A few pre-production photos of our new 50' plug door waffle-side boxcar: We are still waiting on the stirrups and brake wheel and the packaging so it may be a few more weeks before we are ready to roll on this one. The body comes in 3 parts; 2 ends plus a retangular body "tube" so assembly is quick. Material is acrylic photopolymer. It has been sprayed grey for photography; the parts as supplied are a translucent orange color. Polyscale paints work very well on this material. Expect to see several more boxcar designs during the next few weeks and some other body styles over the next few months.
Very nice! This is a car that I would like to have several of for our ZBT modular club. I have a few questions. Is it going to be a kit or RTR? If a kit, can it be painted with Floquil Solvent based paints? (I already have hundreds of bottles of Floquil) Will there be decals for several different roads available? What is Acrylic Photopolymer? Is that some kind of rapid prototyping material or a UV cured resin or something? Thanks for this exciting news, Robert
It will be a kit but it shouldn't take much more than 10 minutes to assemble. Solvent-based paints work fine. The acrylic photopolymer is a light-cured acrylic resin. I try to avoid the term rapid prototype as the build is not rapid and the parts will not be prototypes. We are working on the decal availability. My decal-maker of choice is in the middle of a major international relocation.
That is so nice and well detailed!! A little after my time period of the 50's, but cool none the less.
Thanks for the feedback, folks. Not conviced on the caboose suggestion - there were so many road-specific variants and each train generally only has one on it. I'm thinking that we all need a lot of moden freight cars and that is what we will concentrate on in Z scale. There may be some older cars from us but generally it will be because we have already produced them in N scale so most of the work is already done. I will try and get some better photos of the boxcar - I was taking those ones during the last few minutes of daylight yesterday. Today is bright and clear so I should have better depth of field (and I though good N scale photography was tricky!)
Do you know what else Z Scale really needs? Small brick buildings! I'm talking a "Shrink" of DPM N Scale Downtown style kits in effect! Something inexpensive that consists of 4 wall pieces with cast in doors and windows, a roof, and nice fine brick detail. I keep suggesting this to people who offer resin products, but I would suspect your process is perfect for this type of product. When I was modeling in N Scale I bought several of each storefront, and did some mix and matching to make the variety I need. There are some etched brass brick wall products, but they are spendy, and do not cut up as nice as plastic and resins do. I want to model a main street but do not want to do all brass, or printed cardboard, what I want is Z Scale DPM kits. If you make them, I will buy, and buy, and buy some more.
I already have some samples. Thay are not copies of the DPM buildings but were designed from buildings that I have photographed. The original intention was to offer them as alternative facades for the N scale DPM buildings but after shrinking them in the software and spitting them out of the machine they look rather attractive in Z. It is also the intention to make the front of the buildings with separate upper and lower parts with alternative "shop fronts". Our process is too slow and too expensive to make buildings directly but we are working on some interesting secondary manufacturing processes. Watch this space (and others).
I had been interested in those Invision MJM systems myself, with one use I could think of is to use the 3d printer to make the masters, then make molds for resin casting the wall parts, and car sides. The real trick is in finding a strong casting resin that can be cast to 1/16" thick, as that seems to be the most scale workable thickness of those wall sections. I already figured out the best painting process, which would be to spray the walls in a flat mortar color primer (light gray) then use a "dry brush" (minimal paint) approach with a fine sponge to daub on the brick color to the raised surface. Don't worry, I won't buy one of those system to compete with you, I'll instead buy your kits when you offer them. I'm more than too busy with my laser cutter projects to get involved with another learning curve. Just remember that the Z Scale field is still wide open, and remember how fast N Scale exploded by 1988, when Kato started releasing Flywheel Equipt locomotives. It seems like over night new manufacturers cam online to offer all kinds of N Scal producrs. I think that's about when the DPM kits started showing up. They have remained strong sellers since then too!
Robert, When it comes to equipment you have to select very carefully. I did not select the Invision machine. As for mastering - we do offer this service and have done jobs for others who have supplied us with suitable 3D files.
Robert, You must have intercepted some email between myself and my brother! I'm working a variety of "DPM-style" injection molded building kits for z scale. Stay tuned!
That's great news! DPM style buildings are just what Z Scale needs. Do you have a time frame you are shooting for? -Robert
Mythman, Whatever happend to the enclosed auto racks you were working on. I think right now is a good time to bring it to the market if it is in the backburner.
Yeah! MY waffle car and the pup arrive today, and they look great. The only problem is we need someone to make decals for the waffle car. Any volunteers? John
