Summary

Back in April 2012 my children started to take an interest in model trains, we visited a few exhibitions and the bug that bit me as a teenager hit once again. It was time to put a set together, researching what the latest developments were I noted that I couldn’t find a single example of a mainline London station after hours of searching there was no Victoria, Kings Cross, Paddington or St Pancras.
St Pancras is perhaps one of the most beautiful buildings in all of London and the fact it was nearly raised to the ground recently set my sights on replicating this model but it seemed quite a challenge.
3d Printing
Coming from an engineering background yet with an IT career in main swing I picked up on the emerging technology of 3d printing. I naively set out on my quest.
I started by finding a Google Earth model made from photographs of the building itself. The trouble is this is just pure geometric shapes and no detail, although being made from photographs the scale was certainly good. So onto CAD and starting from scratch using Google street view to interpret the detail into a model that could be sent for printing.

Version 2

As with all projects they have peaks and troughs, after getting quite far with version 1 (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:326773) and some inherent problems of working out how to hook such a large model together I noted I had accidently deleted all the source files and as such needed to start again. Enter Samir, one of the most talented 3d artists I know who has helped make this project a reality picking up where we left off and this leads us to where we are today.

Why???

Well just because it’s a challenge and what this isn’t a fine scale model, it’s a proof of concept and path of discovery into an emerging technology. Its a proof you can build an Airfix type model at home and share it with the world and hopefully they will help you make it better.

Note: this is not to scale, and onlypart of the front is finished and it was put together rather in a rush so please feel free to contribute and help finish :)

www.garyfletcher.co.uk

St Pancras N Scale Train Station

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