Can I commission 3d shells?

[Dreyfusshudson]

I'd like to commision nyc niagara, mohawk, CP Jubilee and Royal Hudson, CN mountains and 4-8-4 6400, Cb&q Aeolus, and B&O cincinnatian.

Maybe more SNCF  steam stuff..

[kiwi_al]

Can you say @draskouasshat  - Contact Adam and see how you go 

[Jesse6669]

Knowing how much goes into designing an accurate and printable model, be prepared for a very expensive commission.  Or find someone who wants to do their own and will sell you a copy after they're done, and be prepared to be patient. 

[JeffB]

Knowing how much goes into designing an accurate and printable model, be prepared for a very expensive commission.  Or find someone who wants to do their own and will sell you a copy after they're done, and be prepared to be patient.

 

Absolutely...  I get $30/hour for design work.  I just took a commission for doing a locomotive frame, cross bracing, side and main rods, as well as some detail design.  It's going to be upwards of 10hrs worth of work.  A steam locomotive superstructure is a heck of a lot more work than that, and that's just one locomotive.

Jeff

[Dreyfusshudson]

Gonna learn cad...

[Dreyfusshudson]

Is it possible to extract trainz model?
Just fir me, not for selling.

[DRGW5349]

https://ootbmodels.myshopify.com/collections/railroad-services?fbclid=IwAR09KNrU0jjeA5NCYwBR326Gu38f8V3rCbcWpJemr3LH5j0TGAXXGqoq6bU

[Chris333]

I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.

[GGNInNScale]

Well, I was redesigning a shell from an existing core model.  I put in about 50 hours of cad-time adding details, then printing and refining, repeat, etc., etc.  I have used AutoCad for at least 35 years.  Simple stuff is OK, but when you get into the weeds, the design time gets really extensive.

[Lemosteam]

This design took me over 1000 hours (yes you read that right) to complete as a kit and it was an abject failure.  The design was too delicate and difficult to build and to fit onto an existing chassis.  I use one of the most expensive and reliable cad systems on earth to develop complex curvatures and filleting and a multitude of parts in the assembly  All of the etches are designed to fit the assembly seamlessly.  I was able to build exactly two, this prototype kit and a finished kit for a customer; other customers had a lot of difficulty building this kit.  To my knowledge, there are only two or three completed kits in the world today.

[Sokramiketes]

This design took me over 1000 hours (yes you read that right) to complete as a kit and it was an abject failure.  The design was too delicate and difficult to build and to fit onto an existing chassis.  I use one of the most expensive and reliable cad systems on earth to develop complex curvatures and filleting and a multitude of parts in the assembly  All of the etches are designed to fit the assembly seamlessly.  I was able to build exactly two, this prototype kit and a finished kit for a customer; other customers had a lot of difficulty building this kit.  To my knowledge, there are only two or three completed kits in the world today.

But it was pretty!

[JeffB]

This design took me over 1000 hours (yes you read that right) to complete as a kit and it was an abject failure.  The design was too delicate and difficult to build and to fit onto an existing chassis.  I use one of the most expensive and reliable cad systems on earth to develop complex curvatures and filleting and a multitude of parts in the assembly  All of the etches are designed to fit the assembly seamlessly.  I was able to build exactly two, this prototype kit and a finished kit for a customer; other customers had a lot of difficulty building this kit.  To my knowledge, there are only two or three completed kits in the world today.

Nice work John...  That's a lot of time/$$$ to spend on something that doesn't sell well.

There's a lot more to designing a "kit" than most realize and just because one uses an high end/expensive 3D solid modeling package (I use Solid Works) doesn't mean that the process is easy.  Easier, sure, but it takes a lot of time.

Then prototyping any of the 3D printed parts, laser cut parts, etc...  Lots of iterations, which is time and money.

Not an inexpensive process and not something a design can just throw together in a few hours.

Jeff

[Dreyfusshudson]

This design took me over 1000 hours (yes you read that right) to complete as a kit and it was an abject failure.  The design was too delicate and difficult to build and to fit onto an existing chassis.  I use one of the most expensive and reliable cad systems on earth to develop complex curvatures and filleting and a multitude of parts in the assembly  All of the etches are designed to fit the assembly seamlessly.  I was able to build exactly two, this prototype kit and a finished kit for a customer; other customers had a lot of difficulty building this kit.  To my knowledge, there are only two or three completed kits in the world today.

If I know this lit earlier, I could buy it...

[dem34]

While it has shortcomings. Bachmann made their own rendition of one 2yrs ago. And theres still a few floating around.

At the end of the day to. Its all well and good to make a super accurate 3D model bake it into a kit and cast it out to the winds, the real trick is whether you made something other people can reasonably assemble without the creator's intimate knowledge of the design. And even then is it something people can use. My personal most popular kits are some Chunky PRR style Catenary poles. Are they dimensionally accurate? No. Are they super fine detail? No. But you print them on an FDM for pennies instead of paying out the nose for resin or brass and they are scaled for Unitrak so with about 5 minutes of assembly you can just slap them on a layout.

[Lemosteam]

While it has shortcomings. Bachmann made their own rendition of one 2yrs ago. And theres still a few floating around.

At the end of the day to. Its all well and good to make a super accurate 3D model bake it into a kit and cast it out to the winds, the real trick is whether you made something other people can reasonably assemble without the creator's intimate knowledge of the design. And even then is it something people can use. My personal most popular kits are some Chunky PRR style Catenary poles. Are they dimensionally accurate? No. Are they super fine detail? No. But you print them on an FDM for pennies instead of paying out the nose for resin or brass and they are scaled for Unitrak so with about 5 minutes of assembly you can just slap them on a layout.

No Bachmann did not. They have a different PRR streamlined engine, but not his one, see below.  I began designing this kit (for myself) the second the Bachmann K4 was released and I had one in my hands. 



Why would I design this locomotive this detailed, and then use chunky cat poles?  Realism means a lot to some people, not so much to others, both viewpoints are OK.