Weekend Photos - June 2021

[healey36]

I'll start this month's random photo collection with a gripe. I picked up this 1/100-scale print of a French Char B1 tank from a vendor recently, figuring if it was decent I'd follow up with orders for a few more. This is what arrived:



As with many things, some are never delivered as they appear in the listing. Is it my imagination, or is this a lot of flash-byproduct here? I'm not sure what that great glob of stuff is on the top surface. I'm left to wonder what's underneath before I start shaving it all away. I've bought quite a few 3D-prints of 1/2400 and 1/4800 ships, along with a number of 1/48 figures, and those come without any flash, so I'm thinking this is just an example of poor quality.

Not sure, but I'm thinking this guy got my one and only.

[Chris Webster]

Is it my imagination, or is this a lot of flash-byproduct here?

Could the extra material possibly be parts to something else - maybe extra or busted tank tracks to be left on the battlefield?

When you 3D print, there will be some extra (waste) material there because it is needed to support the printed component in the printer. Many 3D print designers have gotten really creative in turning the waste material into more parts.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Is it my imagination, or is this a lot of flash-byproduct here? I'm not sure what that great glob of stuff is on the top surface.

Ask the vendor - maybe you just got a lousy print or something....

[healey36]

With a bit of effort, I was able to trim away the stuff on the engine deck, exposing the detail underneath, so I think it's just flash from the printing process. Once I get all of that carved away, I'll post another pic.

I've never seen the process first-hand, so I'm not sure what this stuff looks like when it emerges from the printer. Many of the small model ships I acquire come printed in a sort of framework:



Not the best pic, but you get the idea. These are 1/4800, so pretty small. The 1/2400 stuff I've bought does not come in a frame. They are pretty fragile, but to be honest, not as fragile as some of the lead/pewter models in the same scale.

I've also noticed that some vertical flat surfaces don't "print" very well; the layering can be quite pronounced, leaving a stratified appearance. I've seen listings for some 1/48-scale 3D prints of tanks; maybe I'll try running one of those down and see what it looks like.

[gregj410]

Finally placed my cabin. It’s a little more track side than I hoped for but all and all I’m pleased with it.

[chuck]

I've also noticed that some vertical flat surfaces don't "print" very well; the layering can be quite pronounced, leaving a stratified appearance. I've seen listings for some 1/48-scale 3D prints of tanks; maybe I'll try running one of those down and see what it looks like.

There are a lot of technologies available for 3D printing. The best looking stuff is either laser sintered metal or laser fused resin. The former is uber expensive and usually reserved for commercial production of stuff hat can't be made any other way. These printers usually cost 2-4 million. The later is about $20K-$40K. The standard "hobby" units are more like $2K-$4K.

The "scaffolding" is the extra material that is used to support the object as it is being printed. The printing is often "angled" to avoid issue with large "horizontal" layers and the scaffolding becomes more important in these cases.

We had a number of printers in the senior design lab with different technologies. The more exotic the more satisfactory the results but the time factor could become horrific. You could print out a very nice chess piece with no visible layer lines (laser/resin) but it would take 24 hours and cost $300 per piece. Aka you could print out an entire chess set in just over a month and it would cost just under $10K.

I ordered a 1/144 scale 4" deck gun from ShapeWays to try to complete my Gato class sub. The kit was supposed to be the 1942 version of the sub but the manufacturer only updated the sail/conning tower and did not update the armament. It was still the pre-war version. There were a couple of white metal casting kits that were released back when the model first came out about 10 years ago. Both are long out of production and even when they were available they cost $14-$18. The laser/resin version was about $10 and looks way better. BUT it wound up costing closer to $35 when you include "priority printing" and "expedited" shipping. This was not overnight either. You have to wait for a tech to set up the file and schedule the actual printing and the shipping/handling is really weird. The printer "warehouse" is in New York City, Queens I think, but they ship the parts upstate to a central clearing house in Orange County (about 50 miles up the Hudson). If you don't want to get the product in under a week you can forgo the extra charge and they will print it when they get a chance, aka 3-4 weeks processing time. I'll post a picture when I get a chance. It was printed in clear resin. I can't be sure if the two items that may be flash are flash or some super fine detail. Allegedly it will take acrylic paints. We'll see.

[healey36]

The cabin looks brilliant, and helps greatly with the close-in visual transition between the layout and the backdrop. A friend of mine used a number of those Ameritown (sic) buildings assembled, then cut on a diagonal (corner to corner) to incorporate into his backdrop. Worked great...somehow the angled building halves made the visual transition from the layout to his flat wall look even better.

Love that board ‘n batten exterior wall treatment.

[healey36]

Chuck, one of the things I’ve noticed when buying printed detail parts is that the underside of some cylindrical bits such as gun barrels have a flat underside (I.e. their cross-section looks like a “D” pitched over on its flat side). Is this symptomatic of a poor print, or is it a “feature” of 3D printing?

All of the small ship prints I’ve acquired are printed in a clear medium. Super hard, but a bit brittle, so they require a bit of care when handling. The manufacturer recommends a thorough washing with soap and water before painting.

[chuck]

Is this symptomatic of a poor print, or is it a “feature” of 3D printing?

Definitely not a problem with the printer per se, more likely an issue with the skill sets of the modeler who came up with the print image file.

The 3D cad software comes in two major "classes". One involves "surface" modeling where the object is actually "hollow". Google Earth's 3D renderings are like this. If you aren't carful you can break into a wall and find yourself is some weird negative space. SketchUp is like this also. A gun barrel would have no "inside". You are attempting to print "surfaces". If an object has complex curves, inside and outside may "switch" with the printer getting very confused on what you are trying to do.

Other software products are actually "solid" based, you are "sculpting" the object or building it out of "blocks" of material. Neither is inherently superior.

This also explains why the orientation of the printed object can become very important to a successful print. A canon might be better printed with the barrel printed straight down to avoid issues like "flattening".

The deck gun was "printed" with a clear resin and UV laser light to harden the resin. The uncured resin was water soluble. It was bone dry by the time it got to me. It was pretty funny because the compete canon was smaller than the last two joints of my pinkie. It was packed in a 4"x4"x6" box with two layers of bubble wrap and then the part was actually wrapped in small bubble wrap INSIDE a small bubble wrap pouch. Since it was clear, I thought maybe they forgot to pack it!

This technology isn't cheap or easy to use. These aren't Star Trek replicators. A successful print requires detailed knowledge of the software as well as the printers limitations in terms of the materials used for printing as well as how it actually prints the object.

[healey36]

Three inches of rain in twenty hours here...I'm glad to be on high ground and indoors. I've been working on a number of things, including a refurb of an old, well-worn Craftman toolbox Sarge passed along. Sanded the rust spots off and gave it a bit of a touch-up, then a a bit of a polish to bring the old red paint back. Still shows the dents and dings from many years of hard use, as it should. Once done, many of the odds-n-ends tools around here will have a home.

A few other "projects" passed over the workbench:



The 1/100-scale Char B1 got all of the flash scraped off and a coat of base-color applied. Usually the plastic on 3D prints is pretty hard, but drilling the hole for the guitar-string radio aerial went quick. This stuff is a lot softer than the ship plastic. If you look closely, you can see the "strata" of the print, especially on the face and roof of the turret. The fender tops have a lot of pitting as well. Using the two-foot rule, it's not too noticeable, but the camera reveals all of the sins. The paint scheme is pretty complex, so that'll start next week. I ordered some decal sets from I-94...hoping those are here in a week. One thing I figured out - in amongst that gray pile of "flash" on top was a v-shaped piece of sheet-metal that ran side-to-side on the top of the tank. I'm not sure what it was for, but it basically outlined the arc of the gun on the deck. By the time I realized it was there, I'd scraped most of it away. I was going to make one from a sliver of styrene, but figured the heck with it. I'm probably the only person that'll notice it's missing.

I've been wanting to try giving a commercially painted figure a dip to see it how would turn out. I had a blister of MTH figures laying around, so I picked out this guy with the suitcases. I use a pretty light-to-medium dip, so the shading is quite subtle, especially after an overspray of clear matte. The face is almost doll-like, but I left him as is. More importantly, I started looking at him and wondered if he's out of scale. Compared to the Arttista train-order dude, he looks pretty big. At 1-5/8 inches tall, he measures up to six-foot-six. The Arttista guy, at 1-3/8 inches tall, measures five-foot-six. The comparison looks proportionally weird to me, however, but then this is a common problem with figures between manufacturers. He certainly looks too big to walk down the aisle of one of my coaches. The Arttista figure's been on the layout for years and is starting to show some wear-n-tear. Kids like to move the people around, and after a while they start looking a bit barked-up.

Lastly, the ships continue to slide down the ways. Here's a GHQ pewter 1/2400 HMS King Edward VII, ready for the game table. Tried a couple drops of Vallejo matte medium with the wash on this one, and it seemed to work a bit better. One thing for sure - I'm going to have to upgrade the lenses in my Optivisor.

[gregj410]

The cabin looks brilliant, and helps greatly with the close-in visual transition between the layout and the backdrop. A friend of mine used a number of those Ameritown (sic) buildings assembled, then cut on a diagonal (corner to corner) to incorporate into his backdrop. Worked great...somehow the angled building halves made the visual transition from the layout to his flat wall look even better.

Love that board ‘n batten exterior wall treatment.

Thank you! Always been a sucker for the board and batten look.

I started looking at him and wondered if he's out of scale. Compared to the Arttista train-order dude, he looks pretty big. At 1-5/8 inches tall, he measures up to six-foot-six. The Arttista guy, at 1-3/8 inches tall, measures five-foot-six

I’m pretty sure somewhere in the world there is 6’6” tall guy with a suit case and a shorter train orders dude.
I think they look great! Now let’s see that craftsmen tool box! I’m sure you can’t find one like that any more. The closest thing I could find long enough where the older blue cobalts. I’ve worn two of them out and now have resorted to the newer bag type tool totes

[healey36]

I’ll post a couple pics of the tool box after I get a chance to buff it out a bit. I’ll warn you, though, it’s had some hard knocks...definitely won’t look pristine It might be later this week, as I had to run up to Cape May for a cousin’s kid’s wedding. I hadn’t been on I-95 for that bit running out of the northeastern corner of Maryland, then the DE Memorial Bridge, for probably 20 years. Geez us, it’s like running four-wide at Talledega. The only good thing is no cash tolls anymore; everything is EZPass or camera/bill me.

Felt like that song “Convoy”...”crashed the gate doin’ 98, I said let them truckers roll...”

Well, at least until the bill comes.

[healey36]

Two projects, one complete and one just beginning:



Sarge, who's brilliant at refurbing old tool chests, found me this battered old Craftsman toolbox at a local yard-sale, sorely in need of some paint touch-up and a few repairs. The previous owner, or the owner before that, thought it right to use the box for an anvil...took quite a bit of sheet-metal work to get the lid straightened back up (sort of). Lots of corrosion sanded out (drawer fronts got a shot of Duplicolor "gun-metal" I've used on prewar Lionel), and a thorough cleaning of the drawer liners. It's back to serviceable, fitting nicely atop the small Waterloo chest I have. Now all of the spare tools laying around have a place to go.

The Flyer 3018 tank car (left) is headed for a refurb of its tank, with the 1118 (right) donating an end-cap. Somewhere around here I have a spare truck that will provide one wheelset and four brass journals (I still need to track down one more journal). I've never taken a Flyer tank car apart before, so I'm hopeful it's as straightforward as a Lionel, of which I've done many. The vexing problem is the script lettering, which will be lost in a stripping of the paint. An alternative would be to sand out the many chips in the paint, mask and repaint, but that sounds like a miserable task. All in, I've got less than five bucks, so if I destroy them in-process, no worries.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Sarge, who's brilliant at refurbing old tool chests, found me this battered old Craftsman toolbox at a local yard-sale, sorely in need of some paint touch-up and a few repairs.

More tool boxes, etc., just attract more tools,

I've got 1 in each car, 2 in the garage, 1 up in PA, and we're not going to even begin to think about what's in my shop.

Last wood one I got from Sarge got claimed by my wife, so it's found a use.

[healey36]

Sarge, who's brilliant at refurbing old tool chests, found me this battered old Craftsman toolbox at a local yard-sale, sorely in need of some paint touch-up and a few repairs.

More tool boxes, etc., just attract more tools,

I've got 1 in each car, 2 in the garage, 1 up in PA, and we're not going to even begin to think about what's in my shop.

Last wood one I got from Sarge got claimed by my wife, so it's found a use.

Avoiding southern PA yard sales, flea markets, and antique malls would go a long way toward curtailing my affinity for old tools, but where's the fun in that? Old tool collecting, similar to the toy train obsession, has morphed into an upgrade process, i.e. replacing Chinese bits for second-hand Craftsman, SnapOn, Channellock, etc. I have to say, I don't carry a toolbox in the cars anymore, having moved to the canvas bags Greg mentioned. It's a lot quieter