Structure Exterior details for the Model Railroad

First the right side of the building.  This is a Roundhouse plastic structure to which I added several 3D printed details.  On this side of this row house of six apartments I added the electric meters and service, mail boxes, tension rod washers, and the coal loading door.  Everything is HO, 1/87, scale.

All of these items I designed and had printed at shapeways.com.   

Here is a close up of the coal loading door.  Probably a little small considering the size of the building, but I was just guessing.

This is a close up of the electric meters.  The roof drain below the meter is a piece of brass tube.  The stand off on the conduit was also a printed item, but I won't do them again, as they were too fragile.  I broke two out of the four, and scratch built the top one from a piece of brass tube and a piece of styrene.

Here is the weatherhead at the top of the conduit, where the overhead wire would connect to the service.  An extremely small piece, but it was cored, so the brass wire fit right in it.

At the opposite end from the electric service are the mail boxes.  Although it is pretty much impossible to see, they are all mounted on a "board" mounted to the wall.

I made several different structure tension rod washers, several of which can be seen below, and obviously on the structure above, and on several of the other pictures.

Next time I will cover the roof and the other side of the building.

More 3D printed items I designed and had printed at shapeways.com

I am building an HO scale small engine repair shop, and I need some 1949 era lawn mowers.  I could not find any, so I made my own.  Here is the first one I did.  I used an N scale tractor and designed and printed an HO scale seat, steering wheel and mower deck.  To the right is the N scale tractor and the parts as they came from shapeways.

Here are a couple pictures of the complete model with the twin blade deck.

Another project I am working on is a round ice cream store.  The idea came from an article in Railroad Model Craftsman.  The round portion is an old pill bottle.  I drew the awning and windows to fit the curve of the bottle, in this case, a 2.625" diameter. 

There are many times when I think of something that would be fun to print, and then realize it would be easier to just build if from styrene or wood.  These where items that were easier to design and print than building from little pieces.  Next I will have some structure details.

2013 Model Railroad and Blog Post goal

Last year my goal was to average a blog post every month...and I made only 8!

So, this year my goal my goal is a blog post every week.  Considering that it is the 12th, I am already 5 days late with the first post.  They will be short, and probably mostly pictures, as writing is not my favorite thing to do.  Hopefully, I will get better at taking pictures. 

Certainly the main emphasis for the early year posts will be 3D printing.  Starting with printing done by shapeways.com, and then using a Afinia printer (afinia.com).  I have a couple of previous posts showing some items that I have had printed at shapeways.  One of my newer items is a set of woodworking tools for a Fine Scale Miniature lumberyard I am building.  Here are some pictures

Here are the printed items as received from shapeways.com

This is the 12" table saw and 16" swing arm cut off say in the lumber shed.

These two shots are of the saw shed...the bench with details was printed at shapeways

To give a better idea of the size we are dealing with, here is the swing arm saw, primed, on a penny.

Here is a view of the swing arm say completed with the wood table, but before installation in the structures.

One down, 51 more to go this year.