Sankei vs plastic

[Hayashi]

i read great comments about Sankei cardstock buildings, so I am interested in adding them to my future layout. However, I have some questions (as always).

 

1. Should they be mixed (side-by-side) with plastic kits or is there a big contrast between cardstock and plastic buildings when placed so closely together?

2. Are there any problems painting them or do they come pre-colored?

3. Can they be weathered? Usually weathering works best when there is textural details such as bricks or ribbed roofs that catch thinned paint or pastels and I'm not sure Sankei kits have these textures.

Edited January 6, 2019 by railsquid
Fix spelling of *Sankei"

[marknewton]

Sankei kits are pre-coloured, so painting isn't needed, and they are easily weathered with pastels or powders.

 

Mark.

[valkyriepm]

The only thing I replace on Sankei kits, are roofs, as they come printed an to me look flat compared to the rest of the kit itself. Painting and weathering optional, as Jeff mentioned. Great kits all around.

 

Martin

[cteno4]

It’s always a tiny bit of an issue with different material structures right next to each other, but usually with some weathering, detailing and scenery bits things can get blended together nicely. I’d say there is roughly the same minor differences between sankei, tomytec and Kato/Tomix and greenmax structures, so you have issues with most structures if you want things super perfect, there is no perfect solution. 

 

But the real world has differences as well in structures. I’ve liked using all the various material kits. Sankie gives a great bit of variety in structures to add to the overall mix. It’s something you just have to fiddle with.

 

Do get a sankei kit and try one. Do a smaller one first as it takes a little getting use to the assembly of them (they are not a 3 minute tomytec pop together!) and you may screw up a little here or there, but you will learn quickly. There are a number of threads on the forum on building them and some great youtube assembly videos. I find them very zen like to assemble.

 

jeff

[gavino200]

1 hour ago, valkyriepm said:

The only thing I replace on Sankei kits, are roofs, as they come printed an to me look flat compared to the rest of the kit itself. Painting and weathering optional, as Jeff mentioned. Great kits all around.

 

Martin

 

Martin, what are some of the sources for textured roof material that you use? Any tips?

[bill937ca]

Here is a Sankei back street factory kit and an illustrated assembly process.

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10096722

 

http://n-rail.blogspot.com/2016/11/sankei-kit-building-advances-in-hobby.html

[cteno4]

Some videos and other basic sankei building stuff over on this thread as well

 

 

jeff

[valkyriepm]

1 hour ago, gavino200 said:

Martin, what are some of the sources for textured roof material that you use? Any tips?

Greenmax has some colored roof here and Kobaru has the more fitted for houses roof here (wich I still have to buy BTW). The good thing on the greenmax is that if you buy a kit, the piece of roof is big enough to make many houses or whatever. And as to complete, there are many scenery items to add to the buildings from Greenmax, Sankei, Kobaru, TGW, etc. For detailing and inspiration, the more street view, the better 🙂

 

Martin

[maihama eki]

1. Unpainted plastic has a shine and translucence to the surface that looks unnatural unless the item you are modeling is made out of plastic.  It you paint it with a flat paint, or follow the color with a clear dull/flat coat, you can eliminate that.  At a minimum, I will use a dull coat on bare plastic structures, but more often I will paint them even if molded in the correct color.  In that case, I think painted plastic and cardstock look similar side by side.

 

2. The Sankei (or other cardstock kits) generally have a natural opaque matte surface that looks pretty authentic to me.  You can certainly paint them, but they are essentially made out of paper and will absorb the paint and may look splotchy - especially with only one coat.  Priming, or using 2 or more coats will solve those issues.

 

3. You can definitely weather the Sankei kits.  Unpainted, they will absorb for example a weathering wash, and if you get the surface wet, small pieces could warp when they dry.  There are enough corners and texture to catch weathering materials.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bill937ca]

Options for weathering card kits include powders, colored pencils and colored markers.

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/search?typ1_c=107&cat=paint&target=Scale&searchkey=Weathring+Goods

[Hayashi]

Great comments and suggestions. I found quite a few Sankei kits I would like that depict structures not available by anyone else. I intended to either dullcote, paint, or weather (or a combo of two) all plastic kits. It appears that doing that, plus some weathering on Sankei kits should make them "blend" better. I was concerned with the paper roof tiling looking poor versus plastic tile roofs. I suspected Plastruct might have some, but now see from this forum that Greenmax makes tile panels. Great! Now all I need is an limitless bank account and infinite time to work on the hobby.

[cteno4]

I have not tried tompaint the sankei, but like most cardstock I would worry about warping. Clearcoating with light spray laquer coats may help before you paint. I now dull coat the sankei before assembly to prevent humidity causing issues down the road. While I’ve not yet seen sankei buildings have issues, I just worry from cardstock modeling what effects humidity changes may have. The good thing is the sankei chipboard is nice stuff with a lot of resin in it. Ive meant to do some tests on the excess scrap to see how well it behaves to moisture, need to do that

,

 

I think mark has done some painting and washes on sankei kits.

 

can always start with the sankei roof and see if you need to replace later. Really from 18” plus you won’t see it really.

 

The greenmax unfortunately don’t provide the ridge cap strips like the kobaru do.

 

some bits like this I see as great details for 3D printing for the cardstock and other stuff.

 

Jeff