Model power plant building  

RE: Model power plant building

I look forward to your posts where you mention the "train room", its like something out of the Adams family or that you live in huge mansion and have loads of rooms with odd purposes.

Also some cool models, what CAD do you use?

RE: Model power plant building

A work of art.  Makes me wish I still had my train set.  

RE: Model power plant building

Posted by: @towlerg

I look forward to your posts where you mention the "train room", its like something out of the Adams family or that you live in huge mansion and have loads of rooms with odd purposes.

Also some cool models, what CAD do you use?

Thanks everyone.

When we built the new house, anticipating retirement, we built a large room in the basement, adjacent to the rec area, for just that, a fairly extensive O scale model railroad.  After four years or so it's still in the beginning phase, and during the pandemic I've been keeping myself occupied with the 3d printed buildings and some accessories.  The whole thing is, gradually, taking shape.

As I've said before, 3d printing and model railroading go hand in hand, and it's been a godsend, since many of the things I've printed have been either unavailable commercially or else obscenely priced.

As for CAD programs, when I started with the 3d printing a number of years ago I settled on FreeCAD.  It's open-source, which I like, it does what I want and it works equally well on the mix of Linux and Windows machines we have.  It does have some quirks but I've learned to work around them.

RE: Model power plant building

I'm amazed each time you post Your work of Art You are GOOD !

RE: Model power plant building

Posted by: @jsw

"Little Allis" (if anyone gets that reference) 😉

Body printed using Paramount Castle Limestone Gray, most pieces printed using the 'fuzzy skin' feature in Cura.

This does have a built-in smoke unit, using MegaSteam smoke fluid.  This has been tested but not wired in to the layout as of this time.

(Please excuse the dust and clutter, both the train room and the spare bedroom are construction zones at the time.) 😉

 

Always impressive, your true to original and qualitatively and optically well printed models 👍!

RE: Model power plant building

For those who care, this is the original Big Allis, on which the model is very loosely based.

RE: Model power plant building

@jsw

About 10 years ago (B3DP) we started a small company for model train buildings. I think we had 13 buildings or so. They were designed to have paper textures applied to a balsa base. They were extremely realistic for a flat surface. The detail we were missing was in the doors and windows which could now be 3d printed. After this Bobcat project I'm thinking of converting the files into stl for 3d printing. We offered Z,N,HO and a few S Scale buildings.

RE: Model power plant building

That looks excellent, Skipper.

I will tell you where there is a definite market.

If you go to any of the large train shows in the US (York, Denver, etc.) you will see various (b43d) pre-made buildings for all scales. They vary in realism from strictly 'toy' quality all the way up to highly realistic models with lighting and even some action.  The price varies too, ranging from reasonable to obscene.  There's a lot of cookie-cutter 'same old stuff' such as the burning switch tower and the drive-in diner.

In recent years, many (but not all) of the train shows have had one or two vendors who brings a 3d printer and gobs of models and offers them for sale at quite reasonable prices, as in a few to several dollars, as opposed to high two-figures and three-figures.  Below is a shot I took at the Denver train show in March of 2020, just before the Covid hit the fan.  It looks like a Creality, and you will see only a small fraction of the models he had to offer.

Many (not all) of these vendors will have a book of models, and if you don't see what you want on the table, they will, time allowing, of course, print one for you then and there.  If you see something you like but in the wrong scale, it's trivial to scale up or down and, again time allowing, print in real time.

The last I went to a train meet in York (Pennsylvania, US), October 2019 a few months before Covid, I did not see a single 3d printed building vendor.  I would think that would be a wide-open sellers' market! This is the largest train show in the US, and it happens twice per year, at least it did pre-Covid.  I always try to make at least one a year.  The York meets are dominated by O Scale, but all others are represented.

The only caveat I can think of is that TCA (the group that puts on the show) tends to be very snitty about counterfeits and knock-offs, so if, say, someone is printing and selling clones of Plasticville buildings or something like that, they will have to be very clearly labeled as such.

I do wish you good luck if you would decide to move forward with it.

RE: Model power plant building

@jsw

We went to various shows including Milwaukee. I kept it open for 2 years but not enough sales to break even. That grain elevator model sold for a lousy $30.00 in HO Scale. We were invited to many train clubs for demos but the young hobbyist today wants to pull it out of the package and put it on the layout. They've grown lazy it seems. Too many video games. I still have all the textures that we used. It took 2 years to develop it all. Can't say we didn't try. Model Railroader magazine actually gave us free ad space and we probably realized about $1500.00 from that ad but at $2,000 a month for ad space it was a no brainer. Our site was zandnmodels.com. There might be a wayback to see some of it. Now I'm 6 months away from retirement and just having fun.

RE: Model power plant building

When I said I was going to convert our models for 3d printing I was just going to give them away when done. Not worth dealing with the piracy.

These pics were from my son's S layout and my old American Flyer 336 Challenger which I gave him. It is 67 years old this Christmas and still runs like a champ.

RE: Model power plant building

When I said I was going to convert our models for 3d printing I was just going to give them away when done. Not worth dealing with the piracy.

These pics were from my son's S layout and my old American Flyer 336 Challenger which I gave him. It is 67 years old this Christmas and still runs like a champ.

RE: Model power plant building

My passion is for Remote Control vehicles. I usually enter the Manitowoc, Wi. model ship contest. I couldn't go this year because of the Covid crap but I did complete the model. It's the tugboat Seguin. I modeled the cabin structures and 3d printed them along with the people inside. My problem was getting the PLA to look like wood. It took about 2 weeks of experimenting before I was happy with it. The 8"x8" print area makes it necessary to "piece" a lot of it together. But a little patience goes a long way. BTW I use Autocad for all of modeling.

RE: Model power plant building

That is a very nice looking ship! It deserves its own Awesome Prints thread.  The small fenders are a nice added touch.

Flyer, in S scale, is actually still alive and well.  As you may know, Lionel bought them out some time ago, but they continue to market the line and their current president has said (I heard it come directly from his mouth) that they will continue to promote and support the line.  Some of the original 50s vintage Flyer accessories have been re-issued and some are sold as O and S scale accessories and some as O.

I bought a reissued Oil Drum Loader (at the link below) a while back (LOL, I did pay less than the posted price) and have it set up right next to the Lionel Oil Derrick.  It was originally a Flyer S scale accessory ca. 1955.  I also have an original Flyer passenger station ("non-talking" version) on the layout.  It works well in both O and S scale layouts.

http://www.lionel.com/products/oil-drum-loader-6-22997/