Questions and Answers on the Steam Loco Tutorial

[mrennie]

Wow. With the three locomotives I am working on now, and the child models I create for superdetailing I have been trying to be frugal with my texture sizes, going as far as using 16px swatches on 256px files. I will loosen up and start using larger textures.

Remember that if the surface you're texturing is rectangular or elongated, you can even use a non-square texture. For example, I have one texture file, containing just the black and red needles for a pressure gauge, that is 256x512. It's a big file for such tiny parts, but it's because you see them close-up in the cab, so using a big texture file on them really makes a difference.

[jpetersjr]

After the tutorial I plan for my second project to be the Baldwin 4,6,2 Pacific class P7.



I will then be able to edit the engine into the ATSF 3415 with just a couple minor changes, such as the headlight and the wheels.


Managed to find some excellent blueprints for the Pacific Class P7

[mrennie]

I've done another part of the tutorial. We're still setting up the guide objects, positioning and scaling the reference diagram and so on. The only part of the actual loco model I've touched so far is the "anchor" object that makes sure the loco is aligned with the tracks (and not off to one side in the undergrowth and/or flying in the air or buried underground!) and the pivot points for the pilot truck and rigid frame. It's very important to get all of this right, at the start, to avoid a lot of headaches later on.

It's a lot of work doing the screenshots and explaining it all, and perhaps it seems tedious. Maybe it is, but if so, at least it will serve to give an idea of how much work goes into a model, even before you start to make wheels and boilers and such like! That's if you want to do it properly.

I'd like to know if anyone is able to follow this, or if the detail is too much, or too little. It's hard to explain every little action, but if I don't, you could easily miss something and scratch your head wondering how I got from A to B.

[Chacal]

For your formatting problem with the lua script, you need to put the script inside a "Code" tag.

[mrennie]

For your formatting problem with the lua script, you need to put the script inside a "Code" tag.

Thanks

[cilldroichid1]

Hi,
thanks for all the effort your putting into this brilliant tutorial.

I'm attempting to follow along with Blender and as suggested in the tutorial thread i'm posting a screenshot of the wheel.

wheel.jpg

Very much looking forward to the rest of the tutorial.

Donal.

[jpetersjr]

Making some good progress on my version as well.

4,6,0 locomotive Progress 1.jpg

Still have a long way to go though even before my wheels will be finished.

[mikeadams2k]

On looking at the screenshots of the drivers and axles, it seems that the track width is off. (The width is only 1/2 an inch larger that the diameter of the drivers.) On page 2 of the tutorial, it states:

"To get the rails into the correct position, with 4.7083ft between their inside edges, we need to move one of them to the left by 4.7083+0.1067ft, and the other one to the right by that same amount.

Select the first rail, click on Shift Selection and enter -4.815 into the Shift X field. "

I think these numbers should be divided by 2. (2.4075 and -2.4075)

It's a very good tutorial and I appreciate your doing this. Like cilldroichid1, I'm attempting to follow this tutorial in Blender (version 2.66 and the TS20xx .ia/.igs exporter)

[mrennie]

Hi,
thanks for all the effort your putting into this brilliant tutorial.

I'm attempting to follow along with Blender and as suggested in the tutorial thread i'm posting a screenshot of the wheel.

wheel.jpg

Very much looking forward to the rest of the tutorial.

Donal.

That´s a great looking wheel! The fact that you've managed to translate the instructions into Blenderese is wonderful

[mrennie]

Making some good progress on my version as well.

4,6,0 locomotive Progress 1.jpg

Still have a long way to go though even before my wheels will be finished.

Yep, it's looking the way it should so far Well done!

[mrennie]

On looking at the screenshots of the drivers and axles, it seems that the track width is off. (The width is only 1/2 an inch larger that the diameter of the drivers.) On page 2 of the tutorial, it states:

"To get the rails into the correct position, with 4.7083ft between their inside edges, we need to move one of them to the left by 4.7083+0.1067ft, and the other one to the right by that same amount.

Select the first rail, click on Shift Selection and enter -4.815 into the Shift X field. "

I think these numbers should be divided by 2. (2.4075 and -2.4075)

It's a very good tutorial and I appreciate your doing this. Like cilldroichid1, I'm attempting to follow this tutorial in Blender (version 2.66 and the TS20xx .ia/.igs exporter)

Very well spotted Mike!

I'll go back and edit that post. I'll also add another one for anyone who's already gone past that one. The shift should have been by (4.7083/2)+0.1067 ft, that is 2.4609.

To correct it , we just have to select all points, of all objects except the centre pivot cylinders, on one side of the centreline and shift them 2.3541 towards the centre, then do the same on the other side.

Cheers,

Mike

[mikeadams2k]

Here's where I am in Blender 2.66. I choose to work from the right side of the engine. No smoothing has been applied yet.

[mrennie]

Here's where I am in Blender 2.66. I choose to work from the right side of the engine. No smoothing has been applied yet.

The wheels look superb!

Hopefully from here on, I won't have to spend quite so much time explaining things to the very last detail, but instead can assume that the reader does by now know how to weld points, make edges, make triangles and so on. I'll be able to concentrate on the other things specific to the steam loco building process, so we should advance more quickly.

Right now though, I have to debug a couple of scenarios for the Consolidation package ...

[PapaXpress]

You are correct Mike. Just go over a technique once when used. People need to follow from start to finish on these tutorials. They will figure it out.

[jpetersjr]

My progress so far on the wheel. I think it's coming out decently.

4,6,0 locomotive Progress 2.jpg

Thinned down the wheel some and cleaned it up.

4,6,0 locomotive Progress 2 B.jpg

4,6,0 locomotive Progress 2 C.jpg