Work with a 3D print

Replacement parts, conversion parts or complete models, you’ll find them all in 3D print. But just how easy is it to work with? Chris Leigh has been getting some practice.

Back when I was a teenager, cast whitemetal kits were one of the newest innovations in ‘OO’ gauge modelling. I wanted a ‘14XX’ 0-4-2T, but before taking the plunge and buying an expensive locomotive kit I decided to try out working with this new medium and bought the autocoach kit as a practice piece. Later, with the introduction of etched brass kits, there was a lattice footbridge kit that could be assembled with the revolutionary new cyanoacrylate adhesive, before one launched into building coach and locomotive kits which were best assembled by soldering. Then came resin kits, often with very few parts to assemble and no need for soldering.

The production of etched parts requires drawn artwork, while cast kits and resin mouldings require the preparation of masters from which moulds are made. Such work is time-consuming and skilled, and therefore expensive. What if you could cut out much of that preliminary work making patterns and tools? What if you could go from artwork, drawn on computer, straight to production? There would, of course, still be a cost in preparing the computer artwork but there would no longer be the need to produce bulk quantities to cover the original costs, and which might then sit on the shelf for years, preventing the recovery of the original outlay.

3D printing does just that. It enables those with the skills to produce the computer artwork and then offer the item for sale to a wider public. In the case of model railways, the maker no longer has to invest in a stock of models, kits or parts which may stay on the shelf for years. The maker is also freed from the restriction of offering his product only in his chosen scale. Now, by using the services of an online 3D printing operation such as Shapeways, a maker can advertise a product in various scales and it will only be produced when someone orders it. The purchaser selects the product and scale and pays the price accordingly.

That is how I stumbled across the GER mobile fruit traffic office van that is the subject of this article.

I already had some experience of working with 3D-printed models. Several years ago I bought a 3D-printed ‘J70’ 0-6-0T which was featured in Model Rail at the time. More recently I’ve painted a number of ‘OO’ gauge figures from Modelu which are produced by 3D printing and available direct from Modelu (www.modelu3d.co.uk/3d-scanning/ ). I’ve also acquired from Shapeways a couple of ‘HO’ scale baggage trolleys as practice pieces for use on my Canadian layout. The GER fruit traffic office van is available on Shapeways market place from Recreation21 in six scales, from ‘N’ gauge to Gauge 1, and priced from £18.75 to £156.96. The ‘OO’ gauge version,