Train room update

Have not been doing much with any of my Japanese module projects lately as I have been working to complete the new train room that I started last May and posted about in June.

As can be seen in this photo it's coming along. Recently I put in 3 LED lighting fixtures on the ceiling for room lighting.  They are the most practical LED lighting I have seen yet.  This photo was taken at night so no light was coming through the window and I did not use Photoshop lighten it.

There will also be additional under cabinet lighting and I'm planning to use LED for that as well.  Also recently I picked up a new compressor, proper drill press vise, and a nice butcher block workbench top all at bargain prices.  Before that I was able to get a gently used Micro Mark large spray booth and some N scale train display cases also at a bargain so upgrades to the new train room are coming along indeed.

Also a new feature I have added to the blog is the digital clock seen in the upper right corner that shows the current time in Tokyo.  It's provided free by 24TimeZones.com.  They have quite a few variations of clocks to use on web pages or blogs.

New look for Green Max kits.

On this most recent trip to Japan in July I did get to do some hobby shopping and of course I had some Green Max items on my list.

I had seen this new apartment building on the internet and was able to pick one up at TamTam for about 2200 yen.

This new building seems like quite a departure from the traditional Green Max building kits but they did do a great job on it.


As I shopped I noticed that there were almost no Green Max kits left on the selves in the familiar boxes with the drawing on the front and the instructions on the back.  The new boxes are standardized green with a sticker indicating which kit it is and with most having a new part number.

As an example, here are the old and new wall and gate kits.  The contents are the same, just new boxes and part numbers.  And there're still made in Japan.

Some of the smaller kits are now not in a box at all but instead are in a hanging bag type of package.







I am not sure when this change started but I think the first kit I purchased that was not in the older style box were the modular building kits and that was sometime in 2010.  I'm sure the reason they are doing this is cost.  Fewer boxes, just a few standardized sizes and different stickers for different models.

I had scanned many of the boxes of my kits as I built them and I've started a new page called Classic Green Max boxes if you want to look back at those.