Rasendyll

4 hours ago, BernardTPM said:

It has certainly thrown up some interesting scenes, but perhaps doesn't understand the concept of essentially identical, mirrored rows of houses that typifies late 19th Century terraced housing. Where I used to live there were essentially just four styles of house in the whole road, I assume because each plot was developed at about the same time but by different developers/builders.

Bernard, I know just the type of street you mean, but alas I think you’re right and at this stage the software doesn’t. There are ways to guide it from actual photos which I may explore later.

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On 14/08/2023 at 05:43, brossard said:

 

Penny dropped, Townscene actually, and available from:

 

https://doubleoscenics.weebly.com/oo-gauge.html

 

They had a certain charm at the time, but I've moved on to photographic backscenes.

 

 

It would be marvellous to see house backs etc.  The area to the right of the signal box is quite bare and I had in mind a super low relief building, perhaps with forced perspective.  BTW, layout is 0 gauge but backscenes (Gaugemaster) are 00.

 

John

 

John

John, It turns out that coaxing the AI into doing straightforward terraced house backs is taking some persuasion. That said, these attempts along the way may be of some use too you?

7 hours ago, brossard said:

Those renderings are really lovely.  Using them on backscenes is possible I think.  For the club layout, many, many years ago, we used some "nice" backscenes. 

 

I am struggling to recall who made them, but here's an example:

 

 

The point is, crude as these are, I mounted the buildings on foamcore board in front of the main backscene.  Chimneys were made 3D.

 

The renderings from Rasendyll are so good that they could be used in a similar way with today's photographic backscenes.  I would suggest that house backs might be more appropriate, certainly for my current layout.

 

John

They were made by a firm called "Townsmen" and, on doing a quick search just now,  I see they can still be purchased online. I my have a go at some house backs, warehouses etc...

22 hours ago, d_greenfield said:

These are really nice. Would you be able to expand on how you generated them?

 

With the greatest of pleasure.

I used an application called 'Midjourney', which is an AI tool that turns a text description into an image. Midjourney (no connection etc) required a moderate monthly subscription and is intern accessed through the free app 'Discord' - a discussion form.   It's surprising how little text can generate a quite detailed specific image. For instance, the first image here is generated simply from the 'prompt' or command: "orthographic pencil and watercolour sketch in blue and stone tones of an elegant row of Georgian matching shop fronts, three storeys, isolated on white background --ar 5:4 --v 5.2 --s 250 --style raw" 

The description speaks for itself, the other parameters on the end are 'aspect' ratio (width x height), software version, and parameters governing 'artistic' expression.

Happy to answer any questions.

8 minutes ago, grahame said:

 

Do you mean just printing the artwork and pasting on the backscene board?

 

Low relief buildings, at least those I've made, have some substance and 3D relief details.

 

 

An old way.. beloved of users of PECO, Merit and Townscene backscenes is to mount on stif card, cut round the buildings with a scalpel and have several tiered layers each in front of the other, to give a measure of relief in the distance. May pay to print diminishing in size too.

1 minute ago, grahame said:

Nice artwork images. I might be showing ignorance here, but how do they get translated in to 3D models?

 

 

I wasn't thinking that they would - more envisaging low relief building for use in backscenes. Maybe that's an old-fashioned modelling technique these days? :)

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Some more...

I've been experimenting with the very latest thing, an AI drawing tool that generates images from a text description. The tool I've been using is 'Midjourney', and amongst other things I've managed to create useable (I think) low relief buildings.  Thought I'd post some here for other member's feedback and comments and for people to use if they find them useful.

On 21/11/2016 at 06:10, Compound2632 said:

At age 7, I asked for the Nellie goods set as my first train set (per the 1971 catalogue with Terence Cuneo's painting of Evening Star on the cover) but she was out of stock at the shop (bicycles and model railways?) on Wyle Cop in Shrewsbury so I had to settle for a set with 47606 - and I've never looked back...

I think the shop (of fond memory) was called "Hobby Specialists" of Shrewsbury. The best reason for climbing the hill up Wyle Cop, though didn't Sidoli's have an iccream parlour thereabouts at one time? Perhaps my age is showing...

Based on some feedback received so far, here are slightly lightened versions of the artwork. Also, one good suggestion is to print two copies, one on 300gsm or thereabouts stock and one on ordinary paper. The heavier card makes the structural items and the lighter does signage, chimney pots etc.

Goods Office Lighter.pdf

27 minutes ago, jrb said:

 

Paul,

 

If you PM me your address, I'd be happy to print a couple out & post them to you, free of charge 

 

Jonathan

Jonathan,

That would be lovely of you, but I should let you know that I'm currently in Perth, Western Australia...

Though I'm still working (from home), isolation has left me with a little more time on my hands than is normally the case.  I decided to invest a little of that time in getting back into active modelling- though I've precious little in the way of materials on hand. 

Hence, after some reflection, I set to with my computer and drawing software to try and develop the artwork for a simple card kit. I've taken a somewhat traditional approach, inspired by the card kits of my early modelling days:- Bilteezi, Superquick, Builder Plus and Prototype. Thus, you'll find brick textures that resemble those from Builder Plus, roll up chimney pots like Superquick, and drawn (not cutout) windows like Bilteezi.

I'm quite pleased with the look of the result. However, I've neither card nor access for a colour printer for the moment to test it out. Thus, I'm sharing the result on here with an invitation for anyone interested to download a copy (I suggest downloading the pdf or jpg as preferred), print it and assemble it. Would love to receive any feedback and perhaps the odd photo of any results.

All the best,

Paul.

Goods Office no background.pdf

Here's another.... can't quite think what the 'back-story' to this one would be (some have suggested the Highland Railway link), but I do think the result looks very elegant! The LBSCR B6 4-6-0:

What if the GWR's experiments with F.G. Wright's large boiler fitted to a Badminton Class loco, 3297 "Earl Cawdor" had been successful? Might the same idea have been applied on a larger scale to a Saint ? I'm sure people can find lots of reasons why not, but this is offered as a bit of fun, so see below for the drawing of a large parallel boiler Saint:

If the war hadn't started 1939... After Duchess of Hamilton's/Coronation's tour of the USA, Sir William decided to apply some American ideas to LMS locomotive practice. Hence, 'Royal Sovereign' the express passenger 4-4-4-4...

Two more ideas... I make no claim as to practicality, but they would make impressive models. The GWR Baltic 'Castle Tank' and the LNER 2-10-2 Firth of Forth.

I suppose one answer to the firebox size could be to build it as a 4-6-4 with a longer firebox? Hard on the fireman though...

It does have a certain elegance, Zomboid.  The problem is that it cannot really get away with the wide bottomed firebox that made the atlantics such a success with the boiler lengthened, but if you could have got it to steam it would have looked wonderful sweeping along the ECML with the joint stock, even if it did break the fireman's back.  All Glory To The Hypntoad.

Here are two photo-manipulationsI was working on today - they might inspire someone, though I see Gibbo has already been thinking along similar lines to one of them a couple of pages back:

Having been in Australia for most of many years, my memories of Allan are from his published articles... starting with the “In Search of Realism” series in the Railway Modeller in the 70s- who remembers the wool and flock thatched roof method? One of the first enhancements I ever made to a kit built building.

Much more recently I had conversations with him in these fora. Always a gentleman, always an inspiration and always with an enourmous sense of fun. A reminder to us all to enjoy our hobby.

Thanks for it all Allan, all the best.

I suppose I was envisaging something slightly different- lets say wheelbase and diameter from (one of) the Abedares/Krugers/Crocodile but inside frame, outside cylinders and taper boiler.  I admit that's probably less likely but I went down that path simply because it would be a little more distinctive and eye-catching...

Surely more a Grange/Manor with a Churchward cab? Particularly given they shared wheel diameters with the moguls. I think the grange concept was the only unbuilt class in GJC's original list of 'standard' types. If I get time, it should be fairly easy to draw up in the GWS loco sketch pad software.

David