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.

More HO scale vehicles for the Model Railroad

I will have lots of vehicles if I ever get a real model railroad layout built.  Here are a couple construction and a couple military vehicles that I have finished up.  Both of the construction vehicles are from Mercury Lit'l Toy.

First up is this International dozer with a Drott shovel.  Mostly a stock model, but with added cab details, paint and weathering.

Second I have a Michigan scraper.  Again, pretty much a stock item with some painted details and weathering to cover damaged paint.

Roco water tank and trailer.  I do not know if the trailer is Roco or not, I actually assume not.  I bought it with some other parts and pieces.  I was glued together very poorly, so I cut it apart and put it back together as best I could.  

It seems like whenever you take pictures of a model, you find things that need fixed.  Now I have to get these back out of the military box, and add headlight, and probably tail light paint.

Next time, a bunch of 3D printed stuff.

Building the Kasia Michon

The Kasia Michon is a a passenger car I built for my HO scale 30" gauge logging and mining railroad.  First, the real Kasia Michon, my daughter in-law.  I started with a standard gauge Roundhouse Pullman Palace Observation car, and then proceeded to cut it in a million pieces.

This is the standard gauge car, as it started out, before all the cutting.

And now the cutting starts.

Viewing the side, the middle piece is what was discarded.

I wanted to detail the interior, and I could not find benches like I wanted to use, so I made them using shapeways.com.  First I drew the benches using SketchUp, scaled them to 1/87.1, and uploaded them to shapeways.com.  They printed them, and shipped them to me

Here at the benches, painted and installed.

The colors were chosen by Kasia Michon, colors she can see.  I think the pictures might actually be better than the model.

The restroom walls are scratch built using styrene, the floor is printed on photo paper.  The fixtures, are from Red Cap Line.  

I have to update this more often, as I have many entries worth of material.

Trucks, Cabooses and Buildings, Oh My

And a bulldozer, bus and tank car.

Random model railroad items I have finished up in the last month.  

 First up, a couple Greg's Garage trailers that I custom lettered for the Atkins Pickle Company, of Atkins, AR.  I printed the decals myself, and made the art work from pictures.  The Moby Dills decal is from picture of a jar label.

This bulldozer is a Mercury Lit'l Toy with added detail.  I added the bolt detail to the blade and the control to the cockpit.  Obviously weathered it up so too.

Here we have an antique Red Ball kit, with cardboard sides, metal cast windows and ends, wood roof and floor.  I scratch built the end railings and used brass ladder stock. This is one of the few pieces of rolling stock I have lettered for my Kansas City, Fort Smith and Gulf railroad.  As a Drover caboose, it has passenger seats, and I installed seats, and have a few people sitting in them.  The pictures really aren't good enough to show them, but, believe me, they are there.

Like Greg's Garage solid resin models, Vulcan Hobbies made similar models.  I would really like to find more of the Vulcan Hobbies items, but they are relatively rare. This is a 1938 Dodge Airflow tractor, and

here, I have it pulling a Greg's Garage ribbed trailer.  The sign on the side of the trailer is retro Boulevard label, as Boulevard was not around in 1949, the year I model.

I made this tractor trailer to haul the half track concrete mixer I made last year.  The tractor is and Imex Peterbilt I painted and lettered, and the trailer was kitbashed from from a Maisto auto rack.  I made the decals myself.

I have got to start building more structures, or not.  This is a Design Preservation Model with added interior details, signs and the roof access was scratch built.  I should have gotten some good pictures of the interior and the door signs for the upstairs business.  There are two businesses upstairs, Scout Investigations, and

Jean Louise Finch, Attorney at Law.  Those refer to a book and movie, but I will leave it to you to figure out which one.  The signs were all made on the computer, and the Cook paint signs were based on photos edited in Photoshop.  This will be a corner building on my main street diorama.

I lettered this American Precision Models bus for the Missouri Pacific.  It looked like it was the right shade of blue, and so I made some decals and had me a MoPac bus.  Sure it ain't prototypical, but it captures the feeling.

I love tank cars, and this is a vintage Thomas Industries kit.  The kit had been assembled when I bought it, but only the metal tank wrapper was painted, as that is how the original kit was delivered.  I disassembled the kit and painted it per the original instructions.  FYI, if you ever need old kit instructions, try hoseeker.com, the site is amazing.

More HO scale model railroading next time.

A Freight car and a Caboose

For this entry I have a couple HO railroad cars I have finished.  

The first is a old Varney Ohio Seamless Tube car with loading rack.  These models were also sold as standard gondolas, without the loading rack, and with the rack as seen here

 I purchased this is well used condition, so it took some rebuilding of damage on the loading end, and some touch up on the paint....also a little weathering to hide some of the damage.  

Next up is a drover caboose.  A drover caboose is a caboose and a passenger car of sorts.  Drovers were the cowboys taken on cattle trains to care for and wrangle the cattle.  Particularly when the cattle had to be unloaded or taken out for scheduled breaks.

This is a old, really old, Red Ball paper side kit with metal cast details.  I added some interior details, but you really have to be looking to see the people sitting in their seats.    


Next up, I am working on a 144 square inch HON30 layout, and I have another bunch of details ordered from Shapeways.com.  Lots of details being printed.  It has been hard to find time to work on model railroading, as I have started my own manufacturers rep business, and time is at a premium right now.