Nameplates

[matthewa]

Hi all,

Just thought I'd ask and hopefully this is a simple question, but what would be the best way to creating nameplates for trains etc? Planes?

Going to start making a few.

Thanks

Matt

[Nexusdj]

Planes aren't any good as they cant be seen when looking at it from it's side . Plus you'll need to stand it slightly off the bodyside to stop it clashing with the bodyside texture which would cause it to flash .
From certain angles you'll be able to see the gap between the plate and the bodyshell .

I used a standard rectangle and textured that up , The sides where made thick enough so that they would penetrate the bodyside and hide the join between bodyside and nameplate .
The decision you need to make is whether your going to texture both main sides of the rectangle with the nameplate texture , This makes life easier with the attachment points as you'll not need to rotate the one on the opposite side of the bodyside to get the front of the nameplate to show .
If you decide to rotate the opposite attachment point then you'll be able to remove the rear section of the rectangle to save a few poly's .

No need to round off the corners either as the texture will do most of the work and save a fair few poly's .

[matthewa]

Oh wow, didn't realise all that would happen to planes - see how much I still need to learn!! (Starting GMAX/Blender modelling other week)

I was thinking about texturing both sides but I didn't know if it was a advantage or disadvantage. But as you say it makes life easier, that has cemented in my head that I'll texture both sides. I guess I could experiment texturing one side and rotating way also, if I have some "extra" spare time that is.

Thanks very much Dave, just what I wanted to know!

Matt

Edit - What would be the best solution to determing the size of nameplates?

[Nexusdj]

You'll need to use photo's and any reference points on them with any known measurements .

The GBRf 66 's have been fairly easy as I included the nameplate on the bodyside textures which where resized to correctly fit the loco textures . In surveyor I used one of the ruler's to measure the length and height of the nameplate and used these measurements to build the plate in Gmax.

If you can find scale drawings of a loco it would be easy enough to work out distances between side grills and windows and then compare them to any photo's of the plates location.

This site may come in handy for nameplates http://www.therailwaycentre.com/Nemepla ... tpage.html .

[matthewa]

Now that is a good way to do them, thanks once again for helping.

Cheers for the link, this will come in handy.

Matt

[Warbo40]

I might have a crack at doing some soon if i can suss out Gmax to start with.

[matthewa]

Go for it Paul!!!!

Matt