I've been very busy lately designing some new models and testing out decorating ideas and techniques... I mentioned several of the projects previously so lets get into some of the results!
Trailers: 53' foot dry van trailers are very common in North America "over the road" and the 45's were a very common TOFC trailer. The trailers turned out well from the printer--details are rendered nicely. I designed the 45's on a sprue so they can be produced en-masse more easily and safely--although Shapeways has been extremely good about making some of the smaller items and I have not experienced any broken items recently (knock on wood!) Here they are after a wash with some warm soapy water, a couple brushed on coats of Future, a bit of light sanding, then a couple coats of Tamiya white primer. And some more sanding as you can see.
The home-made decals for the trailer are turning out to be much harder to produce than the 3D design actually. Finding the "sweet spot" on my Epson printer can be a design-by-design
thing. Bleeding ink on the decal paper is my nemesis--any color causes bleeding. It may be due to the secondary market inks I'm using though.. I'll have to try genuine Epson inks and see if that makes a difference. The ink works fine on glossy photo paper, just not on the standard clear decal paper.
RDC model update: Using the 23M chassis available from T-Gauge.com, the trusty RDC can be powered with a visually "ok" truck (bogie) placement. Technically, the 23M trucks are too closely spaced at about 54 scale feet, but it looks acceptable at arm's length. I will try correcting it to prototype length, which will require some surgery on the chassis, but as this is the longest powered chassis available "off the shelf" I figured it would be good to show how it looks.
Also note the coupler design. I wanted a more prototypical US coupler so I designed this in "professional plastic". Yes it is way too big, but compared to the stock couplers and the models are a bit "fuzzy" but I think it's ok. It's strong enough but still needs some tweaking to couple/uncouple reliably. And I'm reducing the size a bit. Oh, and here's a look at the horn mounted on the RDC. Of course they had to be made a little too large for prototype as well, but again--a good representation at arm's length.
So, now it's on to some painting and decorating! Check back soon.
Long overdue for a rework/development effort were the Blomberg trucks. After all, there's a GP40, and MP36, FP7's all needing proper 4-axle trucks. Originally these were just sideframes so I created dummy trucks from them. I also improved the Blomberg B trucks (the older ones) and created Blomberg "M" trucks which are the more modern ones with the dampener on the leading axle.
A semi trailer was also in the offing. Pretty simple when it comes down to it and I'll be making 40', 45' and 48' versions as well.
What does a GP40 or an RDC need to warn 1:450 scale trucks at grade? A horn of course!
All of these are in test printing right now and if they come out ok I'll release them on the Shapeways shop.
How about one of these ex Lackawana/EL electric MU cars? I'm about 75% done with one...
And still working on a semi-scale knuckle coupler. It's really difficult because of limitations on materials... but it will happen.
Although I still fully endorse the "full side decal" process I started getting interested doing some models with standard decals as a painted finish is admittedly better. Well, and I became frustrated with the performance of the print-your-own decal paper and lack of white ink. The inkjet decal paper is just too thick and doesn't seem to respond to MicroSol to conform to the details.
So, perusing the web I found CMR Products who does print-on-demand decals in odd scales like O and Z.. and they were very happy to do several of their sets for me in 1:450. And good news is I am a fan of the roadnames they already make.
I had a GP40, FP7/9 and few boxcars undecorated from my shop (Shapeways "Smoothest Fine Detail Plastic") so decided to give the fine folks at CMR Products a try -- I emailed and they were very glad to make decal sets of their existing artwork re-scaled to 1:450, and for a very reasonable price!
The GP40 from Shapeways was washed in warm soapy water, with gentle scrubbing with an artists bristle brush. After drying, it got a coat of Tamiya Fine Surface Primer from a rattle can. I touched up a few spots with a sanding stick, then another coat of primer. Then a coat of Tamiya semi-gloss black.. Then a few of the rougher spots remaining from 3D printing got 2-3 brush coats of Future. When that was done, the whole model was brush painted with Future (clear acrylic). Decals were applied and some touch ups done.
As you can see, the decals were crisp, opaque and accurate. They handled extremely well, especially given the tiny size.
I added an air reservoir tank above the fuel tank, made of a piece of electric wire with the end conductor exposed a tiny bit, and painted black. I maybe should have removed the Chessie style rock plow on the pilots.. but eh. It's T. So, the GP40 is ready for trucks and couplers, and a horn to boot, plus weathering--but that's another story (stay tuned).
