Help with designing an APT GRF set

[Yew]

Hello all,
a First time poster here so be nice

For a while I have been considering making a GRF set for the British rail APT, since my trawling through New GRF's has bought me no luck. Now I have got MS Paint open and I have some OK-ish looking carriages and power cars. However im running into a few problems

1) how to make my graphics look better
2) how to code my graphics into the game, the guide by Purno I was following didn't give much guidance
3) the APT has a funny format, with DTS's (driving trailer standard) on the ends, TSO's (trailer standard Open) in the middle, and two NDM's (non driving motors) in the centre of the formation (meaning for example there are two buffets in each set)

Here is my current version of the TSO and NDM's



I'm hoping that these can be used as a base for the DTS and TFRB's (Trailer First Restaurant Buffet) once that have been sufficiently polished. However for coding the train and the layout, well thats going to be difficult..

Thanks, Yew

[planetmaker]

I suggest to follow http://www.tt-wiki.net/wiki/NMLTutorial as tutorial to get a vehicle ingame. And use NML's documentation at http://newgrf-specs.tt-wiki.net/wiki/NML:Main

[oberhümer]

The APT already exists in a GRF and will be included in this one and this one. No more to add right now.

[Yew]

Note to self, check all GRF's before making one

Oh well, Ive made a few sprites and it could be a useful learning experience, any suggestions on the small sprites I have so far?

I have looked through this page (http://newgrf-specs.tt-wiki.net/wiki/NM ... properties) and from what I can tell I need to make some form of document for the numbers with each parameter on the Generic and Train lists?

Thanks, Yew