Color printed Heavyweight car

[InterurbanModels]

I particularly like heavyweight cars when they are modernized or painted with a modern "streamstyled" livery. There are a bunch of those available from MTL, but several colorful roadnames are missing. Below a Chicago & Eastern Illinois heavyweight in its striking blue and orange livery.

This car is a 3D printed copycat of the MTL heavyweight. The model has not a single dot of paint, it is PLA printed with color filament. The only part not self made are the wheelsets.

Surprisingly (or not), the colors match perfectly with the Intermountain F7.

Best regards Volkmar

[C855B]

...This car is a 3D printed copycat of the MTL heavyweight. The model has not a single dot of paint, it is PLA printed with color filament. The only part not self made are the wheelsets. ...

Excellent print quality for FDM. Which printer, and how long did it take to print?

[thomasjmdavis]

Definitely the best two-color 3D print I've seen.  It certainly captures the appearance of the paint scheme.  Looking at the photos on my wide screen monitor, I could argue that the center stripe should be wider relative to the stripes above and below it, but the overall impression is excellent.

The C&EI had a 3 cars (433-435) of that prototype (10 sets of paired windows), and the MTL model (and therefore this 3D one) is accurate except for some roof (an AC duct), and perhaps underbody, details, and an inch here or there.  They purchased them from FEC in 1936 (per C&EI diagrams). They went on to modernize  coach 435, which was done over to the point that it looked like a streamline car riding on 1920s era 6 wheel trucks. But I think the others stayed in original configuration until retired in 1956.  I've been hoping for the past decade that MTL would bring out that coach in the C&Ei scheme.

Congratulations also on the C&EI (ex-C&O) Budd car  trailing it, as I am guessing you 3-D printed that as well.

There are (if they are still in print) decals available from the C&EI historical society for both the Whipporwill lettering (also used on heavyweights, and includes Meadowlark lettering) and the dark blue lettering (used on stainless cars).

[InterurbanModels]

Which printer, and how long did it take to print?

I used both FDM printers Prusa MK4 with 0.25 nozzle, layer height mostly 0.12 mm; and Prusa XL, 0.4mm nozzle, layer height 0.15mm. Cumulated printing time is about 10 hours

Printing Time Prusa MK4 0.25mm nozzle
Car body: 2h30 (with 8 manual color changes)
Roof (2 parts): 3h30
Doorsteps: 0h15
Underbody parts: 1h00
Trucks: 1h10
Diaphragma: 0h10
TOTAL MK4: 8h35

Printing Time Prusa XL 0.4mm nozzle
Floor: 0h30
Seats: 0h40
Plugs: 0h05
TOTAL XL: 1h15

regards Volkmar

[Chris333]

Is there a way to de-fuzz them? Like hit it with a heat gun or something.

[InterurbanModels]

I could argue that the center stripe should be wider

I started this merely as a "foobie" or "lookalike" But as it turns out it is close to a real 433 series car. I will perhaps make a more prototypical roof, adapt the stripes, and add some heavy under floor equipment.

The Budd car is also homemade, still a little bit crude, I will talk about it soon.

[AlwaysSolutions]

Manual color changes?  Man that's some dedication, and it paid off big.  Remember in olden times you try to print with a .25 nozzle and you'd be lucky to get a decent result and it would take two days to print.     That car looks fantastic for an FDM, one of the best results I've seen.  Now go get you an automatic color changer thingy.

Cheers -Mike

[InterurbanModels]

Is there a way to de-fuzz them?

Heat gun + brass brush. I did it already, photos are cruel.

[Pizzaparty]

I’ve got some interest in that Budd car.

FDM looks really good! Is there issues with warping like resin? I’ve wanted to get into 3d printing but resin printing seems so messy and pretty sensitive. Knowing that cars can look this good, I imagine it would be a decent machine to print “fodder” for long trains.

[Jesse6669]

Impressive!  FDM quality has certainly made progress in the last couple of years (not to mention OP's skills are surely a large factor getting such a nice result).

[bbussey]

There’s still some visible stepping on the roof. But this would work perfectly for passenger car interiors.

[trainforfun]

Beautifull !!!
How did you do the windows glass , individualy cut ?

[InterurbanModels]

I’ve got some interest in that Budd car.

I will take pictures and talk about it in a separate post soon.

[InterurbanModels]

How did you do the windows glass , individually cut ?

One clear panel per side, same way as in the genuine MTL heavyweights (the green car below). Made of laser cut clear plastic (Product name Vivak®).

Eventually, this design is so much a copycat of the MTL coach that I can swap roofs, or trucks:

[mecgp7]

Amazing. The accuracy to allow for swapping of "OEM" parts is impressive.