Dearnen

I'm not sure about early grain hoppers, to be honest. I have models of modern grain and cement hoppers. I think that during the steam era, though, grain was hauled in boxcars, not hoppers. -Dearnen

While all those hopper roof designs are realistic, they serve different purposes. This style is generally seen on cement hoppers (which are fairly short cars): https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files/CHCSX052.jpg border=0> Grain hoppers have long hatches down the middle like this one: https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files/CHBN0411.jpg border=0> Plastic pellet hoppers are like grain hoppers but with round hatches. -Dearnen

On the topic of Instances, I thought I'd give a quick rundown of the system I've been using. I staked my claim beginning with 10AA5010 as follows: ATSF warbonnet 5010 ATSF bluebonnet 5020 BN 5030 BNSF 5040 CNW 5050 DRGW 5060 KCS 5070 SP 5080 UP 5090 CSXT 50A0 NS 50B0 Shortlines 50Cx (NECR 50C0, G&W 50C1, CORP 50C2) CN 50D0 GN 50E0 The idea was to give myself room to make more engines of the same company with very close instances. I wasn't thinking straight when I made the ATSF bluebonnet - it should have been 5011. When/if I am able to get back to the engine works, I've got the following on the slate: CSXT gray 50A1, Wisconsin Central 50C3, Guilford Rail System 50C4, SP Black Widow 5081. I hope this explains the system I used. I love the BN cars Trolca. And your work, Big Red Fish, is cool. -Dearnen

While I like the helicopter design in the magazine, I think a different vtol type might be better for Mars. Something that works similar to the Harrier - but a lot more advanced, of course. I'm just not sure a rotor could be made practical in the thin atmosphere. Though, due to the lower gravity, thrusters could be more practical than they are on Earth. They also look cool. -Dearnen

I'd like to see some of my sketches come to life. But, there's no way I could ever sketch up enough buildings for everything in the game. I've got a life, so I won't do it. I've enjoyed sketching the buildings, though, and I do see there may be more need for sketches to better flesh out the styles. Meanwhile, I also have textures to make. Dearnen the Busy

Basically, you'll need to look for every place that the engine's instance is used in the dat's subfiles and change them to the new instance. Naturally, the subfiles will need their instances changed. Furthermore, the exemplar and s3d files both have internal data that will need to be changed (where they refer to the model and the skin TGIs, respectively). I can't remember where all they are off the top of my head. I usually start with the fsh, then the s3d, and finally the exemplar...sort of working my way up the file heirarchy - it just keeps it all in order. -Dearnen

The headlight on the GN engine was never changed. I was concerned about how it would look, but when I looked at the night version, I decided it looked just fine. The actual focal point is still located at the front of the cab, where it was on the original. I'm curious, how did you flip the engine back around? When I made it, I just rotated the model around its vertical axis in gmax. That's the tool I used to raise the short hood and remap the skin too. Heh, I was surprised at how easy it was. -Dearnen

My own heads-up: I intend to work on the ground textures fairly soon, since that's one of the easiest yet most visible things to be done. My schedule's a little tight right now, so it's going to take a little while to get going. -Dearnen

I'm not sure if this helps, but it might. Gmax can (with the right plugin installed) export to .md3 format. A program called 3d Exploration (version 1.5 is available free on the net) can convert .md3 files to .3ds files. I have used this process a few times to make some changes to the SC4 freight locomotive. -Dearnen

I am honored by the boxcar, Trolca. IThink2 had a good idea, so I spent a little time and came up with this: It can be downloaded from my thread - https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=41015&pageNo=4&num=40#197917 -Dearnen

Smurfer, I don't know if you saw it, but I have a CSX locomotive available in my trains thread: https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=41015 -Dearnen

I'm still getting the jpg zip when I download it. -Dearnen

I love these new tank cars, Trolca. They are way better than the original style, IMHO. -Dearnen