The postman delivered 3 pieces from Shapeways yesterday. The topic of this thread is the Closed Cylindrical Hopper Car by Stony Smith. I'll deal with the other 2 pieces another time. I did some google searches and could find zero pictures of a proto-type for this car. If you have any information about this I'd love to hear it. The model in works out to 53.5 Zscale feet long (without couplers) and 10 Zscale feet wide.
Closed Cylindrical Hopper car review - Someone at Shapeways wrote the words "poor Drainage" on the label. The sterolitography printers use a liquid resin, which is photosensitive, a laser is fired at the resin and it turns into a solid. If you want to have a hollow cylinder in your model you have to leave a drainage hole for the unfused resin to drain out. The holes at the bottom of the cylinder were to small for proper drainage and so you have unfused resion inside the cylinder. Not sure what the effect of this is in the long run, but it does add weight to the car which is good.
Closed Cylindrical Hopper car review - The holes in the truck mounts are tiny and have to be carefully drilled out to 1/16th of an inch. There are no holes for the couplers and there is a problem with clearance: I will have to file back the truck mount, otherwise the hole for the coupler will be too close to the edge of the frame and the frame may crack.
Closed Cylindrical Hopper car review - The truck mount has been filed back and the hole drilled for the coupler. I slapped gray primer on to make it easier to see:
Closed Cylindrical Hopper car review - Next comes the issue of coupler height mismatch. I think there are 2 causes here, the ends of the frame have a slight upwards warp and the truck mounts may be just a shade to tall a little filing should correct this.
Closed Cylindrical Hopper car review - despite the mismatch, the test run was OK, next the trucks mounts and couplers will be removed and the filing, sanding, priming and painting begins.
Thanks for sharing your project. Looking good so far. I'm afraid I cannot help you with an *exact* prototype match to this car. I have a feeling this car was based on a drawing of a design that eventually saw the light of day in the form of a 3-bay car versus the 4 bays/tanks on this one. Not saying there's for sure NOT a 4-bay, but I've never seen pics of one. And this is not a unique problem to Shapeways designers...even the big dogs have done this....See N-Scale 4-bay hopper from Con-Cor et al. What I *can* do is give you some info/pics on the 3-bay version. Start by searching using the following keywords: "halliburton tank car" . And then the following links have good information. http://www.trainboard.com/highball/index.php?threads/hwcx-covered-hoppers.70020/ (Long discussion about an n-scale version done on Shapeways. Good Info.) http://www.trainboard.com/highball/...iburton-covered-hopper-shapeways-print.70156/ (Short continuation of the above.) http://www.alaskarails.org/fp/halliburton.html (Good photo and modeling page.) http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rsPicture.aspx?road=HWCX&Page=1 (Photo site) I appreciate the detail and photos you are sharing...I have several Shapeways items I've purchased and want to get started on, including a few from Stony Smith. Stony is very approachable, so if you have suggestions you should not hesitate to contact him.
So many questions... <grin> First of all, my shop is here: http://shpws.me/CsR and the model itself is http://shpws.me/Fvvg Second, thanks much for your purchase!!! In 5 years, I've sold only 9 of these, so you're in a rather small fellowship. A longer story on the model is here.. http://www.zcentralstation.com/inde...gns-announcements/13183-southern-pacific-4999 Basically, I found a set of diagrams http://southernmodeler.info/SRrollingstock/SR_FRT_CAR_DGMS_1969.pdf and on page 305 out of 312, I saw a car that caught my eye, so I designed it. From what I can tell, SOU did have one - numbered #4999, but they had ONLY one. We have been unable to locate any photos of the proto. Little did I realize that I had selected a unique (one-only) car. Someday, I should think about doing the Haliburton 3-cylinder which actually was more common. ===== - Yes, the model has "poor drainage". In order to open it up to the point that they'd have "good" drainage, you'd lose half of the lower cone. We're lucky that Shapeways didn't fail the print for the poor drainage. As it is, yes, there is a waxy substance (support material) inside the cylinders. You need to seal the holes at the bottom (probably with CA) so that it doesn't leak out and foul your paint, but the good news is that the wax adds significant weight to the item. OR... if you inject 150F water into the opening (with a needle+syringe), you can get the wax out. You could also use Bestine. - Likewise, if there is any warping anywhere, a bath in 150F water will soften the plastic to the point that you can bring it back into alignment. Just make sure not to apply too much pressure, and ensure that the model is supported properly while it's cooling. The printer prints the model perfectly aligned.. but to clean off the waxy support material they place the item in a 150F kiln - often unsupported. That allows stuff to warp post-printing. - I almost always design for truck-mount couplers. Bolsters are very tricky things, and getting the height correct across Mfgrs never seems to work well for me. - The bolsters are deliberately too "tall". I design them so that they can be adjusted to the particular trucks you select, with the expectation that you just file them off to the height you desire. - The bolsters have a too-small hole in them for the pin. This again, is by design. There (used to be) some small variation in prints, and if I made a hole that was the 'perfect' size, there is a chance that it'd end up being too big. So, I just put Pilot Holes into the bolsters, and let the modeller finish it up. Shapeways has gotten much more consistent with their prints, so I could probably go back and adjust the hole. ===== Last but not least, if you have any more questions, you can find me almost any night in the chat room at http://www.zcentralstation.com
I've done quite a few of stonysmiths car and have found that the slightly too tall and fat bolsters are not a problem. With the exception of the bay window caboose I've always used truck mounted couplers to minimise any stress on the FUD around the area of the body mounting screws. On Republic steel, my Steelworks layout, I use MTL trucks with Marklin couplers on the ladle cars as they are also used on it when it is running as an English layout. The Torpedo cars run a mixture of trucks, some on marklin 6 wheel trucks and some on Pope Design's 3D printed Buckeye trucks so the 'adjustable' bolster height is really handy. I'll add a bit more in a mo Kev
I clean them up before painting with a discount store Ultrasonic cleaner (designed for jewellery etc) filled with warm soapy water. The agitation of the cleaner helps break the wax up and the detergent breaks up the surface tension of the liquid. The model is left on some kitchen towel and covered to dry naturally. Once I've sanded out any obtrusive layer lines I give the print a quick rinse in lighter fluid, If the model is small enough I put a splash in a 35mm plastic film can, put the model in put the lid on and give it a quick shake. and let it dry. The first coat of primer is the 'Reveal' coat. All the layer lines you didn't see when the print is in its raw state leap out going 'HIYAH'! A bit more sanding and then another coat of primer. Primer I use is made by a firm in the U.K called Hycote and is an acrylic based one that sticks like S*** to a blanket. I do get drying problems sometimes if I use Enamel top coat (Humbrol, Precision paints etc) but as most of the freight stock I model is either painted grey, red oxide or black I can use the Hycote stock colours Stonysmiths 4-4-0 Tanktainers. The decals make these models come alive Now the thing I,e struggled with is 3d printed models done in SWF. the grain is horrendous and requires a lot of filling and sanding Snowyrivers Alco Fa kept me busy for many a night and I ended up printing waterslide decals to represent the side grills because the 3d printed ones just got lost in the process So..3D printing is ideal for small runs of obscure prototypes that Stonysmith, southernNscale, IvanF, Exlibris, etc fancy doing but they are not simple to do.You need to put in a bit of effort but it is worth it just to get the variety of stock for you layout. They are fragile in service and the biggest risk is that they are so light that it is easy to drop them or blow them off the bench when spraying them( I know, I've done it more than once). Here for me is the clincher..There is very little available to do British rail in Z but this picture encapsulates what 3D printing can achieve Class 86 and Mk1 coaches designed by IvanF, Class 66 by IvanF and some classic Landrovers by Exlibris. Decals by tony Hill and Lancaster models Stonysmith has just done his first British design the classic 27T iron ore wagon and has the plans for the 16T mineral wagon as well. If you need any more advice let us know cheers kev
Just remembered this old video of mine on youtube. Takes you though finishing a set of six Roy Steven's iron ore jennies. This was made before I Bought the ultrasonic bath but the rest is still right. Hope this helps Kev
Almost done the painting, sprayed the upper part, brush painting the lower. This is tricky because of all the support beams, railings, ladder, etc..
