Railworks America

Hi;

I have been doing a repaint of Dick Cowen's EMD E7 into Great Northern. I got it pretty much finished, but it comes out flat. I want to add a shine like fresh enamel paint. I don't know how to go about this. Is this done in texturing or is it done with a shader in the object being textured? I am using PSE 9 for doing the repainting, but cannot find anything on how to make the texture shine like new paint. Any help would be appreciated.

Regards, Gerry

If you export the Bmp thru DXTBmp just put a lighter gray alpha on it and it will be shiny.

Hi Buzz;

Thank you, for the quick response.

I guess I am being dense here. I have the texture file in PSE saved as DDS, but can same as any format (including BMP). I open this file in DXTBmp where it show a completely black alpha channel. Here is where I get lost? Since I have never used this tool before what's next? How do I lighten the alpha channel up (go back to editor)? Do I save or export? Can you state the steps here. It is not clear on how to use this tool.

Gerry


PS....Never mind, I think I figured it out as I now have shine!

Just need to mask off the areas I do not want shine on (eg., the roof)

Just open the alpha in your editor lighten it up and then save it back in the lighter shade. There's a button for that in DXTBmp to send it to the editor.

Hi Buzz;

Got the alpha channel working on the textures and shine on the engines. Will be posting additional pictures as I am doing these in the three paint schemes that GN used.

Thank you, for the help.

Regards, Gerry

I think they are going to come out okay!

Cheers, Gerry

gkbaldwin wrote:I think they are going to come out okay!

Thanks very much for repainting these engines, they look fantastic!

Having these E7s will open up so many new scenario possibilities, the original '47 Empire Builder, the Western Star, or one of the other name trains that these engines worked on in their service life like the Gopher or the Winnipeg Limited (just need to find a good route for those trains, but the NERR might come to the rescue yet again!)

Cheers
Michael

Hi Michael;

Thank you for the feedback.

Great Northern had 13 of them so I have plans to deliver all 13 numbered units in the three paint schemes with options to go with silver trucks (and undercarriage) or as shown.

I looking at doing one of the freeware passenger sets to match the scripts paint scheme.

As far as routes, right now only two come to mine, Marias Pass (would need to be back dated) and your old route Butte, which could be refreshed and expanded. Another would be to do your Hi-line route from MSTS days, which was one of my favorites.

Regards, Gerry

Nice work!

gkbaldwin wrote:Hi Michael;

Thank you for the feedback.

Great Northern had 13 of them so I have plans to deliver all 13 numbered units in the three paint schemes with options to go with silver trucks (and undercarriage) or as shown.

I looking at doing one of the freeware passenger sets to match the scripts paint scheme.

As far as routes, right now only two come to mine, Marias Pass (would need to be back dated) and your old route Butte, which could be refreshed and expanded. Another would be to do your Hi-line route from MSTS days, which was one of my favorites.

Regards, Gerry

There is already a G-Trax (freeware) GN done. There is also a GN set of heavy weight orange and green for BritKit cars (payware). They are here in the library.

Hi Buzz;

Yup, I know, but plan on doing a refresh on the paint so it matches the locomotives

Well feel free to use my re-paint with your colors. I believe I have all the stripes pretty much in the right place so it will make doing a re-paint a whole lot faster.

Nice repaints!

Still using the weird-looking photo textures for the trucks though. I believe a fix has been posted in the file Library about that.

Looking at the new pictures, and I know this has nothing to do with the repaints, I can't help having the same feeling that I have when viewing any Britkits diesel: very nice modeling and detail, but something feels wrong about the texturing, they look flat, plastic, featureless, compared to most other models, for example the HSC F7s. The feeling is bad enough that I no longer use the models I purchased.

I wish I had the knowledge to pinpoint the cause (baked shadows, bump maps, shaders?) so that I could offer suggestions instead of just criticism.

Chacal wrote:Nice repaints!

Still using the weird-looking photo textures for the trucks though. I believe a fix has been posted in the file Library about that.

Looking at the new pictures, and I know this has nothing to do with the repaints, I can't help having the same feeling that I have when viewing any Britkits diesel: very nice modeling and detail, but something feels wrong about the texturing, they look flat, plastic, featureless, compared to most other models, for example the HSC F7s. The feeling is bad enough that I no longer use the models I purchased.

I wish I had the knowledge to pinpoint the cause (baked shadows, bump maps, shaders?) so that I could offer suggestions instead of just criticism.

Your point being?