Ye Ol' Homestead

pinshape

For years, I've been itching to create a scale model of my property. I even picked up some artificial turf from a hobby store five years ago. Unfortunately, I never found the time or space to build a full-scale, HO gauge, model. That's where 3D printing comes in. Using SketchUp to design the buildings and Google Earth to map out the terrain, I've recreated a remarkably accurate replica of my homestead. The roofs on both structures are removable, allowing me to showcase the interior floor plan. I created this using a 1:1 scale ratio, where one model millimeter equals one real-life foot, so that the terrain could fit within the limited bed of my Tarantula 3D printer. The buildings themselves can easily be scaled up for use in a model railroad layout, which is exactly what I plan to do once I get my own layout off the ground. Print Settings To print the terrain accurately, you'll need to set your infill at least 10% and select the "lines" pattern to support the top layers. For the roofs, make sure they're printed with at least a couple of millimeters clearance from the build plate and enable support to accommodate the guides underneath. This will also make it easier to remove the supports later on. The rest of the pieces can be printed without any additional support. For Post-Printing To give my terrain some extra grip, I applied a layer of plastic adhesion primer. Next, I painted the grassy areas with a mix of greens and browns using Plaid acrylic paints, while the gravelled sections received a similar treatment of greys. To add some texture to the surface, I mixed Elmer's glue with water and spread it over the artificial turf - two colors - as well as some real, finely powdered gravel from my yard. Finally, I gave everything a light misting of matte finish spray paint to keep everything in place. The individual pieces, printed in ABS plastic, were secured using acetone. The only element missing is the addition of trees. I plan on trying out some model tree designs I found on Thingiverse, but if that doesn't work out - they're quite small! - I'll have to design them the old-fashioned way.