The tender is close, I'll be ordering a test print later this week. Progress on the boiler has been a little slow - I'm a freelance musician in the real world and this is the busiest time of the year for me - but I hope to have prototypes in my hand by New Year's. I have about a week off then and I would like to make any necessary revisions at that time. I've also been trying to finalize my WM H-9. The kit is available now, but it is still in some regards a craftsman kit. I'm happy with how this model looks, and it seems to be printing consistently, but I would like to improve the design on the tender so that it assembles easier
hi piperguyUMD. earlier this year i did a PRR lines west tender shell to fit the bachmann tender chassis. i have had a couple printed and need to do one more with the final revisions. it never occured to me to print a chassis also,so i made a few changes in the dimensions to fit the stock bachmann chassis. i did not include any detail except the walkways along the coal box extensions because i have not been impressed with small detail i have seen on other printed models. i also began work on a H-10 boiler but life got in the way these last few months and no further progress has been made on either one. i have a Key brass n scale H-10 to work from so my biggest hurdle has been the mastery of the cad software. i did order one of your WM H-9 shells and tender over the weekend. looking forward to getting it and seeing your approach. skipp
PiperguyUMD, Thanks for the update. Understandable about the work/life balance. I finally cleared off my workbench so I can work on projects. I look forward to your updates. Skipp, Are there pictures available of the lines west tender shell on Shapeways? Once you get this finalized, are you planning to offer these for sale? Thanks, Scott
Let me know your thoughts on the WM kit! I can tell you that once I got the Bachmann commonwealth trucks on, I had to file a notch into the frame to mount the rear coupler at the appropriate height. I'm also trying to figure out a way to use the tender for electrical pickup. As of right now, I cut the long tabs off of the pickup shoes in the trucks and soldered wires to them. Then I realized that the way I had done it wouldn't allow me to remove the trucks to paint the frame! One thing I have learned is that many things in our scale are grossly out of scale! Coupler pockets, wheel flanges, truck clearness are all MUCH larger in n scale than on the prototype. Learning where to compensate and still make your model look accurate is an art!
PiperguyUMD,i will be happy to give you feedback on your MW H-9. it definately is an art to make the model look right and i am still working on that skill. Scott, i had thought about offering a H-10 boiler/tender conversion for sale eventually,along with several other PRR steam locos. guess that will depend on what demands life makes of me. i have made the tender model public on shapeways so you can do a search for lwt and see it. let me know what you think too. skipp
G, H, and E class shared boiler diameters and lengths, firebox grate sizes were different, (note the side view angle of the front lower edge of the firebox), sandbox locations were located according to driver locations. Steam domes may also be in different locations. L and K classes shared lengths and diameters, but again firebox grate sizes were different, steam domes and sandboxes. I class had similar lengths as K and L, but larger diameters. 86.5" for I, 82" for K and L. H and E had long two window cabs, G, K, L and I had the short all weather cabs. Beware of the proportions of the equipment diagrams, I learned a lesson trying to proportion lengths from them during a kitbash. Only trust the numbers. Unfortunately, the firebox lengths at the top are not dimensioned, nor are the grate sizes. When all else fails trust the photos. Something is amiss with the boiler diameter at the firebox front edge, I think it may be a smidge too large, and as someone else pointed out, the diameter continues straight back to the cab along the sides of the firebox and does not taper down. As I said continually refer to images. Good luck with your project!
A suggestion, turn your rivets into spheres instead of cylinders, or fillet the top edge of the cylinder with the same radius as the cylinder. All of the pics I see have spherical head rivets.
I'm very interested in this project too! I'm concerned about the rendering artifacts on the boiler, though... I know it will pass the 3 foot rule with no problem at all. I wonder if it will stand up to high-res closeup photography, though. Sanding the boiler around the other molded-on detail may be a challenge to great. That said, thanks for taking the plunge! I can only imagine as 3D rendering continues to improve, it will be the primary route to N scale Pennsy steam.
The stepping is a result of how google sketchup renders curves. I discovered that the default setting is to make circles with 24 sides - but it is changeable! Below is a picture of my WM H-9 (which is now available on shapeways-shameless plug , I changed the number of sides on the circle that I drew to make the domes, notice how the stepping is noticeable on the boiler, but not at all on the domes or stack! I went into the Pennsy H9 file last night and deleted everything but the cab, with the intention of redrawing the boiler with more significantly more "sides" on the circle. Hopefully this will eliminate the stepping appearance. I will post some pics soon of the updated Pennsy H9 ASAP!
your WM H-9 boiler looks good. waiting to receive mine. the stepping and layering of the printing process is why i think the less detail printed the better,just the basic boiler with domes and stack. makes it much easier to clean up and prep it for paint. all the piping,hand rails,appliances,and rivets applied separately since they are available from various companies and from my limited experence the fud is brittle and not very strong when used for railings and piping. skipp
Test print of the tender (and many other new N scale parts!) is on the way! Unfortunately I won't be home until the day after Christmas to work on anything. I will clean it up and post some pictures of the tender then. I have done some work to the boiler, I've been trying to get the look of the firebox right. I feel like its better, but I will probably have to start over. I might order a test print thought, just to see how the model looks in person. I also added some plumbing and a first attempt at the pop valves.
Please, please, please do this! Just the front cab with the high nose to fit the Atlas GP30 would be enough.
