3D Printed Items

I promised a cruel close up picture of the surface finish after light sanding and then painting the "white strong and flexible" material that the OO gauge footbridge is made from.




The handrail  and posts have been sanded, the steps have not.  Have to say though the steps look fine to the naked eye, but probably could do with a tidy up for close-up photography.

The "N" scale footbridge prototype has arrived, so I've painted it to match its' big brother. The smaller scale bridge is made from what they call FUD (frosted ultra detail). This is more brittle than the "white and flexible" but can print to higher levels of detail. It has a much smoother finish. 

Painting this material is a bit trickier than painting the"white and flexible" Basically it comes down to cleaning off any wax residue from the printing process before painting.  There are a few threads on "another forum" on painting this. I recommend washing it with warm water and soap and sticking to acrylic paints.
This is a picture of big brother "OO" and little brother "N".




 The "N" scale footbridge is now on sale at $US16.50  (about £9.90) + postage and packing, plus the dreaded VAT if you are within the EU. 

I also put some paint on one of my larger chimney stacks.


The picture shows how they look ex-factory, primed and with some colour added. It's brown brick because that was the paint I had to hand.




The picture is taken under directional lighting which emphasis the brick texture. The factory finish of the "white and flexible" lends itself to the brick texture, so I have carried out no prep work other than the primer.



Here it is perched on top of a Metcalfe corner shop, which shows two things: 1 - the 3d printed chimney looks more believable than the metcalfe card chimneys and, 2 - I am hopeless at putting together card kits (that's why I have taken to printing things).  


Actually I think it's been knocked around a bit. Surely I can't have been that bad. 

Love those footbridges. thumbs:thumbs

Terry

Hi Peter, the chimney stacks look really good. The footbridges really are the business. Keep up the good work.:thumbs

I haven't posted much recently because I've been busy with a number of different projects on the go.

Coming soon is something new in chimney pots.



The pots are printed attached to the mortar haunching so that they can be glued straight onto the top of a card built chimney stack. It takes away the fiddle of trying to stick individual pots onto the chimney. The sets of pots will be sold in sets to suit particular card kit models, but could also be handy for the scratchbuilder. The range will be avaliable for both OO and N scales.


The range of doors and windows is also being updated to provide "off the shelf" packs of the most common sizes.





The front door with fanlight above,  is available now in OO scale in packs of 10 (5 left hand, 5 right hand) for around £5.75 for the pack.

Also coming soon will be windows, doors and chimney pots in sets to suit card kit models.




Platform canopies will soon have additions to the range.


I've also grouped components for canopies so that they can be ordered as a complete set to make it both easier to order and also to minimise production costs.




I've also been very busy with this one, that should be available early in 2016 in 12" to the foot scale.

Thanks for the update Peter. I for one will be watching with interest on these, specially the chimneys, doors and windows. Looking good. 

Appreciate the "how to" on painting Peter, I think I'm going to have to have a go at something.

What's the span of the N scale foot bridge? It looks tremendous.

Marty

Hi Marty


Here are the dimensions of the footbridge model. I model most things full size and then scale it for printing. In the case of the N scale footbridge it is printed at 1/148 to suit UK N scale.




Let me know if the size doesn't suit. I could always tweak the model. If it's wrong for you, it's probably wrong for others too.

Well the test print of windows,  exterior doors and chimney pots for the Scalescenes Small Terraced Houses kit  arrived today. I of course got one of the window sizes wrong, but here are the ones that fit push fitted into one of the exterior walls.  I'll glaze and paint them, when I get the correct size additional windows.




I worked out what I had done wrong (I included the wrong window in the set), and have now made the correction. The 3d printed set (illustrated) can be purchased from the link below (about £6.50).




Shapeways 3D Printing Marketplace


I will be adding more of these complete sets of 3D components for scalescenes. If anyone has a particular interest in adding them to a scalescenes kit, let me know which one and I'll try and push it up the priority list.

They look smart Peter. :thumbs

How will you glaze them ?

I plan to start the kit shortly so they'll be ideal. :cheers

Also, once I'm ready, one of the footbridges will be winging it's way to S.W. France for my through station. ;-)

Hi Peter

I've been so busy, I've only got around to glazing one window. I used two pieces of acetate, one for the lower sash and one for the upper. I used canopy cement to hold them in place, but probably a dab of super glue would do it. I think when I go into glazing production on my own layout I'll come up with some sort of jig to cut the acetate so I don't have to keep measuring and marking up.

There is a rebate on the inside of the window which allows a small amount of tolerance for wonky cutting, but the glass to the top sash has to sit onto the top of the middle rail pretty accurately because there is no room for a rebate there. (I'm making it sound harder than it was.)

I  would be honoured to see one of my footbridges on your layout. I know a couple have been bought, but I have no idea where they have gone.

I set  the tapered factory chimney available for people to purchase on Shapeways in both N and OO scale. You never know someone might need one
.

Having worked out a technique for modelling brickwork on a curve and slope it is something I will be coming back to at some stage. I'm particularly thinking about bottle ovens.

I've modeled a new type of window (mainly because I need the type for a building on my own layout). This window  type has an external surround as sometimes seen on Georgian/Neo-georgian buildings. This window is installed from the outside with a touch of glue to the surround.  For bodgey modelers the surround will hide minor inaccuracies in the cutting of the opening. It can also be retro-fitted into an opening (as I intend to do).




Like all my windows, I can quickly re-size and batch in quantities to suit the customers requirements.

A pack of 20 costs around £9

That's very useful Peter. :thumbs

I have a hankering for a small row of Georgian terraces like these from Kingsway Models.   I've heard they're not great kits so a little help window-wise might be good -
 

[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:

That's very useful Peter. :thumbs

I have a hankering for a small row of Georgian terraces like these from Kingsway Models.   I've heard they're not great kits so a little help window-wise might be good -
 

I emailed them to see if they would tell me what size the window openings were. So far no reply.

I decided to make it even easier to build my platform canopies, by printing fully assembled sections.

You take a couple of section 1's (as picture below)



 

Take  a section 2 (as picture below) and span between the section 1's. Repeat as many times as you want.








 then add a section 3 at the end.




The end sections are available in right hand and left hand to suit the ribbing on the roof.


The sections are available in both OO and N scale.


The OO platform sections are also available without the roofing so you can fit your own card or plasticard roof. (The roofless sections are significantly cheaper, but I have to say the printed roof is pretty good.)





Final check printing is underway and all being well the items will shortly be available for purchase.

Of course you can still do your own thing and buy individual columns, trusses, valance and roof sections.

The Chimney Pots for Scalescenes kits have met with John Wiffen's approval and the first sets are now available on Shapeways for purchase. 

Hi Peter,has John authorised the use of his photo?.It shouldn't be a problem as he is a member on here but better to be safe than sorry.

Very good point Alan. I'll edit and take the picture down until I have his OK.