Kevin and Câmilla Fisher's Model Railways
The 3D printer had finally been earning it’s keep and has been printing boats and other scenic items for Burton Phoenix.
….Then I just had to learn to paint them…
Full details can be found in ‘Work In Progress’ HERE
The geeky side of 3D Printing has been continuing for ‘N’ gauge. This is my first hand ‘crafted’ item from CAD to item.
… New ‘BackToBack’ gauges for ‘N’.
Almost 2 years after it was started the Burton Phoenix corner addon is ‘complete’.
All this is really thanks to the 3D printer. I have ‘printed’ the boats including oars etc, jetty and the tents.
After giving the canal boats an initial paint I discovered that you can get laser/inkjet printed water slide transfers. So here they are on the Narrow Boats ‘Chez Câmilla’ and ‘KingFisher’. These allow for far more detail than my current painting skills allow for.
I have also undertaken an improvement to the scenic look scenery. It has all all been ‘greened’ up – so everything looks green and pleasant… rather than a sun scorched desert
….. for a contrast you just have to see the previous post…. (Or Here… )
Finally, after a number of months since it’s arrival, I have completed the original 3D Printer project for Burton Phoenix.
This ‘project’ came about because I could not find suitable Canal Boats and small rowing boats etc for the layout. This was not helped by the tightness of the bend on the river, plus no Model Railway shows to visit where I have tended to find these kind of things.. This was the final push I needed in getting me to try put 3D printing for model railways.
So I managed to find a number of suitable 3D models and printed my own. It has taken quite a while to get the best out of the 3D printer especially for the smaller items (oars and sawhorse stands etc).
Now I feel comfortable with what I could 3D print reliably and accurately, it is now time to tackle the whole process of finishing and painting the 3D prints….
The last time I did painting like this was with Airfix models and that was too many decades ago..
… I have a long way to go but am pleased with my first results.
So.. I have added a small boat jetty to the ‘River corner’ of Burton Phoenix – I will find some people to put into the boats to give it a bit of life. I am also going to try using printable water slide transfers on the Canal boats to make them look more realistic…
For some context the boats started out like this ….. all in shiny white PLA plastic….
Now to work out what to do this side of the river. .. My current thoughts are maybe a campsite?
.. And maybe make things a bit greener!!
A good friend of mine has also moved up to North Wales, and their house sits on the path of an old Quarry mining railway.
So for a bit of fun I have been experimenting with printing 3D models Narrow Gauge rolling stock.
From the amazing resource ‘ThingIverse.com’ I have downloaded and printed wagon designs from a similar Quarry railway at Dinorwig, just down the road in Snowdonia. The smaller models (centre and top left) are in OO9 – ‘OO’ narrow gauge on 9mm track. The larger models are O-16.5 – ‘O’ narrow gauge on HO/OO track.
All this has been a lot of fun and has helped me get to grips with 3D printing and to learn how to get the best out it.
.. However it has been a distraction to the work on the Burton Crumpnold layouts, so expect ‘normality’ to reappear in future updates.
.. The first of these tasks is to get my painting skills up to speed and paint the boats I have already 3D printed – plus a few more so I can complete the ‘river’ scenery on Burton Phoenix.