Garden Railway Forum

As part of my efforts to learn Fusion 360 I have been looking at working with curved surfaces.

I have already designed this coach in Sketchup, apart from some issues with the curved sides. I decided to start again and have worked from the drawings in the 7mm Narrow Gauge Associations book of drawings for the Ffestiniog railway. Here is the almost complete design:

The First 2 sides are printed:
My printer bed is 220 x 220 x 220, so these sides can be printed in two parts. The front component is one half and the other half behind it has its supports still attached.
I know that it could be printed flat on the bed ( apart from it having a curved profile ) but that leads to distortion when using ABS. That explains why it was printed at an angle. Experience has shown me that the upper edges of all of the windows need support - that explains why there was so much support.
This image shows the reverse side of one half - to give you an idea of the surface finish on the reverse. The front surfaces have a good finish - not perfect but a few coats of paint will smooth out the surface without requiring filler or sanding.

I have used chamfers on the edges of my later buildings - but this is the first time I have done so with curved surfaces. You can see that the outer ends of the sides are chamfered, as are the ends which attach to them. The inside face has a 1mm recess in it to take the glazing.
More as this develops.

Trevor

Really impressive model. I look forward to seeing the complete coach!

I now have two bodies printed and assembled:
That was 14 hours of printing for each complete side, 2 halves at a time. Floors and subframes next.

Wow!!!! Very nice!

Rik

Floor printed in 3 parts and fitted to the first coach. The bit I didn't get right was the bottom of the sides - Instead of a sloping side I should have made the inside face vertical for a few millimetres so that there was somewhere to lodge the floor against. I made the edges of the floor sloping to match the sides( I thought that would be cunning) but it turned out that the floor slid up into the sides as I pressed the sides together. The floor in place:
and from underneath:
Underframes and then bulkheads next.

Trevor

The bodies are now complete:
I am leaving the buffer beams and end handrails off until the painting is finished, so they don't get in the way of painting the ends of the body. In the same way the seats will be fitted when the inside is painted.

Of course I have the roofs to design yet. But painting next.

Trevor

I am still thinking about painting - but the roof for the first coach is printed:
and
I think I might use magnets to hold them in place

Back to thinking about painting

Trevor

Very impressive, as usual.

Your coaches look very impressive Trevor. Can I ask, what printer are you using?

Durley wrote: Sat Sep 27, 2025 4:10 pm Your coaches look very impressive Trevor. Can I ask, what printer are you using?

I have a Bamboo Labs P1S. I have had it for a few months now and I am very impressed with it. It produces distortion free prints with superb detail (for a filament printer) even in difficult materials. The online support which goes with it is part of the reason it is so good - as in when you have a problem it suggests the possible reasons - and sends articles to read on the problem!

However I wish I had bought the automatic material handling add on with it - if only for automatically changing spool when the filament runs out!

Trevor

I've read really good reviews of Bambu printers. If only .....

I bought a secondhand Creality Ender 3 off my neighbour recently to replace the el cheapo Anet A8 clone I bought off eBay for £80GBP.

I'm really pleased with the quality of prints the Ender 3 churns out, but that's only compared with the really c#@p prints the A8 produced.

Rik

I have the coaches painted, and lined (well almost lined):
I started off airbrushing with acrylic paint, but it didn't fill in any of the tiny blemishes. So I went back to enamel paint. This gave me the smooth surface finish I was looking for. The lining is not complete. A 1mm line of acrylic vermilion has been applied, followed by a 0.75 gold line. I have to finish off a few bits where the paint didn't run properly, and then touch up the places where I slipped.

I have the seats ready to fit, after glazing them, and then people to create to fill the seats.

Having the Automatic material system on the printer, and having learnt about 0.2mm nozzles, I have found that I can produce figures which are not much different to those from the resin printer. So I am investigating MPFB (the latest version of Make human) as an extension of Blender. It seemed worth trying this - if only because I have used it successfully in the past - so I hope to be able to populate the coaches easily and swiftly.

Trevor

They look superb, Trevor. Especially the lining, I take my hat off to you.

Glad you like them!

I am now working on the seats and figures to go in them. The seats have to be populated before I fix the roofs in place (semi permanently).

I will fit lighting - but with removable lamp tops - so than is something for later.

My first stab at the people are some that I created a couple of years ago, as first class passengers:
I have repaired the .stl files using Fusion 360. I cut away the back of their legs so that they fit onto the seats properly, and drawn and fitted hats. I am quite impressed with how I can alter and repair .stl files in this CAD software. Much easier to use than Blender.

The female is fine but the male is 10% too small. You can see the remains of the supports in various places. These are not final prints - just tests to see what I can do with a 0.2mm nozzle on the P1S filament printer. One advantage of having the Automatic Material System is that I can use a special companion filament, alongside the actual print filament, for the interface between the supports and the figure, which improves the print quality under the supports, and makes the supports come away freely, leaving no residue. I am waiting for a reel of it to arrive. I will then print sufficient figures to populate the coaches.

I can see that I will dramatically reduce the use I make of the resin printers!

Trevor

The coaches are looking great Trevor. The detail on those figures is really impressive for filament and certainly more than acceptable for passengers inside the coaches.

What type of lights were you planning on using? I am planning on trying these MagnoLEDs fitted in removable lamptops on my latest coach: https://tramfabriek.co.uk/lighting.html

Absolutely wonderful! Both the coaches and the headwear. The exteriors of the coaches are looking magnificent, and the interiors very promising.

Durley wrote: Tue Jan 06, 2026 7:18 pm The coaches are looking great Trevor. The detail on those figures is really impressive for filament and certainly more than acceptable for passengers inside the coaches.

What type of lights were you planning on using? I am planning on trying these MagnoLEDs fitted in removable lamptops on my latest coach: https://tramfabriek.co.uk/lighting.html

Wow - that is interesting. I wish I had seen those earlier! It really would fit easily into any of my coaches.

I was planning on making my own using a small battery and an LED, and some sort of switching arrangement in the printed lamp top. Of course fitting MagnoLEDs would be much easier.

Trevor

The coaches and your figures are very impressive. I've found that using slightly smaller figures in coaches doesn't detract from the effect required, and gives me the chance to useup the G scale figures I purchased some years ago.
It's a shame the female does not have her knees together; I think this problem has already been discussed, possibly mentioned by Philipy?

Lonsdaler wrote: Sun Jan 11, 2026 10:54 pm The coaches and your figures are very impressive. I've found that using slightly smaller figures in coaches doesn't detract from the effect required, and gives me the chance to useup the G scale figures I purchased some years ago.
It's a shame the female does not have her knees together; I think this problem has already been discussed, possibly mentioned by Philipy?

Thanks for the complements!

Yes she should have her knees together - and I think it is my fault that she does not. Hopefully it won't be obvious when she is in the coach. I am sure I can move them together in blender - which I will bear in mind in future.

Trevor

I have started again with the figures to go into these coaches.

Having followed both the "3D Print People" thread and Durley's "Figure Painting" thread I realised that I could improve what I was doing significantly!

So I have found early photos of people from West and Mid Wales on the National Library website and used some of these to create the figures using "Meshy.ai". I have also used "Google Gemini" to remove backgrounds, and various other unwonted features such as desks, chairs and the like. I have found that Gemini can often be used to make a figure sit down, as described in the "3D Print People" thread. I have also found that "Meshy" itself can remove the background. I have also worked out that I can upload a photo of a standing figure, and define the "pose" (a sitting figure with hands on lap) that I want "Meshy" to create a model of.

Having a number of ".stl" files for seated figures I added the figures into a mockup of the third class compartment which I drew in "Autocad Fusion". Fusion is pretty good for modifying the meshes of triangles contained in the ".stl" file. I have reduces the number of triangles in each file by 38% with no loss of definition as far as I can see. That speeded up the data processing considerably. I fitted the figures into the compartment by scaling and moving them around until they fitted the space available.

I want figures sat close together and that means that the figures overlap:
Here you can see three women in place. Finally I converted each figure into a solid object, and used the outline of the compartment to cut off any bits of the figures which was outside of the "envelope" of the compartment.

Finally hiding the compartment, to leave only the three figure showing I exported the new ".stl" file.

Printing two sets of three figures takes 18 hours on my printer, using a 0.2mm nozzle and the finest setting. Here are the group of 6 men who will go into another third class compartment:
And at last a group of 5 third class passengers in a third class compartment:
My first attempts at painting them following Dursley's description is far from perfect. But it is a start.

Trevor