Gone a bit Airfix

This is all a bit reminiscent of making the Airfix wagons for the wagons for the model railway. You get it together and then just can't wait to give it a run before painting it months later, sound familiar?

Seriously though, here's a picture of 7S66 Tees-Stranraer complete with grey plastic VDAs passing through Durham in the third scenario being developed for the RailWorks VDA stock pack.

Can't quite get the brakes off ...

Just a quick end of the day render of the dia 1/507 brake van for RailWorks. Not quite so much progress tonight as desired, but that's sometimes the way things go.

As usual the render has thrown up a few areas for a bit more attention next time. Most noticeable are the rain-strip and vents which need to be a bit finer and subtle and the coupling and buffers aren't quite right.

The next session should see the items above tweaked along with the hand rails and lamp irons added before embarking on the finer details.

dia 1/507 Brake Van Progress

Have sent some more time on the dia 1/507 brake van that will accompany our VDA vans for RailWorks.

The model starts to resemble a brake van now and the next session should see the majority of the big bits completed.

As is always the case with WIP renders they show the bits that need a little refinement. In those super chunky foot boards need a bit of attention along with a couple of other small things.

Take a Brake?

A little earlier than planned we've started work on a dia 1/507 brake van for RailWorks. So far there's just the basic body but worth a quick render anyway.

Although the original plans had seen a brake van making an appearance in a supporting role with a future stock pack the need has arisen to pop one into the VDA van pack. This has been prompted by the arrival of the initial test version of the first scenario, a service which was diagrammed for a brake van  due to the hazardous nature of some of the commodities carried and it just didn't look right with the default van.

The completed brake van included in the VDA van pack will be a CAR version with both through vacuum and air pipes in brown and yellow livery and the Railfreight grey and red colours.

And they're off ...

So there we are, our first stock pack for RailWorks is out there.

It's all a bit like being a dad again as it sets off into the world after all the development and challenges. The release itself seems to have been tantalisingly close for nearly a month with little issues that needed to be sorted and illness preventing the final clicks to let everyone play. Just in case you missed it, here's the link.

For good measure the website started throwing some errors over the weekend so the pack was held back while we traced what was going on there. If anyone is looking for a webhost we've used www.servage.net from the start and can't fault them when it comes to support, truely 24/7, always polite and speedy and more than willing to experiment to trace a problem. If you click the link above you'll even get a bit of extra webspace for good measure over the standard package!

What really makes release day great is when something like this appears in the inbox;

"Great product and the Masborough- Grangemouth activity is spot on with plenty of traffic and chasing yellows to keep you awake. Just wanted to add the detail you've incorporated into the Tankers is fantastic and the research to include the correct style tail lamp the icing on the cake. Great work and look forward to your future releases" Simon Barnes, Satisfied Customer.

Right, now where did those VDAs go ...?