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Came across a new supplier of laser cut cardstock kits - Baiodo. Their first offering is focused on small older style structures and a couple of detail items. https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/search?typ1_c=104&cat=rail&target=Make&searchkey=Baiodo I like how they have done a tile roof in cardstock. https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10738551/20/7 It appears that they are done in a beige cardstock and require painting. I think I may have to order a couple and see how they go.

Looking around on the interwebs I've seen some interesting structures that I'd like to have. With access to a laser cutter and having a bit of scrap mdf and Polybak lying around I thought I'd give an engine shed a go. I played around with SketchUp to imagine what it would look like in 3D and then Adobe Illustrator to draw up the files for the laser. Here's what I came up with. Here are the SketchUp drawings. And here is the file I drew up in Illustrator. The red lines will be cut by the laser and the black lines will be engraved. And here are the laser cut prototypes. This is the third iteration. I had to make the frames and posts thicker as it was a bit too delicate as drawn in SketchUp. I always have a pile of cast offs when going through a process like this. I may still make these a bit thinner though. Cheers eh, Todd

I've always wanted a Japanese castle on a layout but didn't want to pay for a Woody Joe kit. I stumbled across Maruoka Castle this week and thought “I can make that”. Obviously totally over-estimating my abilities I'm sure. Maruoka Castle is a small castle that'll fit nicely on my small layout. I've got access to a laser cutter now so here goes nothing. Probably should have started with a shed or a torii but no, I'm jumping in head first on this one. Going to try cutting it out of Polybak. I've got three thicknesses, 0.011", 0.020" and 0.024". It cuts and engraves well and apparently takes paint well as well. I'm starting with a paper craft model and converting it to something I can cut. It's going to take a lot of drawing using Adobe Illustrator to get it right. Here are my initial efforts. Spent a good part of the day in front of the computer today and have a long way to go before I cut anything. The red lines will be the cut lines and the black will be engraved. I've barely started on setting the colours. I'll be adding small pieces of wood or Polybak instead of folding paper beams and whatnot. Wish me luck! Here's the subject. Cheers eh, Todd

A couple of new structures from Amagi Modeling Idea 1/150 Scale Paper Model Kit Station Series 06 : Ghost Station & Waiting Room http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10326616 1/150 Scale Paper Model Kit Station Series 07 : Local Station Building / Higashishinjo Station Type http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10326615 not inexpensive, but look nicely detailed from the pictures and some interesting buildings. Its unfortunate they don't seem to do reruns much of some of their other buildings as a few of those were unique. the beauty of lasercut stuff is you should be able to do another production run pretty easily and packaging is minimal! http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/search?typ1_c=104&cat=&state=&sold=0&sortid=0&searchkey=amagi+paper+model cheers jeff

new lasercut chipboard line from Advance just popped up on HS. looks very similar to Sankei lines (police station almost identical!). was wondering when there was going to be some competition for sankei. with startup costs in this biz being so low it would be easy to get going fast and cheap, but Sankei really has a lead here. would have hoped Advance would have picked a few things really novel to start out with not things that are very close to sankei. more choices though! http://www.1999.co.jp/search_e.asp?Typ1_c=104&scope=1&urikire=0&andor=0&scope2=0&sortID=0&SFlt_f=0&SFilter=Manufacturer&ItKey=Advance jeff