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Hi all,
Reading through lots of posts on different forums, I noted how expensive the large scale models actually cost, and even when buying a kit it's still very expensive.
I'm a service engineer for a company that makes thermoforming machines, all different sizes to do a wide variety of products, from sandwich packs to salad bowls, blisters etc etc.
I was at a customer the other week servicing one of his many machines and thought about the idea of thermoformed body shells, just like RC cars have the clear replacement body shell why can't it be done with loco bodies.
The machine I was working on, can form 15mm thick sheet. We have customers using these making bath tubs and the complete inside of a fridge freezer, the white plastic part that the shelves sit on.
Yes this is one mould and the sheet material is heated then vacuum draws the almost molten material over the cold forming tool.
It would be possible to have a female tool made so that the heated material, once vacuum is applied can be drawn into the inside of the mould.
The tooling would be much much cheaper than an injection moulding tool, ok the finished article may not have as much sharp detail, but this would be shown in the price of a body shell.
This body shell would just need to be fitted to some sort of base plate that fits onto the chassis, after being painted.
I just want others thoughts and opinions really, I can always speak to the tool makers that our customers use and our customers, to see if it would be possible to produce something:-
A typical Lexan body shell for RC car, these are just cut out and then sprayed, masking off individual areas.
Strengtheners could easily be glued into the bodyshell, along with appropriate parts for fixing to a chassis.
All required parts could be included in a kit.
Ok the body will not be as rigid as an injection moulded body, due to the thickness of material that would be required...too thick and the material wouldn't pull into the tool so you would loose detail.
If you goto some supermarkets you get the salad bar with the bowls made from clear APET or PVC that you fill up with salad, these are produced on our machines, it gives an idea of rigidity.(also depends on material thickness)
Surely though this has to be a cheap way to get into the large scale sizes, lets be right the body shell above costs £25 with all required decals; it's about £10 with no decals!
Compare that to a brass or resin kit.
For those who would like lots of different bodies could this be a cheap alternative, all the fine detail items could be bought and glued to the body shell
What do you think?
Is there any thing like this already being made, I googled but couldn't find anything.
Just some ramblings that was going through my head whilst driving back from Livingston today, so apologies for the long post that maybe a complete waste of time!
Ian
Reading through lots of posts on different forums, I noted how expensive the large scale models actually cost, and even when buying a kit it's still very expensive.
I'm a service engineer for a company that makes thermoforming machines, all different sizes to do a wide variety of products, from sandwich packs to salad bowls, blisters etc etc.
I was at a customer the other week servicing one of his many machines and thought about the idea of thermoformed body shells, just like RC cars have the clear replacement body shell why can't it be done with loco bodies.
The machine I was working on, can form 15mm thick sheet. We have customers using these making bath tubs and the complete inside of a fridge freezer, the white plastic part that the shelves sit on.
Yes this is one mould and the sheet material is heated then vacuum draws the almost molten material over the cold forming tool.
It would be possible to have a female tool made so that the heated material, once vacuum is applied can be drawn into the inside of the mould.
The tooling would be much much cheaper than an injection moulding tool, ok the finished article may not have as much sharp detail, but this would be shown in the price of a body shell.
This body shell would just need to be fitted to some sort of base plate that fits onto the chassis, after being painted.
I just want others thoughts and opinions really, I can always speak to the tool makers that our customers use and our customers, to see if it would be possible to produce something:-

A typical Lexan body shell for RC car, these are just cut out and then sprayed, masking off individual areas.
Strengtheners could easily be glued into the bodyshell, along with appropriate parts for fixing to a chassis.
All required parts could be included in a kit.
Ok the body will not be as rigid as an injection moulded body, due to the thickness of material that would be required...too thick and the material wouldn't pull into the tool so you would loose detail.
If you goto some supermarkets you get the salad bar with the bowls made from clear APET or PVC that you fill up with salad, these are produced on our machines, it gives an idea of rigidity.(also depends on material thickness)
Surely though this has to be a cheap way to get into the large scale sizes, lets be right the body shell above costs £25 with all required decals; it's about £10 with no decals!
Compare that to a brass or resin kit.
For those who would like lots of different bodies could this be a cheap alternative, all the fine detail items could be bought and glued to the body shell
What do you think?
Is there any thing like this already being made, I googled but couldn't find anything.
Just some ramblings that was going through my head whilst driving back from Livingston today, so apologies for the long post that maybe a complete waste of time!
Ian
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