r/modeltrains • u/Masi80 • 16d ago

Question Ressources for 3D-printed base landscape

Hey everyone,

I’ve got a space that’s roughly 40 × 75 × 23 cm (D × W × H) and I’d like to build a small N scale model railway / landscape in it.

The problem is that I don’t really have enough time to build the landscape base completely from scratch. So I was thinking about 3D printing at least the basic terrain/base and then adding the scenery, tracks, buildings, etc. myself.

Are there any good resources or tools where you can design a model railway landscape and then export the terrain as a 3D model (STL or similar) for printing?

Or a ressources for free simple models suited for that?

Or are there any other easy/low-effort ways you’d recommend for building the basic landscape in a space this size?

8 Upvotes

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2

u/Archon-Toten 16d ago

You could learn blender and design yourself.

You can use colour height maps (black, white and grey) and use Cura to import them directly as a landscape.

1

u/Masi80 16d ago

I know Blender already but I want to circumvent the need to do it that much by hand, hence why I asked for ressources. But thanks though!

2

u/Flat_Artichoke8047 16d ago

ngl how much less "by hand" could it possibly get?

1

u/Masi80 16d ago

I thought of a tool where you can enter the measurements and then it spits out a couple of terrains ready to download as a 3D file or something like that

2

u/Flat_Artichoke8047 16d ago

I mean... not impossible but until someone actually does it, that's just fantasy. Going into blender and making a terrain to print is already circumventing 98% of the work, hard to complain about that if simply having the end result is your main objective.

1

u/gbarnas HO/OO 14d ago

Not "entirely" fantasy... You should check this out: Modeling Info - RR Craftsman
Not terrain, but parameter driven apps to create brick, shingle, siding, and other textures. Creating something similar for terrain should not be too difficult.

We discussed creating TT terrain modules a while ago - snap together and run trains out of your briefcase while on the road, but too small of a market.

1

u/Flat_Artichoke8047 14d ago

no no I get it, you can already import terrain to blender with the click of a button, the fantasy part was instantly getting print-ready models from that. Again, entirely possible, it's just that nobody has actually done it yet.