Friday Night Update - 29 April 2016 or Adventures in 3D Printing

Lots of people have embraced the development of 3D printing as a viable form of modelling - although there is an on-going debate in the LAG about its status regards kit v scratch built for the purposes of modelling competition categories.  Shapeways in particular has been a driver in making one off models economically viable, particularly for those who lack the skills or time to scratchbuild from more traditional media.

 

I was lucky enough to be asked at the end of 2013 if I would consider taking on a CAD Technology class at the High School were I normally teach History.  Despite the fact that it was 2 decades since I had last done tech drawing - at that was with a pencil rather than a computer - I said yes as I thought it would be an opportunity to learn the skills necessary to draw either for 3D printing or for 2D etching.

 

As it has turned out, I have been able to get some 3D stuff drawn and produced by Shapeways.  My LNWR D6 open is about to be re-done for a third time and my D15 Beer Van is going to get a second edit.  The biggest issue I have found however is the cost and time in getting a test print organised.  As Shapeways has a flat postage rate, getting a single print sent from either New York or Holland (not sure if they have anywhere else that they print from - these are the two places I've had stuff from) is an expensive business and takes up to a month from uploading the .stl file until the (oversized) box arrives.  Then if you find it didn't work as you thought (and I have had a couple of prints like that) it is back to the drawing board and try again.  Obviously with experience the first one tends not to be unusable these days but still...

 

Fortunately I have a long suffering wife and when the local Aldi supermarkets advertised a 3D printer as being on sale in one of their advance catalogues, I looked up the specs and decided that it was pretty good value for $500.  Further discussions resulted in me lining up outside the Aldi closest to work one morning back in February to purchase one (as it turned out, the blokes at work who use one more than I do had seen the same catalogue, done the same research and were there to get some for school!).  A few prints later and I was happy with what was coming out.  Whilst I don't think I will be able to print a wagon body, I am pleased to say that I have managed to get some very satisfactory prints for modelling purposes from it.

 

Pictures for the rest of the story:

 

The printer - not flash but it does the job.

 

 

One of the early prints was attempting to see if I could build a wheel house and engine room for this conversion of an ERTL Thomas The Tank Engine Bulstrode the Barge into a costal freighter.

 

In testing the limits of the printer, I designed these dockside bollards.  They are 3mm high with a diameter of 1.2mm on a 1mm thick base.  They did need a bit of cleaning up with a sharp scalpel afterwards but having printed 14 of them I am glad I didn't have to try and scratch build that many identical objects!

  

Something a little more ambitious - the full story will come at a later date but this is the Goods Shed at St Ablan's Abbey LNWR.  One of the reasons why I wanted a 3D printer was to do building better and this is the first attempt.  Very pleased with the result. 

 

 One of the LAG mad men (David H!) has a N6.5 railway on the back of his layout.  As part of this he thought a turntable would be suitable.  Enter some ideas and the first print was done before the end of the meeting.  Several tweaks later and the final print is shown and then installed on Toshalt.

Update

The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry - at least that's the Sassenach translation of Robbie Burns' ode To a Mouse.  Like lots of clichéd lines, it has the benefit of truth behind it.  So it is with me.  Updating the blog didn't happen mostly because, well, lots of reasons, but as I tell my students, you always find time for what is important.  Guess updating wasn't for a while!  Still, it nags at me and I do get requests from time to time to "update your blog!  I want to see what you've been doing" so...

What have I been doing?  Lots but on the assumption it should be railway related, not as much as I'd like.  However, some of the things which I will write about over the coming weeks (having decided to get the Friday Night Update going again - I can do this in front of the TV), include the build of an LMS D1817 Beer van, a LNWR D15 Beer van (both my 3D print and an etch organised via the 2mm Scale Association) and my adventures in 3D printing courtesy of my Aldi Printer.  There is also the final round of pictures of my Nuclear Flask Loading Facility Diorama which I did for the LAG Diorama Challenge last year - although Neb Noswal has stolen my thunder a bit by actually putting it on his blog on the day we did it!  The benefits of organisation.

 

Further adventures are planned - I got the whole sheet of LNWR etches offered last year so I have a number of builds to do - 6x D33, a D43, a D13, a D26, a pair each of D16 and D17 brake vans and then some NPCCS items - a pair of horse boxes and a CCT.  To round out the LNWR stuff there has been some deliveries from Shapeways of Chris Higgs' designs which will require chassis - and have given me food for thought in tweaking my own designs.  I also partook in the LNWR Coal Tank subscription so 4 of those are going to be erected in due course.  Not sure if I'll do them individually or as a batch production.  And finally there is news on the Layout Front.

 

I am also looking forward to attending the 2mm Supermeet near Burton-on-Trent in late June.

 

So that's the news - first Friday night update tomorrow, with photos (although to be honest, I am pretty slack at taking photos as part of the build process - too busy doing the next bit).

Update

Sorry for the tardiness of recent months.  The long running renovation of my house finally came to an end about 6 weeks ago – officially just after the September LAG meeting (which we had here anyway) and just before the postponed 2nd Australasian Gathering (which I thought was very successful – most participants went home with an almost built model).  Since then we have been moving back in and getting things like the kitchen and bedrooms sorted.  Computers and IT devices, haven’t been high on the list but eventually got to the top.

 

So what has been happening?  Quite a bit.  As alluded to above, the 2nd Australasian Gathering of the 2mm Scale Association was held, albeit in September rather than August as originally planned.  This meant some of those who originally were hoping to come couldn’t but we did manage to get a UK based member here to quite pleased.  We focused our efforts on soldering this year – something a bit more practical than the meet and greet from last year – and started (or in one case almost finished) a D1817 LMS Beer van.  More on both of these will appear in the Magazine in due course and here on the blog.  We even had the opportunity to operate locos – and not just on David H’s Toshalt which had previously been lauded for breaking the drought of many years.

 

As far as the LAG has gone, we are back meeting at my place following 8 moths of visiting.  Amity has very kindly allowed us to use her 36sq mtr craft room in lieu of the shed – still stuff to come out of the shed and there is better light and insulation in her “Girl Cave” compared to my “Man Cave”.   Hopefully by December we will see a couple of the started “Diorama in an Archive Box” challenge entries finished – must get stuck into mine.

 

Sorry no pictures – hopefully the camera will be sorted shortly and there will be further updates of happenings then.

South East Queensland Area Group Meeting – 8 August 2015

Back to David’s this month (and hopefully back at my place next month with the building finished although possibly in the inside Craft Room rather than the outside Train Shed depending on how much has been removed from said shed!) to find that a) he has a new kitchen and b) his 2mm plank has grown quite a bit – it has doubled!

 

Toshalt (at least it has a name to go with its growth spurt) has managed to go from being two 900mm boards to being close on 4000 when set up.  David assures me he is going to do something about his own blog but the aforementioned kitchen and painting the dining room and some four letter word (work!!) were mentioned for the delay.

 

In any case Toshalt can now have a train arrive and depart having had the locomotive run around. This means David has four working turnouts – none of which are the same as the others!  However the key is they work so it doesn’t matter about their providence. 

 

Other adventures on the day consisted of the continuation of the GWR Milk Brake from Etched Pixels and some N Gauge Society kits along with me finding out that once again having taken DCC equipped beasties to run on a DCC layout, they didn’t.  So time spent trouble shooting those.  We also found out about LNER Coaches No 1951 and 1952 – they are in Wisconsin with Number 60008 it turns out.  The things which an idle flick through a magazine which is near on 70 years old will prompt. 

 

 

Three pictures of Toshalt.  Whilst it is only basic – straight through from traverser to traverser with a platform, run around area which allows a goods shed and dairy to be served along with a narrow gauge exchange siding – it is shaping up to be a nice little model.  Must stop painting my house and do something about mine!

South East Queensland Area Group Meeting – 11 July 2015

Once again – a couple of days late!  Must do better.

This month we went back to Graeme’s and had another look at Thornbury.  Only 5 of us this time so a bit more room to spread out and get on with various projects. 

 

I didn’t take pictures of what we were generally doing but Ben was making lamps for Sturminister – I assume pictures will be on his blog in due course.  Greg was building some kits, I was putting transfers on Tar Wagons – more of which in a forthcoming 2mm Magazine once I finish writing it up and get Amity to take some decent photos.

 

David brought along his second operating layout in almost as many months…  In actual fact it is a bit of a group effort and is merely a running in circle of 2mm soldered track – every 4th sleeper appears with the rest missed out.  It hasn’t a name because it isn’t really a layout but we are considering calling it Down Under MSW in homage to the well known circle Over There although ours is a pair of rectangular boards 1200x600.

Lastly we rounded up the new Jinties everyone seems to be buying here – 8 in attendance chiefly owing to word getting out that the LMS ones were around 20 quid cheaper than the pre-order on BR ones.  Cue much purchasing with 4 members getting LMS ones in the next fortnight from the news.  Mine are destined to be come BR with the remaining 7524’s getting renumbered in LMS condition – possibly all in the 752x range!

 

With 8 there we had to take a photo – sorry for the far end one being out of focus!  From Left to Right – SDJR 23, LMS, LMS, Beginning BR, BR, LMS, LMS and LMS.

Finally – some more photos of Thornbury, simply because it is such a nice layout:

Soldering Track – or what I did on my school holidays.

I have been trying, over the past week and a half, to get enthused about Swallow’s End, my embryonic 2mm shunting plank.  The biggest hurdle has been finding time – and the second has been dealing with the procrastination streak I have running during daylight hours, owing to it being school holidays (hence having time – sort of) and the kids all being home too.  Couple this with not being at “home” as such (renovations going ok but I’d be happier if they were going better) and you can see why I get bogged down.  Evenings are different – more of which later – but I need the space and that means outdoors and daylight hours.

Today was a bit different.  I had help.  And whilst “help” when you have five kids, the eldest being 9, can be a very subjective term I was pleased that Hollie (who rated a mention in the Toowoomba Train Show post)  was interested in building soldered track and was quite good at it.  She even (shock horror) listened to instructions and didn’t argue!!! 

Anyway, as my students at school are wont of saying, pictures or it didn’t happen so:

All in all, two 60’ lengths in a couple of hours, all on chair plates (Versaline for those playing at home).  No burnt fingers and no frayed tempers either.  Apparently she is now allowed her own soldering iron…

Hopefully more track down on Friday.  Not going to make it to the LAG meeting with a working plank on Saturday however.  Still issues with getting the points to work – and time.  Maybe tomorrow afternoon.

A(nother) House in My Hand

Last year I wrote about the Kickstarter project by Andy Vaughan here.  This was followed up with my progress with the sheds here in February.  Since then, other UFO projects have managed to get in the way but I started on the Semi-detached House kits (see here for the picture on Andy’s website) a few weeks ago.  Progress has been slow but today I managed to get to this:

Now the quick and astute will notice that it looks more like a Terrace than the picture on Andy’s website.  This is because on looking at the dimensions, I felt that the two houses were a bit small to be as described but I also felt that with a few of them, they would make a pretty good terrace of two up, two down workers houses.  And so it has proven. 

As one of the Kickstarters, I was able to get a few of them at the time – so I got 8 of these.  The fifth is at the back of the four, and a sixth has made it to a similar stage to the fifth.  I fitted the roofs to the four today (this is the front by the way) and will get onto putting the extra detail which wasn’t included in the kit – guttering, down pipes and so forth over the next few days.  As I presently don’t have access to the layout to see how they are going for length, I won’t be adding to it at this stage but I expect 7 or the whole 8 will probably be needed.

Eppur si muove (after Galileo)

As David says right at the end - it does indeed work.  Warms the cockles it does.  Now to get Swallow's End to a similar state of activity...

South East Queensland Area Group Meeting –13 June 2015

Same day report – don’t get used to it!  (And yes – apologies for not having one last month at all!)

6 of us gathered at a new venue (well new in the sense we haven’t been there as the LAG before but only one of us had never been at all) today where the highlight was the presence of David’s 2mm layout of which video was shot – more of which anon.

Some discussion was had around the 2mm scale layout Greg has out the back of his place having obtained it from estate of the bloke who introduced him and I to 2mm Finescale in the first place.  I suspect that 2016 could see it finally getting done, some 13 years or so after Andy’s unfortunately early departure from this life.

Once modelling got underway, all of us worked on our various projects.

Ben and Greg did something about replicating the lamp posts pictured at Sturminister Newton for his layout.  You guess the height of the fence, do some drawing and some scaling, bit of maths then get a paper clip, some bits of plastic tube of various outside diameters, a sequin and bead and voilà – lamp post.  The assembly judge it pretty good but felt the lamp was too close to the bend so some tweaking needs to be done for the production run.  Still, not bad for half an hour!

 

Barbara continued on with her N Gauge Society GWR wagon project, this time doing the opens which come as part of Kit 48.

Don kept on going with his pair of GWR Milk Brakes from Etched Pixels – I think this is the second of the pair under construction but I forgot to ask.

David, flushed with the success of the running session, got the servomotor for the fourth point mounted and wired.  It now just needs the blades installed and the programing done and he’ll have the ability to run around a train.  Next month…

I carried on with building the Severn Models Semi-detached Houses (N7 in their catalogue) of which I obtained 8 examples as part of their Kickstarter Campaign last year.  I decided early on based on their published dimensions that they were more suited to terraces than semi-detached and so I am building them as a terrace of 2 up 2 down houses. 

So a very productive get together.  Next meeting is the 11th of July.  Hopefully I will have Swallow’s End running for that one so we will have two 2mm planks operational.

Toowoomba Model Train Exhibition 2015

Last weekend was the annual Toowoomba Model Train Exhibition.  We have been going up for a number of years now and always have a great time.  This year was no exception but it was notable for a couple of reasons.

 

Firstly we debuted Ben Lawson’s Sturminister Newton.  His blog is linked on the side bar to the right so you can have a look at what he has been doing. 

 

We also had two new members of the operating team join us.  David has been part of the LAG since its inception back in 2012 but was unable to join us last year when we returned to the circuit.  My eldest daughter, Hollie, came too.  She showed an interest in shunting which surprised us all although there were some rather heavy shunts from time to time and the occasional out of control locomotive (although this was ultimately traced to a loop in the controls which had the loco responding to two controllers rather than one).  Considering she hasn’t turned 9 yet, to last a day and a half with two very late nights before losing interest and playing with some of the other kids in attendance was very good.  Hollie was invited back next year – hopefully she will have her own loco to wear out rather than using one of mine!

Hollie hard at work

Exhibitions are an interesting thing.  Before we went, I had read Julia “Missy” Adams blog (also linked to the right) where she had asked if exhibitions are worth it.  I know there are a lot of differences between the Australian exhibition experience (well at least mine here in SE Queensland) and the reported experience in the UK.  Over here, you don’t get paid to attend a show as an exhibitor.  In fact, the Toowoomba one is one of the rare ones where, provided you are willing to accept the hospitality on offer, you can be out for as little as the petrol getting to and from.

 

Normally exhibitions will have unlimited supplies of tea and coffee (for given qualities of same – catering packs rather than freshly ground and made) and provide lunch and that is it.  Toowoomba does have accommodation (you get to stay in the hall – showers etc. are available) as well as a hot meal on set up night, continental breakfast (I think there was 5 different cereal boxes for those inclined with a BBQ plate provided for those wanting to cook their own hot brekkie), morning and afternoon teas along with lunch.  Dinner Saturday night was a three course meal for a tenner.  Obviously if this isn’t to your taste, then you are on your own. 

 

In contrast, my understanding of the UK scene is that petrol and hire of vehicles and accommodation are all reimbursed – I would imagine that presenting Ritz receipts may not get you invited back – and meals are supplied.  As such, a weekend playing trains, results in those playing not being out of pocket at all, or possibly less than the average Aussie enthusiast.

 

And then there are the punters.  Missy reportedly had a less than delightful experience at the hands of some paying customers who felt her efforts weren’t up to what they were expecting (dunno exactly what they were expecting – the photos of her modelling are inspiring enough.  Assuming it works as well as it looks…). 

 

In this respect we share something in common.  The punters here will also express disappointment that the layouts are not what they are hoping to see for a variety of reasons.  For example our layouts (mine, Ben’s and our third partner in crime, Greg’s) are all set at a height of 1200mm from the floor – plus levelling materials.  Sometimes this will put the layout much higher as some of the floors are less than ideal and the layout is over 10m in length.  Additionally, with a layout that long, and two 4m scenic sections broken by a 20 road traverser not to mention the run along the back of it all, there are times when there isn’t a moving train in sight.  Given that all three of our locations are based on real ones with tweaking (the chief tweak in all three cases being the introduction of duplication to the line – all were single line originally but are modelled as two track mainlines) it is a bit hard to give them the endless snake trains which many of the other N scale modellers seem to want to do.  However, we are still more than happy to go.

 

The main driving reason for going to a show is the opportunity to play trains.  All three of us are able to have our layouts set up at home – Ben and I have ours permanently up in garage and shed respectively.  Greg usually has his up under his house.  However, the opportunity to run them as designed with a lot more trains available to run through the seen is rare and tends to only happen at an exhibition.  We understand that some people don’t like what we are showing – it can be a variety of reasons such as wrong country (UK), wrong scale (N), wrong motive power (steam normally!) or lack of anything “interesting” running.  (We try to run typical British trains – as Stur is SDJR based, things like the Pines Express and Standard 5s were in evidence along with 4Fs and so forth.  We also try to run them at scale type speeds so it can take 2 mins for a lap – and that’s a 60mph express!)  So we get our fair share of sniffs, snorts and asides.  However, we also get a lot more people saying how good it looks, and, because we have pictures of the real place, lots of people are interested in how we have modelled something which, in all three cases, doesn’t exist anymore (well St Alban’s Abbey station does, but not like mine!).  All in all, we feel that it is worth going – and especially worth going up the hill to Toowoomba.