One Day Builds between Printers

Diablo III on the Christmas mantle seems like an appropriate decoration for the year 2020. The glowing eyes are made with 
an LED powered by a battery in the pedestal.

It have been a super busy time in the past two weeks. Since my last post a lot has happened. The big news is that I upgraded to a better 3D printer.  The Anycubic Photon that I bought a few months ago was just not worth investing any more of my time. While it could give decent results, I was getting about a 50 percent success rate. When prints take 6-16 hours, a failed print is a big set back and waste of time. So I ordered and received a Form 3 from Formlabs. It's more of a "professional" grade 3D printer that uses low force, laser stereo lithography. This should make more reliable and better finished prints. Plus, Formlabs was started by 3 MIT Media Lab guys - us Tech Nerds have to support each other. 

Anycubic Photon on the left and Formlabs 3 on the right

I'll talk more about the Form 3 (F3 from now one) later when I have more experience with it, but so far I have had a 100% print success rate

Before I ordered the F3, I sent the locomotive frame stl file to Shapeways for a test print. I did that to evaluate the fit, strength, etc. That print cost about $50 and took about two weeks to get here. Note it was too big to print on the Anycubic Photon.

While I was waiting for the test print from Shapeways and the new F3 to arrive, I decided to work on a few small projects. If you watch Adam Savage's Youtube show called "Tested" you will be familiar with one-day builds. They are small projects that he can build in a day in his incredibly well equipped and stocked shop. He makes replica movie props, scale models, tools, clothing, costumes, and all kinds of things.

So I did some of my own one-day builds. I made some Christmas presents for relatives in my shop, Then, being inspired by Adam Savage, I  made a statute of the title character  from a computer game that my kids and I played, and I still play occasionally, called Diablo III.  Diablo is the evil enemy boss you are fighting in the game.

I made the statue from a stl file I downloaded from Thingeverse. The figure is not exactly the game character, but it was close, and it was free. There are stl files that more closely resemble the game character, but they were somewhat costly. 

I printed the free version of Diablo III on the Anycubic Photon. The prints were not perfect, they had a flaw in the back, but I was still able to use the pieces with some sanding and putty. Since the Diablo character appears to be made from a glowing lava-like substance, I added an LED in the head to light it up (n.b. Diablo has no gender, it assumes the identity of the person it possesses. In Diablo III , that person was a woman. Hence Diablo III has some female features.) To further the effect of glowing lava, I used some florescent paint, which looks creepy in UV light.

With the statute painted and illuminated, I decided to build a pedestal for it. So I went to Woodcraft and picked up a piece of ebony wood for the pedestal. I shaped the wood in my shop. Any excuse to use my wood working tools is OK with me.

So my one day build took two days. But it was a fun diversion. Then the test printed locomotive frame from Shapeways arrived and a day later so did the F3. So back to the locomotive. 

First print of the loco frame on the F3

The test-printed frame from Shapeways looked OK and was surprisingly strong, but it had a few glitches. So, one of  the first jobs for the F3 was to print a new frame with some modifications for the locomotive. I decided to try to print the cylinders and cross head guides as part of the frame. This will make installing the crossheads tricky, but it made the whole frame assembly quite strong. 

The weakest point in the frame is behind the crosshead guide  bulkhead  where the frame splits into two rails going to the rear.  To stiffen this section, I added sections of 1/32nd inch piano wire to the frame. I secured those with 5 minute epoxy. 

With the frame bolted to the smoke box and boiler, the whole assembly is very stiff. 

I am a little concerned about wear in the crosshead guides. If I see these parts wearing I have a few options. One, print a new frame. Two, replace the crosshead guides with nickel silver. Three, reinforce the resin crosshead guides with thin nickel silver wear strips.  

Now to get this painted and add the running sub-chassis. The first sub-chassis I built will not fit in this design. This loco has a longer wheel base and uses smaller drivers.

The white parts were printed on the Anycubic while the 
gray frame was on the F3

The War Room

In August,  my niece, who acted as an interior decorator to help us with the basement renovations, coined the term, "war room" when discussing the front room of my layout that houses the Aquia Line from Brooke to Falmouth. I thought the name was cool. However, I decided that moniker applied better to the crew lounge when it is set up for war gaming.

Model railroad tables repurposed as a wargame table

This afternoon I set-up the first miniature war game in the new War Room.   The table is 5 by 7 feet overall. Ironically, the game table started as two 5 by 2.5 feet model railroad tables that I built for John Drye. He decided that he didn't have time to finish the project he intended for those tables. So, he traded those tables back to me for the benchwork of a  small layout I had built nearly 25 years ago.

I added a set of folding legs to the blank tables. These are lower in height than normal for a model railroad, but just fine for gaming.

Alicia helped cut pieces of felt for dirt roads. The main paved road
is pieces of masonite I cut on my track saw with sloped shoulders

Next, I made an additional 5 by 2 feet section that fits between the two 5 by 2.5 feet tables creating a 5x7 overall size. That section clamps to the other two tables. The whole arrangement is reasonably sturdy. It can be disassembled and stored when not in use.

The crew lounge is large enough to house the 5x7 table with plenty of room for the planned expansion of the Aquia Line.  Even Alicia likes it. She came down and helped me build the terrain board. It is very rare for her to come down to the basement. I think she is lobbying to keep the crew lounge /war room open.

War gaming scenery is a bit different than model railroad scenery. It has to be robust and reconfigurable. So it tends to be less detailed, and more stylized. But a lot of the same principles apply.

The figure below describes the scenario we will play. This is part of our commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the liberation of Western Europe. Each month we have been playing a scenario that is appropriate for that month in 1944.
We have already done scenarios from D-Day, Fighting in the Bocage, and the Battle of Arracourt. This is from operation Market Garden, the Bridge too far campaign.

The first scenario we will play in the new "war Room" involves the Battle of Koevering,
on 23-25 September 1944. It was part of the Market Garden campaign. 

Confederate Rails - a Game of Civil War Railroading

Sample Box Cover Art

Back around 2001 well known game designer Richard Berg developed a board game called Confederate Rails. It is a brilliant depiction of the roles southern railroads had in the civil war. It is not a war game per se. It is more a railroad game, but with a twist.

Players represent the owners of the various Confederate railroad companies. Each player owns a selection of railroads that can be either bought at the start of the game through a bidding process or distributed randomly.  The object of the players is to make money by delivering loads of cargo, passengers and troops, ostensibly in support of the war utilizing your own lines, or lines of others for a fee.

 Unlike most rail games where you build your railroad network, in Confederate Rails, your existing network at the start of the game shrinks as the war goes on. The progress of the war is represented by die rolls on  an historical outcome table resulting in a random, but  inexorable constriction of the Confederacy as the Union closes in. A series of event cards changes the flow of the game and can add unexpected turns, but  in the end the Union wins the war. For the players it is just a matter of when and which railroads made the most money.  The player with the most money wins. Of course the victory is pyrrhic as the money is in Confederate dollars, worthless once the war ends, but that never stopped capitalists before.

I find the concept of the game brilliant as it really captures the attitude that many of the southern railroad companies maintained throughout the war. To learn more about how Southern railroads affected the war effort see  Robert Black's "Railroads of the Confederacy," and Angus Johnson's, "Virginia Railroads in the Civil War." Game designer Berg credits Black's book with much of his inspiration for the game. US Marine Corps officer Ian Pollit did a Master's thesis in 2002 on how Confederate railroad policy hurt their war effort. You can download it free from the Defense Technical Library here.

In addition to being an abstract, but realistic depiction of southern railroad operations during the war, the game is a lot of fun to play.

The new game company, 1A Games, is planning on reintroducing the game with higher end components and box. They have a Kickstarter site for the game. The Kickstarter site is not yet active. They are looking for feedback from potential buyers on what they would like to see.

1A games have asked me to consult on some of the development aspects. My main contribution has been this poster. It will be used as one of the Kickstarter rewards for people that sign up. The poster shows an assortment of typical civil war engines and cars along with some comments. The poster will be about 36x24 inches. In the final print form the engines and cars are in 1/96th scale.

If you like games and civil war railroads, this is the game for you.

A draft copy of the poster.

New Civil War Railroad Game in the works

Dana Lombardy, an old friend from my wargaming hobby,  wrote to me this weekend with some interesting news. He has started a new game and book publishing business called 1A Games. Their first products are a popular WWII series game called Tide or Iron. But, more toward the subject matter of this blog, they have a new book coming out called "Grant Rising."  You can learn more about the book at their website. They are looking for kickstart support to get it going. The kickstart page has much more detail on the book. It combines beautiful full color graphics, maps and artwork by Keith Rocco.  I have some of Dana's earlier books and they are outstanding.

Dana also mentioned that they have a civil war railroad game in the works. It will be a board game designed by Richard Berg, a well known war game designer. The website for it is not yet ready. I'l keep you posted as it develops.

I also received a note from John Sloan alerting me to some information on David L. Bright's website devoted to Confederate Railroads. David has been scouring the OR's and other documents for railroad related items. Most of the information he has posted is transcribed from these documents. This must have been a vast amount of work and has the benefit of making the information searchable. If you are looking for information on confederate railroads, this is a good website to check out.  For example, check out this link on the Nashville and Decatur RR, the railroad that we model on the portable layout.