3D Printed GWR Pannier Tank

[mikemill]

Here is a prototype 3D resin printed G3 Pannier Tank, we printed as much as practically possible. Fine detail cannot be represented on the outside as resin is very brittle and would break of when handled, hence the detail in brass.

The engine needs a few tweaks and will come to life when painted.

Mike

[A7er]

Very nice! The bodywork looks flawless. Did you get any distortion? I now think that when I have distortion in some of the parts I print it's because I orientate the part to the buildplate myself rather than accept the slicers settings. How do you orientate the parts you have printed?
Lee

[Kim]

Wow! That is pretty sharp looking!  The engine body looks pretty good sized.  Were you able to print it all in one go?  Or is it split somewhere?

Kim

[BillTodd]

Very nice.

Great flat surfaces, ( which for those who don't know, are hard to do in resin without careful supporting.).

[wagnmkr]

That looks very good! The brass and the resin go well together.

 

[gldavison]

Very nice. What's the scale?

[mikemill]

Thanks for the comments, I don’t have a printer a colleague converts my drawings into 3D and prints the parts. He does not like to reveal the way he prints without supports. The walls of the large parts are 2mm thick to help with distortion, the cab and the tank section are to separate parts.
The advantage of this process is if you can draw it will reproduce, thus very fine detail can be archived just like injection moulding without the cost of making the tooling.

Mike

[Admiral_dk]

Certainly looks like a Resin 3D Printer result 

I have seen a few very interesting YT Videos on how to make sure plan the part to be printed without any supports (not always doable - but) and I learned quite a number of interesting things.
Funny how some are obvious after you are in the know ....
One of the guys is something about 3D Print for Production.

That said I have no experience with Resin 3D prints other than have seen some done @ Work - here it only use for precision work and Never for Strenght (STL) ...

Nice looking Loco    and if you haven't fessed up I wouldn't have spoted the clueline between the halves.

Per 

[tzkelley]

Oh wow! Huge milestone! Can't wait to see it with the cab! 

[AdeV]

That looks amazing!

I've been doing a bunch of model railway 3d-printing myself of late - nothing to that level of complexity, but it's made me very aware of just how much effort goes into the CAD model, and that's before you get into the mechanics of printing itself...

What scale is that? I'm guessing HO/OO, but if it's N scale, then that's even more incredible.

[mikemill]

The model is Gauge3 which is 1:22.6 to ft and is 14 ins long

Mike   

[mikemill]

The Pannier tank is complete, the problem with 3Dprinted parts that would be bare metal is finding the right paint. I found some brass paint online while it's not perfect it blends in well with the real thing.

Mike

[crueby]

They make a number of versions of gold-leaf type paint, in silver, gold, brass, etc. They have a little bit of metalic pigment in them so they get the shine/sparkle like real metal, and they go on thin. Not real precious metals, so the paints are reasonably cheap. I found them at the local crafts store.

[Kim]

Wow! The paint looks magnificent to me!  It makes for a very beautiful model.  Nicely done!

Kim

[Admiral_dk]

If it wasn't for the fact that it looks a bit too clean - you could mistake it for a full size Locomotive 

Per                 

[Chipswitheverything]

Lovely looking model locomotive, another very fine model to display with the interesting collection of historic and characterful Gauge 3 loco models that you have been producing.  Dave

[AdeV]

Close-up photographs always reveal even the tiniest imperfections on a model.... but I can't see any in those pictures - magnificent work!

Did GWR paint their handrails? That's about the only thing that looks a little odd to my eye, seems most locos (with separately fitted parts) have metal finish handrails - but I know little about the Great Way Round (am an LMS man myself  ).

[mikemill]

Ade

As there are many versions of the panniers I think you will find both finishes are represented, unless you are trying to model a particular engine is a case of pot luck.

Mike

[AdeV]

As there are many versions of the panniers I think you will find both finishes are represented, unless you are trying to model a particular engine is a case of pot luck.

Makes sense - the railways did pretty much everything over time...

Anyway, you can always invoke Rule 1 ("I'll run what I want to run...")

It's a spectacular paint job BTW. Really really nice looking. I've got some N-scale stuff here that looks like it was literally dipped in the paint pot! Your finish looks every bit as good as a top notch ready-to-run loco.