How did you improve your rolling stock?

[railsquid]

  

3 hours ago, cteno4 said:

I have been slowly adding a new feature to my caskets. I got a pile of clear vinyl binder pockets that are open on the long edge. I just cut off the binder ring hole edge and double stick tape it to the inside front panel of the casket. Then slip on the instructions there so they stay out of the way when you open/close the casket and no more mistakenly folding an edge over the end of the foam!

 

 

 

Ooooh, now that's a useful idea, totally stealing that :). I am very keen to make the process of opening up stock cases as hassle-free as possible.

Edited October 28, 2021 by railsquid

[Englehart]

On 10/6/2021 at 7:52 PM, Kamome said:

Added TN couplers to the Kintetsu 80000 Hinotori. As @disturbmanmentioned it was very easy, as if the bogies were designed to have bits hacked off and the plastic is pretty soft. I took the main coupler arm off with some snips and then tidied it up by following the screw mount with a scalpel to get rid of any remnants. It all seemed a bit unnecessary and perhaps Tomix should really look at their design. Here’s the pile of scraps.

 

 

Perhaps the mentality is to have rapidos so that the coaches could be added to any other consist but this really seems to be the reasoning of a toy manufacturer. Anyway they’re gone and the model looks a lot better with TN couplers. I can even overlook the silver wheels as they’re pretty lost under the grey bogies.

 

I have also discovered there are no destination signs for the nicely crafted side windows so something else I need from Models Imon. I think Kato 2 Tomix 0 on the last 2 accounts. Anyway a nice looking model made better.

 

 

i would like to adopt those chopped pieces  😅

 

here's an improvement on 1 car (fell out of the table) as scenery

 

[cteno4]

1 hour ago, railsquid said:

Ooooh, now that's a useful idea, totally stealing that :). I am very keen to make the process of opening up stock cases as hassle-free as possible.

ive been meaning to take some pictures and document this I’ll try to get to it this week. It’s handy. I got so tired of trying to get stuff all lined up and it not falling on the floor at shows or misplaced!

 

just need to get the ones with the opening on the long side (Ie along the side), most all have them on the short side (ie top side).

 

Only pain is you kind of have to fold the front flap up at an angle and fish it out of the plastic (tweezers always work!) but it’s not very often you need to deal with the paper inserts.

 

cheers

 

jeff

 

ps the plastic sleeve kind of takes place of the loose plastic sheet to top the trains as well.

[JR 500系]

Despite being more quiet online here, i am glad i am not burnt out as i still feel happy doing the hobby i love!

 

 

 

 

[JR 500系]

Not exactly improving the rolling stock, but more of adding on more memories when opening the book cases of trains... 

 

Thought of this idea to add the ticket studs to the train sets i have sat on ~ just brings back memories when opening up the model!

 

While we're at it, might as well add in the postcard and train stamp!

[AbaZ33a]

I’m not sure how I feel at this attempt at an “upgrade” but it’s starting to grow on me. After purchasing the renewed KATO 700 Series set (10-1645/6) I decided to play around with the old one, and something that always intrigued me was the level of tinted ness that Micro Ace Shinkansen’s have on there front windshields. I wanted to try and modify my old KATO set to reflect this look too see if it would look more realistic to how the appear in photos. Initially I planned to try and darken the plastic windows but a much easier solution was to paint the inner moulding for the cab details black, to create the appearance of darker windows. The downside is that some details are now harder to see but typically I find that looking into a the front windows of these units is usually difficult and it’s rather dark. I haven’t done the other end car yet because I wanted to take some comparison photos to get some second opinions. I’ve also placed it next to my MicroAce 300 0 J61 to compare aswell. I’m not 100 percent sold yet but I do think I like it better, and I think it would look even better on an E2 or E5 which always appear to have very dark windows. In person they aren’t quite as dark as they are in my pictures so the impression might also be different the what I see. 

Edited December 9, 2021 by AbaZ33a

[cteno4]

Yeah tinted glass like this at 1:1 could act quite different than at scale. We also visually just get things like how dark is the window by what’s around in the scene and distance we are viewing it from. 
 

Also scale windows are probably around 6-12” thick glass, so won’t behave as prototype. Lighting doesn’t scale well, it requires fudging at scale to make it look right to our minds eye and has very big differences how close you are viewing things. May get it to look great up close but horrible at a distance and visa versa, always a compromise.

 

might try a bit of that plastic film you can put on windows to tint them. Some places offer little sample packs that would be enought for a few dozen shinkansen windshields.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[JR East]

I just installed my HKTILC.com leds in my JR Serie E257-2500 Odoriko

 

Quite easy to install, just need to cut it to the right length sometimes

 

 

I've decided to stick a driver in car #14 (as the train is bound to Tokyo)

 

 

Sticking the destination displays (here car #13)

 

 

perfectly fitting to the display window (the more you do, the better the result is)

 

 

Nice looking (car #10 as example)

 

 

 

 

And the destination display is really looking great (I feel the front 'Odoriko' display too bright with 9v )

 

 

JM. 

 

[cplchanb]

On 12/23/2021 at 2:07 PM, JR East said:

I just installed my HKTILC.com leds in my JR Serie E257-2500 Odoriko

 

Quite easy to install, just need to cut it to the right length sometimes

 

 

I've decided to stick a driver in car #14 (as the train is bound to Tokyo)

 

 

Sticking the destination displays (here car #13)

 

 

perfectly fitting to the display window (the more you do, the better the result is)

 

 

Nice looking (car #10 as example)

 

 

 

 

And the destination display is really looking great (I feel the front 'Odoriko' display too bright with 9v )

 

 

JM. 

 

nice work! I got a huge batch of those leds that just arrived today, enough for my E261, and 3 shinkansens. cant wait

[gavino200]

On 12/23/2021 at 2:07 PM, JR East said:

I just installed my HKTILC.com leds in my JR Serie E257-2500 Odoriko

 

Quite easy to install, just need to cut it to the right length sometimes

 

 

I've decided to stick a driver in car #14 (as the train is bound to Tokyo)

 

 

Sticking the destination displays (here car #13)

 

 

perfectly fitting to the display window (the more you do, the better the result is)

 

 

Nice looking (car #10 as example)

 

 

 

 

And the destination display is really looking great (I feel the front 'Odoriko' display too bright with 9v )

 

 

JM. 

 

 

Very nice work! But where's the shot of the little driver seen from outside through the front window!!!

[JR 500系]

Time to share some of the installation for HKTILC lights.... 

 

 

The light tube, i also took the chance to add in a driver thanks to JR East for the reminder ~  😛

 

 

It look REALLY good so far

 

 

Not really into the colour of the light.... this is the 'Yellow' one, maybe i should have used the warm colour (orange) one instead....

 

 

Well we still can see the light colour difference in the 2 carriages, which is prototypical. Though the warm (orange) one might be better here...

 

 

Here's the difference between the original Tomix light 

 

 

And the HKTILC one. Frankly, i couldnt tell the difference here in the photos! But we can see the difference when looking at the model in the flesh itself, while the shadow could tell a hint. 

 

 

And here's the HOT 7000, before lights, with the mirror windows effect 

 

 

And with the lights on... Yeah the window effect is certainly gone... 

 

 

Might as well add in another driver... Kinda love adding drivers in the train cockpits now, esp when i realise i have a surplus of trained drivers hanging around the entertainment district 

[JR 500系]

While i'm playing with trains, i realise how the small little gangway pieces can make such a huge visual impact:

 

 

The Top without, the bottom with gangway attached. quite a visual impact i must say ~  🙂

[gavino200]

Where did you get that little driver?

[JR 500系]

34 minutes ago, gavino200 said:

Where did you get that little driver?

 

They come from this set,  as well as this set

 

 

Didnt know they had already been sold out, but i got quite a number of these packs of humans so i had some surplus ~ PM me if you require mate ~

[railsquid]

Spot the difference:

 

MicroAce Keio 1000 series by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

MicroAce Keio 1000 series by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

(this set appears to have slipped through the rigorous close-coupling process and I was mildy disorientated to be reminded how MicroAce love to leave gaps between cars large enough to ride a motorcyle through).

[JR 500系]

17 hours ago, railsquid said:

Spot the difference:

 

 

That's an impressive upgrade! Did you use the TN couplers? I sometimes use a cheaper alternative, by using the Kato tight coupler and gangway pieces, but still no where near the amount of distance that the TN coupler closes in on...

[Kamome]

Some rare hobby time so thought i’d try some exercises in reaching n scale enlightenment.

 

The Mokei dry rub transfers are relatively thick and hardy. Seat details are spaced appropriately for each row. The premium seat pieces bend slightly so a few needed correcting after the photo was taken.

Edited December 27, 2021 by Kamome

[cteno4]

You are now one with the burnisher.

 

jeff

[gavino200]

9 hours ago, Kamome said:

Some rare hobby time so thought i’d try some exercises in reaching n scale enlightenment.

 

The Mokei dry rub transfers are relatively thick and hardy. Seat details are spaced appropriately for each row. The premium seat pieces bend slightly so a few needed correcting after the photo was taken.

 

Are you going to add little figures?

[Kamome]

3 hours ago, cteno4 said:

You are now one with the burnisher.

 

jeff

Well cut down cocktail stick/toothpick as my burnisher was too big to get between the seats.

1 hour ago, gavino200 said:

 

Are you going to add little figures?

I’m undecided. You have to add quite a lot for it to look half decent and the better quality ones are pricey. I need to add some lighting and then see what it looks like. It might stay as a “just entering service” service. Probably need an army of train cleaners on the platform in that case.

 

Joking aside, I’m actually quite impressed with the decals. They are more like ultra thin stickers and keep together without tearing unlike other dry rub decals.

[cteno4]

1 hour ago, Kamome said:

Well cut down cocktail stick/toothpick as my burnisher was too big to get between the seats.

I have a couple of small hardwood dowels I have rounded over when I needed a larger sized burnisher and worked great. 
 

sounds like they are neat transfers, they worked very well!

 

jeff

[cplchanb]

Finally installed the hk interior lights inside my 500 series nozomi. The motor car was hell on earth as the copper plates needed to be rebent due to the roof pushing the led plate out of contact. Need to still do some slight adjustments and end car 16 headlights  lost contact during the installation process but at least it looks pretty good 

Edited December 30, 2021 by cplchanb

[cplchanb]

Added lights to the Safir Orodiko 

 

 

Edited January 1, 2022 by cplchanb

[railsquid]

On 12/27/2021 at 4:20 PM, JR 500系 said:

 

That's an impressive upgrade! Did you use the TN couplers? I sometimes use a cheaper alternative, by using the Kato tight coupler and gangway pieces, but still no where near the amount of distance that the TN coupler closes in on...

 

Yup, the Tomix ones, I buy them by the bucketload...

[MeTheSwede]

I moved the axel with the traction tires on the small diesel locomotive in Tomix starter set 90097 to the middle position. This way it handles points MUCH better. I did a little pulling test to test it's capacity.  

 

 

 

The drops in speed came when the loco is passing double slip points.

 

Seems like I need to buy more freight cars.  😆