I have spent the last 3 years building a model of a British locomotive: Southern Railways Schools Class V “Epsom” using both FDM and resin printers.
The world of 3d printing has moved on considerably during this period. At the end of last year I purchased a Form 3 printer to expecting a higher level of detail.
The cab was only the second print to come off the Form 3 and was very impressive. I expected it to produce good detail in the cab and was not disappointed. I’m sure with what I’ve learnt about model orientation and support that I could probably get it even better.
The FDM printer (my first) was a ‘Raise3d N2 Plus’ which made the tender, the frame and boiler of the engine and the wheels. An AnyCubic resin printer produced the valve gear, and is being retired now I have the Form 3.
The Form 3 has produced the locomotive cab and the fittings inside, the wheel splashers and nameplate, smoke deflectors and chairs on the track.
This is really very impressive. I do have some questions.
In what scale did you make this model?
What resin did you use? Are you always satisfied with every result with the Form 3? Would you like to print the other parts with the Form 3 as well?
The model is scaled at 1:35, “Static Gauge”. At the time I chose this as a trade off between the ability to produce detail on an FDM printer and the size of the boiler which I wanted to produce in one piece. As the boiler was 22cm long the Raise3d printer at the time enabled this with its square bed of 30cm. In future, I would print this on the Form 3 breaking it into sections hiding the joints at each boiler band.
The resin used on the Form 3 is Grey V4. This has produced good detail. This was sprayed with grey printer and satin black. Whenever I have had failures or questionable quality from the Form 3 this has always been due to my errors and pushing tolerance limits. The Preform default settings are used, with minor adjustment to supports where they would leave a mark on a viewing surface. Every print from the Form 3 has been to a very good standard.
I would probably still do the frames and underneath superstructure for the locomotive and tender on my FDM machine as this provides a very solid, rigid base for the model to sit on (and considering the amount there is, it’s cheaper!).
