Carla's Tunnel for Wooden Railway

thingiverse

This model was designed as a special Christmas gift for my niece, who is absolutely passionate about her wooden train set. It's composed of two parts: the mountain and the brick tunnel. This allows you to use different versions of both components - an optimized file with lower detail but easy to slice, and a high-resolution version for optimal results. You can even mix and match different detailed files of the mountain and tunnel! Since it comes in two parts, alignment is crucial. Here's how to do it: If you're using Simplify3D, import both files and double-click on one part to open the properties tab. Simply click on "Reset position." Then, click on the second part and repeat the process. After this step, you'll be good to go with the alignment. If you need to reposition the entire thing, make sure you select both parts at once! It's best to group them together for easier handling. Please keep in mind: I designed it for my niece, but I'm sharing it with the community as a gift. Any tips or feedback are highly appreciated, and I'm happy to see the spirit of sharing and respect within our community. Thank you! Print Settings Printer Brand: FlashForge Printer Model: FlashForge Creator Pro Rafts: No Supports: Yes Resolution: 0.15mm Infill: 20% Notes: I strongly recommend using an infill amount of at least 18-20% to ensure the small gaps and valleys in the upper part get printed cleanly. Here are the settings I used: Layer Settings Layer Height: 0.15mm Bottom and Top Solid Layers: 6 Perimeter Shells: 3 Brim: 6 Outlines at 0mm distance (to assist the print to stay attached to the bed) Infill Full Honeycomb Percentage: 20% Support Percentage: 12% Dense Support Layers: 3 Dense Infill percentage: 75% Horizontal Offset: 0.3mm Vertical Separation Layers: 1 Max Overhang Angle: 45° It's a big print, so I recommend using a heated bed for better adhesion. Cooling 100% on Adjust Print Speed for layers below 10s down to 9% Print Speeds 35 mm/s Outline underspeed: 60% Infill underspeed: 70% Support underspeed: 90% Travel Speed: 90mm/s Vertical Speed: 30mm/s This results in a print time of about 42 hours. Post-Printing Finishing I used spray cans and a small brush to paint the model in the following order: Step 1: Let's rock! Use dark gray as the base color and spray the whole mountain. Let the paint dry completely. Step 2: Let it snow! Use a white spray for the summit to give the impression of snow. While doing so, hold a piece of cardboard in front of the lower part (about 5 cm away from the model). This will protect the lower part from being painted but gives a blurred fall-off. Spray from the side, not from the top. If that gives some areas without snow at the top, use a brush and bring some paint there. Step 3: Spring in the valley! Take dark and light green paint and spray it at the lower part. Use the same cardboard screen technique as above at Step 2. Step 4: Mountain landscape If you like, add some fresh blue mountain lakes with a brush. Step 5: Paint the tunnel Paint the tunnel bricks with a brush. Use different shades of red and simulate a darker shade at the upper part from steam engines' smoke. Step 6: Optionally clean up Cover the visible part of the mountain and the tunnel with painter's tape, then spray the bottom with dark gray. How I Designed This The Mountain... ...is a flat box. To its top, a displacement modifier is applied. The displacement map used is a mix of several noise maps and fall-off maps. The resulting object was meshified again, and the sides of the mountain were pulled outward where necessary to give a nice volume for the tunnel. A surface displacement with a noise map added the rough finish. The Tunnel... ...was a gate profile that was extruded. At the front and back, two seams were added by slice planes. The so-created faces (the bricks) were chamfered to create bricks with gaps. To the bricks, a surface displacement noise was added to give them a more rough and raw appearance. Combined: The mountain was boolean subtracted by the tunnel mesh to reduce overlapping. Finish: STL check and optimization