Cabin Fever

Time sure flies when you’re having fun … it’s already been two and half months , since my last post on the HOn30 Shay. I know that I have a couple of followers out there who are waiting for an update, so here we go …
Another set of parts arrived from Printapart last Friday and after a quick test-fit, I refitted the entire body to Shay version 0.2.

The HOn30 Shay with new parts and cabin

To start with, the diamond shaped smoke stack is now 1 mm taller and I remodelled some details on the headlights which did not print that well. I also remodelled the right-hand side by changing the height of the piston cover and by adding HO scale pistons. Furthermore, part of the N-scale piston cover has been hidden beneath a toolbox, making it less wide and giving it the look & feel of the original. And last, but not least … the little bugger finally received it’s cabin!

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It’s all for free!

Please note that I have removed the download pages for the mentioned parts, as they were hardly being used.

As part of my modelling efforts for Koala Creek, I have created several HOn30 parts. These parts have been modelled in 3D CAD software and have been exported to STL file format, allowing them to be printed by a 3D-printing service like Printapart.com. The great thing about this way of modelling is that once the STL file has been created, one would be able to print an infinite amount of copies of a part.

3D printed wholestick trucks 3

I however do not believe that I will be needing that many parts for Koala Creek … nor do I have any intention of selling the parts commercially. So I decided to share my modelling efforts, by making the STL files of the parts available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License.

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Shay version 0.1

All has cooled down now and I have been able do some work on the HOn30 Shay. First of all, I have changed the diamond stack to ensure a nice and sturdy fit. Secondly, I have modeled the headlight … it’s a bit larger than the ones on the Mapleton Shays, because it has been based on the headlight of the Joe Works Shay.

The HOn30 Shay with wholestick truck 
And last but not least, I have modeled the sides of the frame to fit the HOn30 profile. The parts have been ordered from Printapart again and they just arrived a couple of days ago. As you can see from the pictures in this post, I just couldn’t resist fitting them to the actual Atlas Shay body. I am quite pleased with the result already and both the diamond stack and the headlight will remain as they are.

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Shay Fever

I have probably been struck by a bad case of Shay Fever … at least that’s what it feels like. As mentioned previously, I fell in love with the tiny 13 tons “Class A” Shay locomotives and am determined to build one in HOn30.

The HOn30 Shay is slowly  progressing

I finally scored an N-scale Shay made by Atlas on eBay and replaced the body with the one that I bought a couple of months ago. The N-scale pilot steps and headlight have already been removed with the Dremel
After cleaning the 3D-printed diamond stack with acetone, I applied a couple of layers of grey primer and placed it on top of the boiler. Applying the primer, almost makes the 3D-printed part as smooth as the body itself.
There is also another method to make 3D-printed parts  smoother … apply small amounts of Superglue to the surface, but do not soak it! The Superglue will be absorbed by the 3D-printing material and will smoothen the surface. Just be careful with the fumes and do not get stuck to your printed part …

Never to old …

I learned something interesting this week … wax is being used during the 3D-printing process. You might wonder how I found out … well that’s al quite simple. I decided to complete the first two printed wholestick trucks and added the corner posts to the trucks. After doing this, I applied the first layers of grey Tamiya primer and that’s when the trouble started …

Checking the proportions with Preiser figures (1:87) 
Unfortunately the primer started peeling of directly after it had been sprayed on. This was caused by the fact that 3d-printed parts are being supported by a wax structure during the printing itself. Most of it is cleaned of afterwards, except for a thin layer …
The 3D-printing service informed me that it would be best to clean the parts with acetone, before applying the paint. Hope the printed parts will stand a nice bath of Airbrush Cleaner first …