Playmobil Turntable

[Polarblair]

Hi All,

My parents gave my wee lad his first RC Playmobil set for his 4th birthday a few weeks ago. I still have my brass rail set stored away for when he is a bit older and had been collecting all sorts like the old train stations to flesh out the play experience for him.

Since the set arrived thing have gotten a little out of hand and now two bays of my workshop have been dedicated to the railway



I remember using Duplo to build bridges but had some scrap wood lying around so knocked that and a basic harbour together for him.



Choo Choo! This is definitely just for the boy - not me. Not at all.

Back to the turntable.

I set up a turnaround loop for him but this takes up a lot of track and space so started looking for a turntable assuming that surely Playmobil made one - no dice. The price of the ones I found ruled them out. Having successfully 3D printed a few straight tracks I set to work designing my own.

It's not modelled on anything specific and was initially very basic but I couldn't help myself. It's far from perfect and I've had to design my way out of a few problems as I started printing while still designing

I pulled a lazy susan bearing out of the carvan meant to swivel a CRT TV as a starting point and modelled around that.



I don't have a layout in mind so went for maximum flexibility with 12 tracks.

Plan is to use at least 3 for a train shed - still to be designed.




I don't know if my printer will manage fine detail like rivets so I've given myself the option of adding them later in copper filament. The red thing in the background is just a handle my son can use to turn the turntable.



So far so good. The pieces all snap together with connectors but I'll glue for final assembly.

The side rails look skinny as they're printed in two halves so I can have details on both inside and out without the need for supports.



I ended up thinking about adding detail like push handles or a hand crank and while looking online came across the above picture. Couldn't believe how close it was but given how many flavours turntables come in it shouldn't be too surprising. I did take one thing from this though. I like the angled support flanges/struts on the inside face of the bridges so I added them to the model.



I've ordered this walnut PLA made by AMOLEN for the planks and the timber support beams. Never had a good reason to fiddle with wood PLA but I like the idea of being able to lightly sand it for a nice Matt texture. At 30% wood content (apparently) it's undoubtedly going to be quite abrasive but nozzles are cheap!

I'll update once it arrives.

 

[Polarblair]

Some evidence of designing on the fly. The wood deck was an afterthought and I had already printed the main centre section. So the outer ring had to be raised. This plate will shim the difference.

 

[trammayo]

Hi All,

My parents gave my wee lad his first RC Playmobil set for his 4th birthday a few weeks ago. I still have my brass rail set stored away for when he is a bit older and had been collecting all sorts like the old train stations to flesh out the play experience for him.

Choo Choo! This is definitely just for the boy - not me. Not at all.

Lucky lad(s)!

 

[Paul M]

Brilliant looking turn table. And the simplicity of the Playmobil track makes you wonder why we mess around with metal tracks

 

[dunnyrail]

Looks so very good, I rather think that the PM Plastic track would be a pretty good sometimes cheep starting point for beginners. But the look of it and lack of better interesting track options such as larger curves and points would preclude longer use. Not sure how well it would stand up to live steam either, but as a battery powered loco dead rail start up would work just fine.

 

[JimmyB]

So the big question is when are you going to start selling them

 

[Polarblair]

Looks so very good, I rather think that the PM Plastic track would be a pretty good sometimes cheep starting point for beginners. But the look of it and lack of better interesting track options such as larger curves and points would preclude longer use. Not sure how well it would stand up to live steam either, but as a battery powered loco dead rail start up would work just fine.

I'm with you there. To be honest before I got my hands on it I was a bit dismayed that Playmobil would cheap out like that but there are some advantages. I'm not a fan of a single fixed radius either and the RC locos are very underpowered compared to what my old ones could haul. That being said, considering it from a playability point of view, I can see why RC is better for kids.

Speaking of fixed radius - watch this space.

 

[Polarblair]

So the big question is when are you going to start selling them

It's something I had considered but assumed there wouldn't be many takers as I don't have plans to convert to brass track. I know some of you guys run RC locos on brass track but you probably wouldn't want a turntable that only the RC locos could use.

I think the design would need to be refined to be ready for primetime too. I'm kicking myself now that the sides of the turntable don't show the brick courses.

And what about remote control? Would it be expected to have expandability to integrate it into people's control systems?

Maybe the answer is a few different versions. On one end of the spectrum - stripped down, basic and robust as possible for children to play with and the other end, all the details, bells & whistles.

 

[Polarblair]

Looks so very good, I rather think that the PM Plastic track would be a pretty good sometimes cheep starting point for beginners. But the look of it and lack of better interesting track options such as larger curves and points would preclude longer use. Not sure how well it would stand up to live steam either, but as a battery powered loco dead rail start up would work just fine.

Thank you! Definitely no good for live steam for any prolonged periods. It's not the same glass fibre reinforced plastic that I'm assuming the brass track sleepers are made of. I don't think plastitrack would stand up well to heat at all.

I'm hoping to eventually have both sets run side by side when my boy is older and just run the plastitrack like a separate branch line so to speak. I'll have to look at adapters to join the two different track types but I bet someone's already done it and put it on thingiverse.

As much as I would like to have the track extend outside I think the free-range chickens would make it a bad idea. They already do their best to invade the workshop and mess everywhere they go

 

[Gizzy]

Thank you! Definitely no good for live steam for any prolonged periods. It's not the same glass fibre reinforced plastic that I'm assuming the brass track sleepers are made of. I don't think plastitrack would stand up well to heat at all.

I'm hoping to eventually have both sets run side by side when my boy is older and just run the plastitrack like a separate branch line so to speak. I'll have to look at adapters to join the two different track types but I bet someone's already done it and put it on thingiverse.

As much as I would like to have the track extend outside I think the free-range chickens would make it a bad idea. They already do their best to invade the workshop and mess everywhere they go

Brass track sleepers are made from UVA/UVB stable plastic.

I'm not aware of any fibreglass sleepers track....

 

[-bbbb]

It's something I had considered but assumed there wouldn't be many takers as I don't have plans to convert to brass track. I know some of you guys run RC locos on brass track but you probably wouldn't want a turntable that only the RC locos could use.

I think the design would need to be refined to be ready for primetime too. I'm kicking myself now that the sides of the turntable don't show the brick courses.

And what about remote control? Would it be expected to have expandability to integrate it into people's control systems?

Maybe the answer is a few different versions. On one end of the spectrum - stripped down, basic and robust as possible for children to play with and the other end, all the details, bells & whistles.

I like the idea of a basic version which can be added to (with space for a motor etc.), and an upgrade kit to add more detail to the original. Though it's probably too big for my printer.

I'm hoping to eventually have both sets run side by side when my boy is older and just run the plastitrack like a separate branch line so to speak. I'll have to look at adapters to join the two different track types but I bet someone's already done it and put it on thingiverse.

If there are any of those playmobil-to-lgb adapters available for 3d printing, I haven't found any free ones, if any at all.
We need remakes of playmobil 7562 (the 4 pieces on the left) ideally by playmobil themselves:

The originals might have been too rare for people to have thought of reproducing them for 3d printers.

 

[Polarblair]

Brass track sleepers are made from UVA/UVB stable plastic.

I'm not aware of any fibreglass sleepers track...

Ah, good to know my mistake. I didn't mean fibreglass. I assumed it was GRP as used in a lot of power tool housings. Now that I think about it I was thinking of the old vintage building panels. I don't suppose you know what they were made from?

 

[Polarblair]

I like the idea of a basic version which can be added to (with space for a motor etc.), and an upgrade kit to add more detail to the original. Though it's probably too big for my printer.



If there are any of those playmobil-to-lgb adapters available for 3d printing, I haven't found any free ones, if any at all.
We need remakes of playmobil 7562 (the 4 pieces on the left) ideally by playmobil themselves:

The originals might have been too rare for people to have thought of reproducing them for 3d printers.

I'm positive I've seen those as an stl but would be a 5min job to recreate. It's also a good 3D printing candidate with the stresses on the part going perpendicular to the layers.

The parts were all printed separately with the outer ring broken into sections. The main turntable was one piece but that could be split too.

 

[Gizzy]

Ah, good to know my mistake. I didn't mean fibreglass. I assumed it was GRP as used in a lot of power tool housings. Now that I think about it I was thinking of the old vintage building panels. I don't suppose you know what they were made from?

I think it is Luxan or Lurex, something like that.

It doesn't glue very 'weld' but you can weld it with pipe solvent or by melting....

 

[PhilP]

I think it is Luxan or Lurex, something like that.

It doesn't glue very 'weld' but you can weld it with pipe solvent or by melting....

Luran-S originally by BASF,
The best adhesive I have found is Technicoll 8008.

I got mine from Bertram Heyn, the time he came over to the Llanfair show. - How long ago was that!?

PhilP

 

[Gizzy]

Luran-S originally by BASF,
The best adhesive I have found is Technicoll 8008.

I got mine from Bertram Heyn, the time he came over to the Llanfair show. - How long ago was that!?

PhilP

2018.

I read the thread earlier....

 

[playmofire]

I like the idea of a basic version which can be added to (with space for a motor etc.), and an upgrade kit to add more detail to the original. Though it's probably too big for my printer.



If there are any of those playmobil-to-lgb adapters available for 3d printing, I haven't found any free ones, if any at all.
We need remakes of playmobil 7562 (the 4 pieces on the left) ideally by playmobil themselves:

The originals might have been too rare for people to have thought of reproducing them for 3d printers.

I have some.

 

[GAP]

Some evidence of designing on the fly. The wood deck was an afterthought and I had already printed the main centre section. So the outer ring had to be raised. This plate will shim the difference.

View attachment 317829

What size is the print bed on your printer?

 

[Polarblair]

Luran-S originally by BASF,
The best adhesive I have found is Technicoll 8008.

I got mine from Bertram Heyn, the time he came over to the Llanfair show. - How long ago was that!?

PhilP

Thanks for the fantastic info. I haven't had to repair the vintage stuff yet but as it's meant to be played with it's inevitable.

 

[Polarblair]

What size is the print bed on your printer?

It's printable 350x350mm but the bed is quite a bit larger. I think there is a way to get it to print to the full extents but I haven't done it yet. Usually you would have bulldog clips holding the glass in place but I've upgraded it to a magnetic spring steel PEI sheet. The other side is textured but I haven't used this yet. Huge difference in print reliability. I also ended up ripping a chunk out of the stock glass sheet while removing a part a while back. This you just flex and the part pops off.