MODEL RAILROADING, 3D printing using a personal printer, Afinia H Series Printer

What follows is an adaptation of the clinic I presented at the Mid-Continent Region NMRA meet this past June in Overland Park, KS on my experiences using a personal 3d printer.  If anyone has any questions, or sees any problems, just send me a message.  I will make updates as needed.  Hopefully, in a few weeks, I will post my clinic on using a 3rd Party Printer, my experiences with Shapeways.

FSM Barnstead Lumber, HO Scale

I bought a used Fine Scale Miniature Barnstead Lumber kit, and I knew it was missing most of the castings, what really makes a FSM kit special.  The main building was already built, but damaged, and none of the other buildings had been started.  To replace all the missing cast metal details, I designed details, and had them printed at shapeways.com.  Some are available for sale in my shapeways store (http://www.shapeways.com/shops/nvrr49).  If you see something you want in these pictures that is not listed in my store inventory, just let me know, and I can make it available.

A general, overall shot of the lumberyard.  The main store to the left, the lumber shed in the back and a mill shop to the right.  There is a railroad spur that runs right in front of the lumber shed and behind the main store.  

From the right end, you can see the railroad siding.  The main building had one window missing, so I boarded it up.  The windows were missing for the enclosed space at this end of the lumber shed, so I designed some and printed them at shapeways.  

The store is modeled a little run down, but in the process of being remodeled.  The saw shed and lumber shed are weathered, but in good shape.  A new chain link fence is being installed to the left, and a pallet of supplies is in the main yard area.  The fence fittings we also items I designed and printed.  

There is lighting in both the saw area in the lumber shed and in the mill shop.  Here we see the mill shop which includes a 16" radial arm saw, and 16" table saw, a 24" planer and a 12" jointer.  The bench in the corner is also printed, including the details on the bench.

The saw area in the middle of the lumber shed is equipped with a 12" table saw and a 16" swing arm cutoff saw.

Here is a pallet of fencing supplies.  The fence mesh is wedding veil material, and the fittings I designed and printed at shapeways.  The fittings are cored out to accept .020 wire.

The pallet was printed, as were the two barrels, and the roll roofing is a roll of black paper.  The fork lift is an Athearn tractor, with the seat turned around, and added scratch built controls.  I designed the forklift accessory based on photographs, and printed it at shapeways.  I have not added this to my shapeways store, but if anyone is interested, I can do that.

Both the pallets and stacks of concrete blocks were printed at shapeways.

These windows were done as scenery, but could be used in a building.  Again, these were printed at shapeways.  The stack of plywood behind the windows is from the original kit, and is cut to size card stock.

Springfield hanger, HO Scale

Although the 3d Printer is on the fritz, and I have to call tech support again today, it does give me time for another post

This is a Google Earth picture of some of the airplane hangers at the downtown airport in Springfield, MO.  They kind of look like modified Quonset huts. I want to model a small airport on my model railroad, and I really liked the look of these hangers.  And they certainly look like they would fit in my late 1940's era model railroad layout.

Here is a drawing of the full model.  If I were to print it in a single print, it would have lots of support material, particularly in the interior.  On top of that, the layering would be horizontally across the structure.  We want the layering to run vertically, since any weather we would do to structures would run vertically.  Rain does not run sideways.

This how I printed it.  I cut the building up so that any layering would be in the vertical position when the building is assembled.  The only support material needed will be what every is needed to hold up the ribs, which in this position are horizontal.

This is the building primed and test assembled.  The door track will be made from styrene shapes.  

Here is a series of pictures of the finished airplane hanger in HO scale.  I also printed the foundation, and mixed both stone and concrete block, as I wanted it to look like the foundation has been repaired.

The airplane is a long out of production model from AHM.  Now that I know it will work, I would like to measure the real hangers, and print on that is true to the prototype.

Kitforums.com diorama, Part 3, HO scale Model Railroad Diorama

Since I am blogging mostly about 3d printing as it applies to my model railroading adventures.  Let me first state that the reason I have not blogged in a while is because I have been busy modeling (printing).  A lot of modelers take the summer off for outside activities, I, however, watch the KC Royals, and model.  The 3d printer, an Afinia H Series, seems to have broken, so I will be talking to tech support on Monday, and, I would assume the extruder is broken, and I will need to ship it to MN for repairs.

The last section in this 6" x 6" diorama is the three window wide four unit apartment building.  This is a picture of the first drawing of the front of the building.  For this project, I decided to model the back, but in general, they are the same, except I am adding wood decks to the upper floors on the back.

This is the drawing, similar to the print file, that I used for the top floor.  Due to the print time, each floor was printed separately and glued together later.  This top floor alone took over three hours to print.  So figure three hours per floor, plus the windows, the unit probably took over 12 hours to print.

Here is a good shot of the front giving a good view of the detail in the blocks and the foundation.  A lot of this detail will not be so visible once the decks are installed.

From this higher angle, we can see the open hatch for the roof access stairs.  The roof access stairs and hatch are a one piece print, an hour and twenty minute print.

I will have more on this project later.  The entry was originally due on July 4th, but the deadline was extended, so I have added several details, some 3d printed.

Kitforums.com diorama, Part 2

Ladies and gentleman, if you are a model railroader, you should be a member of kitforums.com.

I you like to build craftsman kits, you should be a member of kitforums.com

Join, introduce yourself, and tell them I sent you.  They won't hold it against you.

In this entry, I am going to cover the 3d printing of the middle unit in my row house diorama build for the kitforums build challenge.  This is HO scale, and the final diorama will have some railroad track, as that is required for this build challenge.  I like build challenges, they give me a deadline, and I actually have some chance of finishing something. 



This is the original concept drawing.  I made several changes, but I did stay with the same general style. 



Here is the roof as it looks when it is removed from the printer. Note the support material for the door area, but also note there is none needed for the roof slope.




The added parts, all 3d printed, are the railing, the chimney and the sliding door.  The railing was printed in three pieces and solvent welded together.  I would not do it again, as with all the design time, and test print or two, and the sanding the assembled pieces, it would have been much easier to have built it out of styrene and strip wood.  The bricks in the chimney are standard 3x8 bricks, and, by the time I designed in mortar lines, they did not print particularly well.  Some areas are pretty much melted together, and the individual bricks don't show well.  I have not tried it, but I think making them an inch over size would probably fix the issue. 

 

I had test printed lap siding on another project, but with the side laying flat.  The print layers was too visible, and not acceptable, at least to me.  I printed this standing up, just as you see it.  There was a lot of support material needed to hold up the lap, but all in all, the layering barely shows.  However, after I got it all done, it occurred to me that printing it upside down would have eliminated any need for support material for the siding, so next time.....




On the masonry structure, the windows and doors are set back in the wall, where as, on wood sided structures, the windows have a casing that is lapped over the siding.  Printing that lip is not hard, but when the masonry windows just slipped right in place (okay, a little filing, but it was easy), I designed the openings in the building to be as large as the outside of the window casing, and made the window the full thickness of the wall plus the amount of projection needed.  In this picture I have the windows set in at an angle, and you can see what I mean.




Here I have added the roof section to the building and also printed paper shingles.  Also the windows and door have been solvent welded in place.




Here is a view with the window glass and window coverings installed.  Some of the coverings are printed on paper, and glued behind the glass, and some are printed on the glass.  The glass, in all cases, is transparency film.




This is the drawing that was used to print many of the items in this structure.  You can see from this how it was assembled.  Not included in the drawing, but still items I designed and printed, are the porch, the railings, both for the roof walk-out and for the porch, and the sliding door.  This building was designed just for this diorama, so no other walls were added.


The next entry will cover the third, and last building in this diorama.