Wish I Could...

[Super]

Wish I could design in a 3D CAD program like this fellow making a Custom 3D Printed Train. I love those rolling cars...awesome.

i always wanted to do this, but i don't actually have a 3d printer, and if i do get one, that one thinking in mind that "you'l fail!" or like "watse of money!" though ooone more thing is that i don't know they could make them with high details.

[Super]

Looking closer these may have been printed with a Resin 3D Printer because they look so smooth where a plastic 3D printer you can see layers.

Hi Super,

You just wrote what I was thinking when looking at that video, the unpainted models definitely look as though they were created on a resin/SLA printer.  Mind you that isn't as bad as it used to be, these days you can buy an entry level Resin/SLA printer from about £150 and although they don't have the biggest build area it is enough to print an average PlaRail car size item as I proved when I made this one;









Having said that the model does need a bit of tweaking to get the most out of the resin/SLA format as originally I designed it for an FDM printer and as such it has some features which could be refined and the walls of the model are actually a bit thicker than they would ideally be on a resin model.  The pictures below are of the prototype FDM print (these are a normal 3D printer that prints from rolls of filament a layer at a time and as Super says can show print lines - although depending on the resolution of the printer it can be minimal at the cost of print time).  I would probably have finished this model but nobody showed that much interest and as my time is valuable I got diverted onto other things













As you can see the print lines on the FDM versions varies depending upon the type/colour of plastic you use, the silver is worse than the white one for example.  But also these are unpainted, given a light sanding and coat of paint the lines would become minimal.

[Super]

I had just worked with an Ebay seller that created me a sale counter that fits the PlaKids. He had offered them in either O or HO scale but they are both too big and too small. These were in resin and when I gave him the measurements he was able to re-scale his CAD drawing to S Scale which turned out to be perfect for a PlaKid size. He also only offered these in a see through resin like your pictures above but I didn't like the fact that I had to paint it so I ask if he could do it in brown color. They hadn't tried dying the resin before but it was something they wanted to experiment with. After several trial attempts he got it to work and the finished product is perfect with no need to paint. He is currently looking into dying me a couple more in white.

Yeah if I recall when I did that test print of the loco body it was in that translucent resin purely because that is what I had in the printer at the time it wasn't by design.  I'm not sure if you can buy Brown, but you can definitely dye it as you can use any of the colour inks used for mixing with the normal poured 2 part resin liquids.  I've got come of those pigments, but not yet tried them.  White may be a problem if you are using it with a clear resin though as you would need to make it opaque as well.  Why he/she doesn't just buy a bottle of white resin I don't know that is freely available

[Super]

I don't know, maybe its a cost thing along with supply and demand.

Possibly, if its only a small model and you're the only one wanting white then I can understand not buying it maybe.  Although if you have white that is easier dyed to another solid colour than it is to use clear and then colour it and make it opaque.  Who can tell

i don't know if it has to do the filament used but i find the homemade 3D products are too rigid.  In fact i actually broke one of the handles when i tried put it on trackmaster engine.  

The 3D printed Daisy from whatever website is pretty good.  I had it for several years and it is study and easy to apply to spray paint on.

[Super]

I think the Resin 3D prints are more flexible than the filament but Mr Nigels knows exactly the answer to that as he has both Printer types.