Wolf Creek/Speedweigand Garage/Service Station

[pardonmyn00b]

I was about to email you and ask where you've been hiding. Now I know, in that little building.

[DRW-FJ40]

Originally Posted by pardonmyn00b

I was about to email you and ask where you've been hiding. Now I know, in that little building.

Yea... I took that stuff you gave me to make me small, thought I would go in and just hang out for an hour or two and I got stuck in some super glue. Thank god for cats.

[DRW-FJ40]

Update: Roofs are in, trim work for blocks is more than I thought, slow going. Not sure how I'm going to deal with the hole in the store roof but I had to make it accessible. For now, probably a simple plywood lid. a removable sky light would be cool... maybe next winter.

BTW, If there any peoples out there who lay block for a living.... I know nutting about laying real block & am totally making this up as I go... scale accurate construction methods is not my goal.

[DRW-FJ40]

Well… I think I spoke a bit prematurely, what I thought was “a little trim work” turned into several more evenings of gluing rectangles. But I am finished with that phase now & just painting & weathering & starting to tackle the awning/pump Island/sign.

[DRW-FJ40]

Time for an update. I fashioned a lid to cover the store portion. Not sure if that's permanent but it covers the hole for now. All the windows have glass & are mounted. Did some trim work around the garage door openings. I think weathering the block is going to be a never ending process but for now, I'm moving on to the next phase, the awning & overhead sign.













Started on the sign last night. I made a template for the lettering & have already painted the letters & had to do a little mock up. The back ground will be gloss white with yellow trim around the edge.

[DRW-FJ40]

I've come up with a new plan for the pumps. I really like the Wayne 505, 1958 model. I had originally planned to do these from styrene but... with all this shapeways stuff happening, I want to give that a try. So, working on my CAD model. Here is a quick shot as to where I'm at with it.

Sort of making it up as I go. I can't find much on these old pumps as far as dimensions other than HxWxD type stuff. But lot's of pictures out there.

[DRW-FJ40]

I'm thinking I could have made this faster by traditional methods but... I'm having fun. Roughly 24 hours in this CAD model but it's neat-O cool. Just about finished & then I'll break it down into logical pieces for shapeways to facilitate painting individual pieces. It will be hollow inside to allow for lighting.

So, if all goes as planned, it will result in a scaleable 1950's Wayne gas pump kit.

[DRW-FJ40]

I'm still working on refining the pump design. With Shapeways, detail doesn't cost more as long as you stay within the tollerances of the chosen material... took me a while to get my head around that. Now that I have, I keep going back and adding more detail... It's very hard to say "OK, that's good enough".

Anyway, brought my computer home over the 3 day weekend so's I could work on the gas pump and.... I didn't touch it. Instead, I worked on the awning & made some good headway. It will have another identical sign on the other side. I need to come up with something to finish off the edge of 1/4" ply that forms the roof of the awning. I played around with some thin styrene strip painted red (?) with yellow horizontal stripes (?)... don't know yet but it needs something.

I put a truck in there to give an idea of the size... it's getting really big. The awning will be detachable, one for moving it and two, so I can turn it into a fire station as needed.

[Mt.Dew]

That sign looks Great!!! This just keeps getting better and better. I always look forward to updates.

[bvrc]

keep it up!

[Tin Soldier]

Wow! That's amazing.

~ Catch an all new season of Life of an RC Addict - lifeofanrcaddict.com ~

[DRW-FJ40]

Thanks guys! I really appreciate it.

Back on the pump. I'm uploading this to Shapeways today. Probably will have some issues on the first run but... I'm pleased with the level of detail in it.

[cdub]

I'm very curious about how this gas pump goes on Shapeways. Please update with details on how it works out compared to building it up by hand.

[DRW-FJ40]

Originally Posted by cdub

I'm very curious about how this gas pump goes on Shapeways. Please update with details on how it works out compared to building it up by hand.

I plan to. Right now all the pieces have been ordered & waiting on them to get here.

[DRW-FJ40]

This is the process:

first I draw all the pieces in AutoCAD using 3D solids:


Renderings make pretty pictures for the forum but also real helpful in seeing problem areas. It can get real confusing seeing all the 3D lines without any perspective. I use colors, layers and renderings to visualize.


Then you upload it to Shapeways and you see what it costs. When you add it to your basket & check out that they really look at your file for problems.

They'll send emails with graphics explaining why they can't proccess a particular order. In the example below, I tried to print one of my nozzles to a less expensive, less detailed material to see if it looked good enough and that materials minimum thickness was exceeded.



What you end up doing is shaving every bit of material off that isn't neccesary. This is the gas pump that I finally sent off:

[DRW-FJ40]

Here are a couple other fun things I made in 1:10 scale & added to the order:

[cdub]

I commend you for doing that modelling in Autocad. I've ordered some small things from Shapeways before, but when I've uploaded designs for things that were larger the price took my breath away.

It sounds like they've improved the feedback on model issues since the last time I tried as well.

I'm assuming you will be painting these parts in some manner? What type of paint do you plan to use on them?

[DRW-FJ40]

Originally Posted by cdub

I commend you for doing that modelling in Autocad. I've ordered some small things from Shapeways before, but when I've uploaded designs for things that were larger the price took my breath away.

It sounds like they've improved the feedback on model issues since the last time I tried as well.

I'm assuming you will be painting these parts in some manner? What type of paint do you plan to use on them?

Thanks, I know there are other packages like solidworks and inventor for this type of thing but I work in Civil & Civil 3D doesn't have much applicable to what I'm doing but that's what I have, so I use the AutoCAD portion.

Yes, my first upload of the pump was a bit of sticker shock. The key is shaving every bit of unnecessary material off the model. Doing this, I reduced my initial cost by 300% If the minimum thickness is .7mm, anything thicker is just added cost.

I use a lot of Krylon spray cans from walmart, but for intricate detail that I don't want to cover up with paint, I prefer Tamiya rattle cans. I have an airbrush but I hate cleaning it. I've got too much time in this to screw it up with cheap paint so, yea, Tamiya TS laquer.

[DRW-FJ40]

It's Christmas morning on my desk.

My good cheap camera is at home but I was so excited I had to post a fuzzy cell phone shot.

I'm very pleased with my first parts. I made some guesses on fit tollerances between pieces and it all works perfect. I don't have all the parts because a few items on my first order were rejected for various reasons, mostly minimum thickness violations. Since many of the parts on front vs. back are identical, I ordered cheaper materials on one side to see if I could get the detail without paying the price for ultra-detail. Much of the lettering detail isn't good enough on the "B" side but in looking at the pieces, a water slide decal on a flat surface using the cheaper material would, ultimately, look better I think.

Anyway, three guesses what I'll be doing tonight.

[DRW-FJ40]

- I hit everything to be painted with a light coat of primer mainly just to be able see the detail.


My thought here was to provide raised letters that you could hit the top of with a small brush... but I don't know if my old eyes and shaky hands can go this small.


Here is the same two parts, one printed with "strong, white, flexible, polished" material and the other with "frosted ultra detail" material. The latter is more expensive, allows for finer detail. You can see the print lines in the lower one. Shapeways is upfront about this and certain materials are better at not showing the print lines but until you see the printed product in your hands, it's hard to get a feel for whether it's going to impact the end result to a point you can or can't live with.

Sanding is always an option but you have to think about how difficult it would be to sand certain areas. In this case with the raised letters, I don't see how you could sand in there.