thibaultron

Great effort for a good cause!

I looked at the kit offerings, and the Battue(sp) is on my short list for purchase!

Nice!

Many years ago I went to a museum, where they had a very detailed model of a riverboat that had been (model) built in the 30s. Unfortunately it had been painted with what looked like house paint! The finish was thick, lumpy, looked terrible!

Latest 3D printing project: An oil bunker for an Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0 HO locomotive, two tool boxes for the tender, and a new dome for the boiler. This model has two domes, the 2 part on is for initial fitting, and the complete dome for the final install. Over a thousand (1 1/2" diameter scale) rivets, and yes the total length of the parts as shown is 3.56". The slots in the side of the bunker are to fit over the existing "walls" of the coal bunker (after the bottoms are cut out of the slots). This leaves the ability to change it back to coal, much as the Santa Fe railroad did in real life. The oil bunker was a tank that sat in the coal bunker, instead of the coal load. I've spent waay too long designing this, but it was an interesting exercise. This is version 2.0, the first part was just for a trial fit, and ended up needing a few dimension changes, as expected. The first printed part had damage to the rivets were the Shapeways tech pried it out of the printer. In the end the 3D printed part is probably too fragile for production selling. If I decide to sell this, I'll probably have to use the final part as a master for resin casting. Why the 2 part hatches (base and cover)? I plan to sand the cover to a scale thickness, hence the recesses in the bottom of the covers.

Setting CA generates heat, as part of the chemical reaction.

Great machining Frank! Quite a small and complex part.

I know there are a lot of curve extensions, but I haven't found one that actually creates a smooth curve that follows a set of points. Lots of Besler curves, but not a spline type. Do you know of a spline type extension?

Looks great!

To get a more opaque white star. perhaps a light coat of white paint, overall? don't know how that might interact with the printer, or ink, though.

I use DesignCAD 2016 for general drawing and non 3D printing, and SketchUp for the 3D printing. You really need a good regular CAD program for going from drawings to ship frames etc. I use the 3D features of DesignCAD to check that the frames are "fair", and to double check other features. For example: Here is my redrawing of an old out of production kit. The frames as shown in the original drawing are very incorrect for the aft frames! I don't even know how anyone built the original kit, unless the supplied frames differed greatly from those shown in the drawing. Here are the before and after frames: The colored lines are what I got after using the 3D features to layout and draw waterlines. Here is the 3D layout with waterlines drawn: One thing that most of the CAD programs have, that SketchUp lacks is the ability to draw a smoothed curved line to match fixed points. With SketchUp you can draw straight lines between points, but not a smoothed curve. That is how I got the final frames. With the frames laid out in 3D I drew the curve between the frames and looked for dips or bulges. I then moved the offending points in or out until everything looked smooth. I the case of this boat I generated the aft frames using the fore frames, the deck outline, and the transom as data points to start. Now that I have good water lines, I can also generate intermediate frames, if desired. If TurboCAD costs $150, check out DesignCAD, I think that it runs around $100. I've been using it, in various versions for the last 20 years or so. You definately what a 64 bit CAD.

Forget the "Tracing" function! My DesignCAD "Trace" (by the same company), is not usable, for precision work. No company makes one that works well, enough. Here is an example of a trace of part of a scanned drawing. The trace is shown in green. Its better to bite the bullet, and manually trace the drawing.

X,Y,Z in 3D, so your data will transfer.

Yes. There is no usable software to automatically "trace" the graphic to a CAD format. There are lots of programs that say they will, but none that do even an adequate job of it.

I've never used TinkerCAD, perhaps it can import a JPEG, or other graphic file? You could then trace it, in the CAD, and go from there.

For mixing/stirring the Vallejo paints before use, I use these mixing balls: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mixing-Stainless-Balls-6-35mm-Paint-pots-Vallejo-Model-Color-Citadel-/281190910666?hash=item417848caca Open the top and drop one in. Shake the bottle before each use. I use the 6mm balls for the regular bottles, and 8mm for the larger primer bottles. Some of the thicker brush colors, get a 8mm. To tell which bottles have them (I don't open a new bottle, until I need it), I put a dot with a permanent marker on the bottle when I add the ball. These balls are specially coated, so as NOT to rust, very important! A regular BB or steel ball will rust.

It looks like the cleats are painted/not painted, so as to contrast with the surrounding area. Ie. natural dark cleat in a white painted area, white painted cleat in a natural dark colored area.

Jaager, could you be a bit more specific about the drill? they seem to have everything from tools to clothes, and many in the tool catagory?

Love the idea for the display feet!! I'll remeber this for future projects.

Many historic buildings in the US are required to be painted with "historic" paint mixtures. These are expensive, and have a much shorter life than modern paints. Several years ago I worked with an Engineer who owned a farm with Historically Registered buildings. When it came time to repaint, he found it cheaper to sell the farm, and buy another, that had more modern structures!

For the paint bleed problem, next time put a light coat of the color you are trying to protect with the tape, on first. Any wicking will then be the existing color, which will then seal the tape protected color joint. Ie. a light coat of the poly first, then the color coat.

You might want to consider getting Phospur-bronze wire, from a model RR supplier. Stiff, and doesn't corrode, solders easily. While at you freainda age, the corrosion is not a big deal, his family may want to keep the models after he passes.

Pull some of the wire out, cut lengths generously longer than needed. Attach one end to a shelf, or other high surface. Tie a heavy weight to the other end, and let it hang for a few days. That should give you lengths of straight wire.

Glad to see you went with treenails, not the brass brads they include. I use the seizing thread for the port lid lift, rather than the chain. I could not find any pictures or drawings that showed chain used on ships for this. I also think chain would have abraded the lid surface, in real life. While almost no ships used a lid like this on the weather deck, I did find one drawing of a ship, that did. I think it was one of the Anatomy Of The Ship series books. I also fabricated hooks for the running tackle blocks, as shown in several drawings. Mine came out a little large, but improved the looks.

Perhaps an electric toothbrush, lightly applied?