Wow nearly two years to the day since this interest bubble had some attention, so in my usual cyclic manner it's time to dust off some Euro projects whilst the interest is here.
Recent dabblings in Autocad for 3D work has been slow and painful, despite being rather good in 3DSM, I'm not in Autocad, not helped by the fact that Autocad is not a native 3D platform; like Rhino or Autocad Inventor which are specifically designed for 3D artwork. Thus doing anything in 3D is like pushing water up hill.
For up the coming Finney7 models like the B1 and A7 it was essential to try and get to grips with lofting with profiles and working up a method of doing it reliably and consistently. Those that know 3D for printing will know that the model must be solid or 'manifold' for the process to work and that's the valley of many dead ends in Autocad; none the less some small progress has been achieved at, I must say, huge expense in time.
I should of chosen something simple like, well a buffer housing or chimney but no in typical fashion I went and picked about the most complex shape you can think of, a Baureihe 110 Bugelfalte or in simple translation terms a 110 trouser crease
Like the 103, I've hankered for a 110 for as long as I can remember and cannot recall seeing one in either O or 1:32 that didn't require an extension of the mortgage, same could be said for most German models in those scales really
so it was a roll your own project.
First off the real thing, and there's plenty of them, they're the DB electric version of our class 47, hundreds of them and plenty of colours and guises to choose from, I had the good fortune to see some of them in the mid 80's at Hamburg.
438 in blue which I think is Intercity or semi stopper service colours...really must get up to speed on my German services.
267 in TEE red and cream, the cast DB biscuit has gone as has the buffer fairings and lower buffer beam skirt but I'll add those to one of mine....if I ever get time to make more than one.
Mr Brutzer has hundreds of photos of them and a nice colour TEE version is here
112 311 Hamm 26.08.79 by
Bahnbilder von W. + H. Brutzer, on Flickr
As can be seen the cab profile is not the easiest to render or work up, the crease on the front needs to be retained but blended in on the roof above and behind the head light.
Now I admit it may not look much, certainly not worthy of the man hours to get this far, but now that I have a reliable and consistent work flow it won't take much longer to tweak it and get it into shape. The plan is to 3D print the cab with window openings and head light casings, then try and replicate it in resin like Simon did with his DMU. To that end I'm not overly concerned if there's the odd small ripple in the surface as it'll all get smoothed by hand and blended in nicely as master core.
The cab plug runs from the rear wall forward and from the floor upward, either side of this etch metal work is the order of the day as it's mainly large flat surfaces.
So, efforts so far.
Couple of things immediately wrong which I'll address tomorrow (they only really become visible once you render the object), the cab wall thickness is way too much, I need to increase the size of the inner plug which is used to carve the inside out with a Boolean subtract function. Second, the top headlight casing is a touch too large so needs to go on a diet, the cab windows are a bit wide and the centre pillar is consequently too narrow.
There are no scale drawings that I can find of these engines so it's all by eye, I do have a decent set for the vanilla cab (which is also very close to if not identical to the 140 / 141 and 151 engines) which does give a very good basis for the general shape and size, but the finer shape is pretty much by eye so far.
There are some visible creases between the cab front and roof 'forehead' and with the cab roof main, these are mainly from the render engine but if they show up in the 3D print are, or should be, easily smoothed. At the moment is the general shape and a printable object I'm primarily after which so far looks like I might finally get.
Still do over and above the comments noted above, quarter light windows and cab door openings with that oh so trick blended cab step recess and then finally the flat recess areas for the glazing which will be held in with a etch surround.
If this all goes well then it will, or should, finally let me get one of these as well, again seen at Hamburg.
These I do have half decent drawings for, note, 177 still carries the cast DB biscuit
Right time for some Zzz's busy day tomorrow.
MD