Feasibility of 3D printing Erie Stillwell coaches

[jimmo]

The best way to get your cars made by us 3D guys is by getting ahold of good, usable drawings. Those rough pics shown above would be a challenge to work from. Cell phone pics of drawings are also a bitch to work with.

[thomasjmdavis]

jimmo,

I wasn't suggesting using the Erie diagrams as drawings, just pointing out they were there.  I am reasonably sure there are some decent drawings out there in old magazines, just need to locate them.  F&C made Stillwell resin bodies in HO, so they must have found drawings somewhere.

I would be with the folks suggesting etched sides- this seems an ideal project for double layered sides in order to get the depth of the windows and arches.

I am tempted, to tell the truth, to take a shot at making the roof out of wood.  Something of a pain, but I would need all of 18" of it.  Or have a custom router bit made up, and go into the Stillwell roof business.  Could probably net $5, maybe $10 a year making roof blanks.

[jimmo]

jimmo,

I wasn't suggesting using the Erie diagrams as drawings, just pointing out they were there.  I am reasonably sure there are some decent drawings out there in old magazines, just need to locate them.  F&C made Stillwell resin bodies in HO, so they must have found drawings somewhere.

I figured as much, just wanted to let others know that we need more than a sketch most of the time.

You must be an old school modeler, seeing wood as the only feasible answer to solving the roof challenge. 

[Erik aka Ngineer]

The best way to approach many of the 3D-printed projects (both currently available from the members of the forum, or on someone's wish list) would be to have the item 3D printed on a printer which has much finer resolution than even FXD, then use that as a master to cast resin copies.  This would make things much more affordable and much better overall quality (FXD still has plenty of fuzzies and layering).

I have seen many examples of this type of production. Good example is Showcase Miniatures. I suspect that all of their new offerings are designed in CAD and the masters are 3D printed.  If I take a magnifying glass and carefully examine their pewter models, I can sometimes see very fine rastering on them. But much finer that what can be achieved in FXD.  Having multiple large items (like N scale passenger cars)  3D printed by Shapeways is crazy expensive.

I have seen Shapeways stuff that really looked professional. The trick is to fill and/or sand the surfaces so they are really smooth. It takes some work but you don't even need FXD for most parts. FXD just has a thinner layer thickness than FUD.

[sd45elect2000]

I guess I'm not a huge fan of 3D printing but with care, a project can turn out nice. As stated above , prime and sand, use archer rivet decals if you really need the rivets.

Randy

[Lemosteam]

The best way to get your cars made by us 3D guys is by getting ahold of good, usable drawings. Those rough pics shown above would be a challenge to work from. Cell phone pics of drawings are also a bitch to work with.

+1 for sure unless you have a cad software that can import and scale an image so that you can sketch over the top.

[jimmo]

+1 for sure unless you have a cad software that can import and scale an image so that you can sketch over the top.

Since TinkerCAD is not a full-feature CAD program, I use a Adobe Illustrator for the 2D work, then import the components into it for assembly.

[peteski]

IIRC, SketchUp allows for importing and tracing images.

[jimmo]

With some valuable assistance from Chris333 I have secured some drawings in the July 1968 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. Let's see what happens...

[Upstate Gator]

Very good.

[jimmo]

Are you only interested in the coaches?

[Upstate Gator]

I'm primarily interested in coaches, yes.
Ben

However, there may be a number of modelers interested in Erie prototype cars. (I'm not aware of decals for them.)

[brokemoto]

I need some Boonton coaches and combines.

Someone made some of those by butting two B-mann shorty "open deck observations" end-to-end at the vestibule ends, leaving the open decks at each end.  He made further alterations, of course, to reflect the characteristics of the Boonton cars.   I forget where he got the decals.  Likely he had to fudge them from some Delay, Linger and Wait Microscale sheet.  I forget who it was who bashed them, as well.

I would buy one or two of the Erie coaches.

[reinhardtjh]

Someone made some of those by butting two B-mann shorty "open deck observations" end-to-end at the vestibule ends, leaving the open decks at each end.  He made further alterations, of course, to reflect the characteristics of the Boonton cars.   I forget where he got the decals.  Likely he had to fudge them from some Delay, Linger and Wait Microscale sheet.  I forget who it was who bashed them, as well.

I would buy one or two of the Erie coaches.

I've got the drawings in RMC and one of their passenger car books.  Plus lots of photos from the Arcade & Attica.  One of these days I'll get around to learning my CAD software (ViaCAD Pro and/or RhinoCAD) and actually make some 3-d models.  Unless someone beats me to it, which is more likely. 

[x600]

Prime Mover Decals makes accurate n-scale decals for DL&W passenger cars for both GMY and green.