The Beast Is Born · 11:44pm Nov 7th, 2022
Hey everybody, might be getting this out a day later than I had originally planned, but I what I have in store will be well worth the wait if you are a fan of the Tall Tale series and specifically, the HG-10. Now in Birth of the Beast, I hinted at the cover photo being an actual depiction of the HG-10, and that there was a side project I had been working on. Well, that photo came from said side project, and it's something I have been working on for almost two and a half years. It hasn't just been me though, I could never personally pull of what is being done. I have been working with an avid fan of the series throughout this whole time to complete this project, and I think I've stalled long enough and its time to let you all see our work. May I introduce to you, for the first time, the real, HG-10.
No dear reader, you're eyes do not deceive you, that is a full 3D model of the HG-10, albeit one of the early set ups. We have now gotten all the way to this point.
We have pretty much completed the full 3D model of not just the engine, but also her tenders as well. Originally, the plan was just to do this. Make a full, detailed, 3D model of the engine and then have it at the ready if something came down the pipeline where we could use it. This plan has however changed just slightly. Both myself and this fan are avid model railroads, and both fans of HO scale, I feel you can put two and two together. While it will only be 3D printed, we are working on constructing a fully operational HG-10 HO scale model. While there have definitely been some hiccups along the way thanks to the 3D print process, we have ultimately been successful.
That is the first fully printed prototype of the locomotive. Motor fitting and drive train construction our currently our biggest issues and progress has stalled thanks to waiting for parts for said systems to come in. Now I want to point this out right now, we currently have no plans for making this a production/for sale model, at least in its completed and printed state. The completed models are currently just planned to be for me and the fan who is doing most of the leg work in designing and printing. I can make no promises that the models with ever come up for sale, or the print files will go public, as this is a conversation me and the designer have yet to have. If there are changes, I will update you all. But I couldn't just keep the true looks of the HG-10 a secret from all of you, especially after seeing the success of the original story over the years. We do have further plans to do the same modeling work for the TT-8, which will be a bit easier since the tenders are the same and don't have to be built from scratch again. This project is still some time off however, as the HG-10 will be completed in full first before looking into designing the TT-8 or any other engines from my stories that we may try to take a crack at.
Finally, before I sign off, there is one other thing this designer has gifted me, and I see fit to gift to all of you. There was talks early on about the livery of the HG-10, and included in that there was talks off what the T.T.M.S.L. logo was. I hadn't really though about this and left the designer to come up with a few ideas, and they knocked it out of the freakin park, with not one logo, but three ideas.
I was left to choose between all these three for the offical logo of the T.T.M.S.L. and I have to admit, I couldn't choose, I loved them all. So I came up with a way to use all three. The first two logos are keystones used by the railway, much like the classic PRR keystone, with logo #1 being the stone from before the takeover of Blueblood and his cronies, and logo #2 being the stone used after Stokes got the railway back. That leaves logo #3, well that is very easy. Logo #3 is the offical logo of the T.T.M.S.L., and is the one painted on the tenders of all the company's locomotives.
Well, that's all I've got for you guys right now, I hope this was worth the wait and all the stringing along I've done over the last month. That said, I can't wait to see you guys in the future, Mason out!
Wow, this looks cool. Keep up the good work man.