In my last post I announced that I’d purchased a 3D printer and had been printing scenery detail items for the layout.
From the start, when I got the printer I wanted to print out a water tower, my preference was an older tower – a tank that stood on legs. I found a few options but for various reasons decided to pass on each of those models.
I found an option for a “modern” water tower – you’ve likely seen them in your own town, a round tank, usually a ball or cylinder at the top of a tall and thin tower. After printing the one I found on Thingiverse I thought the model looked too small, and when I placed it on the layout it got lost.
Initially I considered remixing the model I had found into something that suited me, but in the end I decided to make my own using Thingiverse.
Driving around the area, one thing I noticed is that there are A LOT of different designs for these towers. Some are “balls” on top of skinny pedestals, the balls can have various sizes, sometimes instead of a ball, it’s more of a cylinder with a tapered bottom, sometimes the pedestals are short, some tall. There are tons of different designs, and all I knew was that I wanted something substantial that wouldn’t disappear at the back of the layout.
Up close, it may not be the prettiest, but this sits in one of the deeper parts of the layout, and I think it works well from two feet or so away.
I think you should be able to print this in a single print, although I had issues and had to break it into two pieces. I was able to print the two pieces in the same print job though.
Want to print it yourself? You can find the model on Thingiverse.