Garden Railway Forum

A year or so ago, in my thread on my signal box and junction, and a project growing like Topsy, I mentioned the future plan for a new branch station, to be called Lower Bench. In my current thread on 3D printing I have also alluded to this project, a couple of times. Well now has come the time to unveil the first part, incorporating at least some of the printed items I've posted about, plus a few that I haven't mentioned so far.


So; the door, the window, the fireplace, the fire, both figures, the 3 suitcases, the girl's handbag, the waiting room seat and the ticket window, are all 3D printed, as is the gas light which hangs from the ceiling once it is in place. The drawings for the 2 figures and the suitcases I downloaded, but everything else is home drawn.

The floor is 2D printed using a laser printer on self adhesive matt vinyl. The posters I found on the net and again are laser printed on matt vinyl, stuck on varnished 1mm ply.
The wall paneling is 1mm ply with lines drawn on, as is the skirting, and the dado is coffee stirrers. Oh, and the coal scuttle is part of a black silicone sealer nozzle!

More to come in due course. It should hopefully speed up a bit now that I have this detailed interior completed.

Great thinking with the coal scuttle!

Absolutely cracking! You really seem to be exploiting the 3D printing technology very well.

Peter in VA

All very neat and tidy, I also thought the coal scuttle is a clever idea. If you go to this much effort for all your buildings they will look superb.

What, no poker! Only joking, that is cracking stuff. I can see a time when a lot more people will be using printing if you get results like that.

Impressed ---------AGAIN

Great stuff Philip, I too admire the coal scuttle idea, along with all the other items. It all looks so very typical. I imagine the roof to that building will be removed many times.
Grant.

Thanks for all the nice comments guys.

LNR wrote: ↑Fri Aug 11, 2017 12:38 am I imagine the roof to that building will be removed many times.
Grant.

Grant, that's an interesting point. It would be nice to be able to remove it, but in the interests of keeping out creepy-crawlies, and much more importantly, water, it will have to be glued very tightly I'm afraid. Although this section is single storey, if you look top right of the first picture you'll see that it sits against the gable wall of a 2-storey section. There is a projecting chimney coming down that wall in the centre, as well, and there is no way I can think of to waterproof a wall-roof junction like that.

I particularly like the suitcases and handbag- very realistic - as much to do with the quality of painting as the 3D printing

Rik

It would be nice to be able to remove it,

That's a shame Philip, but I see your point. I do hope there's a window through which the fire can be viewed along with the other goodies.
Grant.

LNR wrote: ↑Fri Aug 11, 2017 9:01 am

It would be nice to be able to remove it,

That's a shame Philip, but I see your point. I do hope there's a window through which the fire can be viewed along with the other goodies.
Grant.

Oh yes, I wouldn't have wasted all this time and effort if not! There are two windows and a door on the platform side, which mirror the rear ones in the pictures.

A-ma-zing
Beautiful attention to detail.
David.

Very impressive Phillip, very impressive indeed. I think the floor is one of the most realistic ones I've ever seen. If you'd told us you'd sliced up coffee stirrers up for floor boards and tacked them down individually I would have believed you from the photos'

Andrew

Soar Valley Light wrote: ↑Fri Aug 11, 2017 7:26 pm Very impressive Phillip, very impressive indeed. I think the floor is one of the most realistic ones I've ever seen. If you'd told us you'd sliced up coffee stirrers up for floor boards and tacked them down individually I would have believed you from the photos'

Andrew

Thanks Andrew.
I did a google search for something like "Victorian floor board pictures" and then went through the results until I found something like I was looking for. Then straightened the parallax in a very old version of PaintShopPro, cut out the best/most even colouration selection of boards and multiplied them side by side ( look for the repeat pattern) to fit. I did adjust the colour slightly because the original was a bit more golden brown than I wanted. Then as I said, it was simply printed, using a laser printer, on self adhesive vinyl sheet ( i.e sticky back plastic - do I get a Blue Peter badge?? )

You do get a (Blue Peter Badge) Phillip, that is some excellent work i must say, working a laptop out isa struggle for me haha, so 3D printing is a no go.
All of your work especially the 3D stuff is some of the best i have seen. Do you have any thoughts on selling some of it to other’s. The seat, suitcases and the ticket office window plus all the other things you have made are something i would buy in a heartbeat.

Happy Modelling Phillip.

FWLR wrote: ↑Tue Aug 15, 2017 6:54 am
Do you have any thoughts on selling some of it to other’s.

Thanks for the compliments.

A commercial operation, even limited, isn't something I've seriously thought about. I wouldn't absolutely rule it out, but my wife thinks I'm spending far too much time on the drawing and printing as it is, and I still have a list of bits and pieces want for myself. These machines are not very quick, even a simple small chimney pot takes about 40 minutes each and unlike a normal 2D printer, you can't simply tell it to makes 10 or 100 of something and go away and leave it to do the job. You have to remove each object from the bed before starting another. Actually, for something small like chimney pots it would be fairly simple to multiply it on the drawing and print multiples as one job, but they would simply take x times as long as doing one, plus if something goes wrong during the print, you've lost the lot.

I see, it does seem like a lot of money though Phillip, unless you have a lot to make on it, which i presume you have with a garden layout and the cost of making it yourself against shop bought must be a lot less and of course you can customise it to be unique to you, purely one off that no body else will have, unless you do one for me lol

Happy Modelling Phillip

FWLR wrote: ↑Wed Aug 16, 2017 6:05 am it does seem like a lot of money though Phillip, unless you have a lot to make on it, which i presume you have with a garden layout and the cost of making it yourself against shop bought must be a lot less and of course you can customise it to be unique to you, purely one off that no body else will have,

Yes, they are a lot of money, and my Qidi is very much at the cheap end of the spectrum ( a little under £600), but I've found it to be a pleasure in its own right, so almost the capital cost can be written off.
As for per item costs, if you look back at my 3D Printing thread, 2 posts from the bottom of the first page, I've given a very approximate guide. https://gardenrails.org/forum/viewtopic ... 25&t=11224 Suffice it to say I think it gives good value for money, so far.

philipy wrote: ↑Wed Aug 16, 2017 6:41 am

FWLR wrote: ↑Wed Aug 16, 2017 6:05 am it does seem like a lot of money though Phillip, unless you have a lot to make on it, which i presume you have with a garden layout and the cost of making it yourself against shop bought must be a lot less and of course you can customise it to be unique to you, purely one off that no body else will have,

Yes, they are a lot of money, and my Qidi is very much at the cheap end of the spectrum ( a little under £600), but I've found it to be a pleasure in its own right, so almost the capital cost can be written off.
As for per item costs, if you look back at my 3D Printing thread, 2 posts from the bottom of the first page, I've given a very approximate guide. https://gardenrails.org/forum/viewtopic ... 25&t=11224 Suffice it to say I think it gives good value for money, so far.

it certainly does Phillip and like you say, it must be a great pleasure watching it, although not all the time lol , making a model you have thought about.

It may well be at the cheap end Phillip, but reading the reviews on it, it looks to be just has capable has the more expensive machines. Happy Modelling Phillip.

A quick update on progress so far:

and for those who have asked about the external visibility of the waiting room fire, this is one I took a few days ago: