I believe I mentioned this a few posts ago, but when I finished the S-2 I went ahead and updated the S-4 to include separate stacks (I made the change within the last few days). The version that you received was the version that was available back when you placed your order (the one that didn't include separate stacks). In short, Shapeways sends you the design as it appeared at the time that you ordered, which in this case, did not include separate stacks. Frankly though it really wouldn't make any difference to the finish. Thanks for posting the pictures and do keep the feedback coming! I included four additional grabs on the sprue if you want to see about replacing/splicing the broken one. It'll require some drilling and gluing but they should fit perfectly. " Thanks again for making this possible." Thank you (and the rest of customers by extension) for being one of the first to purchase these; I need feedback to help improve my products and for that I need people willing to go out on a limb and purchase one. Thanks for being willing to help.
Well, I was hoping to get some progress made this weekend, but I am not happy with having to grind the frame halves with the tools I have at home. Hopefully I can remember to take them to work Monday and have the machinist work them over. You only have to remove material in the cab side area of the Kato mech. I reckon I will have to turn my attention to the shell instead.
a bit off topic but my experience is archers rivets are flimsy and hard to apply to any side that isn't absolutely flat. you do need to prime the surface first though, they will not adhere to plain plastic. on some rolling stock sides, i've found rather easier to just reduce the actual plan to scale, get one of those pins for noticeboards and go to town on the reduced plan, which is then laminated to styrene with the punched side onto the plastic, to form the wagon side. this gives you rivets in the right place ... for the cost of a photocopy reduction to your chosen scale. mine's TT, but i dont see why it can't work in N. you do need to file your noticeboard pin to keep it sharp. on this S4, i am very impressed ... it's the best shapeways loco i've seen thus far, bar none and i've been frankly discouraged by their model railwy prints most of the time.
Just an update of (lack of) progress......LOL! Actually, I took the Kato frame halves to work and had them milled (my grind job looked like crap) and the mechanism fits great. The only material removed was in the cab area since the NW cab is longer. You can remove it with a Dremel, it just irritated me knowing what my work would look like under the shell. A small price to pay for ease of DCC. Mounted in the shell, it tends to pinch the frames just enough to bind the trucks in corners, but I used a couple of small pieces of styrene to keep the proper gap and it runs like a champ. There is no bulge in the shell when viewing from the top, so I removed no material from the inside of the shell. I decided to move forward and paint the shell for NP, but surprisingly what looked fairly acceptable in gray primer looks less so in the semi gloss black. I would post a pic, but it wouldn't show well. Customer service at Shapeways has been in contact with me and they are remaking my shells, hopefully in the requested orientation. I find it rather interesting that they have no better control over the production facility than they do. I guess it is probably because they just think of this as a toy. Hopefully that will change.
Thanks for the update , what orientation is the best for these ? Is it possible to request a different orientation ? I assume that the rough spots are on only one side on the top of the hoods or on one side of the body ? I'm still waiting for the Blunt trucks for mine, I'd like to build them to completion the first time , I still have two lifelike mechanisms waiting . Is there going to be a new thread soon , "Printing a Fairbanks" ? Randy
Its time to post another update on my progress. Due to some difficulties I was having with the shell (little bits falling off here and there) and the fact that this is my first time building a shell kit like this I decided to go with one of B&M's other blue paint schemes, which I think is still interesting. I included a number on the nose because I wasn't sure I was ever going to get numbers into the actual number boards (due to a tremor in my hands decals are very difficult for me to work with when they are that small). I still have to paint and attach the hand rails and detail a few things and paint the fuel tank. The inspiration. Apparently this locomotive still exists, although not in this paint scheme. Which Micro-Trains couplers would work on this shell (or has that not been established)? I admit that I have't started looking yet, but I am getting close to the end and need to think about putting it into operations.
WOW , you got a winner !! You did nice job ! I found that Vodka smooths out tremors BTW, I drive better, sing better and I'm better looking to the girls... Randy
Thanks, like I said I still have some work to do on it but I am just happy/thankful to be able to roster an S4. Thank you Matthew! Now its time to look into an S2 project... time to track down another Life Like. As for the tremor, I discovered it about 5 years ago while overseas and the Army doctor who originally diagnosed it told me the same thing. I had to wait until I got home to take his advise though.
Here she is complete (less electrical contacts and glass). I will get better photos some other day when the weather clears and I can get better light. As an added bit of feedback: Make sure you apply the couplers prior to attaching the handrails. The handrails are beyond fragile, I broke and had to reglue about 70% of the stanchions. I used Atlas ATL23015 couplers (I used the set I had on the SW8 shell that donated the chassis) they are exactly the correct height but leave a lot of space in the coupler pocket area. Paint adheres to the FUD rather well and I havent seen any flaking from the handrails. I used Floquil by the way. I wonder if it is possible for the service doors to be more flush, they stick out quite a bit and make the hood look wider than it is. Overall, I think the kit was awesome and well worth the money. Its the only way to get an S4 and frankly one of the few ways to get any sort of ALCO switcher in N scale (the Arnold S2 being the only commercially produced ALCO switcher, unless I am wrong). I would highly recommend picking one of Matthew's kits up when the locomotive of your choice becomes available. I have no need for an FM but might consider one for the heck of it and the practice. I am definately going to look into an S2 once finances allow.
Matthew... I was thinking about other projects you could attempt and I think I identified a good one that isnt locomotive related and isnt overly complex. What about a generic troop sleeper baggage car conversion. A person could simply use all of the parts from the Micro-Trains troop sleeper and all you would need to create is a troop sleeper shell with baggage doors and the windows plugged. I am hoping to attempt a conversion in the near future and I know there are a number of transition era modellers who would benefit from having a couple converted baggage cars in their passenger consists. The difficulty for the coversion, when using the Micro-Trains car shell, is convincingly filling the windows so that they are flush and look professionally filled. Seems these things are easy to find in HO scale but we N scalers have nothing (that I know of). Here are a couple views from the web: Here is a link to Walthers' factory assembled versions: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/932-4164
Funny you should mention this project as I am working on it right now. Although mine will be a modified Micro-Trains shell that will be cast in resin. The first version will be a Burlington car. I will be making them available for purchase and will announce them hopefully in a couple of weeks.
I have purchased a few resin shells from Bill. They are top quality. I don't think Bill lets the bad castings out of his sight.
Wow bumthum, that shell looks spectacular! Thanks again for posting pictures and providing feedback! I think I'm just about ready to go ahead and make the revisions that you and others have suggested...
Awesome! good to hear At this point I am just waiting to hear back from a few more people so that I can address most/all concerns at once That reminds me: bumthum, where were the handrails breaking for you? Posts, railings or both?
Thanks for the earlier compliment about my loco but it wouldn't have been possible without your hard work on the kit, so thank you again. As for the handrail breaks, almost all were where the stanchion meets the stanchion base. There seems to be a thin spot and a number of the square bases were broken off when the handrail tree arrived. I got those glued together and then proceeded to break most again while trying to mount the front coupler. The front and rear handrails were quite robust but the uncoupling bars,levers broke pretty easily (although the FUD seems to love CA glue so nothing that couldnt be fixed). The joint where the side rails curve up to the front cab roof is somewhat tricky to complete and I needed to trim quite a bit off the rail to make that happen. Once the stanchions are properly glued into the frame the handrails become much more rigid and less prone to breakage (except at the base). I hope all of that helps. Clearly, I simply sanded the rivets off of my cab since they were not workable when the kit arrived, that might be something else to look into.
At the risk of putting this back on thread and possibly going over ground you covered earlier in this thread... What about the S1 and S3's any thoughts on getting some of these? I realize that the changes are minimal and I could 'hack' the S2/S4 to get there but it seems such a shame to do that.
Okay that's what I assumed, but I wanted to be sure - luckily that's a much easier fix! The thought had crossed my mind I'll leave it at that for now (at least until some of these other loose ends are tied up)...
