Erie Canal Branch Mini Layout N scale

[Chris333]

nah, Sliced the building up into faces so I could use ironing on the exterior. Each face is printed flat and once completed the extruder head runs over the layer lines to fill in the ridges and take off the high spots, but usually leaves little dimples that need to be cleaned up.

Overall slower than Resin printing since it needs to be pruned and assembled and with a bit worse final quality, but its nice to not have to deal with photo resin. I keep having a a back and forth in my head on whether to keep my Photon Mono just dealing with the stuff in my limited workspace.

Just read what ironing is. Never had a FDM. I saw Tim Warris do something similar with a casting wax printer he has. But I think his did it at each layer to keep the whole thing smooth. Cool to see the FDM will work for these.

/>
See how each layer is milled down. That is sort of like ironing. Fasttracks uses this printer to cast nickel silver turnout parts.

[milw12]

Some color since the last pic.

Sweet! The boxcabs will be right at home 

Are the sidewalks the Evergreen sheet or hand rolled?

Thanks,
Lucas

[Chris333]

They are .040" thick styrene with the lines cut with an Xacto blade.

[Chris333]

I swear this is something

It's an uphill battle 


And this is the elevated gate tower I'm working on.

Still working on it, but it is modeled after the Erie tower at Westlakes Crossing in Youngstown.

My Grandfather worked in the building right behind the blue car. When I was young I remember walking out of that building at seeing and EL S12 pass through with the bell ringing. Later on I bought an Athearn EL S12 in HO scale. At that time the tower would have been EL maroon like this:

Nothing there now:
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.106904,-80.6608407,3a,52.1y,88.84h,93.19t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sFeNYt5IdBgFyJ5Xh332zNQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

[Chris333]

In that last photo. The billboard on the right. Look what it says now:
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.106833,-80.6600329,3a,15y,294.2h,93.1t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s5p_DQDgYnVEV_buMtCxGlQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

lol 

[OldEastRR]

The RR crossings in the East were certainly funky and unique -- didn't see much of those kind west of Indiana. Very picturesque.

[Chris333]

More pics. I was going to install a few curbs and paint the roads, but my pack of .040"x.040" was empty. So I painted up more buildings.

Building hanging of the left will get chopped at the edge.

Same with this building on the right.

Crossing tower looked too tall so I shortened it.

[amato1969]

I love what you have done with the Vulcan kit @Chris333 !

  Frank

[davefoxx]

More pics. I was going to install a few curbs and paint the roads, but my pack of .040"x.040" was empty. So I painted up more buildings.

I'm no crossing guard or a railroad expert, but I'm thinking that there's probably a better location for the taller crossing tower. 

DFF

[OldEastRR]

Would it be possible to model warped or partially-rotted board siding on a building using 3D printing?

[Chris333]

Would it be possible to model warped or partially-rotted board siding on a building using 3D printing?

I think that would no longer be 3D modeling and more 3D sculpting. A program like Blender could probably do that, but I couldn't do it. I know a guy who used Blender to add dents to a steam loco smoke stack to match the prototype.

[Chris333]

Team track area


And what better for a mini layout than a mini flatcar. Found this F22 on Thingiverse in G scale https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2069464

[Philip H]

Is that one of those brick patterned rollers in clay for the pavement under the team track crane?

[Chris333]

Is that one of those brick patterned rollers in clay for the pavement under the team track crane?

Nope it is 3D printed wall sections that I already had. I just shaped them to fit and pushed or pulled a few random bricks to make it look beat up. The curb is part of the print.

[Chris333]

Ha my .040"x.040" strip styrene came in the mail today...  in a figgin' 18x12x6" box. I was like what the hell did I order and then picked up the box and it was 99.999% air.

Oh well here come the curbs.