Kabuto Models; Details for your layout!

[cteno4]

Toni,

 

Great pots. Turning the flower pots out of wood in the roto tool was fun, but pretty tedious!

 

Jeff

[Kabutoni]

I may have to try Shapeways out now they are offering USPS to Australia, last time I looked they only had UPS which was even more expensive and wouldn't ship to post office boxes.

 

That is great to hear! I'm glad this is has become an option for the Land of Plenty. I'm planning releases of several direct oriented detailing sets (residential, commercial, shrine, etc.), so stay tuned!

 

Great pots. Turning the flower pots out of wood in the roto tool was fun, but pretty tedious!

 

I can't imagine the frustration of spinning 1mm pots by hand... O_O

 

By the way, I was experimenting with powering my tram today, so not much work got done on the 3D front. It's very ghetto, but it kind of works... (powered bogie not mounted):

 

 

The biggest problem is the bending chassis, which is made out of nylon. The newly ordered chassis is acrylic, like the body, which should have less bending issues and should be better compatible with the motor unit. The main problem is the drive axle, which has been corrupted by the rough printing process. It doesn't make contact very well, so the motor spins quicker than needed.

 

Another problem is the electrics layout, as it's not easy to make contact with the bogie. I will probably go for reusing parts from the Tomytec power unit that already provided the bogies and motor.

 

P.s. the weights are magnetic strips from the 100 yen shop. They give the train some good weight, but ATM, I'm working on improving the weight distribution for the next update of the design. The motor goes backwards, which will also provide a better connection to the bogie through the drive axle, as well as provides space to place the much needed weights over the powered bogie.

[kvp]

Afaik the frames lack the strenghtening sides Tomix likes to use. They usually point up from the floor, so they can continue over the bogies and across the whole length of the frame. The interior inserts are usually placed between/above them. Btw. the closer you place the motor to the driven axle, the more traction power you get and less dead weight falls on the trailer wheels. Imho the weights from the Tomix frame could also be used, they are more compact.

[Kabutoni]

Btw. the closer you place the motor to the driven axle, the more traction power you get and less dead weight falls on the trailer wheels. Imho the weights from the Tomix frame could also be used, they are more compact.

 

Placing the motor closer will increase friction on the drive axle. The weights of the Tomytec units also can't be used because they are generally too wide at 15mm, whereas my chassis is 14mm. This can't be compromised because otherwise the shell will become too thin.

[cteno4]

Custom printed metal weights?!

 

Jeff

[Kabutoni]

Custom printed metal weights?!

 

Jeff

 

The cheapest steel 3D printing at Shapeways is $6 per item, plus $5 per cm³, so it might become quite costly very quickly. One weight for the front will already be over $11, so I don't think it will be that cost effective.

[cteno4]

sorry i should have emoticoned that as i was being a little facetious as this is a print everything thread! i thought the price was high but not that high!

 

hey whats price if you get the perfect shaped weight! wonder what the printed density is on them?

 

jeff

[HantuBlauLOL]

How about steel balls? Usually local fishing shop has it.

[Kabutoni]

How about steel balls? Usually local fishing shop has it.

 

I already have a pair, thanks ;)

 

Joking aside, thank you for the tip, but they will have air pockets in between them, so they're not very space efficient. I'll take a look in the local DIY store to see what alternatives there are tomorrow or next week. The tram chassis design is still under development anyway.

 

P.s. I'm stepping away from the Tomix TN couplers and create my own system (drawbar style), which will be easier to install and less prone to break.

[cteno4]

I thought they were brass!

 

Another alternative is lead tape for weighting tennis rackets, usually at most sports Stores. Easily cut and shaped. But for commercial would be better if you could find some small hunks if flat steel that you could just make pockets for in the chasis. Might check the hardware store for some small bracket plates. Seen some like 1cm x4-5cm x 2-3mm. Lead is not great to use commercially.

 

Could be as simple as small steel shot that could go in a couple of pockets and get glued in place as well in a couple of little moulded wells., or it could have a snap on cover supplied. This way you don't have to find the jsut right already made just sell a little Baggie of steel shot.

 

Jeff

[cteno4]

Hey shapeways box just arrived with a big set of the Toriis! They came out FABULOUS! the ultra fine was great for this sized ones an the tiny bit of texture on them from printing actually will i think work great when painted.

 

Ill snap some bare picts this weekend to post and work on primering and painting a couple up ASAP to show off. Really great start Toni.

 

Second order of the next round of bits should be printing and shipping soon here. Looks like shapeways has a 4-7 day backlog between ordering and printing, then about 4 days for shipping and post.

 

fun new world, glad Toni has decided to jump in and do these creations for us and we can support his creativity as well! win-win!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[katoftw]

Sounds great Jeff.  Thanks.

[Kabutoni]

Hello everybody,

 

I'm glad the first order came out good! There have been some issues with other objects, which have been resolved, I'm sure a few other will come toodling along, but that is all because most things are in beta development stage. Those who have been printed successfully or have no technical issues any more, have been moved out of the beta stage.

 

Another development is the creation of a HTM Buitenlijner 51-80 series. An interurban that used to run in the west of the Netherlands. I like this type of train, and under some social pressure of friends who live in Leiden, I decided to create this beauty.

 

 

As you can see, the chassis is very narrow. Too narrow for a Tomytec motor, so I decided to get the motor out of the shell and design a chassis without the motor shell. It's a bit of a risk, but it will most probably work. The motor will be kept into place by the chassis and the shell. A good idea might be to stick the motor to the bottom for the early testing phase, but this is not really necessary. I'll adapt this system in the previous Sneltram as well, since it takes up less space and will be more flexible to use on future models.

[Densha]

A HTM Buitenlijner on 16 June 2015 on a special run from Den Haag to Delft (the original interurban stretch these things ran on until 1964):

 

 

The last pic shows three generations of trams on this line: the old interurban Buitenlijner stock, a PCC in the back and a current double articulated GTL tram from the 80s on the left.

Edited June 16, 2015 by Densha

[cteno4]

ok here are some picts of the Torris. The ultra detail frosted is hard to photograph as the surface is sort of frosted and reflects light quite a bit so hard to get sharp of the unpainted units. the surface is smoother than it looks in the photos due to this frosting glow.

 

Ill work on painting a few up quickly here to show the details off better.

 

cheers

 

jeff

 

Edited June 17, 2015 by cteno4

[Kabutoni]

Hey Jeff,

 

They look awesome! Thank you for testing them! Although they have a little texture from the printing, they look really realistic. For me, it's always a gamble as to how the prints will look like, but fortunately they almost always turn out better than expected. Maybe I'm still not used to this technology being around, as well as having countless disappointments from paper printing. ^^

 

With some paint on them they will fit on any Japanese themed layout! Red (or an orange red) with black bottoms, a plain wood colour, or gray for stone types are recommended, though there must be other colours out there. I'm considering ordering a massive batch of these (an maybe some other small details) at DMM, so I can ship them in a padded and reinforced envelope for a fraction of the shipping costs at Shapeways.

 

At the moment, development of details is still on hold, as I'm redesigning my Sneltram. The complete train has been built from scratch again, since there were some issues with the windowsills. I've found out they were a tad fragile, so I've improved them on that matter. The drive system is also in overhaul, since I want to bogies to be driven as traction is indeed an issue. The connection point has been reduced to the centre of the train, since by increasing the car distance with 2mm, the minimum radius becomes a stunning R109! I think the final model can negate even tighter corners, but I wouldn't recommend it. The folding partition between the cars will become a printed part that is attached to the chassis, so there is no need for a complicated paper. Because I'm lazy with building, I want my models to become fit for lazy people like me. ;)

 

 

The motor has been set free from its original plastic casing and will be held into place by both the chassis and body. No modding will be needed on any original parts, apart from the electric wiring from the bogies to the motor, which will need some soldering for the best result.

 

The reason why I'm revising everything is because I want to use this as a basis for future planned models, which will also largely be articulated trams/trains. Somehow, I seem to have a thing going on for that...

[cteno4]

Toni,

 

You are most welcome! I am really happy with these. Yes I can make make these pretty simply by hand, but would take some time and would rather spend that on more special projects. Toriis are things you want to be able to just plunk down wherever you want easily, not need to stop for a bit of construction!

 

Other option might be to do these in a few sizes up at maybe 20% and 40% larger in a mixed set as well. Maybe offer a mega pack of the one for those wanting to model the fushimi path!

 

Once cut off sprews the 25 are a tiny bit to ship!

 

Great rework on the tram. Are you printing the drive shafts? If so I'm not sure the little nubs may be tough enough on the universal joints with the printed materials. This is where the cast ones usually break (although have seen 2 shear at the thinnest part of the shaft). Luckily with trams they take so much less stress than in longer trains! Funny thing is we probably had 15 or more drive shaft breaks in the first 5-7 years of the club, but none that I know of in the last few years! I got very good at finding a matching drive shaft as usually the one that broke was oos and oop.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[kvp]

Interesting solution for the motor, i think it should work just fine. I don't really understand what is the difference between the orange and purple parts and what are those tiny red parts between them. Also, imho power pickup at the middle bogie might be a bit problematic as the partition might collide with the bogie picups or wires, unless you take wiring into account during the design. Everything else looks super.

[Kabutoni]

Hi Jeff,

 

Other option might be to do these in a few sizes up at maybe 20% and 40% larger in a mixed set as well. Maybe offer a mega pack of the one for those wanting to model the fushimi path!

 

Yes, these are also in the planning. I've also planned to change the printing layout of the torii to a more space efficient one where warping is less prone to happen, as well as stacking is possible. I also think the torii sets for purposes like the Fushimi path is a good idea (Hachiman-style), as these are omnipresent anyway, as well are the best looking ones IMO.

 

Great rework on the tram. Are you printing the drive shafts? If so I'm not sure the little nubs may be tough enough on the universal joints with the printed materials. This is where the cast ones usually break (although have seen 2 shear at the thinnest part of the shaft). Luckily with trams they take so much less stress than in longer trains! Funny thing is we probably had 15 or more drive shaft breaks in the first 5-7 years of the club, but none that I know of in the last few years! I got very good at finding a matching drive shaft as usually the one that broke was oos and oop.

 

Thanks. The driveshafts will be printed, but I'm also interested in how they behave in movement. Because of the fragility of the material, I will have to beef-up and smoothen the design as much as possible (no straight edges), so it won't break easily. If this doesn't work out, I will have to resort to temporarily maul (cut and paste) the original driveshafts to match this size and later print out a large set of driveshafts in a different material that will fit a few models altogether (save costs).

 

Interesting solution for the motor, i think it should work just fine. I don't really understand what is the difference between the orange and purple parts and what are those tiny red parts between them. Also, imho power pickup at the middle bogie might be a bit problematic as the partition might collide with the bogie picups or wires, unless you take wiring into account during the design. Everything else looks super.

 

The colours are just there for development purposes. It's a modular system that I can use on other models. Purple is for the powered bogies, the red moule is for the driveshaft axles and connection to the chassis with thin sprues, and orange is the motor placement module. Once it's ready for rendering, all parts will merge with each other and form a single object via sprues.

 

Power pickup in the middle bogie will be fine, as with Tomytec bogies, the power pickup is protruding on top of the bogie, right next to the (insulated and protected) worm drive. That said, with the wiring, the centre part might get in the way when connected to the chassis. Maybe a separate part is a better idea for this solution.

[velotrain]

_{Toni - what about the possibility of doing some of the ubiquitous exterior spiral stairs / fire escapes, either for scratchbuilding or customizing commercial structures?}

 

_{I don't know if the shape presents problems or not, or whether you could do multiples - 3 or 4 ganged, with many copies on a "sprue" would likely be the most helpful.}

[Kabutoni]

Toni - what about the possibility of doing some of the ubiquitous exterior spiral stairs / fire escapes, either for scratchbuilding or customizing commercial structures?

 

I don't know if the shape presents problems or not, or whether you could do multiples - 3 or 4 ganged, with many copies on a "sprue" would likely be the most helpful.

 

Thank you for the suggestion! There is already a problem I can see with this, since floors have different heights and thus this makes it complicated to create a universal type flight of stairs. It's not that I don't like the idea, since I'm also a fan of these architectural obligatories. An option is to create exterior stairs for those 3 and 5-floor Greenmax kits (46-4 ~ 46-8). I don't own any of them, but I reckon they all have the same floor height. It's also possible to create different designs to add variety (from dinky fire escapes to more serious every-day use ones). That'd require a little investment on that front, but it's certainly an area that is overlooked!

[cteno4]

Toni,

 

Tomix did make one driveshaft that was telescoping!

 

Great to hear a size variety is in the plan!

 

Jeff

[Kabutoni]

A little, maybe big update on some external developments. DMM.make decided to use my Sneltram Utrecht project as an example for outsourcing the creation of 3D data for printing! http://make.dmm.com/public/crowdsourcing/usecase/006/ Regardless of it being a prototype print, this is great advertisment and I'm very happy to be featured on one of the biggest websites on 3D printing in Japan!

[railsquid]

That's seriously cool!

[Kabutoni]

That's seriously cool!

 

Thank you! It is! I was kind of shocked to see DMM contacting me if they could have permission from me to use my project as an example. It feels pretty good, especially as a beginning 3D modeller, to see a big company like that patting you on the back. Kabuto Models must be doing something right!