I want it all!

[NW Modeling List]

I agree with Mr. Huber that the Society wasn’t necessarily formed to invest in the production of models.  It is, after all, a historical society.  But I would guess that a high fraction of the membership do model, or have interest in models of, N&W and VGN prototypes—many of which just are not available in HO, let alone the other scales.

Lots of discussion has occurred in this forum about models that various Members would like to have, and about the difficulty of funding their production, or inciting the established producers to do so.

I think there might be a middle ground, in which the Society might play a crucial enabling role.

Stereolithography and other “additive machining” means have achieved wide acceptance; the best machines and 3D printing services are achieving 0.001” resolution and accuracy over >8”x15”x10” builds.  One can submit printing jobs to a printing service and often get <1 week turn-around.  What is needed are the 3-D CAD files that represent the part to be printed—there are NO tooling costs.  The files need to be in a format that the service can use to drive their 3D printers.  Best of all, once the CAD files exist for any modeling scale, they can be re-scaled to any other modeling scale.

If the Society had a library of CAD model files, then Members could pay a modest per-model license fee to the Society, and have the model printed by a 3D printing service with which the Society had a favorable relationship in any scale the modeler wanted, with the modeler paying the printing service for printing the parts.  Typically, printing services charge by printing time and part volume, which means that G-scalers would pay more for a kit than N-scalers would.

While the technology won’t support printing of drive mechanisms (yet), models of rolling stock (less wheels/axles) and structures are well within current capabilities.

The problem is that the 3D CAD files must be created—and this is where the Society might reasonably get involved, without major investment, but with major beneficial impact.  The Society could…
1)  Establish a favorable relationship with one or more 3D printing services that can produce highly detailed parts;
2)  Establish 3D CAD file standards that are compatible with the printing service’s requirements;
3)  Promulgate those standards to the Membership;
4)  Serve as a clearinghouse between Members who might want to collaborate on specific prototypes (i.e., have the 10 CAD-savvy Members who really want a CF caboose model collaborate on the necessary file-building);
5)  Make prototype information available to those Members who want to undertake generating the 3D CAD files;
6)  Act as the librarian for all files generated, taking a modest curation fee and administering a modest license fee on behalf of whomever authored the files used from the users of those files;
7)  Maintain configuration control of the files, allowing for upgraded files to be substituted if/when better (more accurate, or more detailed) files become available;
8)  Provide a review/feedback forum in which the file accuracy and detail can be (gently!) critiqued and issues identified to the author of the file and to the Membership;
9)  Create a “file exchange” for elemental parts:  e.g., if I’m working on files of an N&W battleship gon, and somebody has already created an excellent file of an AB brake cylinder, then it would be nice to incorporate that elemental part file into my gon file—with proper recognition, and maybe a sub-license “micro-fee” to the author of that elemental part file whenever one of my gon files gets used by a 3rd party)

I have heard that Autodesk allows a free license for their 3D-capable AutoCAD software for casual (not-for-profit) users who want to generate 3D CAD files as hobbyists.  I haven’t personally verified that, but with the Society’s non-profit status helping, maybe the Society could investigate this on behalf of the Membership.  Most printing services can use AutoCAD-generated 3D files, properly “sliced”.

It would be quite a boon (and probably easier to kick-start) if the same approach was applied to 2D decal file sets.

The cool thing about this is that it might realistically be possible within a decade to “crowd-source” our way to having reasonably easy-to-build models of literally every piece of rolling stock and every structure (in literally any scale) for which the Society has prototype information, at zero net cost, zero up-front investment, and zero physical inventory on the part of the Society.

Then all we’d have to moan about is not having enough time to build, paint, and finish them all.

-Eric Bott
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