3d printing is finicky. Let me put it to you this way.....
Lets say I want to print a 0.5mm thick wall...a tall one....like as tall as a switcher would be long.....if i print it with supports along the bottom and the back....itll still not be a perfectly straight wall....itll have waves and other inperfections. Not to mention alot of support nubs on the back side you need to file away.
Lets change that wall to a C channel. Now I only have to support from the bottom....and the rest prints from itsself because the C channel shape is a stronger structure.
Now, think about a sill.....its essentially an L piece. I would need to priNt it vertically and its more than likely going to not print straight unless I support the verticle parts of it. These supports will leave nubs and would impact how well the sill would interact with the hoods.
Your best bet is to print the walkway, sill and hoods as one as it it essentialy a compound U channel. It is self supporting and requires supports only along the bottom edge of the sill. After its cleaned and cured, the supports just rip off leavining minimal cleanup....usually a 5 second light sand along the bottom edge. No fuss...no fitting...minimal cleanup.
The only issue here will be the cab. Itll be tricky to get it to print and have it mate up beautifully with the hoods.
Cab has 2 options. 1. Just use the stock LL cab......well...that sux for CN modelers bcause of the light/hood assembly. 2. Print my own....print it at a 45 from the front and make the CN guys happy.....so thats what Im going to do. It will also accept the stock weight.
With 3d printing,....mating surfaces should be printed away from the build plate. With the cab, the mating surface needs to be printed at the buildplate....so itll have nubs. My work around here is to make the side of the cab a hair longer than it should be and have the modeler file it back to fit.
I know this is convoluted....but these considersations were decided weeks ago....
Other considerations are things like the radiator fan grills and such. I need to make a choice about either printing what is there (a grill infront of some louvers) or model what is seen.....(most photos the grill is nearly invisible). I opted for the 3' rule and am going to print what detail is normally seen in natural light. Id post examples here, but I dont own the photos...so....
Etchings...why not etchings for the grills? Well...becauee in N scale etched grills do not scale out at all.....if you wanted to etch grills in N scale, it would too thin to handle....impossible even as the thickness of the grill space cant be thinner than the material etched. In other words,a 10 thou piece of brass or stainless cant have etchings smaller than 10 thou. Anything smaller than 8 though becomes silly thin and will bend if you look at it.
So for these SW1200RSs, ive opted for the following parameters...
1. Hood and sill one piece sans cab and stacks.
2. Pilots seperate pieces so CN modelers get their early steps.
3. Handrail jig as stanchion spacing was not consistant between rs units.
4. Cabs with either the standard emd light or the hooded loght.
5. Replacement fueltank
6. By-passing the stock electrical truck-to-sill system.
7. Seperate ditchlights that will accept 0402 leds with a wiper system to bring the ditchlight eletrics over to the decoder board.
8. Microtrains makes Flexicoils....very cheap. However, there may need to be some trimming of the leading edge of said trucks to clear the angle bracket on the sill. Minimal at best, but Id rather keep the prototype angle there than to modify it.
Beyond that, there are ways to update the wheels and worms. There are a few decoders that are as drop in as you can get (albeit with motor removal and soldering of wires to the brush caps).
Personally, im going with Lokpilot 5 micro with a possibility of a tcs keep alive in place of the cab weight. Im going to try it without the keep alive at first so see if its worth the upgrade.
Thoughts?
Well thought out kit here. This takes a lot of time and design work to get it right, and it sounds like your printing experiences have led you to this point.
