Just had to come back to this video and leave a like. It is because of this video that I got into 3D Resin Printing and was able to get the wife into the Model Railroading hobby!
How about 3D printing architectural details like windows such as you can get from grandtline? I would like to make custom windows and doors for 1/48th scale scratch built buildings. Would this work for that?
Hi Jimmy, I do not own my own 3d printer, however, a few members of my RxR Club do, and the college I lecture at has a monster printer. So to bring my comment back down to (HO) scale here a suggestion on spray painting mini parts of any build nature. Glueing a part to a piece of parchment, wax paper, or clear plastic wrap can be effective, however, a quicker, easier, and maybe cheaper way is......."PlayDough". Kid's PlayDough can be formed into micro-mini dry tack to hold an object in place while painting, carving, or assembling. When finished you merely rub the faux-clay off your mini and return it to the pot to by used again another day. OH! But what if the PlayDough get old and hard. There are tutorial on line on how to revive PlayDough, but at 50 cents a container it should always be on your Dollar Store Challenge shopping list. PlayDough when it drys hard, also makes for a great material to adhere models, figures, and details to a layout. And it is still cheaper than DAX and other clay tacks. As always I enjoy your series. And I'll SEE YA' DOWN THE LINE. Old Jim P.S. How can I send you a pix to show you what you will look like in 20 to 30 years?
For such small parts always use the lowest layer height. The sla printers go as low as 25 microns. Also the pallets came out kinda weird. If you turn them around in the slicer so they print upside down you dont have as many overhangs and they print nicer. Also sla printers can be used for rolling stock. Just make sure to wash and cure the parts before you use them since they get really brittle if you dont cure them under uv light
Those 3d prints are pretty cool Jimmy. I'm pretty ignorant about 3d printing. You said you use your FDM printer for some jobs, and your resin for other jobs. Could you elaborate on what you would do on each? I've been researching some smaller n scale details, like crates and dumpsters like you made here, but also things like unusually shaped or sized windows for scratch built structures that don't have a Tichy equivalent. For that matter, if I could just print out custom wall sections I'd be happy. I imagine the layer lines would leave a brick or stone wall hard to clean up, but plank or clapboard walls would probably be fine with just a light sanding. Of course, I've no real idea, just spitballing, lol!
Hey Jimmy I'm wondering if you had any problems like I have. I didn't do the printing. I got the fuselage trains from Micro Trains and the 3D printed parts were a little flexible at first. Now they are so brittle that they break very easily.. If I. Desire to get into 3D printing is this a normal thing or just what they used???
The 3d printer a all good for those little add features to your layout, but not for over all details like cares unless you plan on doing lots of research and doing lots of work on making the parts in your modeling program....thanks for sharing....Jack
Could 3D printing be cheaper than buying your rolling stock and engines from companies like Atlas, Kato, Micro Trains, etc? Assuming you would have the skills to design, create and put together all the components. Would the model look good enough compared to commercial products? I have no idea how much producing a model from a resin or other types of 3D printers would cost. I am guessing printers are fine for detailed items, like those in your video, but probably not so much for what I would like to do. But, man if you could produce, say for example a decent looking and running 50' box car, or diesel locomotive for a fraction of what Micro Trains, Atlas has. I would imagine after purchasing wheel sets/trucks, couplers, drive train motors and other parts, the cost isnt going to be that much different to justify the quality difference. Especially in N scale.
So I have been working on 3D printing rolling stock. It's definitely a job for a Resin 3D printer over a filament one. I am getting very close to having a 3D printed Pellet hopper car.
Unfortunately even the resin printer shown here is not up to that level of detail as the resolution of the printer is not fine enough. Yes, you could spend the time designing the model in digital form, but when you go to print it out, you will end up with very visible layer lines. Any detail less than about 2" scale inches will be lost. Higher end models like Shapeways use can do finer detail, but those are $20,000 machines versus the $250 one shown here. They ARE useful, and with careful planning, you can get some fantastic items. Keep in mind the resin is not cheap, and this is very slow. Learn the techniques and limitations. Then throw all of that away and just have fun with it. That's the entire point of model railroading.
@@woozleboy Most any resin printer can print highly detailed parts. Layers can be adjusted as low as .01mm thick which is smaller than can be seen. I have an Anycubic Photon S, which is about a $400 resin printer, and have been amazed at how detailed the parts I print are. It doesn't matter if the parts being printed are found on Shapeways or Thingiverse or MyMiniFactory or wherever, it's a matter of how much effort the designer put into it. It is up to the individual printing the part as to how detailed they would like it to be. Resin printers tend to take a VERY long time to print. I have printed HO scale 20' containers that were as highly detailed if not more so than injection molded ones available at the hobby store. The print took about 8 hours. I also printed these at half the resolution which took half the time and the detail is on par with retail ones. If one were to make a purely functional part for something that doesn't need to look good, the layers can be thicker and print time lessened. The only limit to the printer used in this video and mine are size. Resin printers that can print larger items are more costly but still usually less than the $1000 mark.
Just had to come back to this video and leave a like. It is because of this video that I got into 3D Resin Printing and was able to get the wife into the Model Railroading hobby!
Looks like my spin of the Distribution Center. Yay! I'll be adding some new things soon. Some are re-spins and some are original.
How about 3D printing architectural details like windows such as you can get from grandtline? I would like to make custom windows and doors for 1/48th scale scratch built buildings. Would this work for that?
Hi Jimmy,
I do not own my own 3d printer, however, a few members of my RxR Club do, and the college I lecture at has a monster printer. So to bring my comment back down to (HO) scale here a suggestion on spray painting mini parts of any build nature.
Glueing a part to a piece of parchment, wax paper, or clear plastic wrap can be effective, however, a quicker, easier, and maybe cheaper way is......."PlayDough". Kid's PlayDough can be formed into micro-mini dry tack to hold an object in place while painting, carving, or assembling. When finished you merely rub the faux-clay off your mini and return it to the pot to by used again another day. OH! But what if the PlayDough get old and hard. There are tutorial on line on how to revive PlayDough, but at 50 cents a container it should always be on your Dollar Store Challenge shopping list.
PlayDough when it drys hard, also makes for a great material to adhere models, figures, and details to a layout. And it is still cheaper than DAX and other clay tacks.
As always I enjoy your series. And I'll SEE YA' DOWN THE LINE.
Old Jim
P.S. How can I send you a pix to show you what you will look like in 20 to 30 years?
Looks great. And I have used your line technique. Works great.
For such small parts always use the lowest layer height. The sla printers go as low as 25 microns. Also the pallets came out kinda weird. If you turn them around in the slicer so they print upside down you dont have as many overhangs and they print nicer. Also sla printers can be used for rolling stock. Just make sure to wash and cure the parts before you use them since they get really brittle if you dont cure them under uv light
Those 3d prints are pretty cool Jimmy. I'm pretty ignorant about 3d printing. You said you use your FDM printer for some jobs, and your resin for other jobs. Could you elaborate on what you would do on each?
I've been researching some smaller n scale details, like crates and dumpsters like you made here, but also things like unusually shaped or sized windows for scratch built structures that don't have a Tichy equivalent. For that matter, if I could just print out custom wall sections I'd be happy. I imagine the layer lines would leave a brick or stone wall hard to clean up, but plank or clapboard walls would probably be fine with just a light sanding. Of course, I've no real idea, just spitballing, lol!
Hey Jimmy I'm wondering if you had any problems like I have. I didn't do the printing. I got the fuselage trains from Micro Trains and the 3D printed parts were a little flexible at first. Now they are so brittle that they break very easily.. If I. Desire to get into 3D printing is this a normal thing or just what they used???
Jimmy look for n scale switch stands there's a few on thingaverse including operating versions
Theres now switch stands and other details for n scale on thingaverse
The 3d printer a all good for those little add features to your layout, but not for over all details like cares unless you plan on doing lots of research and doing lots of work on making the parts in your modeling program....thanks for sharing....Jack
How do you change a stl file from ho to n scale
Could 3D printing be cheaper than buying your rolling stock and engines from companies like Atlas, Kato, Micro Trains, etc? Assuming you would have the skills to design, create and put together all the components. Would the model look good enough compared to commercial products? I have no idea how much producing a model from a resin or other types of 3D printers would cost. I am guessing printers are fine for detailed items, like those in your video, but probably not so much for what I would like to do. But, man if you could produce, say for example a decent looking and running 50' box car, or diesel locomotive for a fraction of what Micro Trains, Atlas has. I would imagine after purchasing wheel sets/trucks, couplers, drive train motors and other parts, the cost isnt going to be that much different to justify the quality difference. Especially in N scale.
So I have been working on 3D printing rolling stock. It's definitely a job for a Resin 3D printer over a filament one. I am getting very close to having a 3D printed Pellet hopper car.
Unfortunately even the resin printer shown here is not up to that level of detail as the resolution of the printer is not fine enough. Yes, you could spend the time designing the model in digital form, but when you go to print it out, you will end up with very visible layer lines. Any detail less than about 2" scale inches will be lost.
Higher end models like Shapeways use can do finer detail, but those are $20,000 machines versus the $250 one shown here.
They ARE useful, and with careful planning, you can get some fantastic items. Keep in mind the resin is not cheap, and this is very slow. Learn the techniques and limitations. Then throw all of that away and just have fun with it. That's the entire point of model railroading.
@@woozleboy Most any resin printer can print highly detailed parts. Layers can be adjusted as low as .01mm thick which is smaller than can be seen. I have an Anycubic Photon S, which is about a $400 resin printer, and have been amazed at how detailed the parts I print are. It doesn't matter if the parts being printed are found on Shapeways or Thingiverse or MyMiniFactory or wherever, it's a matter of how much effort the designer put into it. It is up to the individual printing the part as to how detailed they would like it to be. Resin printers tend to take a VERY long time to print. I have printed HO scale 20' containers that were as highly detailed if not more so than injection molded ones available at the hobby store. The print took about 8 hours. I also printed these at half the resolution which took half the time and the detail is on par with retail ones. If one were to make a purely functional part for something that doesn't need to look good, the layers can be thicker and print time lessened. The only limit to the printer used in this video and mine are size. Resin printers that can print larger items are more costly but still usually less than the $1000 mark.