it is pretty darn good. At the present time I would not use it
to produce a steel box car because the poor finish would be
very obvious on a large flat surface. If you are creating a wood-
sheathed maintenance shed, if you align the wood planks in
the proper direction, you get the wood grain for free.
If you want a smooth roof for a passenger car, particularly one
that has compound curves, you can make it a few thousandths
of an inch oversize so you have some material to remove with
320-grit sandpaper, thus producing a very fine surface fin-
ish. Once the surface has been smoothed, detail parts can be
added.
An excellent use for this technology is for models consisting
of a lot of small structural parts, such as a signal bridge. I’m
currently preparing drawings for a large C&O cantilever signal
bridge. Using small magnet wire, I can put the electrical con-
nections inside the larger structural members, and the rough
surface finish will not be noticed on the small parts after being
painted flat black.
There is a stereolithography technology available from
3DSystems that has significantly better resolution that the
Shapeways FUD, but it is also about 10X as expensive. My
design for a C&O large cantilever signal bridge would cost $500
– well beyond my price point.
SketchUp is OK for simple projects, but more complex models
will require the purchase of a 3D program like Rhino or Ashlar.
If you are a first time user
of 3D software, practice on
something simple. There is a
steep learning curve.
Intro to 3D modeling - 9
MRH-Aug 2014
