Hi all, Today I picked up my 3D printed dropbottom gondola body at Shapeways. I have just started with the brass chassis.
Hi all, I have drilled holes for bolster pins and coupler screws in the chassis. The dropbottom gon body runs fine on its brass chassis with MTL trucks and chassis mounted MTL couplers. The printed body has been cleaned in my ultra sonic cleaner. Now I can start to get the rough surface to an acceptable level. (Although printed in FXD the surface is still a little rough.) In my opinion the truck position looks a little off, but I'll guess that is because the MTL trucks are actually a little too small in Z.
Hi all, See the brass chassis for the dropbottom gondola: The car body in primer. Here the car body is on a temporary styrene chassis beam just for painting. The sides still need some polishing.
Good job Frank. Watching your AZL Geeps I see their #905 coupler boxes are protruding, even after trimming. As you know myself I'm bothered in the process of swapping AZL autolatch with MTL couplers, and I guess I'll do all my work using a superglue droplet on each coupler box. I just put a message on the AZL forum yesterday, but no reply yet. BTW, would you mind insert somewhere pictures of your Geeps under various angles in order for me to determine if it's ok visually? Dom
Hi Dom, See next link, it includes my improved coupler installation: [a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/108766...3127GP402ZScale?authkey=Gv1sRgCLjplK2q2P3_Zw#"]My Picasa album about the GP40-2[/a] For me this way of installation of the MTL coupler, is close enough. You can only get it to look better when you fixate an AZL coupler to the body, but that comes without remote/delayed uncoupling. Installing a snow plow helps to improove the look of the front pilot. Eventually I will convert my GP30 similar as with the GP40-2. Btw, if it is no problem for you to unscrew the couplers befor you remove the locomotive shell, you might be able to put the trimmed coupler even closer towards the truck.
Thank you so much Frank. This is really a very good summary, and sorry for beeing out of subject. Dom
Hi all, Another one from my Z-bucket list is done. I have used Sketchup to design the gondola body and it has been 3D printed by Shapeways in 'frosted extreme detail' material. The gondola body rests on a brass chassis beam with MTL#903 couplers<br> D&RGW 72101 has etched ladders and brake wheel. (modified from a fret for Thrall gondolas) MTL Andrews trucks without coupler. White decals are self designed and printed by (http://www.decalwinkel.nl/) Decal winkel print shop in the Netherlands. Paint: Tamiya X-18 black, Micro gloss and Micro flat to seal the decals and weathering. Weathering is done with pulverized artist chalks. See how it was done: https://picasaweb.google.com/108766...92034283532449?authkey=Gv1sRgCL6z8Kb3mtPepQE#
Hi all, The second dropbottom has arrived from Shapeways. This one is printed in FUD instead FXD. difference is hardly noticable. Even the 0.3mm holes for the phophorbronze 'rods' were printed in. Sides look a little rougher and extreme small detials are slightly less sharp. ...but these were not visible without magnifing glass anyway. Overall impression of the 3D print is acceptable. This time I used 3x3mm brass for the chassis, instead of the soldered brass strips on the first one.
Came out *very* well. Creative low body weight. However, *no dents* !!! Could have been easy to print with distortion.
Man, these look fantastic! I haven't wanted to print from Shapeways because of the lines, but this has given me confidence in FXD.
Last two were done in FUD. Small details are just a little better in FXD and getting it flush is slightly easier with FXD in my opinion. You still have to sand the surface to get rid of the line printing atifacts. After cleaning I sanded the car bodies, installed etched details, primed, sanded again where needed, sprayed black, sprayed Microscale coat gloss, added decals, sprayed Microscale coat flat, added weathering, sprayed a final layer of Microscale coat flat. The flat coat also helps to make the line printing atifacts less visible. /Frank
Hi all, Just added 4 more dropbottom gondolas to my empty limestone train. See some 'how to' pictures at the end of the youtube film.
