thomas and friends mini series

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had a surprise find in town today, the two glow in the dark 5pks from last year. not badly priced at $9NZD each, either!
my website address has changed: https://sunscollections.weebly.com/
Sunhuntin did you ever set up that display? Curious how it looks. Glad you found the glow in the darks. I was worried they wouldn’t come here, now they’re quite easy to find.
i havent yet, but now i some that i dont have to dig to get to, i will set it up and get some photos. it wont be full, but should give everyone an idea of how it looks.

yes, i imagine these will be everywhere for a while. i wish the supply here was more reliable instead of being so far behind.
my website address has changed: https://sunscollections.weebly.com/
here we go. nigel did tell me the uprights will need to be glued, as they are loose in the ports, but i havent done that yet, so the remainder of the racks are not shown. they do become more stable with the weight of the minis on them. the minis are also held very securely and cannot just be lifted off, each has to be go on and off from the end.
i will get my glued at some stage, just been reluctant as storage is an issue when its built up.

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my website address has changed: https://sunscollections.weebly.com/
[-] The following 1 user Likes sunhuntin's post:
  • Finno
Hi Sun,

Yeah, I'm sorry about the 'loose fit' of the uprights, but as I said I couldn't quite get to the reason why they were too tight when I printed them in the correct dimensions. All I can think of is maybe some extra shrinkage in the base when cooling plus the fact I print the uprights laying down (I won't go into the reasons). When I get a bit more time I will do some more testing to get to the bottom of the issue or maybe find better way of clipping them together, but for now it will work fine once glued. I would suggest maybe just glue the uprights in place so you can clip the shelves on and off as needed.


Cheers, Nigel
Happily collecting things all my life... Big Grin
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  • Finno
thanks nigel. yes, it has potential to work brilliantly. will glue them at some stage, just need to find somewhere i can store the glued sections without them getting damaged. my comment was certainly not a complaint, just explaining why it wasnt fully set up for the photo. Smile
my website address has changed: https://sunscollections.weebly.com/
I never thought it was a complaint, just well I tend to be a perfectionist so hate shipping something that isn't 100% perfect Smile

Just as you know I've had a few things on so didn't have the time to keep playing with it and keep you waiting lol...
Happily collecting things all my life... Big Grin
Looks real cool, guys. Whenever it’s fully assembled and in display mode, I’d like to see it. For now I can get a better picture of it all with that imagine. Anything stopping them from sliding off on either end? Is there room for 6 per tier possibly?
(04-14-2019, 01:03 AM)Reivax Wrote: Looks real cool, guys. Whenever it’s fully assembled and in display mode, I’d like to see it. For now I can get a better picture of it all with that imagine. Anything stopping them from sliding off on either end? Is there room for 6 per tier possibly?

To answer your questions;

Q: Anything stopping them from sliding off on either end?
A: Yes, I deliberately designed the shelves so that you can only slide the miniatures on from one end, the other end is sealed, thus making it just that little more difficult for someone to remove them.  The fit is also quite tight to stop them rolling off it tilted for example and again to stop little hands pulling them off.

Q: Is there room for 6 per tier possibly?
A: No, this is a physical limit impossed by the length of the miniatures themselves combined with the maximum size I can print length wise.  The printer I have is one of the larger hobbyist ones made (commercial ones costing thousands can print larger) with the largest print build size.  I can think of one other model that is even bigger, but frankly I wouldn't have room to accomodate that and would rarely need a bigger build size.  I could potentially make longer shelves, but these would have to be printed on end (the build size is 300mm x 300mm x 500mm - width x depth x height), but this would potentially result in weaker shelves.  It's all to do with how the layers of plastic are extruded.

Anyway, here is a peek of what I am currently printing, a set of 'blue plastic tracks' (literally as I'm using blue filament Smile), unfortunately I can't take credit for these models as I found them on Thingiverse.  The set available is based on the Brio type wooden tracks and seems to cover most if not all the normal track types available.  Similar to the wooden tracks these pieces are secured together using little plastic clips.  Seems I'll be able to have a full 'mini' size train set, all I need to do now is figure out if there is anyway to motorise a mini lol!!

Please note these are mini-sized and close ups so look 'rougher' than they actually are, I've also not cleaned anything up - for example the bottom of the bridge needs a little sanding to clean up the bottom.

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Happily collecting things all my life... Big Grin
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  • Finno, Pablo392, sunhuntin, Super
That looks really neat, Nigel. I assume you had to go through a lot of filament for that ramp.



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