I've seen it used for making bridge piers; I don't know if there had been
any filing or other cleanup work done to the parts, but they looked very
sharp.

Frank Valoczy
Vancouver, BC

Jeff wrote >

Commercial models are available made using the rapid prototyping
technique. The outfit is called Smoky Mountain Model Works and is
run by Jim King. Jim was making O-scale models but was unhappy with
the degree of support from the O-scale community and switched over to
S-scale about a year ago. He has also made some HO products under
contract to others; the one that comes to mind is a SOU gondola
(which was also the prototype of his first S-scale product)

Tom Madden gave a clinic at Naperville a couple of years ago. While
RP is slick, there is a huge learning curve to making good models
using this technique, and at this point only somebody whose job gives
them access to the equipment (as Jim King has) can economically use
it for making models.

The article that Bruce referred to makes this particular type of RP
accessible to the average modeler. There is a need to "draft" the part
in 3-D but the rest of the work can be out-sourced. While the resulting
part sounds expensive ($25 for a air compressor in 1/32 scale as I
recall....I don't have access to the article right now), it would be
worthwhile if the resulting RP part can then used as a master for
casting duplicates in resin. The only question that I have is whether or
not the parts are as "clean" as an equivalent scratchbuilt part. I plan
to give it a try...

Jack Burgess
www.yosemitevalleyrr.com






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