Annie's Virtual Pre-Grouping, Grouping and BR Layouts & Workbench

[Annie]

Moving on a bit I found a better turntable.  It's made by the same chap who made the sand riddle/loader that I've used on this layout at Bluebell Sands and also out on the lighthouse spit.

I'm much happier with the MPD area now.  When I first put Windweather station and yard together it was going to be a terminus for the W.T.Co., but with it becoming a GER station with an end on junction with the W.T.Co. the old MPD wasn't really up to it anymore.  Y14's will now be regular visitors so a larger turntable was needed for a start.

 

 

 

The three stub tracks radiating out from the turntable are purely cosmetic and have no actual connection to it.  I just thought it looked better.  One of the stub tracks might get an old stores van parked on it before too long.

 

 

 

The old brick workshop building has stables attached.  I gave the stables a basic interior since it can be seen through the doorway.  There is a shunting horse available for Trainz that's configured to work as a locomotive so I must give that a try sometime.

In the history/backstory for the layout the old stables and workshop building dates from Windweather Railway & Canal Co. days and was built before the GER absorbed the fledgling (and financially struggling) line.

The fencepost in the foreground marks the trigger point for the interactive coal loader track.  It's really quite short and of course completely invisible so some kind of marker is absolutely essential.

 

 

And to finish off a view from the top of the hill from beside the old ruined watch tower.   Still lots to do and I've only started on building the town, but overall I'm really pleased with how it's all turning out.

 

[sem34090]

"News from the TS front, Sir, Ma'am!"

 

The next product from Kris Wilson's Caledonia Works is currently set to be a rather sweet Beetlecrusher!

[Caley Jim]

"News from the TS front, Sir, Ma'am!"

 

The next product from Kris Wilson's Caledonia Works is currently set to be a rather sweet Beetlecrusher

You mean one of these:

 

 

Jim

[Lancaster622]

That is in 2mm?!?!?!

 

Well done sir! It's beautiful! 

[Annie]

Jim goes out at night with his amazing Shrink-O-Ray gun that was gifted to him by aliens and he stalks unsuspecting steam locomotives.

 

Seriously though Jim your 2mm scale models are beautiful pieces of miniature craftsmanship and I haven't a clue how you manage to make such lovely tiny models.

[Caley Jim]

That is in 2mm?!?!?!

 

Well done sir! It's beautiful!

Thanks, and you too Annie. The body is an old Graham Hughes white metal kit with new steps and cab roof on a scratchbuilt chassis. It was my first try at a compensated chassis,the aim being to improve current collection, which it did. It's over 40 years old and starting to show its age, but is now DCC fitted with a DXc75 chip sitting upright in the cab.

 

Jim

Edited January 9, 2019 by Caley Jim

[Annie]

I'm having a bad day with not being well.  I'm looking at everything I've done and I think it's hopeless with too much regional fudging and I just want to give up.      

Perhaps I should just go and model the BR blue era because everything is half demolished and like a bombsite full of junk with tagging on everything so it's impossible to spot regional differences under all the corporate blandness and vandalism.  

[Edwardian]

I'm having a bad day with not being well.  I'm looking at everything I've done and I think it's hopeless with too much regional fudging and I just want to give up.      

Perhaps I should just go and model the BR blue era because everything is half demolished and like a bombsite full of junk with tagging on everything so it's impossible to spot regional differences under all the corporate blandness and vandalism.  

 

Annie, I am sorry you've had a bad day. I've just had an everything-going-wrong day with the Drill Hall, and I didn't have illness to contend with, but just draw a line under it and come back to it when you feel up to it. 

 

You are clearly doing down your achievements, however. I think the world of the Windweather layout is perfectly convincing, and I like the landscape and shed area that you've just shown. It's perfectly well conceived, more so than with many a freelance layout. 

[Annie]

Thanks James.  I should know better by now not to go making any judgements about my model-making when I'm like this.  I'm crash out sleeping at any old time at the moment as well as constantly microsleeping which makes me really confused as to time and even what day it is.  It is good for me to be doing something creative though rather than just lying about feeling miserable so I'll go down the other end of the layout and work on the salt marsh for a bit.

 

The ultimate answer with some of the not very suitable buildings is for me to completely re-texture them and remove modern additions like windows and doors and generally fix them up properly to suit 'somewhere in pre-war Norfolk'.  BUT not today.  I'll leave that for when I'm feeling more well.

[sem34090]

Annie, the work you produce in Trainz is fantastic. Considering, especially, the fact that you've never visited the UK you do an incredible job of capturing the place, more so than many natives do!

[Northroader]

I’m really tickled how you’ve managed to hang on to a love of modelling by not allowing your health problems beat you by moving from solid to virtual. You’ve mastered the technicalities of that tothe degree that you’re capable of producing jobs that are appreciated by other folks doing the same. You’re having an off day, rest and get your breath back. Your branch is shaping very well, and you’ll be picking it up soon, and when you do, stick it on here for us to admire, please.

[Martin S-C]

Hi Annie

 

Sending you lots of virtual love and support. Your work is amazing and the Windweather docks area is just incredible. I worked in MSTS 1 for 10 years and couldn't get the look you achieve.

I too am fed up with things gong wrong, in may case damp in the new garage that I don't know technically enough to form an opinion on and I'm at the mercy of anyone who advises anything, so its all just very frustrating.
 

I also would like to take this opportunity to sincerely apologise for my post of a couple of days back where I commented about the bullrushes - re-reading it, the tone is a bit snide and sharp and I am terribly sorry that I must have offended you.

 

Your virtual world is wonderful, please keep at it.

 

If you ever visit the UK, please drop me a note in advance, you'll be extremely welcome to come and see the NM&GSR and play trains for a bit. Sheila and I will make you most welcome.

[Annie]

Hi Annie

 

Sending you lots of virtual love and support. Your work is amazing and the Windweather docks area is just incredible. I worked in MSTS 1 for 10 years and couldn't get the look you achieve.

 

I too am fed up with things gong wrong, in may case damp in the new garage that I don't know technically enough to form an opinion on and I'm at the mercy of anyone who advises anything, so its all just very frustrating.

 

I also would like to take this opportunity to sincerely apologise for my post of a couple of days back where I commented about the bullrushes - re-reading it, the tone is a bit snide and sharp and I am terribly sorry that I must have offended you.

 

Your virtual world is wonderful, please keep at it.

 

If you ever visit the UK, please drop me a note in advance, you'll be extremely welcome to come and see the NM&GSR and play trains for a bit. Sheila and I will make you most welcome.

Martin let me tell you right off right now that you did not offend me.  If I didn't comment at the time it was because I was sleepy and I missed seeing your post.  I've read it now and I really don't see anything wrong with it.  Salt marshes here in New Zealand have unique plants that you don't find anywhere else and look very different so I took a wild guess at what a Norfolk salt marsh might have as its dominant vegetation.  Part of the problem as well is the lack of wetlands vegetation types available for Trainz, but I shall have a really good search over the next day or so and see what I can find that might be better.  

 

And truth be told I'd much rather someone tell me if I've made a howler of a mistake than let me continue with it even if it means undoing a lot of work I've already done.  Otherwise how am I going to learn about the area that I'm trying to represent so I can make a good model of it.  There's a forum member on NGRMO who always tells me in a fair and reasonable manner when I've made a mistake with my digital railways and I really do treasure his comments and criticism because they really do help.  So don't be afraid to say something because you won't offend me.

 

Thank you very much for your wonderful comments and messages of support gentlemen.  I'm still very blurry and sleepy, but my mood seems to have lifted a bit which I'm pleased about.  I'll stop now because it's getting a bit difficult, - but thank you.

[RedGemAlchemist]

Annie, the work you produce in Trainz is fantastic. Considering, especially, the fact that you've never visited the UK you do an incredible job of capturing the place, more so than many natives do!

Seconded. I'm certainly having trouble with capturing the feel of Norfolk on my "meat space" KLR layout and I've lived there all my life!

[Annie]

Thanks Red.  If you as a native born son of Norfolk think what I'm doing is alright then I really do have to admit I was being a bit silly yesterday.  After a very long sleep I am feeling better and a lot more cheered up than I was so that has to be a good thing too.

 

I did do some research into old canals and what specifically canal walls looked like in the pre-WW1 era.  I found some interesting old pictures of Norfolk canals, but the problem the way many of the walls were constructed couldn't be represented with the canal wall mesh that I have.  But then I struck gold and found a canal wall image that I could successfully replicate with the mesh I'm using so then it was just finding the right kinds of textures to use to reskin the canal wall mesh.  I recently joined up with a couple of texture libraries and they certainly make looking for textures a whole lot easier.  The dirty old cobblestones came from one of these libraries and they are absolutely perfect for what I wanted.

 

 

 

The row of houses and small warehouses at the harbour.  After looking over a lot of old photos yesterday the most noticeable thing about the buildings beside Norfolk canals was the incredible haphazard jumble of roofs at all manner of heights and angles and everything very much jammed in close together with all manner of buildings of different types and methods of construction thrown together as if by mad builders inspired by the finer points of chaos theory.  This is a little tricky to do with the buildings I have available since they tend to follow regular shapes, but if I have a hunt about for suitable meshes I may be able to do some reskins so I can mix things up a bit.

 

 

And building sandcastles on the beach is always fun.

 

[Martin S-C]

Those brick walls to the quayside look very good. And the cobbles.

 

Are there any figures in older styles of clothes available?

Edited January 10, 2019 by Martin S-C

[Annie]

Thanks Martin I'm really pleased with how the new textures for the harbour walls turned out since I hadn't attempted anything like that before.

 

People for Trainz is one of those difficult issues as there's not that many that are any good for the pre-grouping era.  There are some Victorian era people that can be used and there are some really good French country folk figures that are useful too, but otherwise for a long time we were really stuck with a not very good range of modern era folk circa the 1980s-1990's.  Women in particular are ill served with a lot of figures in skanky poses and modes of dress and most of the men are modern commuter types that aren't much use for anything else.  There are also very very few children.

But just recently a couple of the guys in the creator group i belong to started on a project to make better figures and they've made a very large number of workmen and men at work figures which are good for the 1920s-1940s period.  The women are still very much left out, as I don't think they are going to make any female figures.

 

The sand castle picture was just a bit of fun and I'll most probably not be keeping it on the layout.  The sandcastle itself is nice, but the modern plastic bucket and spade and beachball are a fixed part of its mesh and I don't think I can do much with them.  The woman with the striped apron is one of the French figures and the little girl is one of five available children and the other four are wearing modern clothing.

[RedGemAlchemist]

Thanks Martin I'm really pleased with how the new textures for the harbour walls turned out since I hadn't attempted anything like that before.

 

People for Trainz is one of those difficult issues as there's not that many that are any good for the pre-grouping era. There are some Victorian era people that can be used and there are some really good French country folk figures that are useful too, but otherwise for a long time we were really stuck with a not very good range of modern era folk circa the 1980s-1990's. Women in particular are ill served with a lot of figures in skanky poses and modes of dress and most of the men are modern commuter types that aren't much use for anything else. There are also very very few children.

But just recently a couple of the guys in the creator group i belong to started on a project to make better figures and they've made a very large number of workmen and men at work figures which are good for the 1920s-1940s period. The women are still very much left out, as I don't think they are going to make any female figures.

Hmm. Thinking of going back to Trainz 2012 at some point soon so I'll keep that in mind. Edited January 10, 2019 by RedGemAlchemist

[Skinnylinny]

All looking very nice, there, Annie! The canalsides are particularly evocative.

I'll admit to still not being quite able to get my head around how Trainz models are textured (I'm still fighting with a GWR clerestory reskin kit) but would it be possible to texture the modern bits of the sandcastle with a transparent texture?

[RedGemAlchemist]

I'll admit to still not being quite able to get my head around how Trainz models are textured (I'm still fighting with a GWR clerestory reskin kit) but would it be possible to texture the modern bits of the sandcastle with a transparent texture?

I used to do it all the time when I was really into Trainz. It's annoying to do at first, but it gets much easier once you get used to it.

[RedGemAlchemist]

Easiest way is just to duplicate the locomotive, open it for editing and open the file folder through the DLS menu and edit just the bits on the texture files needed to get the intended result in Photoshop.

 

These are horrifically useful for helping with that.

http://trainz.shaneturner.co.uk/tutorials/index.php/home/utilities/pevsoft-trainz-tools

Edited January 10, 2019 by RedGemAlchemist

[RedGemAlchemist]

I'll admit to still not being quite able to get my head around how Trainz models are textured (I'm still fighting with a GWR clerestory reskin kit) but would it be possible to texture the modern bits of the sandcastle with a transparent texture?

Oh sorry, only just realised what you were asking. I do know roughly how to do this but it's hard to put into words. I'll come back if I work out how.

[Martin S-C]

All looking very nice, there, Annie! The canalsides are particularly evocative.

 

I'll admit to still not being quite able to get my head around how Trainz models are textured (I'm still fighting with a GWR clerestory reskin kit) but would it be possible to texture the modern bits of the sandcastle with a transparent texture?

Or just a sand texture so they almost disappear?

 

I think Linny may be right, I think you can apply a texture that is 100% alpha channel to make things invisible.

Edited January 10, 2019 by Martin S-C

[Annie]

All looking very nice, there, Annie! The canalsides are particularly evocative.

 

I'll admit to still not being quite able to get my head around how Trainz models are textured (I'm still fighting with a GWR clerestory reskin kit) but would it be possible to texture the modern bits of the sandcastle with a transparent texture?

Thanks Linny. 

 

If it's the GWR reskin kit I'm thinking of that thing is full of evil errors with the way the texture fits onto the body mesh as well as having a twist through the centre of the mesh below the waist panels.  I have used it and I have made a couple of nice coaches with it, but as you say it's a fight all the way.

 

Now that is a really cunning idea and one that I never thought of, - a transparent texture, - brilliant!

[RedGemAlchemist]

I think Skinny may be right, I think you can apply a texture that is 100% alpha channel to make things invisible.

Thank you Martin! That's what I was trying to say! Now I feel like a prat.

Edited January 10, 2019 by RedGemAlchemist