Garden Railway Forum

Yes I am planning to leave it outside all the time. I have some space indoors for winter storage, and perhaps in the future will have more. However there is a limit to how many large structures you can find room for. The engineering workshop is a wooden model so that will have to go indoors in the w...

No - it does look as good as it appears in the photos. It is just that the real one seems to have been either oak or larch - anyway it seems to have been bare wood which weathers gray. It must have been a very durable wood because it was built in the 1870's and lasted until 1933. I want to paint it ...

So the bridge is now finished. It printed out successfully without any significant issues. Only a few elements had to be redrawn. I have purchased the plastic weld glue, and used it successfully, but I have found a mixture of acetone and waste plastic very successful when surfaces are not perfect fi...

It is beginning to look like a bridge! Progress to date:
Trevor

Latest update on the bridge:
Trevor

Ah that would be clever. I haven't tried printing in different colours - and I have white filament!

As a test it has worked, although I am going to fettle some of the rivet detail:
And of course the bridge is progressing:
Trevor

Brilliant to see that someone else is also experimenting! The printed locos look brilliant. I like the driver facing the right way as well. I have the first section of railing printed for the bridge There will be 12 sections of which 8 are identical: IMG_0838.jpg And I have had second thoughts about...

An update on finishing off 4415, and progress on painting the coaches. I am very conscious of the scepticism of what I am doing in certain quarters - and that is why I am paying so much attention to the final finishes. Firstly the coaches. The last photo showed the wet paint on the coach side. This ...

Rick

Thanks for the comments on the track. Hand built using Cliff Barker's rail chairs and fishplates. Sleepers cut from Larch and teak offcuts. The points are also hand built. Im particularly proud of the curved 3 way point. Totally over the top but I enjoyed making it!

Rik mentioned the difficulty of printing roofs. That prompts me to share a couple of failures. Well I haven't used them so they are failures - but I have kept them because they are actually recoverable. Note that it seems best to print roofs on end - ie front or back of the roof on the bed plate. Th...

I am also finishing the Ashbury 4 wheelers. They have just received their final coats of paint. On one side anyway. I have airbrushed them on their sides so I can apply a coat of thinned paint which is thick enough for it to run if the coach was sitting on its wheels. This is the paint immediately a...

I am now working on a bridge to span the railway at the new station which is based on that at Tan -y - Bylch. There is a photo in the Spponer Album showing that the footbridge carrying the footpath over the station was present in the 1870's, but it is very difficult to make much out. So I am going t...

Rik I think that the components are very good - from such a low cost printer. I am still getting some marks on the surface of my prints. If you look closely at the photos of the model of 4415 you can see them. It looks like I cant keep the dust out of the wet paint! With all of these things it depen...

Thanks for the gluing info. I might just try PLA again. It is probably more forgiving to print with. An update on 4415. Just finished painting it. A week to dry then the lettering and varnish. Of course I have yet to fit the radio control and batteries. So photos: IMG_0811.jpg IMG_0812.jpg IMG_0813....

So a set of 6 moulds for 6 people: IMG_0274.jpg Each mould was carefully cut free from its figure to create a split mould. Held together with elastic bands they were cast from polyurethane casting resin in batches of 6: IMG_0277.jpg IMG_0278.jpg IMG_0273.jpg The original figures were carefully repai...

Last summer I built a rake of scratch built coaches to carry quarry workers, based on the drawings in the 7mm Narrow Gauge Associations Historic drawings for the Festiniog Railway. The drawing is of the type 1b carriage, and by ignoring the roof, made it a type 1a. I made 10 of them: IMG_0123.jpg No...

Rik I have been thinking about this overnight! I think that the wagon and the tiles are pretty brilliant considering that you have produced them on such a low cost printer. You would not know how the tiles were made. I have 2 questions: Firstly what do you use to glue the wagon components together -...

PS I don't think it makes any difference whether I use PLA or ABS. I only prefer ABS because can be bonded with Acetone - which I had in the garage.

Rik I don't do any rubbing down normally. For example the coach has not been rubbed down at all - and won't need anything more than another coat of paint. I think I printed that on the high resolution setting. However the sides of the 4415 are not as smooth as I have been able to get other component...

4415 is now finished as in all the parts are printed and assembled. I await the arrival of rechargeable batteries and a radio receiver. So in the meantime it is being painted. Much easier to see the result when it isn't black! So it has had a primer coat, a "round" coat of duck egg blue ma...