@gunrunnerjohn posted:That looks really great, pretty darned close to the prototype paint scheme!
Thanks John, That's what I was shooting for...
@Jayhawk500 posted:Thank you John and Mike! Thanks for the likes too!
They're a mixture of airbrushed and hand painted. The "Carrier" was the hardest.
I think the carrier and latches are incredible! I couldn't believe Alan actually printed that detail never mind that you were even able to paint it.
Those will most certainly put the finishing touches on the Rocket Booster Train! This is a significant omission by Lionel, it's pretty amazing that Alan and Chris are able to plug the gap! 
Now... if we can just get the booster to fly... 
The Carrier emblem was not too hard to design, incorporate into the overall design and print.
I never figured it could be painted. Certainty not as well as Chris has done.
@AlanRail posted:The Carrier emblem was not too hard to design, incorporate into the overall design and print.
I never figured it could be painted. Certainty not as well as Chris has done.
Yep, I figured it would just be painted all blue! I never thought it would actually be readable! 
What’s the latest on these being made available to the masses, either the digital .stl files or already printed models?
Last weekend, I coincidentally just got done putting up for display my full SRB transport train in my home office.
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I think that the units can only be printed on a Resin printer. There are two types of resins being used. Most of the units are printed in Formlabs gray V4 resin; the 4 flexible hoses are printed in flexible resin; Formlabs Elastic 50A [ See FormLabs website for specs and product data sheets.]
I cannot say if other resins from others would perform the same way... it's likely that they would, but no guarantees from me. Further, I do not think that a filament printer can print the level of detail.
Because of the above, I am hesitant to provide .stl files that may not work well in with other printers with other resins. However, I did provide an .stl file to someone with a different printer. Waiting to see how it came out.
As of this afternoon, Alan and Johns AC units are in the mail headed back to Alan.
So I'm calling this project completed for my part. Alan and John can update as they see fit when the receive their parts.
Alan,
I think that the flexible resin is the issue. The FormLabs 50A resin you used is has the lowest Shore rating that I could find, 55A. There are several resins that fall in the 60-75A range. I think Liqcreate has a comparable resin with the FormLabs. Did I hear that FormLabs will be bottling their resins for 3rd party printers? These flexible resins are costly and one would need to print a lot of hoses.
I think that your efforts demonstrating the application of 3D printing to the hobby is bearing fruit in getting more hobbyists into applying 3D printing to the hobby.
Jan
@AlanRail posted:I think that the units can only be printed on a Resin printer. There are two types of resins being used. Most of the units are printed in Formlabs gray V4 resin; the 4 flexible hoses are printed in flexible resin; Formlabs Elastic 50A [ See FormLabs website for specs and product data sheets.]
I cannot say if other resins from others would perform the same way... it's likely that they would, but no guarantees from me. Further, I do not think that a filament printer can print the level of detail.
Because of the above, I am hesitant to provide .stl files that may not work well in with other printers with other resins. However, I did provide an .stl file to someone with a different printer. Waiting to see how it came out.
To try and be representative of the typical 3D printer user, I did this more or less as a worst-case scenario test. I used the 0.4mm nozzle instead of the 0.2mm, I didn't use any special support filament, I didn't do anything special with the support placement. I did use a high print quality setting which narrowed down the layer sizes and brought out some of the details, but everything else was using the defaults and I just printed the entire thing at once.
And, all in all, it's not bad! I feel like if you cleaned this up with a Dremel or a small file, and painted them, they would pass the eye test if you were a couple feet away. I'm confident that using a 0.2mm hot end and paying attention to the support placement, this would be good enough for most applications....
...but it's still not going to be as good as doing it with a resin printer. Which I'm now researching, because I'm so impressed with the quality of what Alan printed.
Overall, this is a VERY complicated print. I feel like most people with a standard 3D printer might struggle to get something usable out of the box. I could probably slice this up into a few different plates that would need to be glued together and that would help, but there's so much wonderful detail that makes this challenging. Kudo to @AlanRail both for the design and for letting me attempt to reproduce it on an FDM printer. It's definitely not the same level of detail, but it's probably better than I expected.
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It's nice to see Alan updated his file to have a diesel fuel tank vice a propane tank. Now it's more prototypical. Excellant work Alan.
Nice work Jeramiah on the printing and getting it cleaned up. But I would suggest printing it in two pieces for the ease of painting. With it printed as one piece, all but the front now has to be hand painted. Just a suggestion and my $.02 worth of advice. But it looks great.
@Jayhawk500 posted:It's nice to see Alan updated his file to have a diesel fuel tank vice a propane tank. Now it's more prototypical. Excellant work Alan.
Nice work Jeramiah on the printing and getting it cleaned up. But I would suggest printing it in two pieces for the ease of painting. With it printed as one piece, all but the front now has to be hand painted. Just a suggestion and my $.02 worth of advice. But it looks great.
100%. This wasn't really a "let's put them on the cars" test because @AlanRail and I weren't even sure it would print on an FDM printer. It came out better than I expected, so if I were going to go this route (vs buying one of those sweet, sweet Formlabs Form 4 resin printers), I'd probably break apart every section that needs to be painted from the parts that could just be printed in the proper color, for the exact reason you stated.
But, for no prep, no work, just print it as one piece, I was impressed. It's not an easy print, but it's not impossible.
Chris
that A/C design was the original one with the "rectangular "propane tank. I have no idea as to the dimensions of the tank or if it is piped as shown, completely made up by me. I could not find any photos of the rear of the A/C unit. So I opted for a typical cylindrical propane tank design.
also, usually my first designs are a one-piece model; then I start to break it up for selective color painting.
Wonderful work! Just like the prototype!
Mike
I tried printing it in the opposite orientation, it didn't clean up well. I'll try flipping it on it's head for another pass.
Well, the printing was "better" with the new orientation, but I can see that what would really need to be done is some simplification of the model to actually get a usable print. One problem I had was the supports are a bit too aggressive and they were hard to detach. The fine grill on the front suffered getting them free. On the rear, the hose connections didn't come out all that well. I think I'd also consider manually adding the supports instead of letting the slider generate them, and I'd also limit them to the build plate only, I missed setting that option.
It would be possible to print a passable version of one of these if you simplified the grill and did a little work on the hose connections, but they certainly wouldn't be as nice as the resin printed version.
I bow to the superiority of printing this with a resin printer, Alan knows of what he speaks! 
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Alan, we need pictures man, Pictures!!! Like to see one all put together.
I think this is really going to complete to Rocket Booster Train, it was the one obvious feature that was missing. I added the F.R.E.D. to the last car, two engines pulling it, and the full 10 booster sections. With a couple of them with A/C, they're going to look just like the prototype trains.
The goal is to make the model look like this. I will say, my boxcars will be a lot cleaner than the ones on this prototype.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:I added the F.R.E.D. to the last car, two engines pulling it, and the full 10 booster sections. With a couple of them with A/C, they're going to look just like the prototype trains.
Do we know why only some have AC units and others don't? I don't remember seeing that in the discussion thread.
Also, I know they dropped it from the real train, but I really liked the staff car at the end.
@J.Dooley posted:Do we know why only some have AC units and others don't? I don't remember seeing that in the discussion thread.
Also, I know they dropped it from the real train, but I really liked the staff car at the end.
The AC units were added to the booster sections aft sections with the rocket motor nozzles at the optimum temperature.
Since I was trying to duplicate the current prototype, the staff car has been stored. Apparently, they realized they didn't have to carry any crew to transport the current Artemis I boosters, so they dispensed with the crew car. Apparently, the same cars were used to transport the Space Shuttle boosters, and they had crew that traveled with the train back in the Shuttle days.
UP: Rockets by Rail: A Stellar Achievement
@gunrunnerjohn posted:The AC units were added to the booster sections aft sections with the rocket motor nozzles at the optimum temperature.
Since I was trying to duplicate the current prototype, the staff car has been stored. Apparently, they realized they didn't have to carry any crew to transport the current Artemis I boosters, so they dispensed with the crew car. Apparently, the same cars were used to transport the Space Shuttle boosters, and they had crew that traveled with the train back in the Shuttle days.
UP: Rockets by Rail: A Stellar Achievement
Thank you for the link! I may (just to make myself happy) sneak the staff car on there, every once in a while. I have SO many of those add-on flat car and idler cars that I can't wait to see how far that one stretches!
I just found an extra set of five booster cars and five boxcars, that gave me a prototypical train. Given the length of the cars and engines, the train is just over 28 feet long and it the exact prototypical composition of the current prototype booster trains. I figured that was long enough to be reasonably awesome. 
The total train consists of ten boosters, eleven boxcars (one being the clearance car), and two ES44AC locomotives.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:I just found an extra set of five booster cars and five boxcars, that gave me a prototypical train. Given the length of the cars and engines, the train is just over 28 feet long and it the exact prototypical composition of the current prototype booster trains. I figured that was long enough to be reasonably awesome.
Working on getting the Lionel 6-85315 engine to make it spot on as we speak. 🙌
I'm not willing to pay that much for that look. Many of the booster trains run with two standard paint UP ES44AC locomotives, so mine does as well. 
@J.Dooley posted:Working on getting the Lionel 6-85315 engine to make it spot on as we speak. 🙌
Other trains run with just standard UP engines, so I opted for one that I could get a bit cheaper.
Well, Alan and Chris came through with a magnificent job on the A/C units! These are awesome! Even the box they came in is a work of art! I trimmed off the sprunes from the hoses and they're ready to be mounted on two of the cars, photos coming for that when I get them on. These are as realistic looking as I could have ever imagined!
The hoses are printed with some very flexible material, much more flexible than I have ever seen for FDM printers! I was worried about the flex, but I don't see that as a problem now that I see them.
