Still Alive

Just testing out some winter understorey colors. I didn’t manage to get the photo off before knocking the model over so there’s sawdust in places it shouldn’t be but overall the colors seem OK. Might co a little greener on the next set of ferns and definitely add more light brown leaves on the ground.

Materials are the usual; sculptamold on foam with sawdust and yarn for the rest. Ferns are tissue paper, deadfall is twisted and sized yarn and there’s jute here and there as well. The nurse stump is carved basswood. I’ve been doing them out of polymer in recent years but I can’t bake the clay evenly living off-grid.

The stream was built up out of doorskin to get the drops before any other scenery was added. On narrow gullies I find it can be difficult to get the landforms right when sculpting down since the sculptamold has a thickness that can be hard to predict in 1:160. Here I worked out and up from the stream.

Acrylic medium can take forever to dry so I did the creek bed in bas relief. The outside course of stones and banking was laid out and then drymixed sawdust plus paint was glued down. This thin layer of “rock” allows for fewer pours and gives the creek a chance to dry. The creekbed consists of Golden self levelling medium and Golden hard gel topped with a glaze and gloss varnish. I have several water features on the go and since the creek worked out well enough I’m trying something similar along the recessed shore of a lakebed.

AH

Boomer Dioramas: The immersive Model Railroad

Edit: It’s been brought to my attention that I’m hearing something that isn’t there and that the identity of boomer dioramas isn’t who I was sure it was. At any rate go check out the channel if you are not familiar with it already. It’s really well done.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbCBlc2JF1DSn0lBfSnfeZQ

FreeCAD

Several years ago Dassault announced it would be changing the way Draftsight worked (and ending Linux support) When my license was up for renewal I decided it was time to move to open source software for my drafting and CAM needs. The problem wasn’t that I was too cheap – it was that I did want to pay – and own the license on an operating system that I had some control over without the need to be tethered to the internet. As a one man band I don’t have the internet where I’m building and have no intention of getting it. Unable to justify a Solidworks seat, I eventually got around to learning FreeCAD and I’m glad I did. It’s quite a versatile program, allowing for drawing, parametric modelling, FEA simulation and modest but evolving CAM capability.

As a low level user I can’t say how well it will work for others but there are a number of very good Youtube channels some of whom are included below. Most of the issues I’ve encountered were solved by mining the FreeCAD forum when internet access was a thing. For the kind of of tool, model and furniture design I do it works quite well. Formal GD&T is lacking but you can monkey around in the Techdraw workbench labelling the 2D drawing with proper tolerances. Until I learn of better my drawings are manually altered this way. I use A2+ assembly workbench since that is what was best documented when I started but there are others. CAM is another area that is under development but a lot of the toolpaths are there to get milling jobs done. For turning and slotting I do my own thing but the dev group is working on streamlining lathe work.

Cross platform downloads are available at https://www.freecadweb.org/

AH

Stefan Gotteswinter

He’s German and funny, makes small parts with lots of tool room/hardturning /hardmilling work. Some interesting fixturing on his instagram . Just an excellent channel. He’s into model engineering/mechatronics, tackling each in a very approachable manner. Learned a lot from watching him in the last five years especially around grinding  carbide tooling.

https://www.youtube.com/user/syyl

https://www.instagram.com/stefan_gtwr/

 

AH

 

 

 

 

 

GN switch stands: Some print failures

Scale thickness switch stands don’t quite fly when you’re working in the 2 pixel range. That’s no surprise but I needed to confirm it for myself. The problem isn’t so much the two pixel minimum but ensuring your feature lands on more than one pixel when lined up on the build plate. I’ve gone back into some of my files and bulked up the minimum wall thickness to 3 pixels (roughly .0056″ if it lands right) and I’ll try that tonight. The GN Std switch stand (left) almost worked, but the other tall stand, the 112G (bottom right), was a complete failure. The yet-to-be-printed 22D (top right) was modified to have no fillets, exaggerated spike heads and ribbing twice that of the prototype.  Fingers crossed.

 

If the 22D works out I can finish up dimensioning the 20C, 36XL, Hub 2 and New Century 51A. They’re all low target stands that should be easy enough to print since the centre of mass is pretty low and very solid. Handles might be a challenge to machine on some of them. When I made them for the 22D in 1:24th scale I used press tooling to cold form the offset. Something similar would be needed if etched parts were used in 1:160. It might be easier to make a form cutter and gang mill them given the handle size but then they still would need parting off.

 

AH

Resin printed 90 lb & 115/131 lb adjustable rail braces for code 40 rail /1:160th/possibly 1:120th

90lb rail brace. .043″X.043″X.028″

Rail braces are one of the harder patterns to cast in quantity. In machinable wax they take about 25 minutes of cut time per brace. They’re nice and accurate, especially for 1:160th, but they are a hard casting to pull and I wouldn’t want to make them for others. When  I first started in on my resin printer build they were at the top of the list to print and be done with. The 90lb ones will be available soon. I’ve only just started making and testing the adjustable braces.

Had an FEP failure while printing these adjustable 131 lb braces on the first go around.  Only 1/2 of the first plate is saleable but luckily I can use the rest.  Judging by the artifacts the resin was likely contaminated by an earlier print. Still learning how to do these full plate prints. You can really here them pop when the FEP releases.

It’s worth noting that these are fairly small autonomous parts that are easy to lose and sacrifice some ease of use  for the sake of resolution and repeatability. The easiest way to get around this would be to print them with to a tie base. That way, anyone could use them regardless of dexterity.

Some pros and cons for both systems:

Free range rail brace

Pros

cheaper

augments existing Code 40 empires

More flexible

Cons

Very small part that needs de-spruing.

Integrated switch ties and rail braces

Pros

Ease of use. One piece with all of the static details incorporated.

No critical de-spruing.

Cons

More costly (consumables/print time/repeatability).

Long term gauging essential for to-scale applications is more difficult to attain without adding reliable gauging materials. PCB being one example.

Different artwork for every flangeway/switch length/tide chart.

 

That said,  I do have switch ties ready to print for my display table so I will probably test with them as well.

AH

 

Jurgen Eichardt

Over the past five or so years I’ve picked up the series of books Jurgen Eicharrdt wrote on machining. His practice is centred around model ship building but his technique is very well suited to the small scale modeller. All four books in his latest series are in German but they are very well illustrated and anyone familiar with work of this nature will be able to follow along.

 

Eichardt is East German, built his own machine tools, has plenty of opinions and is a pretty skilled guy.

Here’s his website. Scroll down to see his evolving model of the USS Cassin Young.

http://www.ship-model-today.de/

One source of books – they’re also on the bay and amazoon.

https://www.fohrmann.com/de/favoriten/juergen-eichardt-modellbau-buecher/

 

The Italians Pt 1: Robin Renzetti

If you’re young enough and are interested in learning how to make mechanical items properly Robin Renzetti is the most talented person I’ve come across on the internet. His IG and youtube channels are the best I have seen in terms of execution, reduction of tasks to basics and overall creativity.  Truly a master.

https://www.youtube.com/user/ROBRENZ/videos

https://www.instagram.com/robinrenzetti/

AH

The Italians Pt.2 : Attilio Mari

I think a lot of people have come across Attilio Mari’s models but maybe less so his Youtube exploits or the book that features his model production throughout the years. If you haven’t run across him, he’s an interesting character making very neat models. I’m a lover of continental electrification and his 1/32 scale models never disappoint.

His channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCogNW6AeAyy9d9Q3PDnvyAA

 

If you can’t beat em make shit they’ll buy

 

Reclining NBWs in 1:160th

I don’t like where model railroading ended up but I do have a lot of Gcode – enough that I recently acquired a down on it’s knees resin printer to make hay. At the moment the printer is barely operational enough to shrink test with but early prints hold promise. I am muddling through a homemade scanner/printer/lost resin setup independent of this printer for my agricultural/architectural modelling projects with the hope that they will compliment one another. Time will tell.

Above is the first print – well the second actually – the first was in an area of the build plate that is completely non functional. It’s a poor image but the little nubs are 1-1/8″ NBWs for a GN water tank hardware kit that I drew up ages ago. The square nuts are .013″ across, look hex to the eye, but are actually pentagonal owing to some artifacts and failing consumables.

If I can get through the testing phase unscathed I have GN/NP FT and geep dynamic brake kits, GN/NP switch hardware and PNW caboose shell kits that will be offered in N scale for sale on insta.

Historically my interest has been with the the GN three phase system and the late 50s/early 60s end time period and so that’s what I’ll be flogging at first. More recently I’ve been dabbling in outdoor 1:50 and 1:32 and have printed off shells for some of the Skagit River Railway electric locos in N scale but unless someone shows interest in that, I think that those tiny prototypes are best left to better, heavier and much more costly manufacturing techniques in proper materials. Resin printing is a cost effective way to get a decent Z, N or TT scale model shell of a wooden boxcar, caboose, or a larger boxcab for that matter, but there are limitations to the process that demand better.

AH