Swindon

saddletank · Post by **saddletank** » Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm

I don't often blow someone else's trumpet mainly because if someone blows mine I just find it cringingly embarrassing. So this post is both a thank you (for the superb models) and an apology (for the cringingly embarrassing trumpet-blowing). I was lacking a couple of significant structures at Swindon, and the south side of the station is a series of cameos - the milk dock, the station booking office and the land sales coal yard, but the middle one was missing as I had no reliable plans or pictures of the booking office so a temporary structure was cobbled together to fill the hole, and the site of the deliciously gothic GWR hotel opposite the booking office. Then I inherited a collection of Swindon papers from the kind widow of a fellow GWR enthusiast, the late Ian Doughty which contained some sensational original 1920s large scale GWR plans of the booking office, plus lots of photos I had not seen before.

But the person who rose to the challenge was Peter Holton, who must rank among the best scenery builders out there, anywhere. His two models have caught the character of the buildings perfectly and totally transformed the atmosphere of this side of Swindon station.

So a huge thanks to Peter, especially since he slipped this project into the middle of a busy commercial schedule. The booking office is the pale grey and yellow brick building built on split levels and the hotel is the Rocky Horror Show mansion style edifice. Anyway, enough waffle from me, I'll let the pictures speak their 1000 words each.

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johnarran · Post by **johnarran** » Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:43 pm

fantastic !!

I also agree with your sentiments about Peter....excellent he is !!
I have received some sound advice from him in my meagre attempts at Gmax.

When's the route going to be released Martin?

longbow · Post by **longbow** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 1:14 am

Superb!

The townscape is also very well done. I assume you have blended 3D models and backscenes together but can you explain how you did it?

duckweed · Post by **duckweed** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 7:37 am

Get ready to cringe....lol

Buildings are fantastic and the placement and character in the scene is superb. Attention to detail is what really makes it for me, just mssing a few pigeon droppings, but other than that difficult to improve on.

Regards,

~Terry~

stevesherratt · Post by **stevesherratt** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 9:32 am

Fantastic peices of work , Very Very Nice

steve in ozz

saddletank · Post by **saddletank** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 1:43 pm

longbow wrote:The townscape is also very well done. I assume you have blended 3D models and backscenes together but can you explain how you did it?

The front area near the line is 3D buildings, and I generally followed a street plan and photos so that the scene has a realistic look to it, there is nothing like following a genuine street layout to get that feel. The back area is a combination of a few large 3D buildings - simple factories, chimneys and churches, basically tall things to give some height, but the clever part is Caldrail's work... notice the red forest boxes. Very cunning.

A really obvious thing like making sure the ground is grey under an urban area instead of green is a simple change to make but improves the look a great deal.

Route is done. A few tweaks to trains folder. Activities in hand. Hopefully release soon (how long have I been saying that?)

peterholton · Post by **peterholton** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 2:15 pm

Rats. I thought, no, no need to put the underside of the canopy in, no-one's going to go to street level to take a screenshot! <grin>

Peter

simont · Post by **simont** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 4:20 pm

Wow. That's more model village than model railway. Lots of time will be spent on view 7 on that route, I reckon.

gopher · Post by **gopher** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 5:50 pm

Wonderful stuff Peter. The texturing is immaculate. Martin, any chance of laying a tram track down the street so we can all glide by and admire them

Have to put the canopy underside in then Peter.
The forest objects are ideal for townscapes and look so much better than flat backdrops. I was going to use them for distant herds of sheep on the Bala Blaenau but did not use them in the end as they where too far away to see and the close up ones using normal models did not affect frame rates adversely.

Martin wrote

Hopefully release soon (how long have I been saying that?)

Seems like years to me

Gordon

PS hope you are not to busy Peter when I start the Wolverhampton, Shrewsbury, Chester and Birkenhead ( just a joke, but then again you never know)

peterholton · Post by **peterholton** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 5:59 pm

Email me, Gordon. It all depends on workload, both MSTS related and real life!

I'm speaking as someone who's got his bathroom in bits at the moment, and getting hard looks from the management while sitting here at the computer....

Peter

saddletank · Post by **saddletank** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 11:43 pm

Hmmm, yeah, I only noticed the underside of the canopy as I uploaded the pix. Probably not worth an update, Peter, no-one else will ever go peek down there.

I'm afraid there is no yard definition in the route so Cam 7 hacks won't work. I can't let you see all my secrets

Gordon, joking aside there were trams along this area of Swindon in the 20s and I did seriously consider putting a track in but object counts got the better of me. I had to draw the line somewhere and then after I crossed it months ago I thought I'd better stop

qzdcg8 · Post by **qzdcg8** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 2:34 am

Just adding my applause - Highworth will truly be an awesome addition to anyone's MSTS1 Route Collection (not that anyone will ever have an MSTS2 Route Collection at this rate

)