Metropolitan milk van

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Guy Rixon
Posts: 909
Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2011 6:40 pm

Metropolitan milk van

Postby Guy Rixon » Wed Oct 08, 2014 4:52 pm

I've just started a scratch-build of a Metropolitan railway milk van of the batch built 1896-1897. It's very like the preserved van in the museum at Covent Garden, but has the earlier, hinged doors.

The parts so far made are the panels of louvres, which have just arrived from Shapeways. You can see at https://www.shapeways.com/model/2519071/louvre-panels-for-metropolitan-milk-van-4mm-scale.html?li=aeTabs how they are done. No photos of the actual print yet (a thief recently stole everything I own that takes photographs and I'm yet to re-equip), but they seem OK: no missing or deformed slats and the louvre profile seen edge-on is right. Under 10x magnification they're a bit rough, but they look good under 3x magnification.

Is it worth printing louvres? Maybe; already, before painting, they look better than the flat bars one gets in an etch. If it were only a couple of panels I'd have made them out of 0.005" plastic strips, but this van has 16 panels and my patience is limited recently. Now that I've got the OpenSCAD code for louvres, I can easily print any size of panel.

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jon price
Posts: 641
Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2010 2:34 pm

Re: Metropolitan milk van

Postby jon price » Wed Oct 08, 2014 5:11 pm

This looks excellent, exactly what this process can do better than anything else.
Connah's Quay Workshop threads: viewforum.php?f=125

billbedford

Re: Metropolitan milk van

Postby billbedford » Thu Oct 09, 2014 7:07 am

There is no advantage in sprueing things vertically. You will get a better finish if pieces like this are sprued as a flat sheet.

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Guy Rixon
Posts: 909
Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2011 6:40 pm

Re: Metropolitan milk van

Postby Guy Rixon » Thu Oct 09, 2014 1:51 pm

Bill, thanks for the advice. I'll do it that way when I print for my next louvred vehicle.


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