Takahachikawa

[railsquid]

Messy ballast is messy.

 

upper-loop-transition-piece-2022-06-18_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Will look better once the glue has dried and rogue bits removed.

[railsquid]

Well, after 7 or so years of this modelling lark, I've finally found a practical use for some sprues, namely as Berlin S-Bahn third rail surrogates:

 

stromschiene-2022-08-13_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Not going to win any prizes for accuracy, but looks about right, especially from a distance. They could do with mounting a little higher and closer to the trains, further experimentation needed.

Edited August 13, 2022 by railsquid

[cteno4]

I am forever starting at my big sprew box every time I dump some more interesting ones in there on what can be done with them! They just seem like a puzzle to solve… I have on my list to do a borg cube refinery cracking unit as they are jsut a mass of pipework with some scaffolding in between to walk on.

 

jeff

[railsquid]

Experimenting with weathering the Faller viaducts for that "mouldering brickwork" effect:

 

station-viaduct-2022-08-15_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

 

[cteno4]

Dull coat (matte acrylic spray) works well for bricks to knock off the shine and make weathering take hold in prototypical ways. Knocks the shine off the plastic.

 

jeff

[Cat]

On 8/15/2022 at 1:59 PM, cteno4 said:

Dull coat (matte acrylic spray) works well for bricks to knock off the shine and make weathering take hold in prototypical ways. Knocks the shine off the plastic.

 

jeff

In case it's technically important, Testor's Dull Cote is an enamel lacquer (which works fine on most anything).
 
I've recently been using some small press waterslide decals that specify 'do not use lacquer', so I had to do some hunting and finally found a Krylon matte acrylic spray sealer at a local high quality craft store.  The big box craft stores around here have been woefully low-stocked on all sorts of spray paints the last few years.

[cteno4]

Cat,

 

yep I also use the same krylon matte clear acrylic on the inkjet decals and I really like the stuff. I’ve used it now a number of times in place of the good old lacquer testors dullcoat and pretty much sure I’ll now switch to the acrylic. Besides smell (can’t do lacquer in the house or may be slapped upside the head with a frying pan) the acrylic feels like it goes into smaller drops as it hitting parts than the testors. Could be difference between water and organic solvent, spray nozzle or just wishful thinking by me! 
 

cheers,

 

jeff

[Cat]

On 8/17/2022 at 1:27 PM, cteno4 said:

Cat,

 

yep I also use the same krylon matte clear acrylic on the inkjet decals and I really like the stuff. I’ve used it now a number of times in place of the good old lacquer testors dullcoat and pretty much sure I’ll now switch to the acrylic. Besides smell (can’t do lacquer in the house or may be slapped upside the head with a frying pan) the acrylic feels like it goes into smaller drops as it hitting parts than the testors. Could be difference between water and organic solvent, spray nozzle or just wishful thinking by me! 
 

cheers,

 

jeff

Having just tried out the Krylon Acrylic, it is very distinctly Satin, not Matte as advertised.  If I really want matte, I'll give a light spray of DullCote on top after the Krylon has dried quite thoroughly. 
 
Fortunately, I've got a back room in the basement I can use if the weather is not co-operative for spraying lacquers outside.

[Madsing]

3 minutes ago, Cat said:

it is very distinctly Satin

Is “Satin” somewhere between glossy and matte?

[Englehart]

55 minutes ago, Madsing said:

Is “Satin” somewhere between glossy and matte?

yes not so glossy

[cteno4]

Hugh I don’t remeber it being satinie, but Now I’ll have to go figure out what I used it on other than the decals to see. Also I’ll try some tests for a head to head to dullcoat. There are a number of matte clear acrylic sprays out there so hopefully one is a good matte here.

 

jeff

[railsquid]

After much weathering of bricks, starting work on the viaduct "infills":

 

station-viaduct-2022-08-27_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[railsquid]

And a bit more:

 

station-viaduct-2022-08-28_02 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[railsquid]

Still very work-in-progressy, but experimenting with some "custom" signage for a slightly grotty below-viaduct drinking establishment:

 

station-viaduct-2022-08-30_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

(In case it's not obvious, this part of the layout makes a sudden shift to Germany)

[Wolf]

2 hours ago, railsquid said:

(In case it's not obvious, this part of the layout makes a sudden shift to Germany)

 

And here I was like "why is there a Berlin Tram?"

 

Looking great as always 

[railsquid]

Let's just ignore the Nuremburg X-Wagen though 😉

As far as I'm aware none of them ever made it to Berlin (at least in that livery), but some of the matching locos certainly did.

[bill937ca]

On 8/17/2022 at 1:27 PM, cteno4 said:

Cat,

 

yep I also use the same krylon matte clear acrylic on the inkjet decals and I really like the stuff. I’ve used it now a number of times in place of the good old lacquer testors dullcoat and pretty much sure I’ll now switch to the acrylic. Besides smell (can’t do lacquer in the house or may be slapped upside the head with a frying pan) the acrylic feels like it goes into smaller drops as it hitting parts than the testors. Could be difference between water and organic solvent, spray nozzle or just wishful thinking by me! 
 

cheers,

 

jeff

I have it too.

[Taxman]

 

14 hours ago, railsquid said:

Still very work-in-progressy, but experimenting with some "custom" signage for a slightly grotty below-viaduct drinking establishment:

 

station-viaduct-2022-08-30_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

(In case it's not obvious, this part of the layout makes a sudden shift to Germany)

 

Bad Onsen?

Edited August 31, 2022 by Taxman
Fixing quoted text

[railsquid]

Would not be Berlin (at least until relatively recently) without a Litfaßsäule:

 

station-viaduct-2022-09-03_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Just need to add a "VVR Berek" logo somewhere.

 

I should add that it's just about plausible to see an ET425 (or close relative thereof) being shunted around the Berlin S-Bahn network (i.e. on the actual S-Bahn tracks), see this video from 1999.

Edited September 4, 2022 by railsquid

[railsquid]

And it would not be early 1990s former East Berlin without a (permanently closed) Konsum store:

 

station-viaduct-2022-09-05_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[Brennan91]

5 minutes ago, railsquid said:

And it would not be early 1990s former East Berlin without a (permanently closed) Konsum store:

 

station-viaduct-2022-09-05_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

Squid’s done his research!

[railsquid]

Think of it more as a trip down memory lane, aided and abetted by the internet ;). Just wish I'd been able to afford to take photos at the time.

[JR 500系]

Thanks for placing the link! Didnt even know what a Konsum is until now ~ 😛

 

The van out front and the trams works very well to set that atmopshere! 

[railsquid]

1 hour ago, JR 500系 said:

Thanks for placing the link! Didnt even know what a Konsum is until now ~ 😛

It's probably not important information unless you have an intense interest in former GDR consumer retail ;).

 

The background to this layout segment is that it's vaguely inspired from when I was living in Berlin in the early 1990s, which was a fascinating time for all sorts of reasons.

I should probably split this off into another thread as it's a bit of a jump away from Japan.

[railsquid]

On 9/10/2022 at 3:41 PM, railsquid said:

The background to this layout segment is that it's vaguely inspired from when I was living in Berlin in the early 1990s, which was a fascinating time for all sorts of reasons.

I should probably split this off into another thread as it's a bit of a jump away from Japan.

 

Here we go: