Let's Ride the Rails

A bit of an irresistible title I'm afraid!

A few weeks ago we were contacted by an experienced reskinner who expressed an interest in creating some reskins to form part of the scenarios we include with our Train Simulator expansions. With the scenarios for the Bullion Carriers under way the chance was taken to recreate one of Gateshead's allocation of Class 47s in the form of 47406 'Rail Riders' in original InterCity livery to use as the player locomotive.

The locomotive uses the class 47 included in the European Assets Pack/original routes and has a new texture, 3D nameplates and crest plus added ETH jumpers.

Although forming part of the scenario within the expansion pack the reskin will also be available to download from our website once the Bullion Carriers have been released. Don't take the screenshot as an example of the scenario though - it looks much different and you may have struggled to see the loco ....

Bullion Carriers: Bullion Van Completed

With the textures and shaders finally completed it's great to see the bullion van in a completed form.

It seems to have been a very long unwrap and bake process with this one but the van and flats are finally with the testers.

If they come back from testing without any issues there will just the the levels of detail to add to complete the models.

Bullion Carriers: Old school or TOPS

As the mammoth unwrapping and baking cycle comes to the end for the bullion carriers it's nice to be able to show some progress.

The bullion van is now lettered and numbered complete with the option to take control of the coding.

The picture is still very much work in progress with lots of material and texture tweaks still needed. Looks like the tweaks will include investigating why the end lettering appears to be glowing in the picture!

Smooth ride for the bullion van

While the HBA/HEA hoppers have been locked down for testing I've managed to find the time to complete most of the work on the B5 bogies to go under the bullion van and bullion flat.

For those who've followed the blog for a while you'll know that bogies are never a popular task for me so it's good to have this out of the way. All that remains now is to add some rivet and bolt detail.

Fortunately, the B4 bogie that's more commonly used under coaching stock and some vans is a relatively easy conversion with only a couple of components to change and even fitting hydraulic dampers is straightforward! These will be a pleasure to reuse under some other planned models!

Bullion Carriers: Body and Underframe Complete

The major push this week has seen the last of the rebuilding of elements and adding of detail to both the underframe area and body of the bullion van for Train Simulator 2013.

All that's left now is to construct the friction damped B5 bogies that will go under these vehicles. The bogies have been mocked up and the frames are in the process of being fabricated.

Bullion Carriers: Underfloor bits and pieces

 

Much of the effort in the past week has been in completing and upgrading where required the under frame equipment on the Bullion Van for use in this project and others. The under frame is now dual braked as accurately as is practical from our reference photographs and has had the brake rigging modified for use with the B5 bogies that will be fitted.

The air cylinder, distributor and air cylinders have been extensively reworked as has the vacuum cylinder. A new dynamo has been built for good measure.

Next up is a fair bit of fine detailing on the coach body and adding the interior along with making those B5 bogies!

The Devil is in the Detail

The last modelling session was one of those strange ones where there seemed a lot of effort and no major impact.

It was detail time with the vents and periscopes going on the roof. The underframe has gained most of the required equipment and the ends have have had their last bits added.

The interior is still a quandary at the moment with most reports mentioning bullet proof double glazing, heavy tint and even mirror effect glass. Photographs do support this so it may be a case of making the vestibule visible and something creative with the the saloon windows.