James’ Workbench

[James]

Falling down the rabbit hole of scrolling through forums instead of studying (I feel there should be some form of AA meeting for it at this point!) I thought I’d add a little side part here to get ideas and keep everyone up to date with what I’m up to. 
 

For those of you who have seen on Facebook I started designing De Dietrich carriages almost a year ago for after getting a 3d printer specifically for this. In between work and studies I have slowly managed to get a few print done (mostly all ‘learning’ or ‘improving’ or ‘I’m so glad I didn’t follow my engineering career path otherwise we’d all be screwed’ prints) but as of the weekend I think I may have got it right. 

[James]

Here are the first prints I had done, attempting to print the carriages in halves and glue the together. This didn’t work with parts warping after being removed from the build plate.

 

These videos are from the final, completed CAD designs. As it stands I am currently unable to print these as a whole entity but I’m looking into it and solutions for my second run of prints.

 

My most recent print, a stronger and sturdier print. It is able to hold the bogies without the floor imploding, and I’m generally happy with the overall finish. I can’t reach the internals of the carriage so I will just post process (ie sand and paint) them and then use tint plastic to fill in any windows.

 

I’ll do more updates and background info as I continue working on these!
 

Note, I don’t know how to add the specific files in a specific order. The halves are pretty obvious as are the videos. The clear photos of the carriage by itself on the layout was my first ‘successful’ print, which has since imploded but is good test dummy for learning to spray paint. The most recent print is sitting beside the 201 on the messier side of the board. 

 

[Mayner]

Interesting I once saw an O Gauge model of a large NZR diesel electric loco with the superstructure printed in 2 sections and glued together. The designer used a 3D print bureau to produce the FDM prints.

What design software, print processes do you use.?

[James]

1 hour ago, Mayner said:

Interesting I once saw an O Gauge model of a large NZR diesel electric loco with the superstructure printed in 2 sections and glued together. The designer used a 3D print bureau to produce the FDM prints.

What design software, print processes do you use.?

I currently use Shapr3D to draw them as I can use it on my iPad and tend to only have time to work on the designs if I’m travelling. 
As for printing I’m using a Creality Ender 3 and I’ll sand the model down next time I’m working on it to smooth it before painting 

[James]

Santa was very good to me! 
New 3D printer arrived before Christmas, so I had to do a few ‘test’ prints. 
Some of these were already printed on my other printed, hence there’s a few parts missing, so I just prepped them all and primed them. 
Hopefully get testing my airbrush and the colours within the next few weeks

[Flying Snail]

Looking forward to seeing how these turn out!

Are there any notable differences in the quality of print that your two printers put out?

[James]

22 hours ago, Flying Snail said:

Looking forward to seeing how these turn out!

Are there any notable differences in the quality of print that your two printers put out?

Thank you! 
Yep! My new one can print them horizontally or vertically whereas the previous printer could only print them diagonally, leading to all the jagged lines shown in the earlier photos. This means that after printing the new ones there is very little needing done to them before priming. 
The prints also feel a lot sturdier and use a lot less filament which is great!

[James]

Been a busy few months with work, however I have printed a full (although not completely serviceable) rake of carriages, which I have now primed and given the base layer of silver. I will clear out the window areas so that I can have these as static/display attempts. I will paint them up fully to check the paint colours are all correct and record the ratios of mixes I need to speed up the prototype 2s which are in the CAD/engineering trial phase 

[James]

Work has continued with spraying the carriages recently. They have been sprayed with another layer of the silver, which I have now ran out of, so I moved on to figuring out the under carriage and roof colours. 
Judging by the lid colour I started with Tamiya German Grey, however it dried a brighter Bluey grey than I had anticipated. A coat of Tamiya Dark Iron brought it closer to the desired colour. 
Tomorrow shall see me head to Eire Hobbies in Dundalk in the quest for more paints in the hope of finalising this batch. 
Thanks all for the support so far! Hopefully have more definitive results soon!

Just now, James said:

Work has continued with spraying the carriages recently. They have been sprayed with another layer of the silver, which I have now ran out of, so I moved on to figuring out the under carriage and roof colours. 
Judging by the lid colour I started with Tamiya German Grey, however it dried a brighter Bluey grey than I had anticipated. A coat of Tamiya Dark Iron brought it closer to the desired colour. 
Tomorrow shall see me head to Eire Hobbies in Dundalk in the quest for more paints in the hope of finalising this batch. 
Thanks all for the support so far! Hopefully have more definitive results soon!

Note the DVT on the right, with two coats of the dark iron bringing it closer to the colour of the locomotive roof

[James]

Following on, the carriages were retaped and then given final coats of silver, hopefully going to have the green and yellow parts finished tomorrow or Sunday 

[James]

More photos to keep the attention of the viewers. Keep an eye out tomorrow, might have some good content to share

[James]

And so, just like that, they are finished. this post concludes V1 of the De Dietrich carriages, with the paints matching virtually perfectly with the actual models. 
I am aware that the paint is blotched and terrible in most areas, this was a fired together finish to the project as this run was simply to check measurements and colours in real life. 
thank you all so much for the support! I shall progress on with V2, a much more refined and detailed version, so watch this space!

I may sell some V1 carriages as kits/bare shells to help fund the V2, which I hope to be able to sell more confidently and with more pride!