 For this segment of What's Neat this week, I've got Mike Buddy and he's got some of these magnificent vehicles from what company Mike? Yon 3D. These are 3D printed cars from Germany. And we talked about these on the show once, but there's a lot of new models coming out and they've created a new molding system and a new printing system, a whole new way to deliver these models to us so that the layers, you don't really see the layers anymore. They're down to 12 microns or less now of printed layer material. So the technology is moving rapidly and that's something we kind of wanted to cover in this. Really I think the coolest thing in the world would be is if we could actually talk to the guy in Germany. You know, I'm thinking we should Skype him or something. You know, he's way over here on this side of the globe, you know, he's right over here in Germany and we're way over here in the US and there's got to be some way to get him here. Now, you know what, watching some of those movies that my daughter's got, I saw a trick. I want to try something here. Okay, just hang tight with me. I want to try something. Let's make him appear. We're model builders. We can do anything, right? Hang tight. Whoa! Something's happening here. Huh? I present to you all the way from Germany. Jens Jahn. Well, it's good to be here. For this segment of What's Neat, I've got Jens Jahn all the way from Germany. Now you know him as the gentleman that creates and makes these beautiful 3D models and Mike Buddy's here and I'll tell you what, they're going to compare notes about some new products and what's going on. So guys, I'll let you take over and talk about the new cars. Well, it's good to be here. Yes. I was really excited when Mike and Ken started this in September and it just picked up like magic. So we were talking over the last few months and we could change a few of our models and this is the outcome of this. It's a 1963 in Pala. Right, 7 in Pala. And four door in Pala. Right. Yeah. And this is printed by Shapeways in FUD. Was that Frosted Ultra Detail? That's Frosted Ultra Detail, yeah. And what, the good thing is on this is the surface is much a lot. More detail is, you cannot see the layers really, there is a lot less layers. And Shapeways just released a complete new material which is even better than this. The detail comes out better. It is going to be 12 microns, not anymore like 24 microns. So you don't see at all the layers. Yes, you can really start from that. It's a big difference from what we had before, which was like you said, like Ken said, it was like... It's the same model. It's the same model. In the old, I mean the difference in detail is incredible. I mean this has all the detail on the back, the chrome rings around the tail lights. The interior has bucket seats and the correct dashboard, steering wheel. Oh. And also there we have the interior. And the wheel is separate, so it makes it much easier to paint and to whatever you want to do with it. Right. It's going to detail is better. And you're working on windows for this, right? And I'm almost finished to introduce also cars with the window. Yeah. So... Yeah, 3D printing has come a long way. It has come a long way. Yeah. This is the last year. Yeah. The company like Shapeways is making it possible. And actually the customer who's buying the product is making it possible. Yeah. Right. So we have to live with something that is not perfect for a while, but in buying it, it's going to be much helping the industry to develop a lot more and better ways to reproduce. Right. Yeah. It's pretty amazing to me just the difference that a year has brought and I'm sure it's only going to get better. It is basically it's... The differences Ken and Mike made the difference because it opened a lot more... The world got smaller and the view got bigger. So it was much easier to look for better ways to reproduce. And like I said, this is the outcome which is I think it came out really nice. I mean, I'm really impressed. The grill, the detail on the grill and I mean everything. There's even the texture on the headlights, you know, the little lines in the glass and stuff. I mean, that's amazing. And the future will bring even better models on that. This is, yeah, just now I can't see them too. I just got them a day before I came to America, so I couldn't really look at them. Boy, yeah, I'm really impressed. Yeah, this is actually if you go on Yarn 3D, basically the German website, there you can find out how many models are available and most of those models which are on my page are also available on Shapeways. So basically, all the information is right there. It is also in German and English and in French. You just have to find the English. That's right, www.yarn3d.d. That's right. Well, I'm really impressed by these models. I mean, this has the console, the steering wheel, the correct dash, even has the pleats on the bucket seats. That's awesome, man. So well, thanks a lot for coming and showing these to us. It was a pleasure and like I said, I will come back and I will bring a lot more and I'm going to be offering a lot more models over the next few months and also an end scale. Okay, yeah, HONN. HONN. That's what's neat this week and if there's more to come, I'm sure. I guess we'll see you next time. We will. I'll bet when you get up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water, you're asking yourself, I wonder what Ken Patterson's doing tonight. Well, tonight, about 4.30 in the morning right now, and what I'm doing is I'm working on a scene for Ather in here. I'm creating a shot using this Boston and Mainlok motive and I'm shooting in complete darkness. And the reason for that is, this is going to be a July photo and our plan is to drop in some fireworks and a moon and just kind of make for a really interesting shot using the full nighttime effect of darkness as a benefit for the photograph. I'm also using this flashlight to sort of light the scene. I've been experimenting with different timings of lighting. I'm shooting in bulb so I can keep the shutter of the camera open full time and I've got all the lights in the house turned off. So I'm just relying only on the flashlight for lights. Plus, a couple of the shots I've experimented with, I actually flipped the big bright house lights that are on the back of the house on just for a few seconds to just give a little bit of light on the scene. Experiment a little bit with nighttime photography. I think you'll find it's really fun. It'll add a whole new depth to the photography and what it is you're trying to accomplish. But now let me show you how this photograph came out. Boom. You can see the fireworks. You can see the full moon. Just taking advantage of the darkness and adding in just a little special effects through Photoshop, which is what Chris Palomeras did to this shot. Really good job, Chris. You're just really good at what you do. And that's the 4th of July, after an ad that we've got planned with this beautiful Boston and Maine locomotive. So that's what's going on here on the bluff at 4.30 in the morning on this beautiful night. We're just making some really cool model railroad photos. For this segment of What's Neat This Week, after and sent me another really cool photograph that we've got to replicate, which I think is going to be a pretty nice diorama, rather involving shot. A gentleman by the name of Alex Holmes shot this photograph, and we found it on the internet. And Chris Palomeras sent it to me and said, would you be as so kind as to replicate this for me? So I've come down here to microengineering thinking what better way to lay out the scene than to start with real high quality Code 70 weather track and turnouts. So I've come down here to pick up a couple pieces of track to finish this diorama. And what I've ended up with realizing is it's going to be rather involving with 11 or 12 turnouts and probably more like 20 feet to 30 feet of track. So I've got my turnouts and I've got my track ready to go. So let's go back to the studio now and start to lay this out on a piece of foam and see how this turns out. And here's how the scene looks laid out on a piece of foam. The scene is shot by Alex Holmes and what I'm doing is I'm copying this prototype shot that was supplied to me by my turn and it's in Minneapolis, Minnesota. And I was able to Google Earth the location and actually find the actual bridge where the shot was shot from and overhead views of the actual location. So I'm able to easily plot out and do all the math. Now the first turnout in the photograph to the bridge in real life is about 530 feet on this diorama because I'm using number six turnouts, which are shorter than the number 20 turnouts that the prototype used in the scene. My scene is only about 360 feet from this turnout to where the bridge and the double track main line is going to be for the tracks that cross over the burrowing or the BNSF yard here in Minnesota. So all I've simply got to do is spend a few hours finishing the bridges that go across, finishing the hill and then of course ballasting the whole entire scene with a good coat of some woodland scenics and some dirt and just a mixture of materials to give us the effect of the yard. And of course I'll spray paint and weather everything and this should be ready to photograph in about two days of work. So let's get through that and get ready to do the outdoor photo shoot. One additional thing I want to mention in designing the scene, I'm not actually plotting it out and visually designing it with measurements. I'm looking through the camera. I've got the camera set up in the position and everything that's being designed is simply what is in the prototype photo. When I look through the viewfinder, I simply want to make everything match this shot and that's how I approach this and design the scene. Here we are at shoot day. So let me show you how this shot is turning out. I've got the diorama set up outside and I've got my shot set up at a shooting farm and I'll get you down into position here and show you what I'm after. Looking for that shot just like in the prototype photo. And if you look here, I'll show you how the actual photograph came out. So I think it's good now at this point that I walk you through the process to tell you exactly what it is that I did in order to capture this photograph. I assembled the scene with end scale rail jointers on code 70 track carefully matching the track patterns in the photograph. Now I went over and I soldered all the track together into position, keeping it all in the same spot that it needed to be. The solder helps hold everything together plus it allows me to shoot video later on down the road so I can get some moving scenes on this diorama. Now because the diorama was sealed with latex paint, it allowed me to glue the track into position using liquid nails and smoothing it with a painter's knife like you see in this video. I sprayed the scene brown with Rustoleum camouflage paint, weathering both sides of the rails and concealing the soldering joints. Just kind of giving an overall weathering and darkness to the scene before I want to put ballast on it. In order to speed up the process I used a blow dryer to kind of dry things so that I could in fact, in reality, I built this scene in nine and a half hours and it's a lot of steps where I cut corners that I'm going to explain to you that really helped get the scene done quicker. I stacked the foam to support the bridge approaches into the scene and I used glue to glue them prior to carving the foam. I wanted to glue the foam together and then I was going to go ahead and carve it. I test fit the road bed and the bridge deck for the upper crossing track. I used a piece of wood for the bridge deck and I cut a small piece of foam to raise up the track work so everything would be even. I cut the bridge piers as per the prototype photographs making the round edge piers. I used a bandsaw and then I sanded these and made these nice and then I had to test fit these piers into position on the diorama. And further on I carved the foam hill with a pruning saw. I had to get the hill just right, the right height and everything and I like the pruning saw because it's flexible, it curves, which aids in the carving process. I glued the fake fur to the foam hill with Foam Pro, the great stuff that comes up with the stainless steel nozzle. This saved two steps by gluing the fake fur to the scene with this foam. In that I didn't have to seal it with latex paint and I didn't have to use liquid nails to glue down the fake fur, the foam held. So I'm really happy with that new step and that's saved about an hour in time. I trimmed the fake fur in random areas using a barbershear to give me that grassy pattern look and then I painted it green. I used some light green and some hunter green and I let that dry for an hour while I went on to finish the bridge. Now I used a hot milk glue to attach the 85 foot microengineering girders to a piece of wood that provided the decking for the bridge and this set up really quick and it's very strong. Now I painted the bridge with Rust-Oleum Coma-Flage paint. This paint is plastic safe and doesn't harm the bridge sides. So this was really nice and also helped speed up the process. The coat was smooth and ready to be weathered with oil paints. At this point it was time to glue the bridge into place. So I set it all up and I used a little bit of wood glue for the pier and again I used the Great Stuff Pro Glue to glue the other end of the bridge down onto the hill area. I worked and I sifted it on dirt. I worked the dirt into the fake fur using a hair brush. This allows me to make the tufts of grass stick up through the fake fur and it provides a real nice ground cover to use sifted dirt like this. Then I went ahead and started ballasting the scene. I applied Woodland Scenic's gray ballast to the entire scene, working the ballast with an artist's brushes to smooth everything into position. This gave, this is the part where I really took my time on it because it's really important to get this part right on the process. When you're putting down the ballast and you're finishing it all off, then you put the glue on and the glue is going to attach everything relatively permanent. So I sprayed the entire scene with four bottles of Woodland Scenic Scenic cement and I let it dry for eight hours. And that essentially brought me to the point to where I am now. I timed this diorama, I took nine and a half hours to build it. It's capable of running video and I'm really satisfied with the results. So even though this shot that I did today isn't necessarily an athern job because it's got other varieties of manufacturers' fray cards mixed into the scene, I can see in the future some great videography and some really good athern photographs coming from this finished prop that we've got that could be shot in multiple different ways. And so that's how I did that from start to finish, from the track manufacturer to the finished product. This is how you essentially build a scene one-to-one using photographs and it's kind of neat how it came out. It's ready actually. We worked into a layout. We can operate and run now. So that's what I wanted to show on this segment of this month's July video. For this segment of video, I want to discuss the McCabe Engine House from BTS Models. Now this is a laser cut single-stall engine house kit and what I'm doing on this project is just like I start all of my laser cut kits, I start by pre-coloring all of the parts. So here I've got the parts that are on the exterior painted dark so I can use the rubber cement trick and make whatever color I paint them and show as the darkness, the dark underwood weathering shows through as we paint the paint peel off. The other parts are all stained. It's the outside walls and the roof parts. I always pre-color all of the pieces before I put it together. One additional thing I've done is I've got my diorama laid out here that I want to put this engine house on and I took a piece of plexiglass and I cut out a base for the structure so it'll have a solid single structure holding it all together between the workshop and the main engine house. So I'll take my plexiglass base and I'll lay it in the bottom and I've got my engine house floor all put together already and so all I've got to do is simply assemble the outside walls and start to put in the windows and color treat everything and this kit should go very quick. If it's anything like the other two-stall narrow gate roundhouse I just got them building, this thing should go together really quick. I mean these laser cuts these days literally fall together like puzzles. It's just a matter of color treatment, weathering and the finished product and you can have one of these things built in under two weeks. So let me show you how this project carries on. Now that I've got the main components of the single-stall engine house built it's time to paint this thing white. Now I've painted it dark first so that when I apply rubber cement to this and then put white paint on it and scrape it off it'll give the effect of the dark weathered wood effect. So the first step in doing that, what I need to do and this is probably the scariest part for any of us to get over and that's after we've spent all of this time building this we're now going to absolutely cover this thing with rubber cement. I mean we're going to liberally apply this glue to the structure with the brush, the applicating brush that comes with it and I want to put it all over this thing very heavy. It'll dry thin, it'll thin out as it dries so what looks heavy now will go flat and then we'll rub it off after it's painted white. So this is what I need to do the whole building now is just simply liberally just make it look like I'm ruining it but I'm really not because this effect is very effective it works. No such thing is too much because it really the more you've got the more build-up you've got the easier it'll be to rub it off and for it to be flaky and lumpy looking which is what I want for the effect. I'm just gonna go over this whole structure with this glue just like this all the way around gotta do the doors all the parts where I want the paint peeling I've got to do that it's drying very quick it's almost disappearing here I'm going to probably apply a second coat right there where it's drying so flat that it doesn't look like I've got any rubber cement to rub off so don't be shy about putting this on you're not going to ruin the structure I promise. Now that the rubber cement is dried now we're going to paint the single stall engine house I'm going to use about 20 pounds of air and I'm using some floccal lacquer based paint I've still got some of that we're just going to spray this puppy white we're going to whitewash it I'm not getting any paint on the inside of the building I'm this is a very good ayahuata airbrush which pinpoints where the paint is going I'm not really getting any paint on the inside so there's no need to mask this right now I'm painting around the windows and I need to paint the doors the same way that I'm doing the engine house and the doors also have got a good application of rubber cement on them so that we'll be able to make the peeling paint effect that'll match now in order to make the peeling paint effect I've already started here all I simply do is I take my thumb and I run it gently up the building up the boards parallel with the grain of wood and I'm getting a real nice peeling effect here as you can see and I'm just going to do this gently all the way around the whole structure because this is working out really nice kind of randomly working my finger around this because it's coming right off real nice a little bit more pressure here yeah that's looking paints peeled off the underneath weathered wood is showing through look at that a lot of times another thing I like to do is take a paint brush just do one board at a time that gives you a subtle effect not as heavy as I'm getting with my finger but what you want to be careful with the brush is you don't want streaks that look like lines you don't want a pattern you want a random and when this is all done and this goes out into outdoor sunlight this should look just fantastic I've known some people to take a little white paint over spray it over this just to make it a little more subtle which isn't a bad idea that that's helpful experiment a little bit feel free to experiment this is all a learning curve we know what works but we always discover something new through experimentation that suits our own uses in the hobby only just finish this I've got to do all these doors and all the parts and the eaves on the roof and then we'll put the windows in now that the building is weathered it's time to install the windows and the windows are all laser cut they've all got self-stick tape on them which makes it really convenient to stick them to the acetate and then I've been taking a knife and carving around the edges of each window section and cutting them out of the acetate and then I take the two halves of the windows and I very carefully try to peel off that sticky tape and I press fit them together and it creates a complete window frame with the upper sash and then you take these other sections that I've got on the acetate the smaller ones and that's your upper and lower sash and they go together and everything seems to fit beautifully in the model these parts are cut very accurately and everything just fits just as nice as can be so I'm just taking a little bit of wood glue dabbing my dental pick in the glue putting a little glue around the edges and press fitting the windows in place so this won't take more than 20 minutes to have this finished and then I'll then I'll just put the roof on and it's pretty much you know doors and just final details and this puppy's done and it's a very nice kit ready to be photographed outside and this is how the BTS single stall engine house came out I'm real happy with the weathering effects that we've achieved using the rubber cement and I've got a locomotive it's all set up outside everything works the only thing I've still got to do is add the doors to it and I've chosen to leave the roof open so I can look at the detail on the inside so really this is a weekend project these kits are really easy to build if you're looking for something to do this weekend run out and grab yourself one of these new laser kits that are on the market I think you're really going to have fun with them that ends another what's neat this week July 2015 our 30th show a couple of things I want to say Richard Wayne Snyder asked me on Facebook hey Ken how is it that you get all those locomotives into your backyard they they seem like they're so big well I'll tell you Wayne it's really quite simple as you can see in this photograph here just a couple of cranes and you know it doesn't take any time at all to get the models I've got the UP mainline right in the backyard so the trains pull in and we unload the models right off of flat cars and up into my yard they go so that's pretty simple listen here we come up with the rpm meet in st. Louis august 7th and 8th bring your models to this show show off your best work and I've got an open house so come visit me we'll have a fun time a bonfire and we'll run some trains at night America's 239 years old this month so happy birthday America