference between the prints but I'm not sure why that would affect it to such and extent.

Whilst waiting for some other pieces to print I've been working on my Manning Wardle 0-6-0ST, it's now pretty much ready to print after having to raise the saddletank as it was too low both compared to other MW 0-6-0's and to allow a decoder to be fitted easily The model is freelance (ie: the RTR terrier chassis is too large for the model to be scale) but is based of a mix of Aldwyth and Sharpthorn but with the older MW safety valve

Another one of my 3D printed bodies on an electrotren chassis, this ones a few years old now and is of Bellerophon It's DCC fitted and is mostly brush painted with LNER loco lining and narrow planet nameplates, there's some more images on the bottom of page 1 and top of page 2 in my workbench thread. I'm currently working on designing some variants to print out as part of me fancies having a whole set of 6 Haydock well tanks so I have a request: Does anyone have any images they can provide me or know of any books with images in which show Bellerophon's sister locomotives Hercules, Amazon, Makerfield, Golborne and Parr? I have a couple images of Parr which has a completely different cab and safety valve to Bellerophon, one shot of it crossing the LNWR mainline in the middle of some wagons and one of it parked up, so it's the other I'm more interested in. I've already modelled Parrs cab and safety valve ready for printing (see below) along with Bellerophons various cab styles. But I've never seen images of the other sisters to spot any other other differences between them and would love to see photos of them if they exist.

the 90 degree tilt on the anycubic doesn't always work for me, I typically print oo industrial loco bodies which aren't huge but are big enough to be a very tight fit between the bed and the sides of the printer and often leads to drips outside the tank. You can print your own 45 degree adaptor for the photon but I never did I agree with you on the difficulties of finding somewhere to put the lid as being an issue with the Mars, as you end up needing twice the desk space for the printer and lid or end up putting the lid on the floor, though the benefit is much easier access to the vat and z axis without the photons side panels to get in the way and the photon needs space behind it for the flip over lid to not hit something anyway. Ultimately I chose the the pro over the standard mars as for the extra £30 it seemed worth it to have the linear bearings and other minor upgrades but vs the current anycubic the only reason I would have gotten that was to have spares between the 2 machines but apparently the current photons have different electronics vs my original one, I've seen forums claiming them to be Fauxtons as the change was kept secret and done at the same time as the photon S was released so the benefit of having 2 identical machines was lost and since my photon broke I thought I'd try something else.

I don’t like how the vat is secured. The anycubic has some backstops so you can’t push it too far back but the Mars just has a slight recess which is easy to get wrong And if it’s wrong the vat won’t sit flat so I would imagine many fep films have been torn because the vat wasn’t sat flat the thumbscrews for securing the vat and the large one on top of the print bed feel cheap and are a loose fit (slop between the screw and the threaded hole) on the Mars And are plastic Capped whereas on the photon they’re machined aluminium and feel secure. Also it’s easier to fit the bed to the z axis on the photon the plastic cover would be better with handles, mines already covered in resin marks which isn’t an issue with the photons door. I’m going to buy some dent puller suction cups to act as handles to try out as handles the power switch on the back is a bad design to me, it’s inaccessible and you can’t see it, if the usb can be on the front why not the switch? Both are on the side on the photon. It also snags and cuts rubber gloves if you’ve already put them in to clean a print Basically it’s little niggles that I’ve seen so far that you wouldn’t notice without handling both but the photon generally feels more premium. I’m biased towards machined metal over plastic though. Right now I’d say the Mars is the better machine over the original photon but you’d expect that when my photons 2 years old now and things are moving fast in the industry. that being said they are both very similar I just want to compare identical prints now to see If there’s any difference In quality

Hi everyone, just to say I'm a new convert to Elegoo having just got a Mars Pro as a replacement for my problematic anycubic photon, I'm very impressed so far though it's only done a few prints but with no failures despite all of them being first time prints. Sadly it came with an European plug so my photon had to make a sacrifice but it's not working at the moment anyway. My main thoughts on the improvements over the anycubic are that leveling seems to be quicker, its a lot quieter and it smells less though the smell became more pronounced after 2 prints Out of the accessories I do like that it came with a nice pair of flush cutters though I doubt Xuron are too pleased that a knockoff brand Xorqn are claiming to be the patented original I also quite like that it came with an angled mount for draining resin off a print and you can still have the lid fitted whilst it drains I've still got a lot of experimenting to do to find my preferred layer settings but its all good so far though theres a few things I think anycubic does better. If anyone has any questions about it or how I think it compares to the anycubic let me know as I don't think there are many about in the UK so far.

With my anycubic photon playing up and the parts to fix it being unavailable I decided to take the plunge and get a new 3d printer. I placed a preorder for the new Elegoo Mars Pro. It finally turned up on Friday I quickly ran a couple of test prints through it expecting to have to do a lot of fine tuning for my translucent yellow resin but no, it worked well straight away and I was able to get a loco body printed overnight so far I’m happy with it, I’ve got some work to do to find my preferred settings for layer height but it’s nice to be able to print what I’ve designed again.

At some point I'll have to get the sound unit out of the coach and see if there's a manufacturers name on it somewhere, it appears to be on a PCB which I doubt was homemade so it makes sense to be from a small manufacturer somewhere. Getting it out is the problem, the pickup wires have been superglued in place as they were probably too long and dragged on the track, but it's had the knock-on effect of holding the circuit board in place as well. Crackling and screaming was all mine did before I cleaned the connections but it still makes some horrible noises if the potentiometers aren't adjusted well. I think it's one of those things which is a neat idea and was probably great to show off when it was new as it's so unusual, but ultimately it's not very good in practice.

That’s interesting, thanks for the history lesson. I guess the previous owner must have simply preferred the wrenn chassis or broke the original and replaced it with an old wrenn one that happened to fit. I’m not sure if it’s just the wheel diameters but the wrenn chassis does sit lower than the Hornby one which looks a bit better to me which may also have factored into the change.

I should have included a loco in the video I posted earlier as it's a lot less sensitive with another load in the circuit but you have to fine tune it for each loco using the pair of potentiometers, I believe one adjusts the starting voltage for hissing and the other the rate of chuffing but it's incredibly sensitive, it even audibly varies (speeds up/slows down by how far away it is from the controller when pulled by a loco Also as you can see despite me buying the coach as having lighting and some mystery electronics, I've never once got the lights to work but the mystery electroncis do work. Perhaps there's a hidden switch behind one of the speaker holes? I'll probably add a switch of my own so that it's not always on and to prevent it overloading on my DCC layout. And if anyone's interested here's the underside of the electronic and the wrenn coach for comparison. Having done some googling I can't actually find a wrenn 4 wheel coach so maybe it is bashed together and just happens to be on a wrenn chassis that fits very well.

It took a lot of cleaning and I had to re-solder one of the pickups but eventually I got the coach to work. It wasn't a whistle or horn noise. It's a full analgoue sound chuffing and hissing noise that varies with power applied. I certainly wasn't expecting it to have a DIY analogue steam sound kit fitted but I can also see why it never took off, it's very sensitive, unreliable and needs adjusting to suit the loco, track and direction of travel. But it's quite impressive that it even works and sounds reasonable If anyone knows anymore about this I'd love to hear about it, I doubt this was something someone dreamt up by themselves as a one off, maybe it was sold as a kit or was a how to guide in a magasine.

So I broke the glue holding the roof on to find out what was inside. I could see a buzzer amongst a lot of tightly packed electronics in the guards compartment so wondered if it was a diesel horn or steam whistle. Also the interior was far better detailed than I had expected, the windows are badly crazed so it's hard to see whats inside with the roof on after a bit of a poking around I found that the tiny holes were for the speaker/buzzer, the 2 larger holes provided access to a pair of potentiometers with some tiny screw drivers but putting the coach on to powered track made no noise other than an electronic scream and the lights didn't work no matter what position the potentiometers were in.

Some time last year I bought 3 modified 4 wheel coaches , 2 complete, one in pieces and a spare chassis in a boxed group from a model fair. 2 of them were Hornby the other was on a wrenn chassis and was screwed rather than clipped together (the body also feels like it's a different material and the roof is shinier but the exteroir moulding is indentical), I don't know if this wrenn one is original as I didn't realise the Hornby 4 wheeler went back that far. All 3 had been painted in a beautiful dark blue with gold lining and decals for the SDJR added, one of them had a bit more work done to it though. It felt far heavier, had pickups on the wheels, passengers added, interior lights and had been painted up with a guards/baggage compartment, the seller said it had some electronics in the back and he thought someone had attempted to motorise it, at any rate I snatched them up I only have pictures of the electronic one and the wrenn one as the third is still in pieces and god knows where I've put it Once back home the electronic wagon became my focus, at one end was a 5mm hole that seemed to pass along the length of the carriage, on one side was a far smaller hole and at the end was a series on tiny holes. There was no sign of any drive system and the holes seemed unnecessary for just lighting, so I had no idea what else was hiding inside, maybe it had an onboard battery to keep the lights lit when stationary.

I never put up any CAD images on Bellerophon, so here they are. You can see I did design and print some suspension components but they didn't look right on the model so I left them off in the end. I was very pleased with how the hand brake wheel printed in the end, based on the CAD I was half expecting an amorphous lump that I'd have to replace with an etched brass alternative but every spoke and the knob came out perfectly There's definitely changes that I want to make for a future print which I've got in the works

Another project, this time a Hornby Peckett chassis having been measured up and reproduced in my CAD software ready to design a body around.

Some images of the real Bellerophon for reference, I believe I took these during it's last weekend in service at the Foxfield so it was my last chance to get some detail photographs. At the time there was a massive Summer drought which meant there was a fire train (water bowser on a flatbed behind a diesel) running up and down the line extinguishing fires. It was certainly needed as every freight run up the Foxfield incline seemed to start something smouldering. I don't think I have any photos of it unfortunately.

Bellerophon's a bit too big as I had to increase the boiler diameter to cover the motor which meant the cab had to be heightened so it didn't look to odd in comparison along with the boiler and there's the other compromises made when using an RTR chassis on a small loco such as wheel spacing I knew it was never going to be an accurate scale model but I think it captures the prototype pretty well and I've never seen a better one as I've never seen another one.

Some more images of Bellerophon, this time with rolling stock to give a better idea of size: The name plate is from Narrow Planet the safety valves are from a Smokey Joe the clack valves and hand brake wheel are printed parts attached to 1mm (ish) brass rod the coupling hooks are from Wizard Models the lining is pressfix LNER loco lining from HMRS buffers are sprung and other than the black base coat it's all brush painted

as with Florence, Bellerophon fits onto an Electrotren 0-6-0 chassis with the motor sides exposed, painted and in this case lined to blend in with the boiler, I had to neglect the unusual external gooch valve gear on the model as I couldn't find anything suitable to fit and didn't want to fit dummy parts The body is a snug fit onto the chassis so doens't need fasteners though the option to fit them is there.

When I designed Bellerophon I didn't have a 3D printer in fact I don't think there were any consumer grade resin printers on the market bar some kickstarters maybe so I used shapeways. It may not be the case anymore but with shapeways it was cheaper if you had fewer pieces and the cost was based on max width x height x length as well so I joined all of the pieces together onto an airfix like sprue and crammed them together into a cuboid As you can see I did this a low resolution STL by accident which meant much more sanding than necessary as the boiler looked like a 50p Having looked back through my old emails this cost me £36 to print in frosted ultra detail back in 2018, having re-uploaded it out of interest I believe the equivalent material is now smooth or smoothest fine detail plastic, which would cost £41 or £68 respectively to print excluding postage, so at least I can confirm Shapeways prices have gone up but I don't think that was ever in doubt.

It's been a while, I've been working on designing 2 new models a Manning Wardle and an Avonside but my 3D printer has decided to play up (the touchscreen that controls everything will light up but not show any images), which has sped up my plan to get another printer. That and spare part I think I need is unavailable. So I thought I'd show off the first 3D printed model I designed a couple of years ago, meet Bellerophon, another Foxfield resident I have a thing for obscure and odd machines and I can't imagine any RTR manufacturer is going to be making the sole surviving example of a locomotive from a company that only ever made 6 locos anytime soon no matter how beautiful the prototype is. Though if they ever did I'd be first in line to buy one.