[captain_bazza]

Hi'ya Scott, this is also a dot to dot model, and it all started with a single dot in time and space. The white does are 'some' of the visible vertice points (dots).

Here's the proof why some of us modellers go >>>> :pleasantry: :ranting: :ko2:



Cheers Bazza.

[CrisGer]

Hi Captain, i would love to have access to the files for this fine engine, i have 3D canvas as well and can import with that. and I use OR mostly now so that is fine too. beautiful engine really nice and it is a great idea i think for us all to share our source files with ppl we trust. I am planning to release all of my new buildings with TSM files to help with that as it will help others make more for all of us to share.

[atsf37l]

captain_bazza, on 12 March 2015 - 01:45 AM, said:

If you are an experienced modeller you might recognise this situation. It's well after midnight, things seem to be going smoothly. Then after the final save of the night you decide to check the model with a final render!! OY!;)

M&U-Bumblebee-boo-boo.jpg

I'll dedicate this BB Boo Boo to Herb, it's his favourite colour scheme.. :)

Cheers Bazza

Ah, Grande Gold! :rotfl:

Needs a fake diamond stack and oil burning headlight. NOT! :)

[captain_bazza]

Hi Chris,

It's my intention to "share" this model for forensic examination. http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/ko2.gifhttp://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/umnik.gif "?!"

Hi'ya Herb,

Yeah the Bbee days were happy days, indeed. http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/thumbup3.gif

Cheers Bazza.

[captain_bazza]

BTW for those of you collecting Modeller Goth Horror stories, the 'yelo jelo oopsie' was an effect I've *never* encountered before and I've still got no explanation for it. http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/fool.gif



CB http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/vava.gif

[captain_bazza]

Here is a useful hint that will help you if and when you're contemplating making something as complex as a locomotive.

There is always the temptation by the new modeller to build something really impressive, like a USRA heavy Mike, or a Big Boy - big mistake (I wasn't immune, either). I actually built a locomotive (I never got it into the sim) this was before MSTS Day Uno, so everything, and I mean everything, was unknown. I picked up a few clues from more experienced modellers who summised what might be required, so I did it that way. The exercise was about building something, to try out my meager current skills, and I managed to make a passible Jinty, a UK 0-6-0T, switcher. I found a drawing in a UK model mag and away I went. Try something simple so you learn the necessary basic skills, research, modelling, getting it into the sim, there's no shortcut to experience..

There was no understanding about how to set up the locomotive so it was oriented correctly in the just released MSTS (2001), or even how to texture it....so I put that aside in favour of what Baldrick used to call "A CUNNING PLAN." I used a teapot (yep, a teapot, as used in tea making) model to figure out which was the front/back orientation of my 'locopot'. Why a teapot you obviously want to know? Well there was a template teapot available (for historical reasons, I read once) and I used that. Now a teapot can be clearly oriented, so the spout was running forward, and the handle was where the cab would have been in a loco. So, my teapot, which I managed to get into the sim, by fluke or brilliance, but my little locopot did (finally) appear in the sim, as a faux loco and was actually correctly oriented, spout first. I have never been so chuffed about anything before, or since. Inbetween tea making and sim breaking, was the (very very very) frustrating exercise of understanding how to actually process a shape and texture files. Not forgetting understanding how to get the damned thing recognised by the sim, which turned out to be per medium of a consist, even if the entire train consist consisted of one locopot.

Stepping back a bit. Before the locopot success and even the Jinty, I had no clear idea about creating a really complex model. I had dabbled with another sim and got stuff working, and that was in a sim which was not designed for user made assets. (Another story). But I had a Eureka! moment one day. I was looking at a plan of some locomotive, can't remember which one, and I noticed that it was really just a collection of shapes, sure, all different shapes, but that realisation broke the barrier of ignorance. So, everything I have made since is really a collection of individual objects, put together in a certain way, to make something as complex as a locomotive. As the years rolled by, I was able, many times, to push the window and do things that weren't possible in those heady early days. (Yet another story.)

The secret is, when looking at a plan drawing, or photographs, think of all the individual parts that make up the locomotive's shape and think how you might reproduce them in your modelling program. You get your modelling head around that simple concept and you're away laughing (and crying) on your new modelling roller-coaster-ride. Once you start, you can't stop.

Cheers Bazza.