Main Body Construction
Having produced the underlying bottom body trim and couplers, construction on the physical body/shell of the Steam Engine could begin. The body of the train is perhaps the most important feature throughout the model as it in combination with the front circular boiler are the dominant features which help to portray this particular Steam Engine, allowing it to be distinguished from others. Due to this fact a vast amount of time was spent towards the modelling of these features.
The Construction began with the back wall of the body starting with a box object that was converted to an editable poly and altered in height according to reference image plane in the left viewport. Several edges were then inserted along the back wall to enable for sloping sides to be crafted.
Body Back Wall w/ Extra Edges
After connecting the required edges to produce a curved top to the back wall, the newly created edge polygons were extruded lengthways to fabricate the sloping sides present on the rear section of the body which is used to house coal for the Steam Engine.
Sloped Coal Housing Walls
These walls were then continued following the contours of the body around the driver cabin door and window section. Curved sections were introduced again by adding extra edge loops to provide the necessary vertices to alter the body's shape. In order to ensure a symmetrical body both sides were selected and scaled simultaneously. I was particularly satisfied at this stage as the production thus far had been relatively simple yet still wielded pleasing results which closely represent the reference image which is evident from the screenshot below.
Curved Driver Cabin Wall
The coal housing and driver cabin walls were then connected using a combination of the Extrude, Bridge and Edge Ring tools during a lengthy and frustrating process connecting the various surfaces each flowing in different directions. A flat upright segment was created between them which will later be inset and carved out for a rear window frame.
Connected Sloping Walls w/ Window Area Setup
In order to ease the modelling process of the body sections, the wall segments so far were split down the middle and the left half was deleted. This was done so that I only had to focus on the right half, which could then later be mirrored using the symmetry modifier for the other side of the body. Having done this another wall was extruded out to form the back wall of the driver's cabin, further edges were also inserted to allow the top half to be curved for the shape of the roof.
Driver Cabin Back Wall w/ Extra Edge for Roof Formation
This recently created back wall was then given an arched top simply be moving the vertices created from the additional edge loops. The curvature was matched as accurately as possible based on the range of reference images previously collected. The top point of the curve was made to be near horizontal so that the arch will flow smoothly once a symmetry modifier is applied, this will therefore prevent a sharp point from occurring when the two halves of the body are connected.
Curved Driver Cabin Back Wall
Now that the curved shape for the roof had been formed the roof itself was extruded out along the remainder of the driver cabin walls. A hole was purposely cut out to fashion the top of the door area which joins the roof. This was accomplished by removing the polygons above the door, the remaining edges were then bridged to fill the resulting gaps.
Extruded Roof Section w/ Door Hole
The hole surrounding the top of the door area was then given curved corners by creating a number of extra edge loops, the resulting produced vertices were then manipulated until a appropriate curve was reached. The main sides of the body were then extruded out coordinating with the curve of the body trim below it. The main walls were also given a greater thickness corresponding with the sides of the boiler as pictured in the reference images.
Curved Door Hole & Main Body Sides
The next stage was to proceed with the window frames which are located on both the front and rear of the body. Firstly the front driver windows was worked on by insetting a certain group of polygons based on the approximate window frame shape. A hole was then created by deleting the polygons inside the window frame, the resulting gaps left were filled using the Bridge tool.
Window Frame Inset Window Frame Hole
(Click Images for Full-Size)
The rear windows were then created using the same process, at this stage the main shape of the body had been formed, consequently the right half was mirrored, aligned and then welded to produce one solid body object.
Mirroed Body Halves
Aligned Body Halves
Welded Body Halves
The entire body object was then positioned relative to the existing Steam Engine Elements in addition to the side reference image. It was ensured that the body was perfectly centred on the body trim as any offset would produce unwanted results deterring from the overall level of realism.
Final Body Positioning
The last main stage to finalize the main shape of the body object was to add the side windows located either side of the driver cabin. This was achieved by connecting several edges using the ring edge selection tool and then using the connect function. These additional edges enable the shape of the windows to be formed using the reference image plane as a guide.
Side-Windows Edge Flow
The corresponding polygons positioned directly over the window holes were removed then the gaps left between the interior and exterior wall surfaces were bridged along the offending edges. The result of this process can be seen below.
Bridged Side-Window Edges
Now that the entirety of the Steam Train's Body had been modelled further detail was developed by making the sun-roof with moveable shutters. After examining several of the research images it was determined how the roof shutters actually function. Each of the shutters is held on by a runner allowing them to slide back and forth the desired by the driver. Modelling these components was rather straightforward yet the end results were remarkably pleasing. The runners evenly spaced over the driver cabin area of the roof were construction by simply extruding thin, lengthy polygons created by inserting multiple edge rings.
Roof Edge Loops for Runners
The shutters themselves on the other hand were crafted by extruding an existing portion of the roof then detaching it from the main body object. It was then re-sized and positioned accordingly between the two previously made runners.
Roof Shutter extruded from Roof
The shutter than had channels carved into it which will be filled by the runners allowing it to move forwards and backwards. The implementation of these grooves will also mean that the two object surfaces of the roof and shutter will not clip which could prove problematic during the animation phase if the roof is made to open for example. Overlapping pieces of geometry can cause severe rendering problems are consequently best avoided, for this reason the channels were added even though they will marginally add to the total number of edges/polycount.
Roof Shutter Runner Channels
A Turbo Smooth modifier was applied to the shutter to preview its smoothed appearance, several edges were also added to restrict the amount of smoothing especially on the edges surrounding the channels where the runners will fit.
Roof Shutter Smoothed Preview
The next obvious task was to make the actual hole for the sun roof by deleting the necessary polygons and then bridging the gaps created from this action. Two additional edge loops were introduced around the rim of the sun roof which prior to this was being rounded off by an undesirable amount when previewing with a Turbo Smooth modifier. Then to complete the sun roof the first shutter object was cloned and positioned in between the runners on the opposite side of the hole.
Sun-Roof Edge Loops
Adding Details
Once the main body area had been completed by cutting out the required number of windows and sun-roof section, it was decided to add further detail to enhance the overall level of realism present in the Steam Train model to increase its likeness compared to the real thing. Upon extensive viewing of the reference images I came to the conclusion of adding more objects to the rear of the train's body section which currently looked rather bland. As a result the first objects I began to develop were the handrails found on the rear wall of the trains body which allow for access to the coal housing and roof of the Steam Engine. These are also imperative to boosting the level of realism as the small details add to the overall appearance of the model.
Construction of the handrails therefore started with a cylinder object which was positioned on the rear wall of the coal housing. This was accompanied with additional cylinder and sphere objects to build up the main hand rail stretching horizontally across the rear of the Steam Engine. The base of the hand poles were beveled to portray a welded connection with the train wall using the bevel and scale tools on selected edge rings.
Hand Rail Base Pole Beveled Hand Rail Base
Completed Rear Hand Rail
(Click Images for Full-Size)
Next another hand hand was produced, however this time an alternate method was used to make the smaller vertical handrails consist of a singular pole with curved ends. These smaller hand rails were made starting with a spline object to produce a 2D line representation of the rail's final shape. This was then used as a path during the inclusion of a "Loft" object command for which another small circular spline was used for the shape parameter. The result was a curved cylinder following the curve of the original 2D line, however the cylinder was vastly over-sized and required a quick adjustment to fix this scaling issue. This was rectified by accessing the deformations rollout of the Loft object using the included scale tool to adjusted the size of the Loft command using the provided "Scale Deformation Graph" which can be viewed from the screenshot below. The default value was changed from "100" to around "40" which resulted in a much thinner desired result.
Loft Scale Deformation Graph
The ends of the small hand rail were also beveled using the same techniques as used for the main horizontal hand rail. The completed vertical hand rail was then cloned and positioned accordingly on the lower part of the coal housing were the foot plates yet to be modelled will be located. Further rails were added to the door area of the driver's cabin in addition to directly above the ladders on the front sides of the train's body.
Completed Rear Hand Rails
Supplementary detail was added by creating a number of foot plates to accompany the handrails which are present on the real-life LMS Fowler 2-6-4T. Firstly the two larger foot plates were constructed using basic box objects which were given numerous edges and extruded to form a right-angled plate. The additional edges will prevent the Turbo Smooth modifier from over-rounding the angular edges whilst efficiently removing the razor sharp edges present before smoothing. Three nuts/bolts were also copied from the coupler areas and were positioned according to the reference images to simulate the connection of the foot plate to the rear wall of the coal housing. This selection of objects was grouped and cloned for additional foot plates on the front sections of the body trim.
Right-Angled Rear Foot plate
Smaller foot plates were then fashioned using the same techniques as used for the larger right-angular version however these were given rounded corners and made narrower via the introduction of additional edge loops. Similarly a number of bolts were positioned based on the appearance provided by the reference images. A total of three of these smaller foot plates were spread across the bottom of the rear of the coal housing just above the coupler backing plate. An additional small foot plate was positioned at the highest point of the back wall which would allow access to the top of the coal house compartment in real scenario for example.
Small Narrow Foot Plate w/ Rounded Corners
Completed Rear Foot Plates
Moving back to the main body of the Steam Engine particularly the Driver's Cabin area which currently has no floor exposing the undercarriage and wheels underneath. Consequently this was the next most vital area that needed attention to enhance the overall completeness of the 3D model. Creating the floor was a simplistic task involving the creation of a box object which was altered in dimension to match that of the interior width and length of the driver cabin. Another floor section was placed in the coal housing section at the rear of the train, the remainder of the front section of the train is yet to have a floor made, as the boiler and main frontage of the train created by Steven Harwood will be merged over the coming days.
Floor Creation
The last few details to yet to add included several caps and connecting components. The first of these was a simple cylinder object that was placed on either side of the train's body. This was to represent a bolted down cap/plate which is evident from the reference photos. In order to space out a perfect ring of bolts around the cap I used a new tool called the "Spacing Tool" found under the "Tools" Menu at the top of the 3DS Max interface. The Spacing Tool can also be accessed using Shift + I on the keyboard for rapid access. The Spacing Tool basically allows a selected object to be cloned numerous times similarly to the Array Tool except along a specified path or points. Consequently a circle spline was created slightly smaller than the cap object and was aligned to its centre. With one nut/bolt select the Spacing Tool was then used to create 12 copies and the circle spline was picked as the path. The result was twelve evenly spaced bolts in a perfect circle. This is an extremely useful tool which I recently discovered and will continue to make use of in the future, as it considerably reduced the amount of time needed to carry out this task which would have been exceptionally difficult to do manually.
Cap Object & Circular Spline
Bolt Object After Spacing Tool
The next and perhaps most complex object produced was a round hatch situated on either side of the steam engine's body on the top surface. Construction initiated with a standard cylinder object which was converted to an editable poly and extruded to produce the appearance of a lid/hatch. Following this a right angled bracket was made from lofting a hand-drawn spline object which was scaled down appropriately using the same method as used for the vertical handrails on the rear of the train.
Lofted Right Angled Bracket
Two upright plates were then produced from standard box primitives, the corners were rounded-off by inserting additional edge loops and then scaling the newly created vertices inward. Between these upright supports and arm was fashioned from a Tube object which was extruded a number of times to alter its shape as needed.
Upright Supports & Hatch Arm
Two similar supports were created on the opposite side of the hatch were the Arm connects and hinges from. A small U-shaped rail was then produced and positioned on the hatch holding the arm in place, several connecting bolts were then added to finish the component off. This range of objects was then grouped and cloned for the adjacent side of the train's body.
Finished Hatch Component
The last detail to be created before merging the file with the front parts of the Steam Engine was the connecting rods which fasten the boiler sections to the main body. From studying the reference images it was gathered that these rods were spanner-like gripping onto bolts attached to the boiler and fixed around a pivot point on the body itself. Having determined their characteristics production started with a spline object drawn out as a cross section view of the spanner-shaped end.
Connecting Rod Spline
This was converted to an editable poly to make it into a 3D surface, the rest of the rod was then extruded out and shaped by inserting additional edges.
Extruded Connector Arm Before Smoothing
A round base for the pivot point was then constructed from a cylinder which was scaled along its bottom edge rings to simulate a "welded" effect as if it were attached in real-life by a seam of welded metal. Extra edge loops were added to restrict the smoothing result caused by the later applied Turbo Smooth modifier.
Welded Effect Pivot Base
The Connector Rod was then attached to the pivot base via a bolt and nut which was centred to the base. The height and thickness of the bolt was made to represent the same dimensions as interpreted from reference images.
Attached Connector Rod to Body
The final step to conclude the connector rod setup was a small pin locking the pivot bolt in place. This was created from a spline and lofted using the same method as the right-angled brackets for the support plate bases.
Spline Pin Object
The pin was then given additional edge loops to rectify problems caused by the Turbo Smooth modifier and the scale of the loft was reduced to a desired amount.
Lofted Pin Object - Scaled Down Loft Result
The completed locking pin was centred through the top of the pivot bolt and a Turbo Smooth modifier was reapplied. A small split pin was also made to enhance the authenticity of the 3D model. The pin was made from a Tube primitive which was divided in half and extruded to create two legs. Personally I am immensely pleased with the final outcome, as small details such as these aren't noticed at first but upon further inspection enhance the overall presentation of the Steam Engine.
Positioned & Smoothed Locking Pin
Split Pin Creation
Over the course of Week 10 the front Boiler sections of the Steam Engine will be merged with the existing body, then final details and texturing can begin.
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