I've been very slowly working on a 3D Printed shell of the SD70ACe, eventually to be available on Shapeways. My first version arrived and looked wonderful! That is, until I realized the whole thing was about 1.2mm too tall. Before going back to redesign in CAD and order a new print, I still wanted to fit what I got and further verify everything would work. I didn't capture any photos, but I took the shell under the knife and corrected the height. Doing so, I also discovered that the 3D printed sides were too thick, both outside and inside. The outside thickness means a tight-rope walkway, and the inside thickness means it did not fit over the chassis. Trouble is, the walls were already at material minimum thickness. So, with only one option, I cut the side walls away from the print all together, and carved out the inside of the cab. In it's place, I used .005" styrene. From there, I filled gaps with putty and ended up with a rough, but workable shell and hit the paint shop. While paint dried, I drew up some handrails to be photo-etched. Doing this myself, I still can't believe it turned out so well! I now know what needs to be done to correct the CAD design, and made some progress on doing so. But, for now, that's where it sits with other projects now taking priority. It's been about a year since I hoped to get back and finish the project. Maybe this forum will be the final push to get that ball rolling again this Spring! Stay tuned.
Well done!! I may have been hasty gathering all the things and spending all the money for a 2nd N-Scale layout. T Gauge is getting more possible by the day.
I really look forward to you making that available on Shapeways. I think that looks fantastic! What is the minimum printable thickness, I assume for their "FUD" material? Is that on the 19m or 20m locomotive chassis? It looks like it might be easier to do the conversion to the 3 axle bogies on the 20m chassis due to space there. Is the 3rd axle toward the inside for both the front and rear bogies?
Inspiration was flowing tonight and I was able to finalize the T Gauge SD70ACe shell on Shapeways. Due to Shapeways base pricing model, I added a three 50 foot rib side boxcars to the product at practically no extra cost, creating an American T-Gauge starter pack. Additionally, due to material limitations and in order to keep the ACe reasonably scaled and maintain use on a power chassis, it is printed without long hood sides allowing the user to install .005" styrene or brass. Here's the item link. http://shpws.me/PLqW LeTs geT To iT!
Hi Tom, Replying from the interest thread here since we're talking SD70ACe, yes, it is a 6 axle unit. Currently, no 6 axle trucks are manufactured in T Gauge, so until I modified some myself, the ACe sat on 4 axles. The photos above here all show it properly with 6 axles.
What did you use for the 3 axle trucks? 3D printed? Etched? Do you plan to increase your modern inventory in this scale?
I kitbashed two 3 axle trucks from three two axle trucks. To be honest, they don't work worth a darn, but they look great in the photos! The next attempt will simply be an extended side frame to glue onto the 2 axle truck. It may even be that the 3rd axle wheelset remains implied, and doesn't actually exist within the truck. The way the T Gauge mechanism works means that the 3rd axle will never be geared anyway. I do plan to continue building new stuff, but unfortunately T Gauge is quite far down the priority list at the moment.
So I thought, being so small, I could omit some of those door panel details, right? Nope! These 3D Prints show incredible detail, which in turn reveals the lacking details way too easily! These are great problems to have!