The Tomix Pachinko Building - Part 2

After finishing how the lighting was going to work I moved on to finishing the interior detail.  The kit included 4 rows of pachinko machines and 8 rows of seats.  These were removable from the base but were made of a type of plastic that did not take paint very well so I had to spray them with an adhersion promoter before painting.  I had a bag of background quality figures and about half the seats got  occupants after their legs were cut off. 

The kit included stickers for pachinko machines and other interior surfaces that were part of the base.  A few more standing figures were also added.

The roof normally sits loosely over the original battery compartment.  To hold this roof on but have it still be removable, I glued a small magnet to a scrap of .030 styrene sheet and then taped that over the walls of the battery compartment.

Then a scrap of steel starping was glued to the inside of the roof with E-6000 adhesive.

The entire inside and outside of the building got painted.  The building itself was already glued together so I just had to paint it carefully by hand.  The outside of the building also got a bit of light weathering using detail wash with the roof section getting a little heavier treatment.

The railings that came with the kit were painted and installed on the sidewalk section and a few more figures were placed outside the building.  

Finishing a Green Max office building

On the small extension module I added to one end of the Musashi-Koyama modules to make the set 2 meters long, I have a kit bashed Green Max building from set 46-7 that I never finished.  Coming off the completion of the Kato building, I feel now is the time to tackle this building.

The building is separate from the styrene base and both are held in place on the module with a single 4-40 screw.  The building first got 2 coats of a pale blue color.  It was my first time using Vallejo paint in my air brush and it worked out well after thinning the paint a bit with distilled water.  I'll be using more Vallejo paints in the future.

One of the ground floor entry pieces was installed on the first floor after the trims and door handle were painted with a silver Sharpie pen.  The roof, base, elevator tower door, and awning were all hand painted, and one of the stickers from the set was installed above the ground floor making that floor a bank.  The tenants of the building will be in the financial services industries except for the 2nd floor which will be restaurant.  I painted the window frames on the 2nd floor gold. 

The Green Max building kits don't come with window glazing but include sheets of clear plastic that can be cut and glued to the interior walls.  I used canopy glue to do this.  This particular building was modified to fit in the space and the back wall was left off as it would not be seen once the building is on the module.  This made it easy to access the inside of the building.

The side of the elevator tower got some paper signs that I made on the computer.  The second floor restaurant is a izakaya serving tako which in English is grilled octopus.  The billboard is an advertisement for some sort of fruit yogurt drink.   

Two of the vertical signs from the kit were modified and placed on the corner of the building, a stock broker on the 5th floor and an insurance office on the 3rd.  A real estate office occupies the 4th floor and uses the small sign board.  All of there signs are stickers from the kit.

The Tomix condominium building

I have had one of the  Tomix # 4034 condominium buildings on the left end of the module bolted down but left unpainted since 2011.  It was time to finish and and make it something more unique.

This is a really well designed building model and additional kits can be used to make it as short or tall as you want.  It holds together without glue and can be taken apart for painting.

I air brushed the building sections with Testors sand and wrote the color and part number on the inside of the 1st floor in case I want to add more sections later and need to match the color.  All the patio areas and the roof top were painted concrete and the entry doors dark gray.

The base was brush painted with concrete colors on the sidewalks and building foundations. Reefer gray was used for the parking area.  The gate to the parking area came from the Green Max fence set with the lamps added from a TomyTec festival figure set.

The stairs are separate pieces that stack on top of each other and match the walkway on each floor.  These are another well executed part of this model but my only complaint would be that they don't include some sort of cap piece to go on the top of the column.  I went through all my scraps and found something to make my own.  The blue arrow in this photo points out this piece I added.

The top part that is above the elevator shaft got a coat of Testors dark green and the entire building was given a wash with Testors brown weathering wash which helps to bring out the brick detail.

Several sign stickers are included in this kit and I chose to use the one that did not have any English writing.

This model has lots of possibilities for details and I will get into that in the next couple of posts.
 

Another curved railroad bridge part 2

Finally we get to the second and final post on the curved railroad bridge.  I needed to get the highway done first before installing the bridge.

The bridge assembly was air brushed with Testors pale green and then weathered with Testors acrylic weathering wash and Bragdon Enterprises weathering powders.

The highway sign was made from a photo I found on the Internet.   The printout was glued to a .020 thick piece of styrene which was then glued to the bridge.

The support columns were paint Testors concrete and given the same weathering treatments before being glued into place in the highways center divider.

With the bridge installed, the module is now ready for track and ballast.

Scratch built platforms - Part 2

I had 4 new packages of the Plastruct HO scale ladder stock plus a few scraps that I air brushed Floquil engine black to match the hand railings on the small Green Max station.  Doing this at this point with the air brush would ensure that all the odd angles would get covered but there will still need to be some touch up by hand later.

The full sections were cut so that the joints would meet on one of the raised sections of the platform as shown in this photo.  Medium CA was used to make these bonds.

Once all of the hand rails were in place, I added an .040 half round all along on the top.  This was to add some strength to the joints and give it a more unified look.  This half round stock was bonded to railings with Plastruct solvent.

Here are the platforms after all of the half round tops of the railings and anyplace else that needed it had been touched up with a brush.




Next steps will include some yellow striping along the track side of the platforms and maybe some light posts or small shelters.

Scratch built platforms - Part 1

For the Hot Springs Junction station I wanted to have side platforms with the foot bridge connecting them.  I had considered starting with either the Green Max side platform kits or several sections of Kato Island platforms left over from the Musashi-Koyama station.  The platforms would need to be narrow but one would flair out at one end to mate up with the station and the other would need a wider section for the foot bridge stairway.  With the amount of modification needed, I decided to scratch build the platforms.

The platforms were built of .020 styrene sheet with strips and angles added on the outside to appear similar to how the Kato platforms look.  I also added short lengths of .040 x .060 of styrene strip material along the outside edges of the surface of the platforms that will support some railings that will be added later.

I had first sprayed a coat of Floquil concrete from the bottom so it would cover all of overhang angles. Then I brush painted two coats on the top with Polly Scale SP Dark Lark Gray, the color I most often use for asphalt.




The next day after everything had dried well, I masked off the top of the platforms but left a .060 wide strip all the way around exposed.

Next, another application of Floquil concrete, this time from the top.  After removing the tape, this is what it looks like.

Railings

I have used Plastruct HO scale ladder stock for railings on a number of projects and it turned out that they are a very good match to the railings that were already on the small Green Max station.

So I bought several packages of these to extend the stations railings out to the platforms.




These will first be painted Floquil engine black to with the air brush before being installed on the platforms.

Painting the Green Max foot bridge

The same general color scheme that was used on the Green Max Station was used on this covered foot bridge.  Floquil Antique White for the walls and Oxide Red for the roofs were applied with an air brush.







There is a large amount of bracing that could have been painted as trim in a contrasting color but I decided not to thinking the railroad would not have done this due to cost.  I also plan to weather this structure and that should bring out the detail.

There are two protection plates that come with this kit.  I believe the purpose of these is to protect the structure itself from being hit by the electric wire.

These were brush painted Model Master Gull Gray before being installed on the structure.





The instructions seem to show these parts just being glued to the frame of the structure but on the front of the box the drawing shows them being suspended by wires and not actually touching the structure.  What I did to simulate this look was to make spacers from scraps of the column material and .060 x .020 styrene.  This was then glued to the bottom of the floor and a small space between the protection plate and the structure.

Before attaching the roofs, I brush painted the stairs with Floquil Concrete.  I only went about half way up the stairs as that is all that is going to show when the roof is on.

I've noticed recently that Testors has discontinued the entire Floquil Railroad Colors line so I'm going to have to find an alternative to their concrete colored paints that I've been using for many years.

Modeling Japanese bicycles

Bicycles and motorcycles of all types are an important element in a model scene of Tokyo.  This post is going to be limited to bicycles.  Look at almost any random Google Street view scene of Tokyo and you are likely to see some bicycles.  Fortunately there are several options available for N scale bicycles.  I have not tried them all but here are the ones I have used.

TomyTec offers two sets which include both bicycles and motorcycles with riders.  They are well detailed and painted.  The riders are separate pieces if you want to use the bicycles as parked.  Several of the other TomyTec building or scene sets also have bicycles included as part of a scene but they are separate pieces and can be used by themselves.

For bicycles without riders Gold Medal Models offers a set of 10 etched metal bicycles and a couple of parking racks.  These have been around for quite a few years and are widely used in the US to model bicycles.  Being etched metal they are quite thin and it can be a challenge to place a rider on one and have it look right.  Also I felt that while they are the same overall size as the Tomytec models because of the thinness they just did not look right when placed together with the Tomytec models.  I used them as parked bicycles in separate scenes as shown in the post Finishing the Green Max houses.

Sanki offers a set of 4 riderless bicycles that are of a paper stock.  The handle bars are separate and I found quite difficult to attach to the frame and then very delicate.  These models are undercoated black but can be painted.   At 280 yen for a set of 4, these were the least expensive N scale bicycles I've tried.

What I've had good results with for parked bikes are these plastic models from Tomix.  They come in two different styles and are unpainted except for the tires, seats, and baskets.

Because I don't really like the molded colors of these bikes, I end up repainting them starting with the frames.  I've hand painted the ones shown in this photo but they could be airbrushed as well.  After the frames are painted, I go back and touch up the tires with Floquil grimy black.

Here are two of my completed bicycles with some details added, mostly by painting.   I do all this painting and detailing before removing them from the spue.  By adding details like this, it is possible to make each one unique even if they are the same color.

I found that the sport model bike is quite delicate at the front and had best results by cutting that first, then the back, and last the bottom.

When compared side by side there is quite a difference in the sizes of the Tomix and TomyTec bikes.  What I have been doing is using the Tomix ones as parked and the TomyTec ones as being ridden since those come with some riders that seem to fit OK.

Painting the small Green Max station

I found this photo on the Internet of one of these kits that had been completed and liked the colors used for the building and roof.

Here are some of the major parts after being painted.  I did keep close to the same color scheme but reversed the base and trim colors of the building using Floquil antique white for the walls and reefer white for the trim.



Floquil oxide red applied with an airbrush was used for the roof and I decided to give it a little more variety using engine black for the railings.  Not shown in the photo I used Floquil concrete for the base.  The base was already about the right color but I find that everything looks too plastic unless its painted so I paint nearly everything in an unpainted kit.

Realizing that it would be hard to reach many of the details after the building was fully assembled, I hand  painted those at this stage.

Next I'll be working on applying some colorful signage to this station.

Paint & weathering for the Station

With everything settled on the platform I have gone on to painting and weathering the scratch built station along with the 3 modified Kato covered stairways. 

Here's a view from the other side that shows the weathering applied to the roofs of the station, the stairways, and the platform awnings. 

Notice the fence and walkway leading away from the stairs.  This will be right along the front edge of the module.  There will be passengers walking along there a perhaps some food cart vendors.


These station signs on the platforms were made on the computer and printed on white decal paper.  They are attached to the existing sign boards that hang down from the platform awning.

At this point the station and platform areas are done except for adding details and of course populating them with passengers.