New Showcase Miniatures items in development!

[robert3985]

I suspect by rapid-prototyping their master patterns. I am actually planning on posting my findings about this (one of these days).  I suspect it is quicker to design and manipulate a model on a computer than actually sculpting one manually.

You "suspect"???  Really???????????????????????????????????????????   

[arbomambo]

I can't imagine NOT using a CAD drawing to develop a rapid prototype, to then use as the mold to cast the metal version...gurantees accuracy and scale...
~Bruce


however, the particular items I'm excited about are NOT vehicles.

[peteski]

You "suspect"???  Really???????????????????????????????????????????   

Yes.  I have made master patterns the old fashioned way, but I never fully designed one in CAD.  So, I don't have any hard numbers. So, I "suspect". 

[daniel_leavitt2000]

The scaling problem was fixed after the first round of Loadstars. Everything I bought in the past year has been as clean and detailed as their classic pewter line. I kind of miss the jewel cases, but these new kits have far more parts and details.

Maybe he will be doing a detail parts line like Sunrise. Now that would be great!

[C855B]

Joe dropped a hint in his blog, alluding to a speculative post on TB, in a similar thread also started by Bruce. Since there was only one such post that was serious...

...it has to be telephone/telegraph/signal poles. Makes perfect sense to address the missing link - literally - in their signal and signal cabinet detail lines.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Oh man.... pole loads. Pole loads!

[robert3985]

Joe dropped a hint in his blog, alluding to a speculative post on TB, in a similar thread also started by Bruce. Since there was only one such post that was serious...

...it has to be telephone/telegraph/signal poles. Makes perfect sense to address the missing link - literally - in their signal and signal cabinet detail lines.

Yeah...that was my speculative post.  Actually it was the only item that met the criteria of non-road specific, non-era (within reason) specific and the every N-scale modeler needs.  I've been working on a 3D model of UP telegraph cross arms based on measurements I took of a few downed poles along the UP mainline in Echo Canyon.  Only problem is that FUD is frosty white, and I really really wish they had a high-detail translucent material.  But, they don't.

Hopefully these, from Showcase Miniatures, will be injection molded from both clear and translucent blue-green plastic, with proper nut and bolt details...so the wood & metal parts get painted, leaving the nice, clear insulators like the HO Rix cross arms.  I also hope to see the poles as kits rather than gross reproductions like Atlas poles, with near-scale separate insulators and accessory items like all those electrical boxes and cylinders hanging off the double poles at each signal.  Personally, I'd use real wood poles tapered from swab sticks I can buy at my local pharmacy, then scribe grain on them with my fine-bladed Zona saw.  Works great.

I'm still proceeding however with my UP specific cross arms and details, even if they're frosty white.

[peteski]

Hopefully these, from Showcase Miniatures, will be injection molded from both clear and translucent blue-green plastic, with proper nut and bolt details...so the wood & metal parts get painted, leaving the nice, clear insulators like the HO Rix cross arms. 

So Showcase is graduating from low-volume metal and resin castings into injection-molded styrene?  Really?  That would be cool.

As far as FUD goes, when its surface is smoothed out (by wax or clear lacquer), it becomes quite translucent.  Not crystal-clear, but at the size we are talking about (N scale insulators), it might actually work.  I would say, give it a try.

[robert3985]

So Showcase is graduating from low-volume metal and resin castings into injection-molded styrene?  Really?  That would be cool.

As far as FUD goes, when its surface is smoothed out (by wax or clear lacquer), it becomes quite translucent.  Not crystal-clear, but at the size we are talking about (N scale insulators), it might actually work.  I would say, give it a try.

Peteski,  I believe they'll probably do cast metal cross arms with insulators (ala N-scale of Nevada's).  I was just HOPING they'd invest in an injection molded part!

Having used quite a few of John Coot's N-scale of Nevada poles and cross arms, they look quite good for SP style poles, but...they are very fragile and the arms either come off or bend if breathed upon.  Since poles sit by the tracks, they are always getting bumped in certain locations.  My thinking is that the FUD parts wouldn't be indestructible, but would be at least several times more durable than the soft pewter NSN casting, with scale sized insulators.  The FUD would also allow stringing "wire", which the NSN cross arms won't allow (too soft).  I'm also developing artwork for the arm supports, which will be etched from NS along with other pole details like the alternating step-spikes going up both one pole on the double pole transformer arrangement and up every pole that has some electrical doohicky up by the cross arms (I model the stuff, I don't know what they are)

Here's a photo of the NSN poles and crossarms on my good friend Nate's (Nato) layout:


I used the NSN crossarms that only had the insulator "spikes" (no cast insulators) and blobbed on some blue-tinted and clear Elmers, hoping it'd dry clear.  Unfortunately, it dried "milky", but still looks pretty good when the light shines through it.

FUD...I was hoping I could get it to re-translucent-ize after dewaxing.  Your logic train is the same as mine, but I have no direct experience yet.  Maybe next month.

Here is pic of scratch built poles on the mainline at Wilhemina Pass.  No attempt to get any translucence on the insulators.  This was a good scene until my cat got up on it and ate every last telegraph pole!!  Now I call her my pole-cat    Scratch building every last pole for a 40' X 40' layout just isn't reasonable....so I hope the FUD works...

[unittrain]

I've scratchbuilt several poles using 1/32"x1/16" wood strip and drill holes in it for .02" wire I then attach it to a .06" wood rod cut to length the wood is stained to get the right color but it is time consuming! I've only built about a dozen or so but need many more! The pluses are that you can have variations in cross arm orientation and also the number of cross arms since not all poles have 3 some have 4 or 6 the draw backs are the lack of insulator detail and I've yet to add the cross member metal "V" supports. But hopefully if showcase does these they will be better than what is out there. IMO poles are critical to realistic scenes they add a ton realism to the scene.

[Scottl]

Robert, those scratchbuilt poles are excellent, well worth the effort.  Nice rilling on your railbed embankment in that last photo, by the way. 

[C855B]

... IMO poles are critical to realistic scenes they add a ton realism to the scene.

I agree... provided you're modeling <1990. The RRs were on a tear in the '70s and '80s to eliminate signal lines because they were so maintenance-intensive. Most went underground, but some RRs - BN especially - used a lot of coded radio as links. Added benefit - almost prescient - was the RRs got to recycle the copper on their own terms rather than have it done "for" them. Can you imagine what sort of headaches the RRs would be dealing with in the current copper recycling climate if they still relied on visible low-voltage lines for signal control and data com?

Bottom line is if you're modeling modern era, lineside poles aren't nearly as important as a scenery feature.

[Philip H]

Bottom line is if you're modeling modern era, lineside poles aren't nearly as important as a scenery feature.

Track side - no they aren't.  But a majority of the country (including my beloved hurricane prone south Louisiana) still receives power (and telephone, and cable TV, and Internet) over lines strung on poles.  So the track side need for me has given way to the overall need for scenery.

Now I need to get some Tamaya clear acrylic in a pleasing green color to use on the Atlas poles I have.

[C855B]

Yes, you are right that poles are a valuable scenic item in the overall view... but... there's a BIG difference between lineside signal poles and domestic utility distribution poles. Aside from that tall hunk of former tree in the middle, they aren't especially interchangeable when it comes down to even the gross details. As those who've waxed on above about DIY poles have attested, the details and the distinctions are what takes the time.

[robert3985]

I agree... provided you're modeling <1990. The RRs were on a tear in the '70s and '80s to eliminate signal lines because they were so maintenance-intensive. Most went underground, but some RRs - BN especially - used a lot of coded radio as links. Added benefit - almost prescient - was the RRs got to recycle the copper on their own terms rather than have it done "for" them. Can you imagine what sort of headaches the RRs would be dealing with in the current copper recycling climate if they still relied on visible low-voltage lines for signal control and data com?

Bottom line is if you're modeling modern era, lineside poles aren't nearly as important as a scenery feature.

Okay...modern era, (within the last two years) Union Pacific mailine somewhere between Ogden and Wahsatch Utah...although the photo is probably a couple of years old, the poles and lines are still there, and obviously being used:


Mo' poles...modern day.  Echo Canyon.  Although the old style D-Type signals (with those really great blizzard hoods) are being replaced, the poles are not:


I've got a feeling poles and lines are more prevalent today than you may conjecture. 

As an exclamation point to this post, here's my unfinished Sketchup drawing of typical UP telegraph pole crossarms.  The one on the bottom is reversed from the one directly above it because they're mounted on the opposite sides of the poles, every other pole.  Still have the doohickies (boxes and cylinders) that are attached to the poles to draw up, and other etched details to draw also.  A fun project indeed!  I'm hoping the "fuzz" that happens to Shapeways produced FUD parts won't hurt since the wood grain is very coarse on the prototype.  I've also made the square washers and nuts turned a bit on each insulator mounting peg as well as on the crossarm mounting points, just so each arm isn't identical (like anybody will ever notice!...but I will...)