SmokeBox Help! Northern Pacific A-2 4-8-4

[Logan20131]

Hi SmokeBox,

I need help with a Northern Pacific A-2 4-8-4 project. If you're interested reply to this.

Thanks,
Logan

[mrennie]

Hi SmokeBox,

I need help with a Northern Pacific A-2 4-8-4 project. If you're interested reply to this.

Thanks,
Logan

I replied on the other thread (because I say that one first )

[Logan20131]

yeah sorry about that. just got to thinking then I "had" to make another one.
Would you be able to Skype for Making the Basics of the Boiler and wheels.
thanks,
Logan

[mrennie]

yeah sorry about that. just got to thinking then I "had" to make another one.
Would you be able to Skype for Making the Basics of the Boiler and wheels.
thanks,
Logan

Honestly, it's not anywhere near as simple as you think. What you could do is try to follow the tutorial I started here some time ago (I never finished it though, because there wasn't a lot of interest - except from a few people who did have a go - plus it was taking 20 times as long to explain how to do things as it would take me to actually do it on my own, and then I had other things to do). You should also read the dev docs very carefully and try to make a simple wagon, following their instructions. You'll also need to experiment a lot - it's the best way to learn and remember things, through trial and error (and, hopefully, succeeding). Keep in mind that it's not just about making the shapes (in 3DCrafter or whatever). To get a model into the sim, you also need to learn how to animate things (which for a steam locomotive such as a 4-8-4 with its complicated valve gear and motion, and the pilot and trailing trucks, is tremendously difficult), and to texture them (you can't even export a model from 3DC successfully unless it's been fully textured, and if the textures are wrong, the Asset Editor will throw up a strange error and refuse to build the model - in the worst case, if there's a badly formed face or texture in the model, 3DC will just refuse to respond when you try to export the model).

My advice is to start with a simple boxcar (assuming you've already got past the stage of making trees and animated clocks) - better still, something that has fixed axles instead of trucks. There's just no point in jumping straight into doing a steam loco, not even just the wheels (they'd be no use without the valve gear and motion).

Incidentally, if you need a straightforward tutorial that shows you exactly how to make a tree or an animated clock, step-by-step, you can find my tutorials at http://www.engine-driver.com/latest/tutorials/tutorial.