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IOA Hoppers


Archie
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I have printed out the first hopper of a new rake of about 10 that I am going to create. the cost of the plastic of each wagon is less than £1 so there should be a huge saving over the Bachmann model, although they take about 15 hours to print each, and ive already had to redo the bogeys so you pay in time. I'm thinking of painting them red, though I might do a couple in other colours, I still havent decided.

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That looks really good Archie. I wasn't aware that you could print something like that for so little material cost. Just requires paint and wheels?

I must admit that I'm completely out of touch with the latest technologies. I probably should have taken more notice of 3D printing capabilities and its usefulness. I couldn't even get my head around what 3D printing actually was until quite recently.

It's not a wagon I'm familiar with but a quick search seems to show them mainly in yellow and used as ballast wagons. Are they used elsewhere?

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All the wagon needs is paint couplings (which can be printed I believe) and wheels. I'm honestly surprised how good 3D printers have become, the print quality can be very good for relatively very little setup and cost. I have seen images of the wagons and I believe they have only appeared in network rail yellow as they were only introduced in the late 2000s. I dont think I'm going to paint them yellow for a couple of reasons: They are quite low detail and so I dont think they are distinguishable from an mwa wagon, I think even yellow paint is beyond my skill, theyre going to be out of era anyway so I want to paint them a colour that is more likley to fit in and, I dont have any yellow paint to hand. I'm trying to keep the total cost below 5 pounds so I dont feel like too high a level of accuracy is required. I'm sure there are purists that would cringe at that attitude but I'm just making some stock to look good from afar, I try not to take modelling too seriously as otherwise I'll never be happy with them.

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I've been printing these wagons pretty much constantly for the last week, so I now have 8 bodies, although I have run out of screws to put them together so I can't start sanding and painting the rest until I get all the bits in.250672419_IMG_07521.thumb.JPG.26c559e40d5539d2c372f95cfb56ebde.JPG

I have managed to paint one wagon, its not the smoothest or most even paint job but I think it'll do, although it definatley needs toning down with some weathering.

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You've certainly been cracking on with these. By my calculations that's about 120 hours worth of printing!

Is there much work involved in finishing them off after printing? Are you sanding just around the edges or do the entire sides need sanding too? I'm not sure how things have advanced over the past couple of years but I do remember people saying that prints were quite rough to begin with. Is that still the case?

They're looking pretty good from here.

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Each shell takes 14 and a bit hours each so you are pretty much bang on there with the time.

for mine I have sanded down every visible side, The prints are very accurate but they all have visible layers because of how the item is created. You can now get resin printers that are priced fairly reasonably that produce models with the same level of detail and quality as a traditional resin model, so around as good as an injection moulded part but I chose a more traditional FDM printer that extrudes plastic filament in layers at it is more versatile. ( the printed items are much stronger and you can print in a wider range of materials and colours). sanding for each one takes around 15-20 minutes, although I go over it in the rough sections after every coat of paint, so the total time is probably closer to 30-40 minutes each.

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  • 3 months later...

After a long brake, I've finally got round to ordering the rest or the parts and have finished the first wagon. Admittedly its quite rough but considering the price of around £7 each they dont look too bad. This one is missing a coupling on one end and some underframe detail due to the print failing. In reality the colour is not as bright,  its more of a brick orange and standing in the garden it doesnt look too bad behind a class 60 or 37.

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This one still needs a load after I add the weights.

Edited by Archie
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