Black Hawk & Ironwood - Hon30 Mini Southwest Layout

[timwatson]

http://www.jomrd.com/index.php?page=ShowRecord&ID=41

Thank you sir! Let me know where I can send the $39 bucks!

On further inspection that looks like a different layout. The on30 mining one has an upper and lower.

[Chris333]

Was just a trackplan.

[timwatson]

Oh I see, thanks for that (I misunderstood).

[Chris333]

That first On30 layout you were looking at:
https://www.facebook.com/DirtSpot/

[timwatson]

That first On30 layout you were looking at:
https://www.facebook.com/DirtSpot/

Dude you found it! So awesome. I used to follow his modeling on the Trevino Circle layout. I loved his buildings and he made them so fast. Makes sense this was him.

[motofavorite]

You might find the English editions of "Voie Libre" inspirational. Most of the layouts focus on European prototypes, but the layout designs lean heavily towards mini layouts and can be adapted to your interests. I found the spectacular “Orkhavnbanen” (https://www.modelbouwwerk.nl/2015/05/orkhavnbanen-ergens-in-noorwegen/) in its pages.

Ted Polet's site (https://www.009dutch.nl/main/eframe.htm) is also a good springboard for HOn30 modeling. And you might have already encountered it, but the Thunder Mesa Studio (https://thundermesa.studio/artwork/track-plans/) has many examples of dramatic scenery in narrow gauge mini layouts.

Happy modeling!

[timwatson]

I finally made some progress on the test mini.

Overview of the loop and switches. I am going to ditch the Altas code 80 switches for live point versions. I thought I'd try it (it was a bad idea).


FDM printed turnout jig and Ho scale resin printed shack.


I finally finished my 25' boxcar


It's sitting beside @Chris333 shorty outside braced boxcar.


I got hung up on using this Peco code 80 backwoods track. I wanted to fix the tie spacing but when I did that I realized I had lots of track with no ties. So I designed tie strips to match the Peco backwoods ties.
I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. Right is the brown Peco ties and left are my new tie strips.


Here they are isolated.

[Chris333]

3D turnout jigs. Why didn't I run home and do that right now a long time ago?

[timwatson]

3D turnout jigs. Why didn't I run home and do that right now a long time ago?

You’ve got the skills, just grab a template, trace over it, extrude the shapes. Print it out. Build a turnout. I’m just waiting on turnout ties. I think mine got lost in the mail.

Also too much drinkey for you!

[timwatson]

Hey does that brake wheel look right on that 25’ car @Chris333 ? I didn’t have a gauge for how high it should stick up?

[nkalanaga]

Given the other variations in narrow-gauge equipment, was there a standard height for brake wheels?

[Chris333]

I don't think there is any standard for the brake wheel.


I draw up my own turnouts all the time, but I just print them out (on paper) and build right on them like FT templates. It would be very easy to just pop those into Sketchup...

Hey is that wood grain something that can be done in Sketchup? or is that sculpting?

[JeffB]

A 3D printed turnout template...

I'm surprised that I've not seen that before now!  What a fantastic/novel idea.

Like Chris333, I'd be interested in how people model things like wood grain and random shapes like stone (retaining walls).  While Solid Works is really great for structural design, it doesn't appear to be well suited for "free form" design like wood grain, stone and figures.

Jeff

[timwatson]

Hey is that wood grain something that can be done in Sketchup? or is that sculpting?

It is in essence sculpting. I have 2 ways I do the wood grain.

1 is via Tinkercad.
2 is through a sculpting tool on the iPad called Nomad.

The Tinkercad part is by using math and then stretching the result. I will share the wood grain file I use.
https://www.tinkercad.com/things/g5ifjBwAmsW-various-wood-grains

There are a 2-3 versions I use in that file. I typically will will use it as a “hole shape” to “imprint” the grain on the surface I need to have the grain. Play with it see what you think. You could get a pattern you like and then sculpt the .stl as well.

Here is the Nomad sculpt for the distressed brick wall I made.
( … and attachments are still broken).

Distressed brick on Flickr

[CNR5529]

I'd be interested in how people model things like wood grain and random shapes like stone (retaining walls).

I have been teaching myself to use Blender for this exact purpose. It is the only free software that I have found so far that can take textures (displacement maps), and apply them in a controlled way on surfaces without needing to manually "sculp" the textures. There are thousands of free texture files available online for every kind of surface from diamond plate, cut stone, wood grain, shingles, cobblestone, cement, dirt, etc. I will say this though, diving into Blender is not for the faint of heart, and is completely unintuitive to my CAD oriented mind. Fortunately I have a cousin who is an artist and animator by trade, so he helps me when I get really stuck in Blender, and I help him with CAD issues. But check out what you can do with it once you get it working properly:



The 3d texture of the shingles is driven by a grey scale displacement map that edits the normal position of each vertex of the mesh.

Youtube will help get you started. This first video will teach you how to apply textures the easy way, but it will only work on top surfaces (displacing texture in the Z+/- direction).

To get textures to work on any 3d surface, you will need to learn UV unwrapping. Think of it as how to unfold a 3d object into a 2d surface, and controlling how those faces are oriented relative to a texture map. Then, instead of using visual textures, you use a displacement map to alter the mesh of the 3d object in a controlled way. By altering the mesh like this, the object is completely 3D printable, instead of just looking like the desired 3d object the way an animator would use visual textures.

There is way more to learn, but this should give you a taste for what is possible and what is involved with this software. I am by no means an expert in blender, just scratching the surface of what it can do.