This weekend I’ve done a short project, which was printing a gondola (model 12-1592) car in HO scale.

I did not design the model but merely downloaded an existing one by Polar_Fox: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2847015.

The printing in PLA on Ender-3 took around 6 hours, which is more than I anticipated.

The result is looking good, though there are some problems.

It turned out that the model is not compatible with NEM coupler sockets, so I had to chop off bottom parts of the end beams for the couplers to move freely.

Also, somewhat surprisingly for me, the wagon overhang is too large for the coupler beam of my bogie, which is designed for a flatcar (which has smaller overhang). That is accurate, as the real thing also has a larger overhang. I need to print another bogie now, with 2mm longer coupler handle.

And in general, I’d like design my own model one day, with resin-level details.