The Grade Crossing: 3DC to Railworks - Locomotive: Detailing Part 1

3DC to Railworks - Locomotive: Detailing Part 1
by Jerry "SMMDigital" Conaway

110. We will start detailing the locomotive by placing the forward light bar and number boards. Here, I've taken a simple cube and resized it to fit the Template. A couple of Chamfer operations on each corner give it the desired roundness.
111. The number boards and fog lights (for those locomotives that have them) are more cube shapes that are rounded off on the corners. You may need to divide and extrude a few faces as well.
112. After making the number boards, you will need to select the number board face and duplicated it directly in front of the board, far enough out that you can work with it without interference.
113. Chamfer the corners to round the edges off, then shape to the desired size.
114. Select the front face of the number board ("3", click on face) and Extrude it to a thickness of 3/4 (.075) of an inch.
115. Select the outer edges all around the outside of the shape, right click and select "Extrude Region". Under the Shape Operations tab, you should put 1/2" (.05) in the Extrusion field, and make sure "Extrude using face direction" is checked.
116. Using the same procedure as above, extrude the new edge/facing forward 1/2" (.05) to create the gasket that edges the number board.
117. Use the "Trim" command ("2", right-click on the edge/line, select "Trim" from the menu) to get rid of the edges that were created when the gasket was extruded. This will save polys.
118. Place the number board back against the light-bar frame, then duplicated it for the other side. You will need to rotate it into place (Click on object, mouse on Green Gizmo in lower right corner of scene). After you are finished with the front ones, you can Duplicate them for the rear of the locomotive as well.
119. To make the smaller area where the light lenses are held, select the main face, then Duplicate it. Extrude the front face of the duplicated part, then resize it and place it back against the main bar.
120. To make the lenses and light hoods, we take a cylinder, reshape it to size, then turn it 90 degrees on it's X-axis. Delete the front and top faces of the cylinder, leaving only the back and bottom.
121. Run the Double-Side plug-in on the part, delete the back face and trim any unnecessary edges, then place it against the light bar.
122. Duplicate the lens again and place, then Duplicate both lenses again for the rear of the locomotive. These number boards and lenses are the "off" parts. We will make the parts that represent the "on" arguments later.
123. Grab-Irons are simple small cubes (using cubes to save polys) that are shaped, Piped at 90 degree angles, and Extruded.
124. After deleting any faces that won't be seen, place them on your locomotive and Duplicate as needed.
125. Making a snowplow is not really an easy thing, because it's not really something that can be explained. You really just have to feel your way through it. Here, I've resized a cube to the basic shape of the plow, then deleted all of the back and side faces. I Chamfered the bottom to start curving it a bit.
126. It's been divided into two faces, and the bottom-most middle point has been pulled forward (Lock X, Y axis, "1", select point, pull) to give the plow a point.
127. Divide the plow into two horizontal halves, then divide it again by selecting each end edge and dividing it into two sections.
128. We have to make the coupler cut-out by dividing the edge on each side, starting with the top edge, into two halves ("2", click on edge, "Divide", "2 Edges").
129. Join each point to the point on the edge below it by selecting the first point, then clicking CTRL, then right-clicking the second point, and select "Edge" from the pop-up menu.
130. Here, we have already deleted the faces that were made for the coupler cut-out, and we have begun to bend the shape into a plow by selecting and pulling on edges.
131. Pushing/Pulling edges, along with chamfering, are how the plow eventually takes shape. As I said, it's hard to explain, and you will have to practice, and maybe even start over a few times, to get your desired shape.
132. To make the MU hoses for the loco, we begin with a simple cylinder, given 6 sides and sized to fit. We rotate it and place it at the height of the top of the coupler (for now about 3.5 feet), just behind the snow plow.
133. We select the face end and run the Piper plug-in on it to give us a bend. Afterwards, we extrude the hose through the plow about four inches (.33). Please note that your snow plow geometry will be different than what is seen in these photos. The goal is to have the end of the hose "resting" on the bottom edge of the plow, so your Piper and Extrusions values will be different.
134. Give it another bend, and then extrude the pipe down to the bottom edge of the snowplow.
135. At the bottom of the pipe, we need a connector. This piece is a simple cube that is sized, divided, pushed and pulled until we have the desired shape.
136. Duplicate this hose as needed on the other side of the coupler and in the rear of the locomotive.
137. Of course it looks kind of silly that the hoses are sticking out of the plow, so we need to cut a hole out for them. Start out by selecting an edge above the hoses and dividing it into 3 Edges ("2", Right-Click edge, select "Divide", "3 Edges" from the menu).
138 Do the same for the line just below the hoses, and for the line in the middle of the plow.
139. Select all of the points and create new edges.
140. Delete the newly created faces ("3", click on the face, delete) to create the cable pass-through.
141. The uncoupling lever starts out as a cube, shaped to about a half inch thickness (Y-axis, .05). The front corners are chamfered.
142. Delete the top, bottom, and rear faces ("3", select face, delete), and then run the Double Side plug-in.
143. Select all of the interior faces, right-click, and from the pop-up menu, select "Extrude Region". At the bottom of the Shape Operations tab, input ".05" in the Parameters field, and make sure "Extrude Face Direction" is checked.
144. Select one of the ends and run the Piper plug-in on it. We want to create a 90 degree bend to the outside of the shape.
145. Do the same for the other side. Generally, to switch to an opposite direction when using the Piper, you either need to make the integers in the Bend Angle, Bend Radius, and Unit Length positive or negative.
146. We need a slight bend upwards, so we will make a 5 degree angle on each bend that we previously made.
147. Once we have that bend, we will extrude it's face out to the edge of the snowplow, and then we will do an 85 degree bend upwards.
148. Using the Piper plug again, we want a 10 degree bend towards the camera. Once we have that, we will Extrude the face ("3", right-click on face, "Extrude") about a foot. Do this for both sides of the bar.
149. Here is where things get a bit tricky. If we try to Pipe and Extrude our bar handles at this angle, the results are going to come out pretty twisted. So we need to turn the entire bar so that the handles we just extruded are facing straight up. You may have to play with your X-axis values to achieve this.
150. Now we use the Piper for a 90 degree bend. If you result still comes out twisted, run the Normalize Groups plug-in to correct Y-Axis orientation.
151. Using the same method of Piper and Extrude that we have been using, make the handle of the uncoupling lever on both sides of the bar.
152. Pull the bar back down to it's final position and place it against the locomotive pilot. You will need to duplicate this part for the rear of the locomotive as well.