Card vs Plastic vs Hybrid vs Other?

[andythetree]

12 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

The introduction of cheap SLA resin printers has really opened up 3D printing as an option for printing small details, brackets, chimney pots, window frames, doors and so on, if not for whole buildings - though I do do that too, the main limit is the print bed size.

 

3d programmes like Tinkercad and Sketchup, or the one that comes free bundled with Windows now   are easy to learn, at least to the point that you can draw up a chimney pot, windows, pannelled doors  or whatever.  I can draw up a chimney pot in Sketchup in literally 30 seconds, and after some subsequent processing steps print off several hundred  of them, all identical  in one go  in less than an hours  printing time. I might only need 8 but its good to have several hundred spares for when you drop them and lose  them on the carpet.

 

Printers like the Mars 3, Mars 2,  Anycubic Mono and any number of others now out there can print incredible detail, for better than I could ever produce by hand given their Z layer height of .01mm and XY resolution down to  .035mm.

 

One thing I've been dabbling with in conjunction with 3D printing is photogrammetry. There are free programmes out there, some for mobile phones now.  Its really expanded what I can build without needing to be an expert sculptor (in either actual materials or in a 3D sculpting tool) and when printed on a resin printer the detail is finer than I can see with the naked eye. IF a building has say a particular intricate carved bracket, or worse many identical ones, now (assuming it is in practical distance) I can photograph it, produce a model with complete accuracy  and print off as many as I need, all identical and costing less than a cent each.

 

 

 

 

 

It really is like science fiction - you can create a plastic model of pretty much anything now! (if you feel like having a bash at it, start with graves or statues, they are the easiest to get pics of them in their entirety, and their non reflectiveness gives more accurate results!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outstanding detail.  Can all printers work with SLA ?  And does software convert the photo into a 3d model?  Do you need a really good camera?  

 

You are right, it really is science fiction from what you have shown.  *00 chimney pots might be a bit over the top though.  To paraphase Oscar Wilde to lose one chimney may be regarded as misfortune but to lose 799 is simply carelessness!

[andythetree]

11 hours ago, DCB said:

The 0 gauge is likely to be the bigger challenge.  We have only a small section of outdoor branch in 00 it's about 10 years old but the plastic kit station buildings have not fared well, UV light has faded and weakened them, making the plastic brittle, and sunlight has warped the thin sheet quite dramatically.   Outside it's difficult to get paint to stick to the plastic buildings, it flakes off in sheets, a single coat of rattle can seems optimum.  Wood is a good material for representing wood, as is small chips of  Anthracite for representing coal.  Aluminium looks like aluminium.

I find old plastic computer cases provide excellent material for scratch building, both rolling stock and particularly buildings. Much thicker and more rigid than shop plasticard.  I glue it with Evostick pipe weld, but again getting paint to stick, as in for five years outdoors, is a challenge

 

Even indoors daylight is the enemy of printed material.  Even Superquick and Mercalfe fade in direct sunlight. Ink jet printing fades rapidly, Lazer copies  lasts much better but as I no longer have access to colour lazer copying I have taken to making signs, shop signs signal box, station signs, carriage destination boards etc by designing on the lap top and having them printed as photographs at Tesco.  Too glossy for brickwork but OK for representing enamel.     I did loads of brick papers on a lazer,  Superquick knock offs but different shades and colours.   

                                                                                             

I always knew the outdoor buildings would have to be very different and this thread was more about the inside stuff.  Thank you though for your excellent information.  I will eventually start a thread about the outdoor buildings looking in a similar way to this thread about the options.

 

My current plans are to use foamboard for the structure covered in a form of stucco that sculptors use to make garden statues!

[PaulaDoesTrains]

6 hours ago, andythetree said:

Can all printers work with SLA ?

 

No. Current hobbiest printers are either SLA, which uses a vat of resin, or FDM, which uses a spool of filament. Each technology has its pros and cons but for fine detail SLA wins hands down.

[monkeysarefun]

11 hours ago, andythetree said:

And does software convert the photo into a 3d model?  Do you need a really good camera?  

Photogrammetry describes  a process that  basically creates a 3D model out of an array of imagery. Since the software requires a lot of data points to accurately align each photo in space with the others it is essential that as much detail as possible is clear, so ideally a large sensor like those on a DSLR and a camera with a decent F stop is what you want. 

 

That said though, I've done all mine with a high end point and shoot which doesnt have a large sensor, and has a maximum F-stop of 8.  In addition I believe the latest Apple Iphones have some kind of photogrammetry feature though thats all I know about it based on the  increased number of 3D models of kids toys etc that people have started posting in photogrammetry forums, so even mobiles seem to work.

 

For the headstones I basically get close enough to fill the view finder, take a picture, walk about 15 degrees, take another picture and so on until I've done a complete rotation, giving me about a dozen pictures. At the start I used to take dozens and dozens, zooming in on particular details but all this did was blew out the process time and actually gave me worse results than just the basic walk around.

 

The main requirement would be a decent  laptop/PC with  at least 8GB of RAM as a bare  minimum   and a good graphics card.

 

Heres a quick run down of the process using free Meshroom. Ive never tried that particular package, mine are all done using 3DFlow. As  a bonus he uses a mobile phone rather than a DSLR  so its interesting to see how it comes out.

 

 

 

 

 

[melmerby]

22 hours ago, DCB said:

The 0 gauge is likely to be the bigger challenge.  We have only a small section of outdoor branch in 00 it's about 10 years old but the plastic kit station buildings have not fared well, UV light has faded and weakened them, making the plastic brittle, and sunlight has warped the thin sheet quite dramatically.   Outside it's difficult to get paint to stick to the plastic buildings, it flakes off in sheets, a single coat of rattle can seems optimum.  Wood is a good material for representing wood, as is small chips of  Anthracite for representing coal.  Aluminium looks like aluminium.

I find old plastic computer cases provide excellent material for scratch building, both rolling stock and particularly buildings. Much thicker and more rigid than shop plasticard.  I glue it with Evostick pipe weld, but again getting paint to stick, as in for five years outdoors, is a challenge

 

Even indoors daylight is the enemy of printed material.  Even Superquick and Mercalfe fade in direct sunlight. Ink jet printing fades rapidly, Lazer copies  lasts much better but as I no longer have access to colour lazer copying I have taken to making signs, shop signs signal box, station signs, carriage destination boards etc by designing on the lap top and having them printed as photographs at Tesco.  Too glossy for brickwork but OK for representing enamel.     I did loads of brick papers on a lazer,  Superquick knock offs but different shades and colours.   

                                                                                             

Please tell.

I haven't ever seen a plastic computer case and I have made a fair few PCs in my time.

They were always galvanised pressed steel sheet with a protective outer finish.

[andythetree]

20 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Photogrammetry describes  a process that  basically creates a 3D model out of an array of imagery. Since the software requires a lot of data points to accurately align each photo in space with the others it is essential that as much detail as possible is clear, so ideally a large sensor like those on a DSLR and a camera with a decent F stop is what you want. 

 

That said though, I've done all mine with a high end point and shoot which doesnt have a large sensor, and has a maximum F-stop of 8.  In addition I believe the latest Apple Iphones have some kind of photogrammetry feature though thats all I know about it based on the  increased number of 3D models of kids toys etc that people have started posting in photogrammetry forums, so even mobiles seem to work.

 

For the headstones I basically get close enough to fill the view finder, take a picture, walk about 15 degrees, take another picture and so on until I've done a complete rotation, giving me about a dozen pictures. At the start I used to take dozens and dozens, zooming in on particular details but all this did was blew out the process time and actually gave me worse results than just the basic walk around.

 

The main requirement would be a decent  laptop/PC with  at least 8GB of RAM as a bare  minimum   and a good graphics card.

 

Heres a quick run down of the process using free Meshroom. Ive never tried that particular package, mine are all done using 3DFlow. As  a bonus he uses a mobile phone rather than a DSLR  so its interesting to see how it comes out.

 

 

 

 

 

That is absolutely amazing.  Mind blowing even.  I had no idea that this sort of technology had drifted down to home use.  Thank you for opening my eyes to the possibilities.