The test print for the Bachmann EMD DDA40X has arrived so in this post I will show you how it worked out and what we did with it.

This print was made from Shapeways’ White Strong & Flexible material (WS&F) and this was the first time I’d used it.  The finish was a little rough out of the box but the overall definition was good, as shown below.

It is, as the name suggests, strong and it holds its shape perfectly.  Given that the chassis  will be mostly covered up the roughness is not a concern, although it could easily be smoothed with a quick wipe with sand paper.

The chassis has been designed to work with the fuel tank which comes with the DDA40X. The fuel tank clips onto the chassis using the same fixing lugs that are on Bachmann’s power chassis.  Below is an image of the tank clipped onto the chassis; what it doesn’t show is that the lip on the chassis that fits inside the tank is little bit too big and needed to be filed down.  This has been fixed in the 3D model.

Bob, who does the painting and assembling, wanted to add power to the model as the DCC circuit board was still in the shell which also controls the top and tail lights and the flashing light on top.  Because this is a test print, and because I haven’t drawn the correct ones yet, we are using dummy trucks designed for an EMD DD35 model.  These work with 4 Fox Vally 36″ metal wheel sets (FVM3611) each.

The trucks are printed in the Shapeways FUD material as they are highly detailed.  Bob sprayed them with a base gray and then added power pickups using thin copper strip.  The strips where soldered to the ends of bolts to be used instead of the bolster pins as pictured below.

The strips pick up power from all axles on each truck.  The washer was added to the first photo above because the chassis sat a little too low and rubbed on the side of the trucks.  An extra down stand has now been added to the chassis 3D model to accommodate this.

The shell needed a little modification as well.  Power wires have been added to the circuit board with washers so they can be connected to the bolts which attach the trucks.

The central corridor has also been completed.  Because the Bachmann chassis fills the whole shell, Bachmann did not add the side walls to the corridor, but when the shell is fitted to my dummy chassis there would be a big void viewable through the doorway.  Bob used plastic strips to complete the corridor.  He painted the inside of the walls black and the corridor Armor yellow to match the shell.

With all the parts assembled it became apparent that the overall model was too light so Bob added some extra weight inside the fuel tank as pictured below.

Here is the model on the track powered up. It runs freely and is perfect for a second unit or mid train helper.

As this was the first time using the WS&F material I’m keen to try it on another project. It is rougher than the FUD and has a little less definition, but its strength and cost effectiveness will lend itself to projects which, if made using the FUD, would be unrealistically overpriced. Obviously body shells etc that require the detail will have to be done in FUD but with 3D printing any range of parts for the layout can be produced, and new materials are always being made available so watch this space!

Once I have drawn up the DDA40X dummy trucks I will make the kit available through my Shapeways site.

The test print of the Pre-Rebuilt/Ex Gas Turbine UP Water Tender has arrived from Shapeways and in this post I will show you what it looks like and what happens next.  This usually follows the pattern of an inspection, a clean and a touch of color.

Here is how it looks when it arrived, all I have done is taken the parts out of the bags Shapeways ship them in and washed them in a warm soapy water.

As you can see the parts are almost transparent and very glossy because there is still a lot of waxy residue left on them.  The part at the bottom tight of the photo is a not actually from this kit, it’s a replacement pilot for and N scale Atlas 2-8-2 that I am working on, this I will tell you about in another post.

Overall the details appear to have come out very well as yo can see from the photo below showing pipe work on the end beam.

The small loose small parts also printed well, the trucks and bolster pins are from my other UP Water Tender so I knew they would. The ladders are different in this kit and again I tried too make them as small as I could, the ring is to keep them together until you are ready to start modeling.  They are still over sized but as we are working at 1:160 scale sometimes sacrifices have to be made.

The next step is to put the parts into Goo Gone and leave them for 24 hours.  I use and old pasta sauce screw top jar, this is ideal as I don’t have to completely fill it with Goo Gone and it stays sealed, the Goo Gone evaporators quickly.  I use just enough so that once the parts are in and the jar is laid on it side they are completely covered.

After the 24 hour soak the parts are removed and again washed in warm soapy water.  They are then left to dry for a further 24 hours.  In this time the remaining waxy residue ‘fuzzes up’ and becomes powdery on the surface of the model.  This I remove with an old tooth brush.

Once that is done the model looks like the photos below.

I am now able to see all the detail and it has all printed well.  These shots still show fuzzy build up on the ends that needs to be brushed off.

As it turns out I think I didn’t leave this particular model in the Goo Gone for long enough.  My current jar of Goo Gone has now been used for a lot of models and I think its potency is waning.  Please note, leaving FUD models in Goo Gone, or any other rubber solvent, for too long will make the materiel go soft and start to bend, eventually it will do unrepairable damage.  It is best to stick with the 24 Hour rule, and if that is not enough re-soak for only a few hours at a time until you are happy with the result.

Again for painting I handed the model over to Bob Norris and he went to work.  He started by spraying the whole body with Sea Grey acrylic by Hombrol which also acted as a primer for the yellow as shown below.

Again, I think the excess fuzziness on the ends is due to me not soaking the model for long enough in the Goo Gone.  However not to be beaten Bob used a pencil eraser on the ends which greatly reduce the fuzzy effect and smoothed out the flat areas. The sides of the body were already smooth right from the print stage.

The part of the print that I was most interested to see was the grill mesh on the top.  You may recall from my last post that this had been modeled in as a recessed detail rather than an actual grill. However with the first coat of paint the grill patten relay shows up well and I am very happy with the result as shown below.

With the gray paint dry Bob added the yellow.  He used Armour Yellow from Badger and brush painted 4 coats as shown below.  The red strips are decals.

For this model Bob used railings from a spare Atlas body shell for the grab rails.

The model still needs a few finishing touches such as a splash of silver in the head light lenses, a coat of matt dulcoat to seal everything in, couplings and weathering but we wanted to show you how we where progressing.

The idea for modeling this tender was for the excursion train but originally it would have been a tender for a UP 8500 Class Gas Turbine.  So rather than show it with a steam locomotive here we have the tender in it’s original job.

The paint color doesn’t match the Gas Turbine, this is because it was painted to match the Kato COLA passenger cars which have a deeper yellow.  When the car is totally finished we will get some more photos and possibly a video of it running with the Kato excursion train, but that will be for another post.