Back in the painters saddle?

Today I was bombarded on RWA with questions about repainting... and its been over a year since I have done anything serious. To my surprise getting back into it was like riding a bike.

The Airslides are new from Golden Age of Railroading, and are very nicely done. If you ask Michael Stephan nicely he may send the repaint PSD file (it helps!). As you can see I still have a long way to go to finish this model. I need to fix the class number, auto-numbers, ID boards, fine print, and make two more. Which translates to: "It could take months to finish". To be honest I am still not sure if I want to get back into repainting. I enjoy modeling more, and my plate is over full already. We will see.

And just to give a few tips. Brushes are your best friends. One like really like is the High Res Dirt Brush, and the other which I am itching to try is the Grunge Rusty Brush.

RWA donationware is now TS 2012 compliant!

It may have taken awhile, but it was worth the wait. GreatNortherner of Golden Age of Railroading and Mr Cowen of Britkits have put the finishing touches on their rolling stock to bring them up to TS 2012 standards for the RWA donationware package. This means I need to revisit my repaints and make sure everything works nicely. So far all I have needed to do is repackage my work using the new files. I will try to finish up before the end of the month, and I am off to a good start. You can now download SP woodchip gondola, and the SSW 40ft HiCube from the RWA file library.

Stay tune while I work through the rest of my repaints. I will announce their availability when they are ready for downloading.

Snow accessories, Tank cars, and Caboose

The silence on my blog is deafening, but that usually means I have my head down in a task, or in this case many tasks. I won't cover all the QA work I have done with MadMike, but there are several new repaints available up on RWA for the RS3/RSD5 and 40 and 50 foot box cars. What I have been doing is improving upon my knowledge of 3D modeling and have created a number of child objects to enhance the models found in RW to make them more prototypical. Let me start with the model which has given me the most frustration repainting. Which is venerable Southern Pacific bay window caboose. It was back in June that I dropped this repainting project because there were simply too many windows on the model. I tried to work with the creator, but nothing ever came out of our conversations. As you can tell, I have corrected the problem myself by creating  flat "plate" child object to cover the windows as I need. The second modification is from RWA member Kali, who has created a handy lightweight library to move the auto numbering around the model. I now have them placed where I need them (even over the doors). Additionally I added a point light object to the frog light. Finally I added a few child model details like the cylinder under the bay sides, and the vent on the upper side of the caboose. I still have a few more details to work out before releasing this refit. Remember that you will need to purchase the base model from BLLW if you want to see this in game.

Next item which will soon be released is a SP tank car based on the Kuju default model. Thanks goes out to Pete Willard for his fantastic fonts which add even more detail to this repaint, and also to Kali, because I used his library to change the number textures, and their placement on the model. There is just a bit left to do on this model, and I plan to include a weathered version. I should be releasing this sometime in the next couple weeks.

In preparation for Donner, MadMike and I went a bit overboard and started repainting the GP38-2. Mike did the base repaint and weathering, and I added the snow gear (window grill, breaker bar). With luck this model should be coming out some time this week.

Finally, I have switched from using Google Sketchup to 3D Crafter completely. Thanks goes out to SMMDigitat and GreatNortherner out on RWA for presenting me with some tutorials, and getting me to think out of the box on this. Here is another refit that MadMike and I are working on. It needs some ditch lights and a few other odds and ends.

SP Woodchip Gondola Repaints (Released)

The SP Woodchip Gondola repaints are available for download in the RWA library. These repaints require the RWA Donationware freight package.


Included are one new, and two weathered version. A word of warning however; during QA MadMike found that they may be scripted to be a bit too heavy. Since these settings have not been changed from the default model all versions would have this problem. This is something I will need to research, and I plan to correct it (if it needs correcting) in the future.

Color thy Numbers

I have just released a new set of rusty white numbers for the RWA Donationware freight package. As always they are available for download in the RWA library.

... but what else have I been up to?

Aside from doing QA for MadMike... making number fonts and colors for his repaints. I have found this to be an exerciser in patience and frustration. Trying to match colors while attempting to make your alpha channel mask as sharp as possible, while clearing the cache between tests because RW does not read in the number textures if you just reload the scenario... and then seeing that the numbers are jaggy because that's just how it works... It was time for me to take a break and blog about it.

The model used in the last week of repaints is the freeware Brindley 'improved' GP15 available at the RWA library. The quality of this model is pretty good, and the textures have been laid out clearly, but lacked a few details that would have really made it pop! While I worked on new numbers, Mike took on the challenge of adding the missing pop, and I have to say that he's done a fine job. He first created a completely cleaned and labeled paint template (up on RWA library). Then he reworked the door and latch highlighting, added a bump mask, and reworked the body and bogie textures. In the process he also figured out what happened to his alpha channel. Apparently there was no background layer when the alpha channel was created, so he added a new textured layer underneath the parts and it removed the masking affect. 

Really? Its just been numbers this whole time?

Not really. As always Real Life Rules. The family took a long weekend off to travel a bit. Then there is preparing for my first son's first day of Kindergarten, soon to be follow by my second son's first day of Preschool, and for good measure lets not forget all of those doctor's appointments for the third one on the way... Started Soccer practice... My work place is moving offices... life is busy, which it should be, and its all good.

SP 100 ton Bethlehem Hopper Repaints (Released)

The SP 100 ton Bethlehem Hopper repaints are available for download in the RWA library. These repaints require the RWA Donationware freight package.

I started this repaint back in April and you can already guess that I wasn't happy with the quality. Since then I have added a High Pass Filter layer, created 'dirty' numbers for two of the three models, adjusted the lettering due to stretching, and used an 80% gray alpha channel.

Is it perfect? no. I still see areas where I could improve the lettering, and where some of my hand made decals are a bit fuzzy because I sized them larger. So why release? Simply because I need to draw the line somewhere, and I am now comfortable with the end result.

There are still a few more RWA SP and SSW repaints left in the queue so I will continue to be busy for the next couple months (at the rate I am moving at).

Gimp and the alpha channel

I was helping MadMike the other night by doing some QA on four engine repaints he did for the LINC. While working through my checklist I kept on looking at how glossy the engines were. This wasn't a grand discovery on my part and has been an on going issue with all of Mike's repaints simply because Gimp does not support alpha layers very well. In this case it was nagging me because another member over at RWA happened to mention it, and it was reverberating in my head while I was looking for other defects. Finally after clearing each engine for repackaging, I loaded the texture up in RsBinTool, exported the DDS over to CS3 and my jaw dropped.

I know that Mike would not have wanted to use a mask for this. I got him on the chat line, and handed him a link to the image above. To say the least he was surprised at seeing the drop out, however it made sense to him. The method he used to create the alpha layer in Gimp can be found here. Where it fell apart was that in Gimp the layer looked fine (the darker gray), so it wasn't obvious that it wasn't working as intended. The good news is that I modified the layer the way Mike wanted it, and he can now duplicate that layer for the rest of his repaints, so this shouldn't be a problem again.

There is another interesting thing I learned from all this. I am probably setting my alpha layer too dark with my own repaints. Generally I set the channel to be completely black, so I get a matte finish on the model, but while I was experimenting with Mike's repaints I began to understand why he had his set to an 80% gray. The slight gloss, almost semi-gloss finish that it gave the model made the colors more believable, and provided another layer of depth for the model (light vs. shadow). I will experiment on some of the repaints I have already released. If the there is a marked improvement then I will consider releasing an update.

Progress on the A403 XM

Adjusted some of the smaller fonts, placements, and updated the information. I am still unsure if I should add false shadows under parts that hang out, because RW3 may take care of that for me. While Trainguy76 works on the few issues left on the body (parts are going to get remapped) I will start to focus on the bogies. They will be tricky since they are textured over several parts instead of a few.

An interesting fact came up in causal conversation over at RWA that not all Class I roads used this type of box car, most notably BN and SF (even after they combined). No need to worry thought there are plenty of roads that did use it. To name a few there are C&O (CSX), Southern (NS), WP and UP.

What's on the workbench?

I'll be working on the CC, LINC, and repaints sporadically in the next few weeks. Real life has handed over to me some water damage in the upstairs bathroom, and I will be slightly offline over the weekend for a family event.

But the computer is working, so I will end with my progress on the A403 XP that I am QA'ing for Trainguy76 from RWA. Still a few kinks to work out... but its coming together nicely.

SSW 50' Flatcars (Released)

The SSW 50' flatcar repaints are available for download in the RWA library. These repaints require the RWA Donationware freight package.

Painting this model (for both SP and SSW) was bittersweet. I enjoyed working on the obvious modifications of adding the road markers, placards, brown paint, and rust, but then came a nice challenge. I really wanted to change out the wood texture for the bed and bulkheads. Oddly this felt like shopping for a new pair of shoes, which is not something I do often (ever two years or so). Kinda 'ooooo I can splurge' feeling.... odd huh? It was also the one item that I changed at the last minute before I sent the package off to MadMike to QA. The texture I originally used didn't feel right, and it took over a month (in fact I found it yesterday) to find it.

Final Wood Texture

On the down side there are two small problems with the model, which will be more evident when I release the SP repaints. First is that the numbers are in the wrong place. They need to be lower near the road name. The second is that the model only supports five digits. This is not an issue for the SSW repaint since they only used numbers in the 50000 series, but it will be a glaring issue for the SP (soon to be released) which used six digits.

SSW 52' Gondola Repaints (Released)

The SSW 52' high and low gondola repaints are available for download in the RWA library. These repaints require the RWA Donationware freight package.

Better late than never...

I am switching gears back to repainting... specifically the RWA Donationware. I have posted about them before and its time to make good on all those teasers I put out there.

The SSW 40' Hi-Cube repaint is available for download in the RWA library. It requires that you own the RWA Donationware freight package, which can be obtained for a minimum donation of $10 to the site (its well worth it). I have spoken about the RWA community often, and this is one way I can help encourage others to support the psychical site as Hawk (owner and admin) has made it clear he would like to avoid using advertising to subsidize the cost of maintenance. Other RWA members have joined me in this cause, and you can find their work up in the library as well.

I've been sitting on this repaint for awhile now. I did make some slight alterations since then. The first was to correct a problem with the right side door. It seemed to be doubled up making it darker, so I had to lighten it. The next was to make a weathered version. Originally I was not going to make 'new' and 'weathered' version of this package, but what took 4 hours to deliberate was completed in less than 20 minutes. The last modification was to try out styckx's High Pass Filter Tutorial which did make a slight improvement to the lettering.

A nod of thanks to MadMike for confirming the problem with the door, and doing the final QA work for the package.

I hope you enjoy this repaint it was fun to do, and as I stated before, there are more to come.

SP 1741

BLLW turned a patch out quickly! If you need the update then please use the original download link you were emailed...

Now for SP 1741. This was the only SP caboose to be painted vermilion red. I am still trying to find out why they were testing this color, but needless to say, it did not last long. After a few years it was back in brown.

Getting the auto numbers to go away is a bit unnerving. Hopefully I won't have to paint new numbers.

Also the dreaded 'broken consist' message is back. Not sure yet if this is from my tinkering with the number files, or the new update.

UPDATE: The new patch was not really a new patch after all. I am still working with BLLW with the issues I am seeing with this model.

SP Caboose

Broadway Limited Locomotive Works just released their bay window caboose. Its a must have for me, as its the only caboose I saw running around here, and SP really did have tons of them.

This is the same model that I was asked to do some QA work on a couple weeks back. Which entailed proofreading the user guide (its long and filled with info, and its worth it). Unfortunately I found a few problems with the model post release, fixed a couple of them, and sent an email back to BLLW with the info. Hopefully there will be a patch soon.

But it does look great on the rails. Here's a WIP:

SP 52' Gondolas

Close enough for government work...

I may touch up the SP logo since it got reduced a bit, but I am much happier with these revisions of my original repaints. Now I need to retouch the 50' box car, and one of the 100t open hoppers.

More flat cars

Finished the SSW and SP flat cars tonight.

SSW 40' Hi-Cube

Done and Done...

Another repaint complete for the RWA donationware package. Here we have a 40' PS box car rebuilt into a modern Hi-Cube. There were only 14 built (series 36000~36013) and from what I am reading from the web they were in high demand (so why didn't they make more???)

SSW 52' Gondolas

Just finished... yea, yea, I added more to my list.

These (and a few more) will be available as an add on for the RWA site donation pack.

Now to finish the SP wagons...

Starting on the 40's

Just started on the 40' boxes.

Sneak peek at the paper service box...

50' PS1 Box Car - Southern Pacific Repaints (Released)

Its a great feeling to finish a project which was an accumulation of many 'firsts'.

+ First time shrinking a layer
+ First time rasterizing text and slanting it (HYDRA-CUSHION)
+ First time hunting for the right texture (thanks to Mike on getting me to do this, it was worth it).
+ First set of files uploaded to RWA (or any RW site)
+ First contribution back to a great community

And my repaint list grows:
- Take the PS1 repaints I just did and alter them to Cotton Belt (shouldn't take long)
- Take what I learned with the PS1 and touch up the RWA wagons I have been working on

If you want to download my work, please visit the RWA site, and look for the 'File Library' link and then 'May 2011'. You can also use the search box and look for PapaXpress.

And what would be a post without a pic?