I think I have finished Candice now:
and I have added some wild flowers to the meadow:
Any thoughts? I am starting to get my head around particle systems now…
Cheers, Clock.
Can’t wait for more animations!
This is so greaaaat! I prefer this over steampunk ;D
“Candice” is genius, Clockmender, R Emett would be proud of it. You might be able to interest Mike Rayner of Smallbrook Studios into realising the design in resin! Plus, your grass is a gas. I’d like to see what you could do with a small model railway layout for Hector and his siblings (like “Nellie” and “Stromboli”) with, of course, a nice lake for “Candice” to glide about on - a boat’s wake would be interesting. Keep up the brilliant work! Cheers, Chuffington.
@VirusZparadox - thanks for the kind words!
@Chuffers - thanks too for the kind words, perhaps I, or you as you know him, should drop Mike Rayner a mail with a link to this page, what do you think?
@Gleb - yes there will be more…
Cheers, Clock.
No chance of getting caught if your smuggled goods go by rail. 
Had numerous looks at this thread in the last while, the work you are doing here is simply wonderful.
Shaun
Thank you Shaun - that was really kind of you to say so. :o
Here’s the two trains together:
Cheers, Clock.
Lovely, lovely, lovely 
The golden metal is a bit too shiny, I’d recommend to use another font for the signs and some variation in color for the second train (which is already on your list for sure). But other than that this is so well done and fascinating!
I agree about the gold colour, concerning the sign on the barrel, as an alternative you could set the background to black.
@Carel and @minoribus - did you mean something like this?
I am reasonably happy with the goods train now - just some minor detail then I will go onto the scenery a bit and think about loading the goods train and perhaps a fork truck? Just gone over the 3 million faces mark…
Thanks for the encouragement, it’s greatly appreciated. 
Cheers, Clock.
PS. Both trains are fully rigged and all controlled by two empties.
Add grunge zeppelins and everyone will rave over it. 
I’ve just spotted this. It’s definitely steamcute. I have my reservations regarding its stability around corners though.
ROFL. Well it is sort of scarlet, so perhaps just give it the right figurehead. The other details could be left out.
Y’know, if I was smuggling contraband I think I would refrain from advertising the fact with a big gold sign. Unless you have already paid off the authorities, of course.
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Authorities suitably bribed…
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Stability of the train is not an issue - I am definitely unstable however…
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We ARE all boys of the good ship venus, eee-gad you should 'ave seen us, the figurehead lay upon…
Regrettably the rest of this post has been censored in the interests of common decency.
I’d never heard of Emmett, so hadn’t seen these characters (?) before. They have a sort of Ettamogah Pub feel to them, except cuter and with fewer flies.
Great modelling and rigging, as always.
Thanks @Gumboots.
Here’s an overview of half the layout, with the trains “moved on down the track”, this is a full res render at 1920x1080:
I am now off to the land of nod…
Cheers, Clock.
Nice again. I think the wood of the goods train has a bit too much bump and glossiness. And the same applies to the concrete of the train station. On the other hand the shader for the casted concrete is really something. Just a bit too much bump. And the meadow has turned out well with all the additional particle objects.
cool, I always wanted a brandy smuggling train!!! 
nice progress. I would add a nice sunny light on the main layout to give more that happy feeling that toy trains bring!
keep on rocking!!!
Mathias.