Thought I’d share some of my HO scale building models. I have about 150 completed kit built structures but purchased a 3d printer in 2019 and have been building much larger custom structures. I currently don’t have any layout benchwork set up for my downtown scene. Instead panels with city blocks or long track sections that connect through conductive contacts that will eventually be arranged. The towers shown are independent of the panels due to their size. The whole assembly will be built in the basement of my Chicago condo building which I’ve been using as a wood and metal shop for a few years. The models below are incomplete. I’m still adding crown elements and 3d printing the interiors and need to intall lighting. I’ll share additional photos as more portions are completed.
There will be “spires” on top of the parapet wall to hide the lighting
[#welcome] to the Model Railroader magazine discussion forums. We are glad you have found us. Your first few posts will be delayed by moderation, but this will ends soon enough, usually after just a few posts. Please stick around through the delays and become part of the crowd.
Thank you for sharing the pictures of your buildings, and…
Okay, my first response was to throw up my hands and quit the hobby!! Not![swg][(-D][(-D]
WOW doesn’t even start to describe my impression of your building skills! [bow][tup] The fact that they are 3D printed is irrelevent.
May I ask a couple of questions?
Have you painted the buildings or have you printed the individual pieces in their respective colours?
Are you glazing the windows, and if so, how are you doing that? There are so many windows that the task of glazing each one individually boggles my mind!
Thanks everyone for the nice comments! To answer a few on the process.
I first model everything using Google Sketchup. I used the free version from 2017 since it requires an install to export the filetypes to send to the 3d printer. That older version is still on their website.
The 3d printer is a Prusa MK3s. I had decided on this printer after reading tons of reviews. After about 2 miles of filament deposition and continuous operation, I have to say this has been a very reliable and accurate 3d printer. I recommend the kit version of it. It’s fun to assemble and the instructions are easy to follow and in case anything goes wrong, it’s really easy to trouble shoot since you know how it was put together.
I usually use gray filament for the walls. The printer volume is something like 8.5 x 7.5 x 9 inches so this tower was built in 7 sections that stack and lock together. It’s then spraypainted with a base coat that’s concrete or stone colored to capture the sills and cornice pieces, and then I repaint the bricks or selected accents with the model master acrylic paints (which appear to be discontinued now) but any hobby paint will do. I use PLA (polylactic acid) for printer feedstock. It will accept all paint types without any issues. It will NOT accept any solvent glues. But super glue works
Wow! I’m so impressed with the size of the buildings! I need to know the details because I’ve been 3D printing some of my own buildings as well.
How many different pieces are there? These must take weeks to print! They’re massive! How do you design them without pulling your hair out lol. There are so many details and shapes. What CAD software do you use?
More importantly, how do you design the brick detail into the walls? I’ve been using Autodesk Inventor to make my buildings, but modeling the individual bricks has me baffled.
I’d also like to know what printer you’re using. I have a Wanhao Duplicator 5S which has a pretty big build volume.
Ed, it looks like the windows are separate; they’re probably Tichy.
Fantastic work. You are going to need a big layout to go with the size of the building.
Don’t know. I usually can’t see even a broken picture icon in Firefox if someone isn’t following the picture posting guidelines. His picks are on umich.edu site.
Those look great, can we get a real closeup of a part of the building. I asume that the lines from 3D prinying are not an issue because of distance on your layout to the building. Wonder what you could do with the resin machines that were called emulsion printers when they first came out (do not have a clue what they are called now).
NorthsideChi would you be willing to post your designs on Thingiverse?
If you’re not comfortable sharing the entire buildings, how about just the windows, interior furntature, and other generic pieces? A lot of the pieces you designed could be useful to other modelers who are scratchbuilding.
Sorry about this issues with the photos. The file storage website has literally looked the same for about 18 years now and I think some browsers may not accept the www- instead of www. prefix. It seems to work okay with chrome and safari. I also made sure to size them down in photoshop.
As far as the model files go, Admittedly I’m still a novice when it comes to the quality. The bricks are actually modeled with the mortar joints recessed. My printer can do a remarkable 0.05 mm resolution but it would take forever to print. I used 0.15 mm resolution which was the most I could do before it started to get muddy. Each module took 100 hours to print. While that seems long, I would just leave the printer running in the basement and come back in a few days to check on it. After 1 section is done, I could then paint it while the next section prints. The printer and software uses AI to correct mistakes, so it would fix any errors I made on its own, but that may not work with other printers.
Fortunately I have a whole basement of a large building to work with. But I’ll build it in such a way that it can be dismantled and stored easily in the event I move someday. Right now I have a 3-track oval 12’ x 4’ test bench that I use to lay out existing projects.
I’ve never used Google Sketchup. Do you have to draw every single brick??? Or is there some kind of bump map that gets applied to all selected surfaces?
I’m trying to 3D print some brick buildings of my own, but I can’t figure out an efficient way to model the thousands of bricks easily with my CAD software. I’d love to know how you modeled all those bricks into your 3D model.
The bricks are modeled. I wish a bump map would work that way, but not in the case with sketchup. Fortunately I only had to model maybe a couple dozen single bricks. I then copy and pasted them into one story modules: outside corner, inside corner, window wall piece, etc. I then made those grouped components and then just stacked them up like lego blocks. My printer slicer software didn’t seem to care that the sketchup groups were unjoined as long as they were close enough.
The entire tower was modeled in sketchup in about a week because it’s mostly copy and pasted elements.
The most difficult part was modeling some of the more technical elements, like the locking components that join the modules together or wire chases and lighting mounts. I had to design the tower to be serviced in the event I want to add more lights or in the unlikely instance lights need replacement. It can also be easily stored away in a smaller container.
