Detailing the Kato Station and Platforms

[gavino200]

I have my Kato station and platforms off the layout for LED adjustments. This is it below on my kitchen table. I'm planning to do a bit of detailing while I have it off the layout. Anyone know of any good threads here, or blog posts showing ideas for platform detailing.

 

I'm probably not going to do any more interior work on the station itself. I painted it somewhat, put posters on the walls, and placed figures inside. I'd like to paint the stairs and escalator. But that may be a future project. For now I'm really just considering the platforms and building exterior.

 

So far what I have in mind is.

Clear coating the end platforms and roofs to decrease the plastic look

Adding some more posters, stickers and decals.

Maybe painting some small details.

 

Anyone have any ideas for little enhancements they've done or seen done for the platforms and station building?

 

[VJM]

Vending machine?

 

[gavino200]

2 hours ago, VJM said:

Vending machine?

 

 

 

Thanks so much for the picture. You’ve done a beautiful job on the details! Great inspiration!

 

Did you make or modify the vending machine yourself or did it come with an LED? I love the little bottle/can return box beside it.

 

You’ve also done a great job on the decals. Even the tiniest, are perfectly cut and applied, including the diamond shaped number 4.

 

You have just the right amount of light to give atmosphere. But not enough to distract from the model. That’s a difficult balance that I’m currently struggling with.

 

I also like that you’ve split the lighting in the Tomytec houses into rooms.

 

Thanks for sharing. This is definitely something for me to aspire to.

Edited December 26, 2018 by gavino200

[cteno4]

Yes vending machine glow! A very japanese night light thing, you see them all over glowing away. It can be a bit other worldly at times but friendly, kind of like I’m here if you need me.

 

People really help make a platform as our eyes want to go to people a lot and less searching for other details and the details you do can then go for setting up a scene like a guy staring at the vending machine or someone at the trash can, then the mind’s eye reallly fills in the details.

 

Sadly platform roofs and trains can hide so much of details so you need to do a lot and hope some will be visible here and there.

 

jeff

[gavino200]

3 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Yes vending machine glow! A very japanese night light thing, you see them all over glowing away. It can be a bit other worldly at times but friendly, kind of like I’m here if you need me.

 

Yes, I'd definitely like to find some illuminated vending machines. If they aren't available it should be doable to kit-bash the Sankei vending machines.

 

3 hours ago, cteno4 said:

People really help make a platform as our eyes want to go to people a lot and less searching for other details and the details you do can then go for setting up a scene like a guy staring at the vending machine or someone at the trash can, then the mind’s eye reallly fills in the details.

 

 

I really like adding figures and building little scenes. The only ones I glue into place are the seated figues. The rest, I put on transparent plastic bases so I can move them around. The boy has never liked figures, oddly enough. I always assumed it was because he prefers for me to just play on the layout rather than working on the modeling stuff. There's some truth to that, but there's more to it. I asked him about his aversions to figures recently. He said that the figures he imagines are moving and alive, and the static figures mess up the scene by being to obviously lifeless. I'm a bit amazed by that. I've always thought of myself as having a good imagination. But that's more imagination than I think I had even at his age. 

 

After seeing what this guy - http://hkuma.net/trans/2018/06/post-145.html  has done with his station, I almost wish I could start over again with mine. I'm resisting temptation to do this, but In future, I'm going to consider "pre-built" pieces like the Kato station as only a starting point.

 

[cteno4]

Gavin,

 

thats actually very common for folks to find static figures in a situation like this with the trains moving but the people not moving a bit jarring or freaky. I don’t think it’s the imagination really it’s more something with the mind’s eye as we are not universal in how we perceive the world and that along with our own memories and experiences mixed in.

 

some find that doing any sort of animation on a layout really freaky/creepy to them.

 

it is an odd thing of everything frozen and just the trains moving. It may be that our mind’s want the people to move as well as we just have that so ingrained they will move and many of them are in positions of motion.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[gavino200]

8 minutes ago, cteno4 said:

Gavin,

 

thats actually very common for folks to find static figures in a situation like this with the trains moving but the people not moving a bit jarring or freaky. I don’t think it’s the imagination really it’s more something with the mind’s eye as we are not universal in how we perceive the world and that along with our own memories and experiences mixed in.

 

some find that doing any sort of animation on a layout really freaky/creepy to them.

 

it is an odd thing of everything frozen and just the trains moving. It may be that our mind’s want the people to move as well as we just have that so ingrained they will move and many of them are in positions of motion.

 

cheers

 

jeff

 

Yes, I read him your explanation. He agrees. That's it. The trains are "alive". The buildings are no less alive than regular buildings. But the figures are obviously not alive. It ruins the illusion of the layout being "alive". 

[cteno4]

Ha, it may be a younger brain is just use to thinking of everything should be alive that should be alive! Perception does change with brain development and age. I find it really interesting that our conscious brain is really living on a very compressed input of the real world but it seems so vibrant to us. Also there is a split second time lag in there to boot. A lot of our perception is occurring in the subconscious sensory processing and it’s actually starting a lot of things we think are conscious responses. 

 

Where does he fall on animating other stuff on the layout like signs turning, crossing bars, etc? Ok if it should move in real life?

 

what about vehicles? Maybe not as distracting being frozen than people?

 

What does he think about sound effects? This can really make some things come to life as audio can really trigger strong visual memories, but again some find them creepy... we have done some simple audioscape stuff in exhibits (to do serious ones is huge work to deal with acoustics and noise pollution/leakage) and gotten some really strong reactions in some folks, usually good but a few creepy. Real hardcore audioscapes can be really amazing painting pictures with sound just using the listener’s mind’s eye and the picture is really vivid and personal. Bernie Krause was a master at this. There was also another sf audioscape artist (can’t remember his name) that did amazing stuff in totally public places for like a week (like the city hall foyer) and it would cause people to just freeze when it went on.

 

sorry always curious on these perception things.

 

jeff

[gavino200]

11 minutes ago, cteno4 said:

Ha, it may be a younger brain is just use to thinking of everything should be alive that should be alive! Perception does change with brain development and age. I find it really interesting that our conscious brain is really living on a very compressed input of the real world but it seems so vibrant to us. Also there is a split second time lag in there to boot. A lot of our perception is occurring in the subconscious sensory processing and it’s actually starting a lot of things we think are conscious responses. 

 

Where does he fall on animating other stuff on the layout like signs turning, crossing bars, etc? Ok if it should move in real life?

 

what about vehicles? Maybe not as distracting being frozen than people?

 

What does he think about sound effects? This can really make some things come to life as audio can really trigger strong visual memories, but again some find them creepy... we have done some simple audioscape stuff in exhibits (to do serious ones is huge work to deal with acoustics and noise pollution/leakage) and gotten some really strong reactions in some folks, usually good but a few creepy. Real hardcore audioscapes can be really amazing painting pictures with sound just using the listener’s mind’s eye and the picture is really vivid and personal. Bernie Krause was a master at this. There was also another sf audioscape artist (can’t remember his name) that did amazing stuff in totally public places for like a week (like the city hall foyer) and it would cause people to just freeze when it went on.

 

sorry always curious on these perception things.

 

jeff

 

Animated signs, crossings etc are cool.

 

None of our vehicles are glued down. We move them around all over the place. It's an integral part of the game. Car chases. I considered cars with LEDs once, he was dead set against it because they can't move. 

 

He's not big on sound. I think it's too restrictive and not adaptable to the game. He's not interested in a "set program". It's an improvisation thing. He's on the fence about station announcements in response to push buttons. Like the station jingles in Tokyo. In any case, we can easily make sound effects ourselves. With our noise-holes.

 

I'm not big on loco sound either. I don't think it scales well, and sound dcc for n scale is a headache.

 

 

Edited December 26, 2018 by gavino200

[cteno4]

Ahh to him it’s more of an ongoing kinetic game! Make sense.

 

jeff

[gavino200]

2 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Ahh to him it’s more of an ongoing kinetic game! Make sense.

 

jeff

 

Totally. It's mosty cops and robbers. I like it too, except I need to play it in doses, whereas he can go on like the energizer bunny.

 

I just remembered that when we set up a farm years ago, liked the farm animals. It turns out, at some stage I made the figures 'out of bounds' for him when he was younger. He's totally able to handle them now, but I forgot to officially bring them back "in". So that's probably a factor. Actually, probably a big factor. Also he says he likes that I've set all the Yakuza figures up in the freight yard. It's sort of like the bad guy headquarters - balancing the police station as good guy hangout. I use the game to teach him about interesting stuff like corruption as well 🙂

 

I'll see if encouraging him to play with the figures changes the way he feels about them. He could operate the Yakuza and I could operated the cops. He's up for giving it a try, although he's not super convinced. I'll let you know how it goes.

Edited December 27, 2018 by gavino200

[gavino200]

Does anyone have a guess as to what kind of material the Kato Station building (Kato 23-120) is supposed to be?

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=kato+23-120&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiSqKqGzsHfAhXHaVAKHZH8ATwQ_AUIDigB&biw=1368&bih=771#imgdii=JzVsaYNJCl_DSM:&imgrc=GdLGn026l4UEcM:

 

I can't help thinking it looks a tad unreal. I'm tempted to give it a little spray. I'm still looking for a good prototype picture to use as a color model.

[gavino200]

Anyone know what these two machines are next to the vending machine in the two pictures?

 

Also, anyone know of a Japanese train station that looks reasonably similar to the Kato station?

 

 

[cteno4]

I think the top right are recycle bins.

 

jeff

[gavino200]

Thanks. I wonder if the rectangle in the center is a "window" so you see the clear bag inside. Like in this picture.

 

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-recycling-bins-on-a-train-station-platform-tokyo-japan-22450834.html

[gavino200]

 

Collecting some representative pictures.

 

 

http://itsyhedgehog.blogspot.com/2012/07/japan.html

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nogata_Station#/media/File:Seibu-railway-Nogata-station-platform.jpg

 

https://stock.adobe.com/ee/images/the-suburban-railway-station-on-the-day-time-in-japan/215353218

 

www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/japan-tokyo-akihabara-jr-station-train-subway-platform-news-photo/543536412

Edited December 29, 2018 by gavino200

[gavino200]

A little spray with Tamiya flat clear coat is a very minor touch. But it makes the end platforms look quite a lot better. It gets rid of the very plasticy look that they have. I haven't added back the seats and vending machines. I'm still debating whether to paint the seats.

 

[cteno4]

Dulcoat is your friend! Works wonders and great surface for other weathering as well. Seals down and hides sticker and decal edges.

 

id try painting a few seats, the all beige can be boring and since 99% of the layouts have them it just screams plastic... one trick if you want to not paint the legs but just the seats is to push them into floral foam until seat bottom just about touching. This masks off the legs so the whole unit is not all one color (and a bit of the problem of the all beige plastic innthe first place). Floral foam is great with the air brush as solid to poke your alligator clamp sticks into well and denser than foam. Get it cheap at the dollar store.

 

jeff

[gavino200]

 

 

5 hours ago, cteno4 said:

id try painting a few seats, the all beige can be boring and since 99% of the layouts have them it just screams plastic... one trick if you want to not paint the legs but just the seats is to push them into floral foam until seat bottom just about touching. This masks off the legs so the whole unit is not all one color (and a bit of the problem of the all beige plastic innthe first place). Floral foam is great with the air brush as solid to poke your alligator clamp sticks into well and denser than foam. Get it cheap at the dollar store.

 

 

I agree about the beige. I'm thinking of using some bright colors instead. Orange, green etc. Or some kind of mix. Rows of seats with alternating colors. I'm trying to find some pictures with google, with minimal luck so far.

[gavino200]

Can anyone tell me what decal goes on the little pad above the emergency button on the center pole of the kato platform. It's sort of a triangular prism. No decal seems to fit on either side. I'm guessing one decal wraps around to cover both sides?

 

[gavino200]

This, than's to @bikkuri bahn. The station that is the inspiration for the Kato Overhead station.

 

Apparently Kato modeled that station after Monoi Station on the Sobu main line in Chiba Prefecture, albeit scaled down a bit.

https://ja.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/物井駅

 

 

From google earth

 

Seats

 

 

 

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C1AiE-hXAAEt1VQ.jpg:large

 

 

Some actual Japanese graffiti

 

 

 

 

As close as I can get to the station without entering street mode.

 

 

 

Entrance sign

 

https://www.machi-pita.com/station/detailStation.php?StationInfoID=270

 

 

Main building sign

 

http://itot.jp/12228/80

 

Best picture of weird red roofing material

 

http://kaisatsugazo.net/51477245.html

Edited December 30, 2018 by gavino200

[bill937ca]

 

 

 

Edited December 30, 2018 by bill937ca

[bill937ca]

Monoi Station seems to be in an area of new residential development.  All kinds of new houses in a Google image search in Japanese characters, but not a single retail  or food business.

 

Some more photos including signs.

 

http://www.homemate-research-station.com/dtl/46000000000000002325/imagelist/

 

http://www.tsuchibuta.com/jr-east/soubuline/25monoi/25monoi.htm

 

https://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/takaseablog1/15817074.html

 

https://mapio.net/wiki/Q6901635-ja/

Edited December 30, 2018 by bill937ca

[gavino200]

14 hours ago, bill937ca said:

 

 

 

 

Thanks bill. This is gold!

[gavino200]

 

Thanks to bills video, I can see what the red/white striped decal is for. It's to show which pillar has the emergency button. And the flap thing above the button is an instruction sheet that is mostly white. 

 

I weird green seats beat the beige plastic, but I'm not thrilled with it. I need to find some more 'station to station' videos like this to look for inspiration from other stations.

 

 

busy-railway-station-platform-some-bucharest-north-bucharest-north-main-image89471059

Edited December 31, 2018 by gavino200