Mick,
Your promotion of new technologies - such as 3D CAD and printing - is of great service to the hobby. As I have posted elsewhere, this has reduced prototyping costs enormously. Masters that used to cost £100's (or even £1000's) to produce are now knocked out in double quick time at a fraction of the cost. As we discussed on Saturday, the resin prints are good enough to replace brass and whitemetal components. It is only the reluctance of customers to accept resin that stops me using resin directly for things like domes and chimneys. (I agree that your 3F resin dome was as good as any metal one). I guess people like soldering brass! And why not? Well, the answer may well be cost. With the huge rise in the price of brass and other metals over the last 12 months the only way that kits may be viable is by replacing brass with resin. You cannot dismiss it and embracing it is much better than grudging acceptance, but I am 100% with you that these are existing viewpoints.
If you do go, please don't go to FB. I had a terrible experience on that platform and I am never going back.
If people don't like what you post here, they will soon learn to ignore your ramblings - but please do keep them for those of us who are appreciative.
Dave
Dave,
Your's was one of the, if not the most positive, conversation I've had to date regarding new technologies and mediums.
I'm fortunate in that all my clients accept and embrace the medium, as you say it allows models to be built that would otherwise end up in the bin, or be massively expensive if the missing parts or sub standard parts had to be made in the traditional way; it saves customers hundreds of pounds on a build.
For a commercial builder or hobbyist who want's to upgrade an existing model it's a no brainer, from a commercial kit suppliers sales point it's still thin ice and early days and I get that very much.
The hobby will get there, it will have to as the source of existing casting companies is shrinking, especially those that understand our market/hobby. Very shortly I fear the hobby is going to be forced down this road and all those who poo poo the new medium are not going to be so smug. I may be wrong but I'd like to future proof myself just in case I'm not.
Frankly I think we should be racing down this road, exploring the new materials, where it can and cannot be used, mixing resin to get durability, pliability and fidelity, printing parts, stress testing and exposing to excessive UV to see if it breaks down, warps, cracks etc. I'm a member of several gaming communities and they've been doing all this stuff for years, decades in some cases and are streets ahead of the toy train brigade.
As we discussed, I think things like domes, sand boxes, tool boxes, water scoop domes, even the scoop and uptake are all perfectly viable for 3D resin, these items traditionally fail (or are of a lesser quality) in white metal for several reasons, shrinkage, oval-ing in the mold, sagging faces as the material shrinks, undercuts and fragile small details. There are good white metal castings out there, but they are the exception rather than the norm I've found.
As an aside the best part of resin domes I've found is that they fit the boiler curvature perfectly and you can get nice thin rims. I always get a satisfied (job well done) feel fitting resin domes to boilers, they just sit so well, perfectly circular, perfect profile and very little cleaning up if designed and orientated correctly.
I have several personal projects I'd like to float as short run (cottage) availability kits, they'd use resin in some cases, brass and white metal where applicable for other items. I accept this may create a conflict with existing relationships but I think the low yield aspect doesn't make them cost viable for a larger concern.
Use of a new material as an independent also protects the larger commercial concern and all the risk is taken on my behalf. However, I feel so strongly about the new materials and processes that I am prepared to take sole responsibility for that risk. As I said above, someone has to be first.
The LNER A6 was a perfect example, designed in conjunction with Nick we ran ten sets of etches as aids to scratch building, in the end the final count was 12 and nothing since for the last two years, those sorts of yields are well below commercial viability, especially if you have to factor in today's rising costs for castings.
I came back to O from AFV and military modeling generally after dropping OO years before, I'm used to resin/mixed media and how to prep it for the best finish, we're all happy fettling and prepping white metal or brass but just plop resin on the model like Lego, and then complain when paint doesn't sit well on it. That's the bit that needs changing, it's the learning of how to use the new material and work with it to get the best results that's slow to be taken up I feel. That applies to 3D resin or existing resin bodies etc from the big boys already out there.
Brass will always give the best plate work and paint finish, especially high gloss finished engines, but weathered or workday engines would benefit from the slightly rougher surface resin gives. Getting resin to gloss up like brass takes effort and energy, filler primers and smoothing back....but..it'll never replace brass. The Hall model came with a resin boiler, smoke box, firebox unit, it was discarded and brass used and I'll be doing the same with the two BLP's in progress, I'll have to bite the bullet on the roof sections and print those but the slab sided flanks are better suited to sheet metal.
I suppose the chariot I'm driving is the right material for the job and not be wedded to a legacy one because that's what we're used to.
Regarding Facebook, it's a potential revenue stream I cannot afford to cut off, I have gathered more work from Facebook postings than here on Western Thunder, in fact I have not picked up a single client from Western Thunder the entire time I've been commercially building.
Anyone thinking my posts are blatant commercial advertising, I can tell you now....it's a dead end and does not work
I have had the odd request for some 3D bits they've seen on my builds but I can't pay bills on bacon sarnies and coffee's at shows.
As a flip side to my first comment, someone at Guildford said they would never add 3D to a high end model, when asked why they responded, "it makes it look cheap". I'm flattered they though the models were high end in the first place but slightly taken aback that they thought it looked cheap (an obscure throw away phrase because they couldn't vocabulate anything more defining in the moment?).
I've found you should never dismiss comments like that, if one person spoke it then at least ten thought it and the conversation was with someone well established in the hobby and who's voice I keenly respect. It was a cordial conversation and when pressed further to define cheap we ended up with, it's not metal and therein I think lies the rub in the majority of what I (personally endorse and am passionate about) post on WT.
'It's not metal' would actually make a catchy independent 3D trade name ironically
.....y'all saw it here first
, beer, good food, ripping up the M25/1/6/42 from Guildford to Tamworth plus the legacy of the previous night made that eve a bit of a blurr 
!!!!!
