My second Japanese layout

[ianlaw]

Jeff,

 

I hope these 2 photos of a roof for a small shrine I'm building will make the process clear.

[cteno4]

Ian,

 

thanks I get it! Nicely done, going to have to try that gives a great effect with the printies. Is that regular weight paper or sanded thinner?

 

jeff

[ianlaw]

It's 95gr mat photopaper which is slightly heavier than standard photocopier paper which is 80gr. Any thicker and it's cracks when bent over at the edges. For the onsen I additionally glued the foam board onto thin card which made the roof edges rather thick. For a smaller roof like this shrine I don't need the extra strength.

[cteno4]

Thanks, I’m surprised it deforms so nicely. I assume you are you inkjet printing and not laser printing? I like how color laser printing can give more of a depth effect, it does tend to crack a lot when folded over a solid toner section.
 

sorry for the questions always looking for new techniques and others’ experiences.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[ianlaw]

Jeff, yes I use a inkjet printer

[ianlaw]

The shrine on a small island in the river... Not fixed down yet as I need to redo the fence along the front which is too clunky.

Edited August 20, 2021 by ianlaw

[ianlaw]

"Mass production" of buildings for the small hamlet has started. Now there is finally access to the small station and a somewhat run-down station building. Also a test shot of the reflection in the freshly flooded rice paddy. The toilet roll type object is for testing the height of the platform roof.

[Kiha66]

Very nice work, I really love that local station building with the unique platform access.  It reminds me of some of the more unique small stations neat Sasebo.

[gavino200]

This is stunning work. Are those hand painted effects, or printed sheets? Either way they're amazing.

[ianlaw]

Thanks for the replies. The ridges on the steel roofs in these shots are strips of card and hand painted. The walls here are all printed textures with some additional weathering using powders. The rusty corrugated iron texture if from Scalescenes. The others are from various sites. Best thing with n-gauge is that I can simply copy the previews from the texture library sites and don't have to register or pay for the high-res images...

 

If anyone is interested I have a few step by step shots of making a building. They are really quite fast to make.

[Tony Galiani]

Step by step shots, or any construction info, would be great as far as I am concerned.

Ciao,

Tony Galiani

[gavino200]

9 hours ago, ianlaw said:

 

If anyone is interested I have a few step by step shots of making a building. They are really quite fast to make.

 

Definitely interested. Your concrete effect is some of the best I've ever seen. Any tips would be very welcome.

[ianlaw]

Here are some construction pics.

Because japanese buildings have very thin walls the windows are mostly flush with the outside. So you need to use thin card for the walls adding stiffeners later.

You also really need a thin tip glue applicator (as seen in the third photo). I use Pattex express PVA wood glue. Using small amounts it sets within a few seconds on card.

I use artists card in several colours (150-180gr). Cereal packs delaminate easily and are not flat enough for this build, but can certainly be used for other builds.

1. Draw and cut out the four outer walls and scour the corners (no flaps!)

2. Fold the corners and then wrap the walls with the chosen printed texture, wrap one wall at a time and with diagonal cuts cut out and wrap any openings (all four sides of the openings are thus covered with the printed texture)

3. Glue the final corner (butt joint) and trim the wrap after the glue has set. The corner will be almost invisible (thanks to the thin card), but I plan for it to be on the back of the building. You can also use suitably coloured pastel chalk to colour the exposed edge if required.

4. Add the windows, glass, any curtains and as required grey card stiffeners

 

I have no pics of the roof, gutters, down pipes etc, but will take pics of this with my next building and post later.

 

As you can see it's not rocket science and doesn't take much time or money

 

Oh yes, I use google streetview to find pics of buildings to model, as I want to copy actual buildings and not copy models... Of course I will just copy the general appearance and leave out any details which simply complicate the build and don't add anything essential.

 

Edited September 2, 2021 by ianlaw

[ianlaw]

part 2. different building, same technique.

1. this is the corner of the building with the butt glued joint, after trimming off the excess texture.

2. the first layer for the roof.

3. attaching a strip around the roof edge (to the lower part after attaching the roof tiles).

4. and 5. extra close up shots (please appreciate that these are larger than normal viewing distance) showing the finished building. Gutters and downpipes are simply strips of card.

I showed the construction method for the top layer of the traditional roof in an earlier post. The blinds are taken from the real life example I copied.

I need to provide doorsteps and a nice traditional garden with garden wall once I have decided on the actual location.

 

Hope this helps someone to build their own unique buildings at virtually no cost.

[Tom C]

Excellent modeling. I love the grass between the rails too 👍👍👍

[ianlaw]

The hamlet is nearing completion.

[cteno4]

Excellent work ian! Kudos!

 

jeff

[Kamome]

I really like your colour palette. It's very in-keeping with scenes of rural Japan. I especially like the level of distress on the metal buildings. As these structures are usually in hard to maintain areas and are at the mercy of the humidity and heavy rain, they get battered just like this. Your girder bridges look especially realistic. The photo you have of the EF66 hauling the 12 series blue coaches looks like a special on its way to drop onsen tourists off and what a great curve to photograph them on. Railfans would love these photo opportunities.

 

I also like your individual scenes, as despite it having a more rural setting, you have still captured the multi-levelled construction style of Japan. You sometimes wonder how they build things off the side of the mountain.

 

I have never really given paper much thought as a medium for modelling but your layout shows what can be achieved and gives me reason to look again at it as an option.

 

A very inspiring layout and it shows the addition of your tram line can add some fun running options while trains are moving in the background. 

 

Will you add some rice crops to the paddy fields eventually?

[ianlaw]

10 hours ago, Kamome said:

 have of the EF66 hauling the 12 series blue coaches looks like a special on its way to drop onsen tourists off and what a great curve to photograph them on. Railfans would love these photo opportunities.

Thanks for your reply.

 

😄You found me out... I spent many of my younger years photographing "trains in landscapes" and I actually build my layouts as a series of photo opportunities. Buildings and trees are positioned to maximise the viewing (and thus photographing) potential.

 

10 hours ago, Kamome said:

Will you add some rice crops to the paddy fields eventually?

I have experimented with strips of transparant plastic with the crops just appearing above the water surface but whatever I try it destroys the reflection (a sought after photo opp), so I think I will have to leave it as it is.

 

As the following photo shows I extended the rice paddies to the edge of the board to enable shots with reflections from several angles. This end of the hamlet still needs a little bit of work doing. And I'm also gradually adding trees to the big bare rocks as you seldom see bare cliffs away from the coastline and the river is now firmly set inland, unlike earlier ideas.

Edited September 8, 2021 by ianlaw

[Kamome]

6 hours ago, ianlaw said:

As the following photo shows I extended the rice paddies to the edge of the board to enable shots with reflections from several angles. This end of the hamlet still needs a little bit of work doing. And I'm also gradually adding trees to the big bare rocks as you seldom see bare cliffs away from the coastline and the river is now firmly set inland, unlike earlier ideas.

Well perhaps you could have some farmers and machinery preparing to plant. That maybe something to add in the space by the river, a farmers house. They tend to have extremely nice houses with traditional kawara roof and then a broken old wooden shed for their farming equipment. Having planted rice by hand in Japan, I know how much wildlife lives in the paddy fields. You could have the odd egret sitting on the edge looking for frogs. You could also add some feral cats to your hamlet as these are everywhere in Japan.  Sorry getting carried away with ideas, but really nice, inspiring modelling. 

[Cat]

11 hours ago, ianlaw said:

Thanks for your reply.

 

😄You found me out... I spent many of my younger years photographing "trains in landscapes" and I actually build my layouts as a series of photo opportunities. Buildings and trees are positioned to maximise the viewing (and thus photographing) potential

 

A most excellent plan!

[Tony Galiani]

Really enjoying the layout pics - very inspirational.  And thanks for posting the construction information.

 

Could you offer information on where you get your printed textures and how you choose them?  I have been ambivalent about these in the past but they really seem to fit in well on your layout so curious as to where you get them and which ones you decide to use.

 

Ciao,

Tony Galiani

[ianlaw]

Tony,

 

As I also have a BR (UK) layout my site of first choice is Scalescenes.com. I've bought many useful texture and downloadable kits there over the years. His textures are high quality (like the rusty corrugated iron texture I have used here) and look very good. For textures specific to Japan I simply search on google. Textures.com is good. After registering you can download a limited number of low res imaged per day (which is fine for N-gauge). But basically you need to scale them down, print them and see if they work. Some scale down poorly. Some show a too repetitive pattern, which might work fine for a small roof area but not for a long retaining wall. It's down to trial and error and ensuring that the textures work together. Even if it may represent the reality it will look better if you limit the colour pallet you use, so you need to see them together and decide what works for you.

I'm sorry I don't have a golden tip here besides checking out the sites I mentioned first and taking photos of your test prints along side a train for scale before committing to an actual build.

[Tony Galiani]

@ianlaw - thanks.  That info is helpful and gives me a starting point.  I will definitely take a look at those sites.

Tony

[ianlaw]

I put in a "remote control" for this tram junction before I build over this area. The points used to be along the edge of the board in my former house, but as the board has been extended it won't be convenient to operate any more.

The more ardent followers may also notice I've replaced the Shinkansen tunnel portals with a more inspiring model (texture from Textures.com).

And foliage has suddenly overgrown the bare rocks.

Edited September 11, 2021 by ianlaw