[KICKSTARTER] Printable Railway Tracks and Wheels

[puster]

I recently had the problem to get tracks for my FOW Russian (ex Polish) Armoured Train, and convinced my wife to create some printfiles. These looked good enough to create a Kickstarter campaign for them, so here they are.

There are free STL files for 1:100 and 1:56 tracks in there, so this is not a total ad :-)

The campaign aims to offer a set of free for all files for the Standard Gauge, and sets for Russian, Indian, Cape and Industrial/Field Gauge for the backers only. It also provides a set of wheels to build your own rolling stock and comes at 10€(~$12) for the full pledge.

The tracks and wheels can be scaled and we testprinted them from 1:300 to 1:35

A set of wheels printed at 1:56 (using toothpicks as axles):


First I realized that the wheels  that come with the train are a bit on the narrow side if you really want the correct gauge - so we also provide a set of wheels to be used with this train:


1:100 samples



We experimented with included bedding, here in 1:100 and 6mm:

BTW: Beware of warping PLA in the sun...


The tracks at 6mm:



A sample with Bolt Action minis:


and finally wheels again:


At the moment it does not look like there is sufficient interest, but then we will just release just the existing files (though not for free, and with just one Gauge).

Comments are welcome, here or at the campaign:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dastri/printable-railway-tracks-stl-for-the-important-gau

[YPU]

This is probably elitist of me, but why people buy a 3d printer without the skill to draw up something as simple as a train track is quite beyond me.

[puster]

Its probably the same reason why people buy a printer - to be able to printout files.  If all you want is a hardcopy of a PDF there is no need to master an office application. That said, software to create 3d models is a bit more complex then office.

Apart from that, while creating a track is not that hard, a curve, switch, wheel or trackbed is a step ahead. When you look at realistic walls, architecture  or organic objects like humans, plants or animals, it quickly becomes real work where even pros have to invest serious work.
Doing all this in a way that it will create an acceptable printout is another challenge.

Just owning a printer gives you access to all these stuff, with more files being added daily. I dare say that the typical owner (~98% of them) of a 3d-printer in a year will only use it to print out files and never create any files by themselve. 3d-printers will be as common as 2d-printers and smartphones today, and will substantially change this hobby. In a few years the resolution will make the normal casting process - be it metal, resin or plastic - for small items like miniatures obsolete, and I dare say that affordable coloured print is not too distant, too.

So, in short - yes, for people who can handle 3d-development software this campaign is probably not worth it (though I would probably still rather spend the ~$12 then do it myself) - but the "typical" 3d-owner of today is a printer, not a designer. Just imho, of course...

[tin shed gamer]

I'd recommend you have chat with YUP and see if you can pick his brains.(he has on occasion been able to fluke something commercially viable )

I get a lot of work across my desk from companies to manually correct 3D prints. To a degree I agree that is a lot more complicated than it looks even for professionals.
 
There will be a gap in the market for you. However your print resolution needs to be finer . It's also a good idea not to use warped product or un painted as the prints disappear in the photographs.It a schoolboy approach and will be seen as representative of your whole project.
Presentation is the key 'Pretty prevents obscurity.'
That may sound a little harsh but its not intended to.
As my Grandad would say(and did) folk are odd ,offer them free horse muck for their roses,and you'll spend your life knee deep in it.Put it a bag charge a fiver,and you'll be thinking about giving the horses bracken tea.
Translated from Yorkshire its all about presentation

[dampfpanzerwagon]

These sections of track and wheels look great - a simple idea but well worth placing on Kickstarter as I am sure there will be a market.

Once again well done and thank you for posting the images.

Tony

[puster]

However your print resolution needs to be finer .

We used a printer that we got for 400€ with standard settings so that we can judge the actual product the average customer holds in hand. I admit that this is often does not look good, but we hope that those with a better printer know the reason (they did invest in a better printer, after all), and those who do not will not get a better product anyway - so I rather have them not jump in then be disappointed with us.
In our next campaign with houses we will also show some better prints that we got via shapeways.

It's also a good idea not to use warped product or un painted as the prints disappear in the photographs.

Yep, that warping was a nasty surprise - I just let it lay in the sun for an hour. I should have done another set...
As for printouts... most campaigns do not use printouts at all, as these usually look far less shiny then the printed product. Painted products also rather sell the skill of the painter (I am quite content with the way the 1:100 house comes out, btw), so we decided to use the naked printouts as an anchor. Perhaps we will shift the focus next time, start with painted and rendered examples and just provide the unpainted printouts as additional info.

It a schoolboy approach and will be seen as representative of your whole project.
Presentation is the key 'Pretty prevents obscurity.'
That may sound a little harsh but its not intended to.
As my Grandad would say(and did) folk are odd ,offer them free horse muck for their roses,and you'll spend your life knee deep in it.Put it a bag charge a fiver,and you'll be thinking about giving the horses bracken tea.
Translated from Yorkshire its all about presentation

Thanks for the feedback (really)!. We will make sure to rack up our presentation for the next one :-)

BTW: A small render of the buffer we added:

Really just a small addon - and I am sure the actual printout will look pretty bleak.