How did you improve your rolling stock?

[RogerMc]

The Kato poster from 2017 has a prototype image of a heavily weathered loco. But I also prefer the "less is more" principle. I hope you share the future progress.

[Kamome]

Well the weathering continues with some of my older purchases that I’ve been meaning to getting around to for a very long time.

 

Some of my first purchases in Japanese N were 4 Kato Toki 25000 wagons off eBay in 2011. I added a couple more and loads a year or so later. The grey plastic molded tarps always looked toy-like so I finally toned them down with some Vallejo acrylic and a dry brushing technique to add some wear with a very old brush.

 

The 3 colours used for those interested

 

Base - US Dark Green 70.893

Highlights - Pastel Green 70.885

Dust deposits - German C. Pale Brown 70.825

 

I added a little black here and there to create slight differences in the tarp colour.

I also added the usual pin wash with Tamiya enamel black and plenty of thinners on the side of the wagons.

Edited August 29, 2019 by Kamome

[Bob_NZ]

well done.. so life like now!

[Martijn Meerts]

That looks really good 😄

 

[Welshbloke]

Not so much improve as repair...

 

These aerials are unbelievably fragile, and I had two spare KuHas with broken ones. They're in the spare vehicles box unless I find some more MoHa and KuMoHa 456/457s, but at least they now look a bit more intact. This is a very old one which came bundled with a scruffy KiHa 65, both needing a good clean and missing the skirts under the cabs. Added the headboard as I hope to find the extra vehicles and assemble a second 457 Series set one day.

 

[Welshbloke]

Further upgrading. I've been fitting the Kato gangway mouldings to a few units of which the ten car 457 Series is currently making its way through works:

 

 

A couple of tips, when you slice the clips off leave a little of the top one. This sits on top of the moulded door frame on the coach end and helps keep the height even. This doesn't work on cab ends, so slice all those clips off flush. Some units have a moulding of the gutter and fixing bolts for the gangways above the cab end doors, these need slicing off with a sharp blade for the gangways to sit flat. Using Glue 'n' Glaze means any minor oozing will dry invisible. It also remains slightly rubbery which may make them less vulnerable to being knocked off.

 

I have enough to finish this one and kit out the Kokuden 103 Series Tsurumi Line conversion. Then I need another five or six packs to do the rest of the fleet and keep spares for the missing vehicles...

[railsquid]

So, this is what you get when you follow the guide lines helpfully printed on the destination/train indicator sheets provided with a Tomix 209-1000 series:

 

tomix-209-1000-series-chuo-line_98334_05 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Subsequent attempt with about 1mm added all round:

 

tomix-209-1000-series-chuo-line_98334_06 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Although the resulting cutouts are then (in scale terms) a fair bit larger than the actual LED displays on the prototype, it's not really that obvious, and if you look at photos of the prototype (late 1990s tech!) the LED displays are pretty faint anyway so it looks OK to me.

 

Especially as the people who make these things can't seem to do any better anyway: https://www.tomytec.co.jp/tomix/products/img/98334_b.jpg

[railsquid]

One of the nice things about Japanese modelling is that unless you're concerned with anything which ran pre-1925, buffers and their tendency to snap off with careless handling are not a problem.

 

Here we have a non-Japanese locomotive purchased cheap partly because of a buffer which had sheared off at the buffer beam (not visible here due to being at the other end of the loco):

 

Brawa BR 118 (V180; 118 042-1) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

The buffer about to undergo an operation at Railsquid Locomotive Hospital:

 

Brawa BR 118 buffer repair (01) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

The surgeon has inserted a length of stiff wire (offcut from a resistor):

 

Brawa BR 118 buffer repair (02) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

which enables the buffer to be restored to its intended location:

 

Brawa BR 118 buffer repair (03) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

It is held in place by a liberal application of PVA-like glue, the surplus of which can be easily removed:

 

Brawa BR 118 buffer repair (04) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

And viola, back in service (repaired buffer is the one closest to the camera):

 

Brawa BR 118 (V180; 118 042-1) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[Welshbloke]

Clipped off lengths of wire from electronic components are very useful for modelling. I used some from LEDs to make tent poles for a Busch campsite kit (as some of the tents lacked the door prop poles of the real thing).

[cteno4]

Resistor leads are so great. I find them useful to do pcb board wiring to jump components on plain breadboard pcb. It’s funny as to buy “lead wire” (a spool of the same basic solid, tinned wire used on electronic components it’s like 3-4x the cost of buying a a bag of 1000 resistors on ebay and just using the leads! Actually the resistor is nice to hold onto and it doesn’t get hot while soldering.

 

i try to grab all the little bits and bobs of stuff when I’m cutting stuff up or from packing pieces in some containers as I also find they sometimes match the size and shape of small detail parts needed later. Also fun to tack onto building or just on scenery stuff as there are odd unknown bits in most scenes that we just ignore as being just some odd something or other.

 

Jeff

[railsquid]

I certainly can lay claim to being the proud owner of a wide range of assorted "bits which might come in use", though I had to force myself to throw away a bunch of plastic sprues as I really can't see myself using them for anything.

 

Meanwhile nothing dramatic, just added the detailing parts to a Kato KoKi so I can put the box it came into storage and migrate them to a bookcase.

 

Kato KoKi 107 (107-345) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

The yellow part does need toning down, methinks (project for the coming decade...)

Edited October 27, 2019 by railsquid

[railsquid]

Me again...

 

Unusually I have, within two calendar days of receipt, added the basic detailly bits to this:
 

Tomix EF65 (EF65 105) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

so it looks like this:

 

Tomix EF65 (EF65 105) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Helpfully the running numbers come pre-applied, because from previous experience they'd be a right pain in the oshiri to apply as transfers.

[disturbman]

Transfers? I never had to apply transfers on Tomix locomotives.

But I always have found the running numbers (and factory plaques) a pain in the ass to apply. There is always one or two that do not want to stay put without glue and I abhor having to glue these tiny plaques. One of the main reasons I have avoided Tomix and Kato locomotives for many years.

[railsquid]

5 hours ago, disturbman said:

Transfers? I never had to apply transfers on Tomix locomotives.
 

 

I have - the numbers on this one:

 

Tomix EF65-500 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

The cab end ones were particularly tricky.
 

Quote

 

But I always have found the running numbers (and factory plaques) a pain in the ass to apply. There is always one or two that do not want to stay put without glue and I abhor having to glue these tiny plaques. One of the main reasons I have avoided Tomix and Kato locomotives for many years.

 

 

If necessary I use a tiny dab of PVA-like glue which holds them in place just fine and any excess can be removed easily.

[cteno4]

Pva is great For these kinds of parts as a small twist with a fine screwdriver blade will also pop it out and worst case a soaked bit of tissue on it for an hour will soften it up enough if it doesn’t just pop right out.

 

jeff

[disturbman]

12 hours ago, railsquid said:

The cab end ones were particularly tricky.

 

I can imagine, there is not a lot of flat surfaces around. Did you cut the transfer sheet to fit the space available?

 

Thanks for the tip. I‘ll try the PVA, I needed a new bottle anyway.

[SuperAzusa]

Any tips for dealing with the tiny destination signs that comes with KATO EMUs? I want to label my E353 as a Kaiji service but I'm not sure if the sheet of signs are regular stickers, transfers, or decals etc.

[railsquid]

28 minutes ago, SuperAzusa said:

Any tips for dealing with the tiny destination signs that comes with KATO EMUs? I want to label my E353 as a Kaiji service but I'm not sure if the sheet of signs are regular stickers, transfers, or decals etc.

 

Stickers:

 

Kato E231-500 series (Yamanote Line) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Magnifying glass., a very sharp knife or scalpel, some fine tweezers and lots of patience recommended.

 

Kato 115-1000 series stickers by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[railsquid]

53 minutes ago, disturbman said:

 

I can imagine, there is not a lot of flat surfaces around. Did you cut the transfer sheet to fit the space available?

 

 

I did this:

 

Tomix EF65-500 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

though on reflection I should have cut it out more so it could lie flat against the cab front, leaving strips either side to hold it straight against the underside of the cab front stripes, if you see what I mean.

[SuperAzusa]

Welp, I'm in for some fun then. If I muck up badly can I get more through Assy parts?

[Yavianice]

Usually they have a few surplus destination signs on the sticker or transfer sheet so you have room to mess up.

 

Assy parts may sometimes be a bit difficult to come by.

 

At the start I was also hesitant with detailing my trains with stickers and transfer sheets. Now that I have done it for a lot of trains, it's become quite easy.

 

Be aware that it is sometimes a bit hard (or impossible) to correct your mistakes with stickers (i.e. you can't get the stickers out once you placed them because the windows on some trains are not easily removed).

 

By the way I found the tool that KATO supplies with most of its trains to open the body very useful to apply stickers correctly since there is no risk to accidentally scratch the body.

Edited December 4, 2019 by Yavianice

[Kamome]

Not content with the boring looking molded plastic parts, I painted the 787 pantograph to look a bit more realistic. Will eventually add some red/brown dirt deposits along the roof with the airbrush.

 

Before

 

After

 

[Welshbloke]

I built a thing from a blind bag toy and a Peco 9' wheelbase chassis kit:

 

 

 

[Yousuke]

On 3/26/2019 at 9:18 AM, JR 500系 said:

 

Yes it is ~ Densha.me has quite a large selection of stickers too, but they are usually only for the seats. Hayashi seems to do more than just the seats, going into the floor boards and areas near the doors for the basic E233s to the more detailed ones like the Sunrise and 7 stars ~

 

I liked the Tohoku Japan and GSE seat stickers on densha.me though ~ 

 

There’s a big change of Densha.me stickers since July and all of the interior stickers are designed as same grade as the Odakyu GSE, which include all parts of the compartment such as floor, seats, walls and even the driving cab.

https://scontent-lhr3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/e35/s1080x1080/68802731_151011792653540_909319279078644104_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-lhr3-1.cdninstagram.com&oh=e7df60889f0a9f8ec1b493e36ae459e6&oe=5E1425DF&ig_cache_key=MjExMjYzNTYyOTI4OTMzNTc0NA%3D%3D.2

https://www.densha.me/product-page/小田急70000形室內ステッカーセット

https://www.densha.me/product-page/e721系0番台内装ステッカー
https://www.densha.me/product-page/e531系內装ステッカーセット?lang=en

 

[defor]

Was very unhappy with the ORANGE headlight LED's and the bulb based interior lighting on my Galaxy Express 999 CR75:

Here's the original colors:

 

Soldered in new "warm white" headlight LED replacements that closer match all my other rolling stock, and because the prototype uses florescent lighting, also swapped in Popondetta Blue/White light bars (with capacitors) cut to fit.

I'm super happy with the end result: