My conclusions so far are:
* that FDM is probably not ideal for iron wagons but seems pretty good for wooden ones. It’s certainly less brittle, and less smelly.
* that whatever the subject, you’re probably going to draw it differently/split it up differently/ put it together differently depending on means of making it.
* it‘s worthwhile discussing stuff like this, ideas, hints suggestions and advice are very welcome.
more soon…
Simon
That's all true.
There seems to be a lot of emphasis on robustness is this discussion, and I wonder what people are doing with their models? Generally resins will not have the impact strength of moulded PS or thermoplastic it's true, but I've not found them to be particularly fragile. The question for me is not, 'is it more brittle than PS', but 'is it strong enough for my needs' - and it is.
It depends a lot on what resin you use. Phrozen, for example, have an RPG (role playing games) resin intended for miniatures where you can drop figures on the floor and expect things like swords to survive. Henkel make a high impact functional resin, and there are elastomeric types as well. Much of my printing is for investment casting, and you can get resins offering clean burnout. The resin I use for models is an engineering type that is more expensive than the run of the mill, but performs better. ABS-like seems to be a popular choice for the sort of thing we do, though I have not used it.
FDM does produce parts that are dimensionally stable and flat. Resin does too, but there is more to achieving that. There are certainly uses where thermoplastic material is the better choice.
The points about space, and general unfriendliness are relative. If you are restricted to the kitchen table in a flat, then this is everything, but many posts here involve various machine tools that would also be incompatible with domestic bliss. You can cut wheel centres with a jeweller's saw. A pantograph mill is more regular, 5 axis CNC may be fantastic (I've not got either), but a cheap resin printer will produce beautiful sacrificial prints for excellent castings. The argument is not which is best, but which is appropriate.
Another consideration is whether you do it yourself or use a third party. Online suppliers can produce fabulous results on industrial machines that avoid all the perceived issues with resin. These 1:64 railcar bodies were done back in 2019, and the services have become better and cheaper since then. These were not expensive and the service was excellent.
The EE Dg is from the late Terry Bradley in 1:24/1:64 from a Chinese supplier:
If
@simond wants a few iron opens, emailing the file to China is a viable solution avoiding the hassles of DIY in FDM or resin and can be done from the kitchen table. In larger scales/models or for multiples it's certainly worth considering.
