April 2025 Newsletter
Happy April everyone! No foolin here, I’m just happy to be on the way to better weather. Getting outside at least once a day when you work from home is absolutely so very important. I’ve been slowly going crazy without the sunshine!
Let’s get down to business!
Patreon Benefit Update
The first thing I want to mention is that there will be some changes to the Patreon this month and perhaps next month as well and I want to make sure I fully explain the motivation to you guys.
The change is going to be to the Project Manager tier. I’ve made some minor changes to this tier in the past but this one is going to be a bit more dramatic. I’m also looking for feedback from you guys about it.
The gist is two-fold. Firstly, it's becoming exceedingly difficult and time consuming for me to find good and/or appropriate 3D models to continue porting into the game. And the ones I have been finding, and this segues into the second part of this, require a lot of work. After porting something like over 500 3D models, I think I’ve pretty much run the gamut of decent, low-poly, easily-portable models to continue doing this. The main factor here is time. It’s just taking way too long for me to find the 3D model, download it, figure out how exactly the artist set the thing up, convert the textures, get it in game without errors, create the LOD, etc. (It usually takes me at least a full week to port in a single model) This is time that could be better spent route building, making videos, blog posts, shorts, etc.
The thing is, I don’t want to eliminate the Project Manager tier entirely because there will be occasions where I do find a model I want to port in or I make a revision to an existing asset. So going forward, my plan is to keep the tier open but it’ll be more of a “Thank you for contributing to the channel and what I do. Occasionally I’ll share a model or reskin here…” or something along those lines. I’m also open to suggestions for a different perk or benefit to include here but this is what I’ll be starting with.
While it might look like I’m taking a step back from Trainz or trying to do less, that’s not necessarily the motivation. I am trying to do less but it’s so I can do more, if that makes any sense. I need to free myself from some things so I can invest that time into the things I’m actually good at (which ultimately also benefits you) like route building, videos, blog posts, N scale things, etc.
I would like to get back to a normal upload schedule and share more content with you all and I think this will help free up some brain power to do so.
Let me know your thoughts on that.
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What Else?
The NYCH route is coming along really nicely. I've been working on a detail oriented video for you guys and if all goes to plan you should be seeing it on Friday. I think you'll enjoy this one ;-)
I'm still on track for release in another couple months if I can maintain my current pace. There's really not a whole lot of ground left to cover. It's mostly super-detailing work and some background clean up that remains. I'm excited for you guys to get your hands on the route when it's done.
As far as N Scale projects go, I recently shared a post about how I painted and decaled a BLI NW2 as Cross Harbor #59. She's a great match for 58. I shot a ton of video while working on this project, so once this NYCH Trainz video is done I'll be putting together the full NW2 project video for Youtube. Should be a good one.
Patreon Benefits
Executive: The NYCH will be available on the 1st. Now full of details and operating turnouts! XD
Dispatcher: Wow, April has FIVE Wednesday's. Let's do the Monthly Livestream on the 16th, right in the middle of the month. Will be the usual 7 PM EST time.
Model Railroader: I just shared a great blog post about how I painted and decaled a BLI NW2 so you should definitely check that out. Other than that, once I'm done with the current NYCH Trainz video I'll be getting to work on the video version of the NW2. So that'll be available some time later in the month for you guys to watch first. I'll probably turn that into a short as well. If there's anything else N Scale related you would like me to write or make a video on, please let me know!
Weekly Wednesday Hangouts continue as usual! If you're new to the Patreon or Discord, you should definitely check 'em out. Usually a lot of shop talk and joking around to be had. Always a good time :-D (I'm most active on the Discord so make sure your account is connected to enjoy these benefits to the fullest!)
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Thanks again for all of the support both on Patreon and Youtube and wherever else you find my content! This is the stuff I live for :-)