Weather resistant 3D printing? How about ASA...

I've been experimenting with 3D printing for a little over 6 months now. Many of the results of my work have found their place on my outdoor layout already. And some of them dramatically affected the way my miniature world looks.

The street lamps are the best example here. When equipped with an LED light source, they've become the essence of the night in my little town.

The street lamps were created in two steps:

• First I printed a set of classic lamps for the train station based on an external project.
• Then I designed my own modern lamps and filled the streets with them.

In all these attempts I've been applying the simplest printing technique and the filament that was easiest to use. That material was PLA and I was always wondering how weather resistant it was. Well, I do have some knowledge about that now...

As soon as the first hot summer days hit, my PLA-based lamps started failing. In particular they've proven not to be resistant to the heat at all. They bent towards the sun very quickly and created the following view...

What's easy to notice here is that the black lamp bent most, followed by the dark gray and then the light one. Black material probably absorbs the heat much more and is therefore affected to a larger extent.

The lamps are not the only example. I've printed a black piece of a pavement and placed a pair of figures on its surface. The two below photos were taken a few weeks apart. It's clear the pavement element warped in a wavy fashion and even caused the postman figure not to stand straight anymore.

This needed a solution since PLA was clearly not the right material to use for a garden layout. My investigation led me to another kind of plastic which was specifically designed for outdoor use. That material is called ASA.

Luckily ASA is already available as a 3D printer filament. It's not easy to get and it requires a much more complicated printing procedure. But the specification states its "glass transition" temperature is around 40° Celsius higher than PLA's and that should be enough to resist the sun heat. The Wikipedia page confirms those facts listing automotive as one of the industries that benefit from ASA use.

So once I got my first batch of ASA filament, I decided to re-print my black lamps. Those were affected most and should make some good test subjects. I also used this opportunity to play a little with the 3D design, but that's a completely different story.

My new ASA-based lamp posts were installed in the evening. In the photo below they can be seen in the front with the old, already bent light-gray PLA lamps in the background.

Over five weeks have passed. There were numerous hot days during that period. Let's see how the ASA plastic did in the summer outdoor conditions...

Well, they seem to be pretty straight. I can't really see any bending or warping here. And actually I can even see that the PLA based lamps in the back of the photo have continued deforming during that period. That would be a proof the test conditions were adequate.

So it turns out that a more weather resistant filament is not only needed for outdoor use but also makes an immediate and visible difference. PLA can still be used but only for objects featuring a more solid structure. The outhouse or the boat I've printed with PLA months ago are doing just fine. But lamps that are composed of a heavy head installed on a thin post are a subject to failure.

I'm switching to ASA printing now. I will be printing the rest of my lamps with this material only. And as for the lamps I already have... well... I guess they need to be replaced :(

Playmobil 5053, G-Scale wedding chapel

When I started building my large scale layout, I immediately imagined a hill with a tunnel and a church on top of it. I've been looking for a fitting product that would resemble some sort of a temple for some time now. Unfortunately none of the offerings from Piko, Pola G or even Vollmer suited my needs. All the models I found were either too large, or too exotic or simply too expensive. And then, while browsing Google images I stumbled upon this photo:

The link led to an Ebay auction where the chapel shown in the image was offered for the price of around 100 Euro. The description was clear about what the item actually was. And it was simply a toy model, part of the Playmobil series. 100 Euro for a toy? That seemed like a lot...

So I kept looking but found out the product was no longer in production. And it was difficult to find a store that would still have it in stock. Luckily there was a seller offering it on the Amazon market. And it was priced at a mere 20 Euro. I did not need any more convincing and bought it immediately...

Unfortunately the product is "mainly" a toy. And as such it has to offer some "play features". To achieve that Playmobil makes all its buildings open on one of the sides. This is not something a railroad modeller needs and we'd prefer that no walls are missing. The easiest way to achieve that? Buy two sets instead of one and mix them together.

So in the end my total cost was around 40 Euro. That's still less than half of the Ebay price...

Unboxing confirms it is a toy indeed. Plenty of Lego-quality plastic pieces and a lot of snap-type connectors that will join them together.

My little helper was very eager to build the chapel for me. The entire task took the 8 year old less than 30 minutes.

The finished model looked exactly like in the Ebay photo...

...but obviously had the back still open.

It needed extra parts. But for a start (and for some fun) we've simply built another identical chapel using the second set.

And then - by mixing them together - we've easily closed the back gap.

This left us with a lot of unused elements. Maybe those could be utilized for something? And so we've started experimenting with creating an extended version of the model.

A church with a super tall tower?

Or perhaps a church with two towers?

And actually the latter idea was the one we liked most. It was a good compromise between parts reuse, nice look and realism. This is what it looked like from each side.


It's done then. And how does it perform on the top of my hill? Well, it did not end up there in the end. I found this building to be too large, too. So instead I've just placed it on a piece of a flat terrain.

I've also added some LED-based interior lighting to make the model visible at night. I had no idea how to approach illumination of a church so the outcome is not really that realistic. But at least it's not completely dark anymore.

How does it compare to other products? Well, I have to admit it definitely does look toyish. It's in no way a replacement for a model like the one shown below.

Pola G 330990

The shapes of the elements are very basic. The building lacks details and its back is very, very shallow. The parts are not glued together so it's not sealed either, but of course that could be changed.

Most importantly - the model's weather resistance is unknown and definitely not guaranteed. Only time can tell how it will age. But on the other hand, I already have another Playmobil product on my outdoor layout and after a year in the changing conditions it does not look bad at all.

Was it worth the 40 Euro I've spent? For now I'd say it was. The building does not look terribly bad and may look even better when it weathers with time. I might be also adding details on my own to make it more attractive. It's just a pity it does not fit on the top of my mountain :(

Piko 62208, G-Scale car service station

Some time ago I've opened the first business on my garden miniature world. It was a small restaurant from Pola G and even though I did not like the architecture of the building very much, it definitely added to the look of my town. I'm starting to run out of space on my layout but I've just had to squeeze one more company in. So here it is...

I wanted something that would not look like anything I've had so far. And all the bakeries, book shops, hairdressing salons, etc. are just houses with a display window. Luckily there's also a car shop model from Piko. It's not cheap but is definitely one of its kind. It's officially called "Bill's Body Shop" and its catalog number is 62208.

The building is supposed to have an American look. And it probably does. But it also reminds me of my local industrial architecture with simple rectangular shapes and brick walls. The bricks should have been red but... well... you can't have everything.

The packaging is surprisingly small and not heavy at all. I guess this is going to be a quick build.

We get some nice, large windows with the set. But other than that, it does not seem like there are that many details. Glue is included as it is always the case with Piko products.

There are quite a lot of "brick parts" in the box. Those are all walls and walls connectors.

There's also a gray roof and a garage gate. Looks like some sliding mechanism is included for the large door.

The manual is very clear and the parts are tagged but... somehow the numbers in the documentation don't really match the ones on the elements. It does not really break anything, not even raises the difficulty but it's still awkward.

Two sheets of stickers are included. Surprise! No German labels are available this time at all (except for the posters but those are optional).

Let's build it finally. Step one - the walls. Notice anything interesting? The door knobs are black. They come with the gray parts set but are actually black. Seems they've been covered with an extra paint. Cool, isn't it?

One element definitely stands out - the garage door. The gate can be raised or lowered along the plastic rails. I don't believe anyone would actually play with it but it allows us to set up the scene the way we want. Definitely appreciated.

A very difficult step. Twelve pieces need to be connected together at once to form a perfectly shaped rectangle.

But it's doable. Piko designed a set of small elements that are installed at the joint points and add strength to the structure.

The roof is flat. And it does not cover the top completely - just in 99.9%. This means it is not fully waterproof and some rain will get into the building.

The last batch of details is added. Please note that after the small roof is installed at the top of the double door, it can no longer be fully opened. I wonder why it was designed that way...

Add some stickers on top of that and the building is ready. I've even equipped it with a LED-strip based interior lighting already (hence the wires).

The custom labels on the service station are not a coincidence. They recall an actual car shop in my city. It's the place where I've met the woman who later became my wife. I hope she'll appreciate this small romantic element :)

Let's see some more pictures...


As I already mentioned, I've decided to add interior lighting right away. I usually go for warm-white LEDs but this is a car service station so cold-white solution seemed more appropriate. It turned out pretty good in my opinion.

Now with a proper crew, we could even pimp up a time machine!

What do I think about the product? It looks nice and interesting even though the design is really simple. The building covers a pretty large area (51cm x 25cm) which may be an advantage or not depending on the layout size. The quality of the product is flawless.

One thing that is clear to me is that its price is just too high. 150 Euro for a rectangular structure with a few details and no baseplate is really too much. But I guess this is what you have to pay if you want a building that actually stands out from all the regular houses. Luckily I only need one of those :)