Hi all;
Been a while since I've posted anything, so I'm sneaking this in ahead of another major medical device project.
I'm co-authoring a book on "Paint Schemes of 19th Century American Locomotives", which sounds rather esoteric at best! But not to railroad historians. My co-author is a world known authority in paint schemes, and consults with many museums for their restorations.
So rather than using a number of different locomotives, we decided to use this very popular 4-4-0, known as the American wheel arraignment. They were the most universally used, as they were nimble and, with full equalization, very stable on the roughly laid track of the era.
SolidWorks + KeyShot 7 Pro. About 40 hours in the modeling. There will be no material texturing, aging or scratches, as this is a book on color styles. 2,591,682 polys, running at 305 fps on my 32 core BOXX workstation. BIP is 0.98 GB.
I'll be using many configurations in KeyShot as we plow through the styles. I still have a lot of UV mapping to do on the SW model before diving into what will likely be about 20 color schemes, each documented. The final image below is a white clay, which I find very helpful as I study the model for any missing parts and stuff.
The first image is typical of the 1860's to 1880's era. Very colorful! Remember that rail travel was a new experience, and considered almost a miracle of engineering and construction. The stockholders and management wanted to show off their new toys with colorful paint. By about 1890 they started to tone things down towards the now familiar black, due to the high cost of pigments, labor and maintenance.
More to come...
Bill G
Interesting to say the least! Interested to follow this as it develops! Good to hear from you, Bill!