mickoo
Western Thunderer
You know what I'm going to say.......so I won't but the phone is always on.I have a kit in my pile and I can see how the customer was seduced by the look of the 3D printed backhead and separate 3D fittings. In reality it'll all end up in the bin and I'll use brass castings. I'm also willing to bet that when you blow paint on the backhead it'll be layery and I'll end up scratchbuilding one of them too.
There is zero excuse for layering in 3D prints, especially if you're putting them in kits to sell, frankly you're giving the rest of us who can do it right a bad name. It's hard enough to get modelers to accept new mediums but amateurs peddling shite makes it doubly hard.
LMS G7 backhead, this is a rough print at 50 microns and used as a test pig to make sure everything else around it all fits, the paint job actually has more defects than the print and some layering is still just visible on the top radius. Even so it'd be more than good enough in a covered tank engine cab. For reference, 50 microns is akin to tin plate scale fidelity, about the least you can get.
Further disclaimer, it wasn't printed on my latest machine, it's about a year old now.
Now I know you can make your own backhead and yes the customer will pay but sometimes folks are letting the tail wag the dog. The only time I think brass is better than 3D is if the backhead has polished plate work, aka early GWR and LMS engines to name but two.
Cab interior lockers and tanks, easy to fold up out of brass, not for me I'm afraid so I throw technology at it I'm afraid.
These are on the new machine at 30 microns (the equivalent of O fine). Other than smoothing the support pips there has been no surface prep, perfectly square, lots of detail and a dab of glue to fit.
There are two defects on the drivers side unit which need sorting and didn't show up until I put the primer on.
I don't like bombing other peoples threads, but Nick, for the love of everything, make the call and use the saved time to go down the pub, stop fighting these utterly shit kits, it's not good for your well being.