Hey aztec,

thanks,
only the texture of the diesel engine was completely hand-painted in Paint Shop Pro. All other model skins are a mix of photos and hand-painted elements.

Catalogues of scaletrain manufacturers come in very handy here. The same applies btw. to WWII models. You can get the best skin resources if you look for photos of world war II scale models.

I have started writing a modelling and level design tutorial that will guide you through the creation of levels and models for a shooter (the only thing I can do as I am an idiot when it comes to scripting) and it will also include a skinning tutorial.

Cheers,
Rince