Robert's Workbench

[Dhu Varren]

I also use this method for producing decals. However, if I have a lot to do, I lay them out on a Word document to fill an A4 sheet, save it, copy the file to a memory stick, and  go to my local print shop with a sheet of decal paper for Laser printers, and get them to print the sheet. I take my own paper as the decal paper used by print shops may not be suitable for models with raised detail and complex curves, as I found out once. The advantage with laser printed decals is that they do not run when immersed in water. An A4 sheet of decals is also relatively cheap to get printed.  

[Noel]

1 hour ago, RobertRoche said:

Home Printed Decals

I print a lot of decals at home. I use Microsoft Word and AutoCAD to reproduce the art.

The decals are printed on Mr Decal Paper (sourced on eBay) using a home inkjet printer set to the highest resolution. Most decals print well, but some are just too small to print on most home machines.

Once the ink has dried, I give the decals several coats of spray varnish. It is important to give enough coverage so that the decals won't run when exposed to water.

Once ready, any of the usual methods and products for applying decals can be used. 

 

That’s impressive and really useful information 

[RobertRoche]

[murphaph]

They are the business. When and where were these used on the network?

[RobertRoche]

3 hours ago, murphaph said:

They are the business. When and where were these used on the network?

Thanks! These wagons were put together for the 2005 beet season - which unfortunately was the last season. The trains ran Wellingtonbridge - Waterford - Limerick Junction - Mallow.

[flange lubricator]

Great job on the wagons

 

[RobertRoche]

3D printed 40 foot beet wagons complete

My rake of these wagons is now finished. I think the technology works well for a wagon body such as this, which I would say is well within the 'two foot rule'; particularly when weathered and combined with the detail of the IRM flat wagon. The layering and slightly soft edges are less noticeable in person.

Each wagon takes about 6.5  hours to print. There was a small amount of clean up and sanding required before painting. Matching the colour was difficult and initially I wasn't happy with it - I have used the weathering to depict the rake as it might have been later in the season. As there is only a single door for unloading, I have noticed that the wagons were positioned so that the door is on the 'north' side of the tracks (east of Limerick Junction anyway).

[RobertRoche]

I bought a new soldering iron in July and repurposed my 'mobile modelling' set up to hold most of my soldering equipment. I also went a bit mad with decals, the surface area made them very tricky to apply. I have unfortunately not had many occasions to use these tools yet.

[StevieB]

On 8/6/2020 at 12:26 PM, RobertRoche said:

3D printed 40 foot beet wagons complete

My rake of these wagons is now finished. I think the technology works well for a wagon body such as this, which I would say is well within the 'two foot rule'; particularly when weathered and combined with the detail of the IRM flat wagon. The layering and slightly soft edges are less noticeable in person.

Each wagon takes about 6.5  hours to print. There was a small amount of clean up and sanding required before painting. Matching the colour was difficult and initially I wasn't happy with it - I have used the weathering to depict the rake as it might have been later in the season. As there is only a single door for unloading, I have noticed that the wagons were positioned so that the door is on the 'north' side of the tracks (east of Limerick Junction anyway).

Wow, very convincing.

Stephen

[RobertRoche]

I am going to spray a set of 4 wheel coaches. I 3D printed this replacement tension lock coupler bar and glued it to the chassis.

[JasonB]

On 9/30/2020 at 8:04 PM, RobertRoche said:

Tidy piece of kit Robert. Can't beat a bit of organised storage. 

[RobertRoche]

On 9/30/2020 at 8:59 PM, StevieB said:

Wow, very convincing.

Stephen

Thanks Stephen, I must get a video of them running soon.

12 hours ago, JasonB said:

Tidy piece of kit Robert. Can't beat a bit of organised storage. 

Thanks, It's heavy though!

[RobertRoche]

I have added extensions to the output chutes on some of my autoballasters and resin loads from Make Your Mark Models.

[Strimmers]

How did you make the extensions 

[RobertRoche]

10 minutes ago, Strimmers said:

How did you make the extensions 

The extension pieces are 1mm styrene card cut to shape and painted.

[RobertRoche]

I am currently experimenting with some 3D printed signal parts.

[Sven-E]

On 27/12/2020 at 11:38 AM, RobertRoche said:

I am currently experimenting with some 3D printed signal parts.

Nice!

What do you use to move the wing? If servo, what servo controller do you use?

 

[RobertRoche]

16 minutes ago, Sven-E said:

What do you use to move the wing? If servo, what servo controller do you use?

Hi Sven, I will be using a servo but I don't have any at the moment. This is the MERG signal, but I have designed by own which is more prototypical for Ireland. Not sure how I am going to design a servo mount without any on hand.

[Sven-E]

Thanks Robert. 

One tip is this video from Megapoints Dave who converted a Dapol semaphore to servo. I like his simple method of just gluing the servo to the bottom of the semaphore base. Makes it a single unit so you can lift it off the layout easily.

Join the MERG Irish Area Group on Sunday for some more advice.

[RobertRoche]

I have just received a copy of the 2021 Hornby Yearbook, which I won for voting in the Hornby Magazine Model Railway Awards. Nice to get something and there are a few good articles inside!

[RobertRoche]

Sugar Beet Sampling

Wellingtonbridge was the primary beet loading site in south Wexford until the sugar beet traffic ceased in 2005. A large mechanical beet loader loomed over the station, which loaded beet onto trains which were sent to processing plants such as Mallow. The beet sampler was located between the weighbridge and loading area.

Locating suitable referencing material was difficult and I worked mainly off a single screenshot and a photograph that showed half of the sampler. The result is an approximation which I would say is slightly too tall and a bit out of scale. It will inform future progress on the other elements of Wellingtonbridge.

I modelled this in Fusion 360 beginning about 10 days ago. I estimate that there are 40-50 design hours and about 73 hours of print time (over half of which were operator error). I have not yet completed the modelling of the external stairs. I have added a few details using styrene but the majority of the model is 3D printed. The total cost of material at this point is probably less than €10.

The model has 9 main parts which are connected using CA (superglue). Styrene cement will not work on this material. The final printed result is solid and strong, with a slight flex. There are some very delicate looking pieces to the model which are surprisingly strong; the handrails have a diameter of 1mm but this could have easily been reduced while maintaining structural integrity.

I printed the shed section first and initially the corrugations looked like something that would be more representative of say 1:32 scale. I altered the 3D model and reprinted at a much more satisfactory scale. One of the more impressive features is the walkway mesh which was designed to be just 0.25mm wide with gaps of 0.75mm in between. I'm using a resin printer with a 2K resolution so this is close to limits of my system. There are resin printers with 4K resolution available.

There is still clean up and sanding required before painting. I have just ordered some filler material. In addition to the stairs, I have lighting and internal details to prepare. The model will also need a solid base.

Here are a few words on Wellingtonbridge: https://wexfordlocal.com/2020/08/27/prosperous-days-at-wellingtonbridge/

[KMCE]

That is a fine looking model and print quality is very good.

Can you advise what printer you are using.  I have used Shapeways in the past to print, but also to buy models designed by others and found the quality poor to shocking.

 

Ken

[RobertRoche]

55 minutes ago, KMCE said:

Can you advise what printer you are using. 

Thanks Ken. I'm using the Longer Orange 30 which was the cheapest and largest I could get last Black Friday. I'm using standard Elegoo photopolymer resin. I also have a Prusa MK3S but I doubt that a filament based machine could produce this level of detail.

[RobertRoche]

Irish Footbridge

I have modelled the footbridge that is present in Wellingtonbridge. This footbridge is similar to many of the pedestrian bridges seen across the Irish Rail network. There are several models available which could be used to represent an Irish footbridge, including one from York Modelmaking which I read about recently.

To match the prototype, there are 16 steps on the station side and 17 steps with a few additional concrete steps on the non-station side, which matches the layout of Wellingtonbridge.  

I went to additional effort to represent the design of the steps, pillars and even the raised tread on the walkway surfaces and the third picture shows some of the detail that I did achieve. I feel like the gaps of lattice design on the parapets are slightly too large and the printer did not manage to reproduce the rivets at the crossing points.

Print time for this model was 16 hours and the model was printed in 3 parts. Some of the details are difficult to see on this non-painted print.

[RobertRoche]

Oil Tank Wagons 

A more traditional project that is currently on my workbench are these Dapol oil tank wagon kits. I recently got some Railtec transfers for these wagons to finish them off.

[RobertRoche]

Oil Tank Wagons

I have the oil tankers painted with decals applied. The next step will be weathering as they definitely require toning down. I 3D printed the reinforcement strip down the sides of the wagons and 2D printed the ADR panels. I have fixed the 'Fuel Oil' decal in the second picture using some Micro Sol and a sharp knife.

[Robert Shrives]

Brilliant work , a 3D printed strip the gussets and brackets inspired and easy for you  !  Certainly as much fun as soldering up on the SSM version.  

The Railtec transfers are just the job as well.   For weathering perhaps some frisket masking sheet cut to decal size and then a gentle "dunk" in rail grot  will certainly tone down the black..

To add the foot bridge is sublime, but how long to print, really asking for a friend who was looking at printers.

[Robert Shrives]

Hi Ignore the time request - should read before "shouting " sorry ! 

Robert 

[Sean Hogan]

23 hours ago, RobertRoche said:

Oil Tank Wagons

I have the oil tankers painted with decals applied. The next step will be weathering as they definitely require toning down. I 3D printed the reinforcement strip down the sides of the wagons and 2D printed the ADR panels. I have fixed the 'Fuel Oil' decal in the second picture using some Micro Sol and a sharp knife.

Robert what dapol kits did you use they look great 

[RobertRoche]

1 hour ago, Robert Shrives said:

For weathering perhaps some frisket masking sheet cut to decal size and then a gentle "dunk" in rail grot  will certainly tone down the black..

Thanks for the comments Robert. That's good advice! I thought about doing the heavy weathering before applying the decals. 

5 minutes ago, Sean Hogan said:

Robert what dapol kits did you use they look great 

Thanks, they are kit C036 - easy assembly.

[Noel]

Excellent result 

[TimO]

Beautiful detail on the footbridge. They are an icon of many Irish railway stations.

[RobertRoche]

This little building represents the weighbridge at the beet loading area in Wellingtonbridge. While I don't intend on printing whole buildings, this one was small enough to fit in the printer. Some layering is visible at this close distance. The interior will be detailed and lit when I have somewhere to put it.

[RobertRoche]

A few details added to the beet sampler office to give it some life.

[Noel]

23 minutes ago, RobertRoche said:

A few details added to the beet sampler office to give it some life.

Now that's on another level altogether - class