Just a bit of an update for the MSTS route. I'm still adding buildings but am pretty close to completing Kentville so it made more sense to finish Kentville as a whole and then work towards the next beta. I'm down to the long building between Webster Street and the tracks, two small buildings next to the Court House, and the Cornwallis Inn. I'm going to made a quickie version of the Research station but I think by the time I add trees between the tracks and the 101 you probably wouldn't see the research station... we'll see.
Here are a couple of shots of the Court House (Museum) for Mike, and a shot showing the Center Court block that I've finished drawing structures for.
Very nice!! The courthouse is instantly recognizable. How long does it take to build each of those structures?
About the only thing I can draw are micromodule plans with MS Visio.
Yep, for anyone familiar with Kentville back in those days, this is starting to feel like home.
Nice looking courthouse. Thanks for putting it in. Gives a nice neoclassy touch to that street.
Paul you asked back a few weeks ago:
Paul Charland wrote:Hi Dan,
There's a building between Webster Court and the tracks, it's actually 49 Cornwallis, right at the tracks. This is a long building that the eastern most siding parallels like it served the building. I have vague memories of seeing cars spotted along this siding but can't find any information about the building other then it now houses an insurance company and the tracks side has been rebuilt into 10 and 12 Webster Street, the building is currently for sale. Anyone know what this would have been back in the '70s, I had a look through the phone book and only turned up the insurance agent.
Paul
That oddly shaped building at 49 Cornwallis Street between Webster Court and the tracks was the Willet Fruit Company Warehouse in the 1950s. The West end of the warehouse was actually the first courthouse, replaced in 1903 by the brick courthouse which now houses the Kings County Museum. The old courthouse was so rudimentary that it was immediately turned into an apple warehouse. It was expanded in the 1920s to the east to connect to the old militia drill shed at 6 Webster Court and make one long apple warehouse. By 1951 the east end had a set of gas pumps at Cornwallis Street I am not sure what it was used for in the 1970s. The present building occupies the same footprint but is a 1990s building which replaced the older structures.
The Court House might have taken a day, I started yesterday afternoon and finished about the same time today, I took about two hours after that to complete the tan and salmon house next to the museum, think it's a pizza parlor now, might have been one of the many law offices back in the '70s.
Dan, great information. I did know about the Militia building becoming Willet's but never found what building they were talking about. Willet's was still receiving cars back in the '70s, quit a few 65' reefers from California. This would explain why I saw cars spotted east of Cornwallis Street back then, never knew what it was, I'll be drawing this tomorrow. Always nice to pick up another customer, thanks!
Three more buildings and then I'll start filling in houses, distant commercial buildings, trees, get a couple of car spawns going, two electric crossings on Aberdeen and Cornwallis, then it will be beta time! This last part goes along pretty quickly.
Cruising right along... have the law offices at 27 Cornwallis Street completed and in place, a chimney added to the Court House, the front window at 31 Cornwallis corrected and the carcase of the Willet Fruit Company in place... just have to add windows and doors.
Thought I'd post a couple of shots of the beginnings of the Cornwallis Inn I'm working on. I can draw the "typical" apple warehouse in an hour or so, this after a day of research and two days of drawing. To keep the poly-count down I've been drawing windows as a separate texture, then applying them to polygons on the model. One window might contain forty polygons but by making one model and using an image of it as a texture that forty polygon window is down to one polygon on the model. This worked well but I'm up to sixteen different windows and 744 polygons on this one section of the Inn!
...another day another section built. Project is now at 1659 polygons, will have to divide the final project into three pieces and assemble them in the route as I'm closing in on the 1750 polygon limit already.
I'm half way through the main tower, having to stop and make window textures again, taking a bit of time.
"V-scale" does have it's advantages. This model is 360 feet long, that's about 50 inches in HO scale. If there's 10 miles between towns and you travel at 60 miles per hour it actually take 10 minutes, most layouts don't have ten scale miles of track, let alone 10 miles of track between towns. For me, I spent years with no place for a layout, but the computer has plenty of space for... several.
Back to the tower, hoping to get the flag on the roof by before Survivor tonight!
