A little off the sides

In my last post I showed a picture of where I was up to with my EE set. Having a look at the painting on the headlight end I noticed one night last week., I noticed that if the silver line I had painted level with where the side met the roof, the paint line came down only about 2/3rds of the way down the light cowls. 

 

This didn't quite ring true in my memory and so I went back to photos of the real thing to check.

 

 Ok, so a quick look shows that the roof should be painted down to level with the top of the doors.

Easy enough fix.

 

 However it still didn't quite feel right and perusing my collection of pictures from trawling the web I discovered the truth...

 

The roof is actually curved right down to the top of the doors. The shiny strip above the doors appears to be a trick of the light or the cleaning machines they use very sporadically.

Out with the file and fortunately there is enough fat in the print to round things down  to where they should be.

This is my test shell and its proved to be a bit harder to fix my 3 other tops with their new ventilators in place, and I'm also wondering about the toxicity of the resin dust.

Modeling weekend

 Well first up tonight, some news. It appears Shapeways has gone bust and let go all its staff on Monday this week. It will be interesting to see what impact it will have on the wider modeling world. While the buisness model worked in the early days, widespread adoption of 3D printers has put the crimp in the printing market, coupled with insane UPS charges. The only good bit was the marketplace setup where people could sell there models from a cenral spot and not have to carry any stock themselves. It will be interesting to see what emerges from the rubble. Congrats to Lewis Holden for doing his part to break the company.

And now the interesting bit

Last weekend I spent 2 days poking the borax while doing a bit of modeling at Woodville railway station. Organised by VCC models, it was fun couple of days sitting round talking, modelmaking and stealing liberating other peoples tools. And the food was very good as well.

Plenty of old iconic modelers in this shot

We even had a surprise guest.

 Now I've never been to Pokaka and while I've been told its a great weekend I do have my doubts about being trapped in the middle of nowhere with a group of railway modelers. This weeekend for me was ideal in that I got to sleep in my own bed every night and not torch a pile of brownie points.

So what did I get up too? A few projects but one of the bigger ones was making some headway on my D+Dm+D set. I had to add the correct ventilators and do some work on the motor bogie. I've now thrown a base coat of paint on it all.

Once I have the windows sorted I will do the weathering and then sort out the undergubbins.

Saturday at the workbench

 A bit more work on the EMU set over the last couple of days. I've rounded the endswhile not removing any detail (I think...). I also sanded the round roof ventilators off and smoothed the sides down to remove the raised rim round the windows.

In an "hmm, thats odd" observation, the plans show that the corners of the windows were rounded for the 1949 stock (40 Dm and 71D's, surely Em/E would have made more sense?). However every photo I can find from the 60's and 70's shows the window corners to be square. 

UPDATE having a hard hunt I can now find rounded windows as well, but the square windows are too prevalent for it to be just the 1938 (6 Dm and 6D) or the 1946 (3 Dm and 2 D) stock. Plus both types of windows turn up with the 1949 EE bogies. Its all very odd.

It would be so much easier if we didn't do any research

The plus is that I was thinking about filing all the windows square, but now I can avoid that (and it was going to be a right pain to do)

3 foot 6 models review

Back in November last year 3 foot 6 models was created to break the Shapeways monopoly on 3D printing of NZ120 models. I've managed to hold off doing any shopping for quite a while now. However in May the English Electric Dm/D EMU set came onto the list. Now off and on for years I've looked at these models on Shapeways but the price has keep my credit card in my wallet. With the cost dropping to $80 for a 2 car set (or $100 for the 3 car set) I clicked on the button. While waiting for my turn in the print cue, the devilishly cunning Mr Holden listed the Ew on a list of test prints. Hoping to bump it to the top I offered to take to first test print. Click. I'm still wondering why I'm doing this as Paekakariki isn't moving off the back wall of the garage any time soon. Anyhoo...

Tonight the box was waiting for me. 

Maths is not his strong suit....

First impressions are good. The general dimensions are about right. The corners could be a bit more rounded, but thats more a function of the CAD programs limits. A little bit of work with a file and sandpaper with reference to photos of the real thing solves this.

The one comment is that (I think, looking at photos) the roof ventilators are the wrong shape, and should be square (in the early 1970's anyway).  Theres also a couple of very small spots on one model that need filling and a couple of gaps in the cowcatchers that will need filling. I'm also a bit stumped on how to glaze the windows (oh and if anyone has pictures of the area round the pantograph I'd be keen)

So, a solid 4 out of 5 and I'm planning to buy a second 3 car set at some point.

Second up is the Ew. Its a test print and the details on the sides seem a bit soft and could stand out a bit more. However looking at the CAD picture on Shapeways its in the CAD file. Again the dimensions seem to be about right. A 3 out of 5 at the moment but I've sent comments back to Lewis and the production models should be of a higher standard.

The printing lines in the photo don't show up at all in real life.

 Lewis was also able to send me a couple of pictures taken during the process.

Fresh off the press

Taking a spin on the UV curing turntable.

Finally, the bogies. These are simply detailed, with plenty of space to add the extra fiddly bits if you want. There are brake shoes added as well which fit 7mm wheels. The axle centers are 19mm, so 1mm short of the 20mm/8' of the real thing. The bogies are also printed just a wee bit wide so the Parkside-Dundas wheelsets are on the verge of dropping out of the pinpoints. If I cut a slice out of the ends and re-glue them together it should work out OK.

So overall I'm quite happy with these models. The D/Dm set particularly provide a good starting point for the more experienced modeler to go to town, but a also a "good enough" model for a keen beginner.