S-Club-7
Western Thunderer
Rather than clutter up the West Mersea thread I thought I'd have a go at writing my own. I seem to have spent more of the last couple of years in front of a keyboard rather than a real workbench creating virtual 3d models for subsequent 3d-printing. The models that have worked may be found in the Off The Rails Shop but perhaps this thread will detail some of the processes you may need to go through to get from screen to solid object.
To start with here's my latest creation; a set of chairs for a 1 in 6 common crossing in Scale7. Firstly, as drawn (first seen on the West Mersea thread a few weeks ago but repeated here just to keep the narrative flowing) -- getting to this stage has taken me about 8 months of work and, no, it wouldn't be quicker to scratchbuild them in plasticard. How do I know? Take a look at Lumpy Sidings.
From left to right we have: the 6X chair; the knuckle block, washer-blocks and bolt-heads; the 6A chair with the A blocks; bolt-head and washer-block to hold the end of the splice rail to the point rail; wing blocks and washer-blocks; more washer-blocks to join the point and splice rails (some companies also had a rivet or two as well); the 6B chair; and finally the 6C chair. Previous request for a cast 6A chair noted and will be included in the second draft.
Ten days later this is the first one printed in acrylic "hot off the press":
Pause for two weeks whilst new computer is purchased with modelling budget, installed and configured. Then discover existing 32-bit CAD software won't run on new 64-bit computer without an upgrade. Retreat to garage for a week to do some REAL modelling...
A mixture of C&L, Exactoscale and Off The rails chairs make up this LNER 1 in 6 common crossing. I did manage to construct this without cutting any of the chairs so it may not be necessary to do a variant with loose chairs after all (large sigh of relief from S7 modellers around East Anglia). Some of the spacing blocks were a fraction oversize and will need reducing, but nothing that a couple of swipes with a file didn't resolve.
The incomplete diorama will be at Sudbury on Sunday, but not painted or ballasted, I need to earn some brownie points with SWMBO after spending a week in the garage...
To start with here's my latest creation; a set of chairs for a 1 in 6 common crossing in Scale7. Firstly, as drawn (first seen on the West Mersea thread a few weeks ago but repeated here just to keep the narrative flowing) -- getting to this stage has taken me about 8 months of work and, no, it wouldn't be quicker to scratchbuild them in plasticard. How do I know? Take a look at Lumpy Sidings.
From left to right we have: the 6X chair; the knuckle block, washer-blocks and bolt-heads; the 6A chair with the A blocks; bolt-head and washer-block to hold the end of the splice rail to the point rail; wing blocks and washer-blocks; more washer-blocks to join the point and splice rails (some companies also had a rivet or two as well); the 6B chair; and finally the 6C chair. Previous request for a cast 6A chair noted and will be included in the second draft.
Ten days later this is the first one printed in acrylic "hot off the press":
Pause for two weeks whilst new computer is purchased with modelling budget, installed and configured. Then discover existing 32-bit CAD software won't run on new 64-bit computer without an upgrade. Retreat to garage for a week to do some REAL modelling...
A mixture of C&L, Exactoscale and Off The rails chairs make up this LNER 1 in 6 common crossing. I did manage to construct this without cutting any of the chairs so it may not be necessary to do a variant with loose chairs after all (large sigh of relief from S7 modellers around East Anglia). Some of the spacing blocks were a fraction oversize and will need reducing, but nothing that a couple of swipes with a file didn't resolve.
The incomplete diorama will be at Sudbury on Sunday, but not painted or ballasted, I need to earn some brownie points with SWMBO after spending a week in the garage...
do you find the chairs sufficiently robust? Im actually just having one of my test chairs cast in resin to see how they go in 1/32, there may be a problem with undercuts around the key, but printing certainly seems the way to go for small batches of special chairs
.....look out for them 