Crayons schrieb:

> I love the detail you've been creating here and I know (in some small way) the
> temptations for detail that a steam loco can lead one on to! Do you have any
> updates for us to enjoy?

I did some more work on it in October, but didn't find time to post any 
updates, as I was busy making the deadline for the TC-RTC "Across the 
Plains" round:

http://www.tc-rtc.co.uk/imagenewdisplay/stills/index256.html

These days I might post some interim shots created during that time.

> You seem to have better drawings?? What loco is it?

It's a USRA/Baldwin "Heavy Santa Fe" (a late-WW1 2-10-2 heavy drag 
freight engine featuring the uncommon Southern valve gear), which I 
chose mainly because of the particularly detailed blueprints I found on 
the Wikimedia Commons 
(http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Line_drawings_of_steam_locomotives).

Main "input" was that very blueprint 
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/USRA_Heavy_Santa_Fe_diagram.jpg) 
as well as the similarly good blueprints for its smaller kins, the 
"Light Santa Fe", "Heavy Mikado" and "Light Mikado", which - despite the 
different dimensions - occasionally provided somewhat better insight 
into a few details (though unfortunately the Mikado types were of no 
help regarding the valve gear, as they used the Walschaert type instead).

Other sources were numerous photographs from the web, both of USRA 
locomotives and others; some site that sells parts for a 1.6" scale 
"Heavy Mikado" model proved very helpful, too 
(http://www.livesteam.com/heavymikado/AAheavymikadopricelist.html).

> I say "modelled" in quotes as my coding style is a tad shambolic and I tend
> towards a sort of "lego" approach to things but at the start of this thread you
> mentioned difficulties with complex cast iron items and I sort of glossed over
> those by approximating with round boxes and so on. The worst part being the
> slidey thing behind the main piston.

Looks like a pretty good model to me.

> I was also be interested in your approach to the chimney and steam valve covers
> - you used blobs there? I'm afraid I went traitorous and used jpatch for a mesh
> object I (sort of) manipulated to fit. I also used jpatch for the firebox main
> object.

I actually found blobs easier to use than trying to model a suitable 
mesh (I would have used Wings3D for that).


Christoph

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