Prangles Industries. ["Shovel" map prop update]

I have completed more work on the shovel prop. Last post I was only half finished with the clamshell, and had the Face Shovel and Crane modeled. Now, I have the all five:

• Face-Shovel
• Backhoe
• Crane
• Dragline
• Clam-Shell

Modeled, texture mapped, grimed, and have one skin as of right now. I plan on making 7-8 more skins, including my own fictional company. All skins will be fictional, but most will be of my friend's and those I have asked from my steam group. The first skin I have slapped a "Prangles Industries" logo onto, it works.

I can't wait to see these props finished, it's going to be swell, especially if some other mappers decide to use them. The Pump-jack needs to have 5 more skins made, and the Grain Silo and IBC tote need to be mapped and textured too.

Not much to talk about in this post, so here is some images.

A dirty face-shovel, looking lean and mean as ever.

The humble clam-shell, sitting still and closed for the moment.

Don't mind the clutter in the background, this is the crane, and it's idling like a crane, nothing fancy.

The dragline, grimed up and showing it has worked!

The Backhoe attachment, as it's called. With quite a bit of grime.

A bit of an older image, no grime on the attachments, but it shows them all together.

Work continues on the "shovel".

(UPDATE: I have done some more work on the LYR class 27/28 and the cab is now done. Just need to do valve gearing and the such, and I can texture it and get it out. But this isn't my focus as of right now.)

I took a couple days off of working on the models I am making. Generally couldn't focus, and that's a thing I need to get stuff done, we all need it.

I put quotes around shovel because it is no longer just a shovel, I have moved forth into making other attachments. If you are a fan of older equipment, you'd probably notice that what I am modeling is a bit similar to Bucyrus-Erie's 15b/22b line of "shovels". Though entirely my design when I am modeling, I do look at them for some points on how they would function. You wont find internals in my models or extreme detail, after-all, these are just map props. But I do my best in creating with what I know, and putting my own wist on things, and for the most part, these should work mechanically, if they were to be replicated in real life. 

Back to the "shovel" thing, there is now going to be the following attachments:
• Face-Shovel
• Crane
• Clam-shell
• Drag-Line
• Backhoe

These attachments as I call them, were quite common for many pieces of equipment, and could be changed out with one another, without needed a dedicated main machine. This allowed for a good amount of versatility in work with what they had. Nowadays this really isn't done anymore, there is either dedicated machines for the task, or the use of an excavator which can do a large variety of tasks, is used. The modern day equivalents would be quick-changing buckets/attachments we see on wheel-loaders and excavators. Hydraulics really changed the game as far as how machines worked, and the ways they were designed.

However hydraulics are new(well, not really, around the 50's they came into use for machinery.) and I am focusing on the old currently. So far, I only have the Face-Shovel and Crane modeled and texture mapped, and most of the Clam-Shell modeled. What's left is the Drag-Line and the Backhoe attachments.

Currently I have 6-8 ideas for fictional companies to be textured, and  I am thinking of doing a few simple animations. Remember that this is for map makers mostly, to be placed on a map as a prop, these aren't scripted, nor are they operational vehicles like my trains. They can be placed in game though, for scene making and such. And have bones.

Here are some pictures I have so far. Remember, the textures aren't complete right now.

Face-Shovel attachment.

Crane attachment, holding an example IBC tote.

Clam-Shell attachment, not completed as of yet.

A lot more work to be done.

A preview of an old Face Shovel I am modeling.

This is gonna be fun.



























Just a preview image of a face shovel I am modeling. There is no real-world basis for it. This is based on what I know and what I see, though I do sometimes refresh my mind to understand how some things work. For instance, I had to peak at a video to see and get inspiration for how a dipper works(Video here). So far, this has been quite fun to model, and I can't wait to model variants of this.