I found time to assemble one of Tim's castings of Dave's ACe Shell: The shell cleaned up easily enough, and went together just fine. I had to do minimal sanding to get the AZL SD70 mechanism to fit, which surprised me, as I was expecting it to be too tight. Tim did an excellent job casting, now I have to prime it, and see if I can do a good job painting it!
That is so cool John! I need one of them for my woodchip loader track, where did you get it? Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk
Robert, I got it from Shapeways. The model is design by Stoney Smith, and he has a lots designs you can use in your modules. Here is the link. http://www.shapeways.com/model/279037/railking_rk275_railcar_mover___zscale.html?gid=sg4375 http://www.shapeways.com/shops/stonysmith?sg4375[rows]=5
Stony has designed close to 100 Z items ( Give or take- haven't counted recently) and is always open to resize to another scale. His latest are Peterbilt trucks- both Day Cab and Sleeper units. I got a set of both and find them superior to MZZ, MMM, Searails and the Marklin release. And at a reasonable price! Also-- If you have something you want modeled- give Stony a heads up. He enjoys challenges. He usually can be found hovering on Z Central Station.
I've ordered many of Stony's items from Shapeways. These are Rapid Protoype Printed. Most any part that is supposed to move (wheels, axles, lift joints, etc. will almost always do so, as printed ! Some parts do stick so not everything is perfect. These are NOT injection molded detail but you will be blown away at what can be printed in 3D plastic. Clean them with Hexane solvents is best, such as Bestine (TM) available at many art supply stores or some spray electronic cleaners (READ THE CAN for the chemical Hexane). Paint with acrylics. Delivery can take a week or so, they come from The Netherlands by UPS. Some may be coming from New York as delivery has been getting much faster. Payment by PayPal, but in Euros which PayPal will automatically covert for you. About $1.30 per 1 Euro. ALL orders are custom printed in order received. http://www.shapeways.com/about/ http://www.shapeways.com/shops/stonysmith?section=Zscale (make sure you click the Z Scale link and, change the Rows to 5 or so, it make the many pages go faster. Recently: Bucyrus crane (most all of it moves!) http://www.shapeways.com/model/475695/ Old time vertical gravity feed Gas pump: http://www.shapeways.com/model/135816/ GM Fishbowl bus: http://www.shapeways.com/model/176128/ Crossing gates (YES, they WILL go up and down !) A REAL bargain: http://www.shapeways.com/model/359113/ Hayes bumpers for the yard: http://www.shapeways.com/model/363592/ Note: Many items are shown in color, they will be usually all white (the color is only used for differentiation of parts or show detail). Some items are shown as one and my have concerninly high price: they are many one sprue (click the item image to launch the window with details). Some items look oversize, like the Fire Hydrants. http://www.shapeways.com/model/257964/ They are SCALE size and you will barely be able to see them. Please follow his frequent postings over at Z Central Station ( http://www.zcentralstation.com/inde...&func=view&catid=33&id=13111&Itemid=212#13132 ) .
Hello Jeff, the color is transparent, as Stony uses the "Frosted Ultra Detail" material. His work is great, the bumpers are a perfect addition to our scale, they look very good. And the price can´t be beaten. Greetings Mattias
Sorta transparent, definitely more translucent than the white material he also uses. I was shock on the density of some parts like the hydrants, bumpers and crossing gates but the easily separate for painting in groups. I love this stuff ! .
Jeff, Do you, by any chance, have a picture of the Bucyrus crane? I have been considering getting one of those for a while, but had assumed that it was a rigid model, and was also concerned about how fragile it might be. I am definately intrigued, now. Dan S.
Jeff, thanks so much for the compliments. I try to balance operability against breakability. If you feel particularly strong about having any specific item rotate/turn, give me a shout.. I'm always willing to discuss it. There is a flag at the top right of the Shapeways page.. you can select your local currency including US dollars. Their target is 10 business days, so it's closer to two weeks before you'll receive the items. Almost everything is printed in the Netherlands, and then for US customers, the items are bulk-shipped to NYC for distribution from there. That helps keep the overall shipping costs down. Also remember: if anything arrives broken, you can ask for reprints. They're a young company and still learning, but they've got very good customer service.
I gave in, anyway. I figured that I have payed a lot more than that for far less, sight unseen. And everything that I have seen from him is very well done, so I ordered several items today. However, if you don't mind, post pictures, anyway. That way I can see what I am waiting for. Thanks. Dan S.
Jeff brought his shapeway Stoney's Brownhoist tonight to the Niles club, and it does look real nice. The crane moves too, and the big hook looks very scale! Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk
I've got some Japanese Z scale trains that I'm currently trying to build a layout for. The train I've got is a JR 485 set i picked up for $58 bucks, Ill post pictures of it when I have the chance but for now you'll just have to wait! the reason why I got into Z scale was because my wife is into these Asian Ball jointed dolls that are like 1:3 scale so a Z scale train is around O or S scale in the 1:3 world so basically I'm building a dolls model railroad and its A GREAT excuse for getting into Z. Also any good ideas on what to use as a base for Models such as Z scale? Plywood is great for HO and N but I'm lost as what to use.
I use Plywood sometimes, but on my last module I used 2" extruded blue foam. It's easy to carve surface undulations and stuff, and is lightweight. Frame it with 1" x 4" pine. As for me, I started modifying my new F7 ABA set to look more like Northern Pacific than Western Maryland, by adding Fans, Lift Rings, Winterization Hatchs, and Water Heaters:
Progress of my NP Lowey Green F7 ABA Repaint in Z Scale. The new MTL shells for the F7A are much better than the old ones, and the mechanism tune they did helps too.:
