Building a Mike Trice designed Gauge 3 GNR open wagon

[Lawrence Boul]

I will put my 10 pence in... the likes of blender is far from intuitive and you need to invest a great deal of hours in learning how to use it properly which I dont have. I tend to use Fusion 360 but that in itself is also limited in what it can do or at least what is simple to do within it.

Take coach seating for example, with the buttoned cushions, from previous exploration it is extremely difficult to produce those complex shapes in Fusion.

Anyhow, I did upload the GNR wagon .obj file into 3D viewer to ungroup the files and edit them, thats how I managed to seperate the buffers, omit the chain detail etc. but I have to admit it did not occur to me to open it with Fusion to see if the coupling slot can simply be narrowed in there. As Mike T says, if so, it is considerably less faff.

Given the debate, I thought I'd take a look. Blender is an acquired taste. Extremely powerful, but it works in an entirely different way to CAD, so CAD users find it bemusing I suspect (I did, and I don't consider myself expert by any means). Very easy to do buttoned cushions though. Blender is a tool requiring skill to use. You need it (or similar) for some tasks, or accept that you can't do them - a personal choice based on resources and inclination.

Mike's obj's are amenable to manipulation in Blender and Rhino and presumably other programs. Those who want these models are fortunate as they are usable as is and able to be modified by those so inclined. The coupler slot narrowing is achievable in seconds. Parts are easy to separate, so modification, replacement etc are straightforward.

Perhaps more interesting, there's some simplification/pragmatism, presumably to suit the original intent. This is not a criticism, but an observation. They would form an excellent starting point for somebody interested in adding further detail, distressing and so on. Something to contemplate if upscaling to a larger scale.