Fir tree

Tomorrow the Christmas tree comes down, and while looking at it I was wondering how I can better the FF fir tree in RWs.
I was never that happy with it but it is hard to get the shape/body and depth in the tree without the polys mounting up. I can certainly make a nice looing 2D version but some 3D versions for close to the track would be cool. Here I have just being playing around with some textures and these are not the final ones, but I think I might be able to make something out of it for fir trees up past Witton le wear.

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My new route

:)

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King James Middle school dining hall

My school was just down from the tracks and like the rest of the town will all be modelled.
Lower polygon models but they still look great from a short distance away.

cheers
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bridge TS2012

BA in TS2012

I now need to look at updating a few materials, but it does have a nice solid feel.

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Wearhead Engine shed ref

Hi, here is a section of map I am using as ref from 1950 of wearhead:

Go here and click on the launch GIS, from ther eyou can go back through old maps of the durham area. been a great help plotting the route.


Here is a picture of the engine shed, I have a few others that show slightly different views but none give me a full idea of what it looks like on all sides, I will make my best guess.
cheers
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Wearhead goods shed

2 hours to make a simple goods shed. From what I can gather in the few images I have is that this shed design looks like it was used at Wearhead/St John's Chapel and Westgate. Well it will be for sure on my route. :)

Up in the Dales there are few houses so I don't have to do grouped assets. A number of Generic stone houses/barns/farmhouses/bridges and stores should cover the bulk of the scenery above Stanhope.

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Wearhead Station

With a few hours to fill I managed to texture and place Wearhead Station.

Shame the building was not brick, probably would look more interesting. They Pebble dashed the walls to protect them from the harsh weather up in the dales.

This building/platform will be used as the basis for a few other stations. St Johns, Westgate and Eastgate all use the same basic block and layout.

cheers

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Andrew Barclay?

A year or so ago I came across this this image with a Tank engine by the West Signal box.
This will be the small shunting loco that will join the other locos in the route. Just need to find out some dimensions and maybe some drawings. If not I can go for the Hawthorn instead.
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a few B1 details

All work in progress and just really throwing shapes at it while James sleeps and Emily is playing in the garden.

Probably all for today.

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18 spoke Wheels

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To B or not to B

Just something i started tinkering with, a B1. Maybe a Q7 next.

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Looking West

Starting the houses around the Grand Hotel and what was Stephenson's works? Not really sure what was there. I remember some big iron gates and some large buildings and a couple of diggers I think but beyond that it is hazy. Much easier to build the Grand and Sun street!

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SouthView - Black Path

On modeling South View, the black path and Wilson Forge.

Above is the image looking towards the station, none of my track is final, I still need to make the changes for the line heading to Spennymoor.

Not many images of wilsons forge about but Google earth shows the buildings still in place. I walked past the place every day from School and have a good idea what the side facing SouthChurch road looks like. The 3 vents (2 pointing up and 1 down for some reason) and the big wall that ran along side it. If anyone does have a photograph of the place I'd be interested in seeing it, here is the area blocked out.

cheers

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View from Silver St

St Annes

Town Hall

lets have a meeting!

Not finished yet, will add more detail when I add St Annes church and the houses behind the Town hall. Currently only using half of my (1024/1024) texture but I am sure I will need another 512/512 texture to complete the group. Also may need a few small textures to use as alpha's railing on roof.

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May as well keep them all together as I unit, easier to place down.

Ok, United and lockey buses

I really want to make some vintage buses. Ok, United and Lockeys would be perfect.
I'm no expert on buses, but if anyone knows where I can get dimensions or maybe a profile drawing to get me started that would be great.
Cheers
Derek

shed

textured building

Large building at the top of Grey St.

Here is my work in progress image of the large building at the top of Grey St which over looked the track side water tower.
This is the first of a selection of buildings that were on the far side of platform 4.
I will play about with a few elements before I texture it so they are the correct proportions. Once done I will put together to put in my route.

regards

Derek

Bishop Auckland Odeon

Had a few hours spare and made the odeon, this area needs some landscaping!

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Historic Darlington railway line awarded special status

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-12318591
great news for Bishop.

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yesterday

I had a little rest from work.



regards
Derek

Real vs RWs

I have had a number of folks ask about what I am doing so I thought I would put up 2 shots to show the real and my version in RWs.

While making assets I often try and get the feel of an area rather that worry about getting it exactly right. I try and get the right number of houses in the street and match the window layout and brick colour etc, but I do not worry about every house looking as it does now. I don't live there anymore, I don't have the time to go to that detail, and i think it would not be that much fun. Also, I am modelling the route in the 50's so much would have changed anyway.
:) and I'm sticking to that.





regards

Derek

Escomb road

Just building a number of terrace houses and old hospital, and I remembered I had not updated what I did with Escomb road. This is one asset with 2 lods, all detail drops off at 200 M.

The texture for this is 512/1024, however I could enlarge this to a square to fit in some of the surrounding terrace houses and sheds.

Away from the track I give myself a rule of thumb which is a 2 story building is 256 pixels high and I work from that to get the rest.

It is really easy to throw too many textures at objects. While I don't mind doing this for my stations, the filler objects need to be kept low otherwise the route will run slow and take ages to load.. sound familiar?

regards

Derek