aozoradensya 103 series shorty

[MichiK]

At last, I've finished the 103 series z-shorty kit by Japanese producer Aozoradensya, and I'm very pleased with it!

I didn't build it out of the "box", though, those little add-ons are too much fun! And this is what I did:

 

After a fisrt coat with red oxide primer, I've added new recessed front windows (makes the cars even more 103ish), head lights made from paper rings, and tail lights made from plastic rod.

 

 

 

 

[MichiK]

Then the parts were painted (Vallejo Game Colour "Orange Fire") - I must have failed to thin the paint sufficiently for one of the coats, hence the little pimples. They are, however, sufficiently small to be not seen by a 50 year old when taking his glasses off, so that's ok for me!

 

 

The trickiest bit is to attach the body parts to the SA007-1 "Z-Shorty Passenger Car" shells. Well, maybe it's not such a brilliant idea to use super glue, but I didn't mess aup anything, so that's fine for me, too!

 

 

 

Some touching up required after all body parts are glued on...

 

 

The head lights got  reflectors from aluminum foil (right) and were filled with PVA glue (left)

 

[MichiK]

I didn't use the original stickers for the rooves but printed own ones on cardboard.

 

 

The location pins of the kit vents were cut down to the thickness of the rooves' card, and I've glued little discs of punched out paper on top.

 

 

The kit's pantograph is not bad, but I made a new one according to the PS 16 drawings in the 103 series blueprints, anyway. It turned out not 100% satisfactory, so one day I might replace it with a new one, but for now it's ok for me!

 

 

[MichiK]

Diaphragms were made from card, too, with the help of a most primitive jig.

 

 

 

 

 

Finished!

 

 

[Kiha66]

7 hours ago, MichiK said:

The kit's pantograph is not bad, but I made a new one according to the PS 16 drawings in the 103 series blueprints, anyway. It turned out not 100% satisfactory, so one day I might replace it with a new one, but for now it's ok for me!

 

Amazing job on the kit!  Where did you find those blueprints?  I'd love if there were more of them for other rolling stock, they seem like an invaluable resource.

[cteno4]

Nice work Michi! What a slouch, you didn’t do the wheels or trucks out of card stock! Your getting lazy! 😜 

 

Kiha, We have like 25 years of a Japanese railfan magazine that had a lot of great plan sets in it. We may have a rough scan of all of these that we can let folks look thru (can’t be public it’s all copyrighted material) and see if there are particular things you could scan for yourself.

 

jeff

[MichiK]

Thank you, Kiha!

5 hours ago, Kiha66 said:

 

 I'd love if there were more of them for other rolling stock, they seem like an invaluable resource.

Weeelllll, bow to Pandora's box!

As far as I can see, this is all very old material or "official" manuals and documents, which I suppose are public domain as in most countries, so I guess it's all legal.

And of course, I take no responsibilities whatsoever for nothing. In particular,  if you get lost inside and will only be found some weeks after, starved and frozen to death !

(If the direct link doesn't work, klick the yellow box here in the upper left - a nice site in itself, by the way)

 

4 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Nice work Michi! What a slouch, you didn’t do the wheels or trucks out of card stock! Your getting lazy! 😜

Whoa, I've got

- two cats

- a teenage son

- a wife

- a garden

- an employer

- and I'm well into the second half of my life

so I consider myself as fully entitled to some lazyness efficiency! 🤣

[cteno4]

Get the cats to help out! 

 

Really amazing, I had not seen someone papercraft pantographs in n scale before! Kudos!

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[MichiK]

16 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Really amazing, I had not seen someone papercraft pantographs in n scale before!

 

It's the natural thing to do, Jeff, but only for a decided paper modeler, of course! (A plastic modeler would have used Evergreen profiles, a jewler silver thread, ...)

There are just not that many paper modelers around, so no wonder that it's a first for you.

 

Oh.. and of course, it's Z scale! 😉

[cteno4]

Doh! Sorry even worse z scale! Really careful work! 

 

Did you stiffen the cardstock with anything like ca glue?

 

We have some papercrafters around but you are right I’m usually around plastic modelers! We usually have a big paper modeling convention in this area, but I’ve not see it advertised yet. I keep meaning to try to get to the show but alway seems to be conflicts and other stuff getting in the way.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[ChibiNippon]

10 hours ago, MichiK said:

 

It's the natural thing to do, Jeff, but only for a decided paper modeler, of course! (A plastic modeler would have used Evergreen profiles, a jewler silver thread, ...)

There are just not that many paper modelers around, so no wonder that it's a first for you.

 

Oh.. and of course, it's Z scale! 😉

You're really raising the bar, here 😮 I need to do pantographs for my Enoden-Z-Shorties and I'm not really sure how I'm going to be able to come close to this. Beautiful job 😄

[MichiK]

4 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Did you stiffen the cardstock with anything like ca glue?

Yes, and, of course, I made a little mess of it. I mean, I know that you never ever and under no circumstances apply the glue directly from the bottle, I really do. It's just that I apply the glue directly from the bottle, anyway! And, of course, there was a really big drop of ca-glue stuck between two rods, and hardened before I noticed it. Doh..

But as I said before: I could easily replace the panto with a new and better one.

 

4 hours ago, cteno4 said:

[...] I keep meaning to try to get to the show but alway seems to be conflicts and other stuff getting in the way.

It's the old curse, there are not enough weekends in the year by far...

 

26 minutes ago, ChibiNippon said:

You're really raising the bar, here 😮 I need to do pantographs for my Enoden-Z-Shorties and I'm not really sure how I'm going to be able to come close to this. Beautiful job 😄

Thank you very much!

Didn't you say that you have an own laser? That should do the cutting for you. And for the assembly I'd suggest to let the laser cut a suitable jig as well. Of course, you still will have to avoid glueing your fingers on your own... 😉

[ChibiNippon]

1 hour ago, MichiK said:

Thank you very much!

Didn't you say that you have an own laser? That should do the cutting for you. And for the assembly I'd suggest to let the laser cut a suitable jig as well. Of course, you still will have to avoid glueing your fingers on your own... 😉

 

I do have a laser - a little $300 5w jobby from China somewhere. I haven't got proper ventilation in the lab yet, so I haven't done any cutting tests with it yet. I'm maintaining skeptical expectations for it until proven otherwise 😕

[MichiK]

Well, even if your apprehensions should turn out to be true, pantographs are very convenient in so far as there's nothing els, which depends on them. I.e., you can always attach them when everything else is long finished. So no worries!

[kevsmiththai]

Would the pantograph off the Plus up/ZJ Emus fit? I seem to have a few as I use the chassis for first generation British Diesel railcars

 

Kev

[MichiK]

If ChibiNippon wanted to be rather prototypical, those pantos would fit on most enoden trains, i.e., from the 200 series up to the 1000 series. Those had a normal lozenge pantograph. The 2000 series has a scissor-type panto (like a PS22), and even newer series have a single-arm.

 

[ChibiNippon]

I was thinking about stealing the pantos off of my ZJ, but I'm going to use that train on Boku no Machi, so I have to find a different solution. I won't worry about it for now - when I get around to making better bodies for the shortys then it'll be more important.