Isinglass 3-D printed coaches

[Woodcock29]

Just a quick update to say that last weekend Andy Edgson emailed me some updated CAD he'd produced for the GN Dia 164F to correct the errors but it also now includes the hinged toplights. It's looking good.

Andrew

[jwealleans]

I'm calling the D274 finished. I'm pleased with the way it's turned out - the roof could be a better fit, but I could also have fixed roof to body permanently, making good the joint and chose not to. I'd pick out one or two minor things with the kit - door outlines would help the appearance as would toplight outlines (I think that may be under way on other kits already). If it was possible to make glazing the doors a one piece affair that would also help - the toplight was such a tiny fiddly piece that I eventually gave up and used Crystal Clear. It's not hugely apparent.

I'm not sure whether the van section door handle arrangement changed on these but I found I had too many holes and the handles in my pictures were different to the drawing. Given how easy it is to fracture the material, however, filling holes in is much easier than making them and i think the kit is right in this approach. I was able to put the handles I thought it needed in place and fill in the rest.

If anyone's wavering about having a go, I'd encourage you to try one.

[Hatfield Shed]

I am mightlly convinced, having watched Andy's efforts from his first GCR van kit, lurking somewhere on my layout. It's the essential Quad-Arts that I will embark on, in BR maroon, as I rode in them in the 1960s. I still find it striking that these essentially pre-group concept vehicles were running alongside BR diesel types still (just!) in service today, ER was a time machine...

[hallofgwr3]

Finish looks great, is there different priced versions of the kit? Like say without bogies or a body only without underframe?

[Woodcock29]

A week or two ago I received revised sides from Andy Edgson for the GN Dia 164F Composite and also the Dia 78T Buffet Car. These now include the frames for the toplight vents on the compartments and doors and have corrected the too wide first class windows on the 164F and toplights for the doors on the 78T.
I will endeavour to post photos this week.
Andrew

[NZRedBaron]

So, how difficult is it to assemble their kits? What tools and other bits and pieces do you need on hand to make them? I was considering getting one or two of their Gresley 32ft brake vans for a parcels/newspaper train I'm making.

[2392]

[quote=NZRedBaron post_id=138163 time=1597633879 user_id=5154]
So, how difficult is it to assemble their kits? What tools and other bits and pieces do you need on hand to make them? I was considering getting one or two of their Gresley 32ft brake vans for a parcels/newspaper train I'm making.
[/quote]

Ditto. I'm curious too. As I'd like to give one or two of their kits a go too. I've made both Ian Kirk and the ubiquitous Airfix kits over the years.

[jwealleans]

If you're specifically after a D120 brake van then it would be remiss not to mention the excellent Chivers kit which is now available again. I understand that there are detail differences between that and the Isinglass components so you can potentially make different diagrams with the two different kits (as user Quicksilver95 is intending to do - see his thread in this forum)

I did a fairly in depth series of posts on a GNR bogie vehicle starting here. Andrew is also building bogie vehicles, but the basics will be the same for any of the 3D printed kits.

[Woodcock29]

Here are photos for the revised sides for GN Dia 164F composite. Sorry its taken so long to post these.

There is a slight breakage on the bottom of the ventilator for the left hand toilet window on the compartment side but I can repair that. You will note they look much better with the full frames for the ventilators in the toplights. There is also a bit more meat on the sides of the droplights in the doors.

One slight issue currently is that the corridor side has a series of waves along the top looking down vertically along the top of the side. I'm going to see if I can straighten that by placing it in boiling water. I'll be able to practice first on the original sides which also have this on the corridor side but its less evident but at least its a practice piece.

It will be at least a month or so before I can start the build.

Andrew

[Atlantic 3279]

Wavy cantrails not confined to the BB 6 wheelers then? While my progress on those has been slow, I'm now at the stage of thinking about how I might get the full length very edge of each roof to sit down tightly on the top of the side, so as to avoid the gaps that you've found on yours and which my carriages certainly have if I merely clip the roof in place. This problem persists despite filing away the unwanted undulations and tapers from the surfaces that should fit neatly together....

[Woodcock29]

Graeme these waves are different to those on BB 6 wheel kits. You need to look down on the top of the side to see these waves clearly. It's something to do with the form of the pillars in between the large corridor windows and its only exhibited really along the cantrail and on the corridor side.

I'm going to try clamping them between my steel bending bars and then place them in boiling water. Might be able to find time this week to practice on the original side I have but also must get on with attempting to make coach transfers for Milk Van and Parcel, Fruit and Milk Van using letters from HMRS loco/coach sheets. Will be an interesting exercise.

Andrew

[Atlantic 3279]

Hi Andrew,

I think I understood that you meant waves in a different plane, but it seems to show that cantrails are susceptible to that kind of thing when printed.

[NZRedBaron]

I was reminded of this thread earlier, so I thought I'd revisit to touch on something- how do you set up couplers for these vehicles?

[Hatfield Shed]

My choice from a host of possibilites: screw on Kadee no 5 to the underside ('body mounted') totally ignoring the Kadee height gauge, to have the knuckle sitting neatly under the broad notch in the bottom of the gangway faceplate (where present). Using Kadee magnets, they still uncouple reliably - it took me ages to 'discover' this, after years of slavish Kadee gauge height installations! - but the resulting appearance is about as good as it gets using a RTR coupler: looks much like the real thing, and in the right location.

[NZRedBaron]

What about in terms of tension locks? I'm a lazy sod, and I'm unlikely to go to the effort of swapping out all the couplers on my stock- especially the old stock from the pre-NEM days.