The Google SketchUp Thread

[james_coldicott]

Marc, John, Russ, Paul, Marty, etc

thanks for all of your comments... to be fair I'm not entirely opposed to resin and am already committed to using it for some of my kits. I'd already squared up the SBLCo sideframes in my previous post but think the deck was too rigid and the sideframes shrunk a little- maybe, as Marc suggests, in reaction to the glue- I tend to use slow set superglue and reactor spray either of which could have caused a reaction with the resin. Three things that I will implement in my own kits though:-

1. All resin components will be self supporting in all planes. ie. I'll try to design items that have as many right angles as possible and with equal material thickness through the casting. The 1/32 Hibberd is a one-piece body with etched brass details which leads me to...

2. Wherever larger PE/ white metal/ investment brass parts interface with resin I'll make sure there is scope for a little movement.

3. Wherever possible from the viewpoint of cost, etc use white metal, lost wax brass or PE- resin is the most unpredictable material in this list.

Also to be fair to Richard Denot and his SBLCo kits (Richard was a close neighbour and friend of mine prior to his move to France- lived a 10 minute drive from my house) he never has done his casting in house and has gone through several suppliers because of quality issues. He does have old stock but his current supplier is, by all accounts, the finest in the UK and only uses the best quality resins so future kits should be much better.

Also a request- is there any possibility we could pool together and test the PAP parts' compatibility with various solvents, paints etc. No doubt more of us will be using this technology and it would be useful to have some kind of reference as to what works and what doesn't, both in terms of finishing and material thicknesses etc. ... Just a thought...Also, Paul, will be really interested to learn how the PAP resin responds to machining when you turn your wheels.

Cheers!

James

James

[Chuck Doan]

I have used Acetone for cleaning with no issues so far (but not as thin of parts as Marc's) Can create a white frosting but it sands away.

So far I have used enamel spray paints (Testors, Model Master) with very good adhesion. Have stripped pieces with Mineral spirits-no issues.

Have used Epoxy and ACC for repairs and attachments-no issues.

Cleaned, sanded and left un-painted pieces have remained stable over several months. Un-cleaned pieces can get a sparkly powder residue on them. Assuming this will clean/sand off.

I am still investigating if heat is an issue with these for warping/deforming/straightening.

Drills and taps nicely.

And I am getting to like the smell of the resin.

[eTraxx]

Got my PAP order today.

To recap. Here's the Sketchup export ... Radiator at the top. Below that poling pockets and below that journals. In back the coupler pockets. To the right of that brackets that go under the journals and finally, up front, the seat frame. This is all 1:48 and the dimensions are shown.

[Chuck Doan]

Looks promising!

[finescalerr]

The resolution is a little better than I expected. Please keep posting, with comments, as you cut, clean, sand, and assemble. -- Russ

[JohnP]

That is a nice sprue of parts. You would have been scratchbuilding that stuff forever.

Which brings up a point- PAP makes things possible that normal modeling would not allow without a lot of effort or perhaps not at all. I do believe we are developing the understanding of the material limitations and we are learning to account for it. Looks like a good future for PAP.

Who could have predicted the on-line PAP service even three years ago?

John

[eTraxx]

I lightly (very) sanded the tops of the coupler pockets and dipped them in Lacquer Thinner. Got much better photos with my fingers in the viewfinder .. suppose it made the camera happy. Ha.

You can see the holes for the pin .. and just barely .. in the corners .. holes for the bolts

[RoughboyModelworks]

Coupler pocket looks very good Ed... sharp edges and crisp. Most satisfactory...

Paul

[finescalerr]

The sanded and cleaned part looks about as good as a molded styrene part of that size would look only you may have been able to include a little more cleanly rendered detail (i.e., the bolt holes). I think your tiny drawhead alone pretty much tells the story. Paul has expressed the conclusion succinctly in his final two words.

But post more anyway.

Russ

[lab-dad]

I seriously doubt I could have done that in styrene, may be one, but two?......
Possibly in a chunk of brass, but then......
-Marty

[eTraxx]

I made eight poling pockets .. and broke five of them. Ooops. The flange (where they broke) is only .005" ... I missed that somehow .. I thought I had kept minimum thickness at .010". So. There's a lower limit. I think the .010" would probably be ok.

[LeOn3]

Looks great Ed.
As soon as I know how SketchUp and PAP works, I will give it a try. But for now this is at some points to difficult for me to understand, as I am not a native speaker of English. (Yep, I found this last one in the dictionary  )

Leon

[eTraxx]

As of February 2009 Sketchup was also available in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian and Dutch

[marc_reusser]

Looks great Ed.
As soon as I know how SketchUp and PAP works, I will give it a try. But for now this is at some points to difficult for me to understand, as I am not a native speaker of English. (Yep, I found this last one in the dictionary  )

Leon

León,

No es necesario ser bueno en Inglés, SketchUp está disponible en español ...... y no hay mucho para leer y entender acerca de PAP ..... solomente tienes que registrarte, subir, ver el archivo, y pagar  

Marc

[finescalerr]

Show off.

I can write, "Comment va tu?" in French. So there.

ssuR