Mark,
I use the .png as the bases of all my artwork, however when it comes to
doing makersplates or anything requiring fine detail such as lettering etc.. I
draw the artwork 10 times larger, and then take that file into Coral Draw and
reduce it to the required actual size, that way I can etch lettering that is
perhaps only .2mm. high [point two millimetre]
See photos of other models I have built all fully etched chassis and body
work.
<>
?
Brian
Rawbelle
County Workshops
Qld. Aust.
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Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2016 3:37 PM
Subject: Re: [O14] Re: The Stronalacher Saga
?
Hi Brian,
I'm seriously impressed if you do your own etching! It also explains why you
don't have any issues using a bitmap format for the images: PNG is a bitmap
format. As to scaling I didn't? mean for scaling the entire artwork for
differing modelling scales, more changing the size of a part if you initially
mis-measured etc. Clearly if you do the entire process yourself (still really
impressed by that!) then you'll have found a process that works perfectly for
you, I'd just be concerned for anyone starting out from scratch and wanting to
have a company do the actual etching, and in that instance I'd strongly suggest
they use a vector drawing program or at least check with the etcher first before
investing lots of time in producing drawings as bitmaps,
Mark
?
Mark,
While it is possible to save drawings in a multitude of file types with
Paintshop Pro, I save all my artwork as “.png” [Portable Network Graphic], and
I do all my own etching, as far as “scaling” goes artwork cannot be
successfully enlarged or reduced to suit a particular scale, because the
artwork if done properly is designed to use a particular material thickness,
if you were to reduce the artwork in size, that would mean you also reduce the
width of the fold lines and after the etching is done you wouldn’t get the
brass to fold neatly on those lines because the lines would be too fine.
?
Brian
Rawbelle
County Workshops
Qld. Aust.
?
Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2016 4:04 PM
Subject: Re: [O14] Re: The Stronalacher Saga
?
Without wanting to suggest that you are doing anything wrong Brian, I'd
suggest that anyone wanting to learn to produce artwork for etching avoids
using Paintshop Pro or any other bitmap based software. There are two reasons
for this 1) bitmap based drawings can be difficult to edit, especially scaling
and 2) most companies will refuse to take bitmap artwork for etching now.
Brian, I assume you have a local company you've been using for a while and as
they know your artwork point 2 is slightly less relevant.
For those starting to learn to draw the artwork what you really want to
look at isn't necessarily CAD? (which can be expensive and difficult to
learn) but a vector drawing programme (I use a free programme called Inkscape:
). The difference between
these two types of programmes is that a bitmap image just records the colour
of each pixel whereas a vector image is essentially a set of instructions for
how to draw the image. This means that scaling an image becomes easy as you
just change the instructions, and lines etc. remain smooth rather than
becoming jagged as they do in a bitmap. It's also easy to move parts around as
again you just change the instructions so the starting point for a shape
changes (all done through the normal drawing tool interactions you don't have
to worry about the maths yourself). One of the companies many people in the UK
use is PPD Ltd and they have a set of guides for producing artwork that are a
good starting point for understanding the process:
All this of course only refers to how you produce the drawings, and so
anyone starting out would do well to avail themselves of Brian's very kind
offer to help with basic techniques and issues like fold points etc. that can
easily catch out the unwary.
If you are going to ExpoNG then talking to Stephen on the Narrow Planet
stand might be a good idea as he's been producing etch artwork for a number of
years, not only for name/number plates but also for their range of kits, as
well as custom pieces -- I'm slightly biased here as I designed their OO9 kit
of the 24hp Hudson-Hunslet diesel loco.
Hope that helps,
Mark
?
Colin,
Making your own etchings isn’t as hard to do as you may think, the set
up cost for the basic items will cost you about AUD$600 or about 300UK
pound, the hard part is learning to design your own artwork, instead of
using CAD I use Paintshop Pro7 and instead of actually working is a scale I
simply use pixels at 72000 resolution each pixel is equal to .1mm. so I can
etch components as accurate as within .1mm.
Anyone who would like to learn how to accurately draw there artwork you
can contact me, I can teach you the basic techniques of how I start to work
out how to establish the fold points etc.
?
Brian
Rawbelle
County Workshops
Qld. Aust.
?
Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2016 9:32 AM
Subject: Re: [O14] Re: The Stronalacher Saga
?
?
Thanks Guys
?
We have Expong coming up so I hope to be
able to talk to a few people who are making 3D prints in 009, I realise that
if making a brass etch kit was easy we would all be doing them, that said, I
do take my hat off to you guys who spend your time making these kits for the
rest of us to b***er up, I am not going to promise anything as it could all
change over night so to speak, but the idea behind this thread was to see if
any of the locos I listed where produced in brass for 014, I think I have
the answer is generally no.
?
That said, I am sure Wrightlines used to
do Prince and the Darjeeling B tank and we know that EDM will have the
L&BR 2-6-2 kit at some stage, and I think chivers fines lines used to do
a 7mm scale Vale of Rheidol 2-6-2 as well, but I am sure the others don't
have kits, so there is a lot of scratch building to do in that
case.????
?
There is one photo of the 4mm version of
Stronalacher which always makes me go Wow after all this time and the
Darjeeling Garrett with a long slate train on a Wooden trestle bridge, I
think that would look really cool in 014, it was about 5ft in 009, that
would be somewhere near 2.6 metres in length in 014.
?
Regards
?
Colin
?
?
?
?
?
???????
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2016 9:01
PM
Subject: Re: [O14] Re: The
Stronalacher Saga
?
From what I have seen and heard, a lot of etchings that have been
done in the past, they have tried to use too thick of a material which
means it is very hard to get folds correct, all of the etching I do is
designed to use .4mm. brass sheet, sometimes after spending countless
hours designing the artwork, the first test etch will reveal some
problems, mainly because I got mixed up with which side some fold points
had to be on. Take a look at the photos of a 91 Class SAR loco I am
building, and study the steps, one photos shows both sides of the steps as
etched and also what the steps look like after being folded, all one piece
each.
<>
?
Brian
Rawbelle
County Workshops
Qld. Aust.
?
Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2016 1:11 AM
Subject: Re: [O14] Re: The Stronalacher Saga
?
Very true.
Producing a working CAD drawing that can be
turned in to a pattern or an etch takes a bit of doing for 3D parts you
need to add shrinkage factors these change depending on the material being
used to cast the item.
?
For etches you have to flatten the part add
bending lines which change depending on thickness of material and the
level of distortion you need.
?
I have lost count of the number of etches I
have ditched and started again with.
And if you want to just
produce a 3D print all parts have interlock or be drawn from a solid as if
it's just touching and unioned the printer will see two parts not
one.
?
I produced our first kit in 1999 and I'm still
getting things wrong on test etches and you would never know until you
build the prototype.
Marc
?
Colin,
I think
you'll find a major difference between a drawing of a loco even in CAD
and what is needed for an etched kit. The 7mm Narrow Gauge Association
has books of drawings but most predate home CAD systems and were
probably done originally by someone to scratch build a model. A lot of
the ones published in NG&IRMR are proper works drawings. Both
sources need treating with care, in the former case one doesn't know how
much information the draughtsman had and in the latter you need to watch
what was actually built as opposed to what was designed. All of course,
thanks to someone's, efforts far better than nothing at
all.
Nothing
like publishing anything for some further information to crawl out of
the woodwork and make a fool of you.
Frank
?
I might be wrong in
thinking this, but for me an 014 loco kit will need to have weight, I
would guess that if I had a half decent computer and the Auto Cad
programme I would have a go at producing 7mm drawings to make up brass
etched kits and to also make the masters for the 3D Cad castings as
well.
I think 014 has a lot
going for it, and if I had the space then I would consider building a
model in this size, One thing which I am surprised with and that is the
lack of narrow gauge loco and rolling stock Cad drawings which are
available (you watch, some one will come on here now and tell me where I
can find them), but why stop there? as you are half way to getting an
etch of that item done.
May be it is just me
getting older and trying to cope with all this new
technology.
----- Original
Message -----
Sent:
Tuesday, October 11, 2016 12:20 PM
Subject: Re: [O14] Re: The Stronalacher
Saga
There was a kit actually for the
Darjeeling Garratt in 7mm scale and I have seen the etchings and resin
castings, now in the possession of a friend and 7mm NGA member.?
BUT this was, I gather, one of just two test etches and has never been
released.? If anyone can track? down its heritage then the
possibility remains!!
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