Models IMON H0j

[Martijn Meerts]

I'm very much considering getting 1 of the Models IMON H0j kits sometime this year (probably after tax returns and/or holiday money), however, I was wondering if anyone knows a good way of ordering things there.

 

I know from other threads in the forum that while they do have an online store, they don't ship outside of Japan. I've also noticed that for example Hobby Search has very few Models IMON items, and most of those are sold out (for example, a set of couplers for my Hokutan #2 loco). I did look at the Buyee option, but again, very hard to find any H0j kits there, at least, at first glance, haven't spent that much time searching. I'd also prefer a reputable source of course, no weird, half-built 2nd hand kits, or kits that might miss parts.

 

I'd really like a C11 kit, but I know those have been sold out for quite a while already, but they still have several 9600 kits.  Anyone have any tips of a good way to buy them? I guess I could wait until I go to Japan again, and just go to their store there, but the earliest I'm going to Japan again will be autumn 2020 🙂

[Gora]

I wish I had checked into the forum earlier Martijn, I was in their Shibuya store just over a week ago!

 

Cheers, Andrew

[bill937ca]

Model Trains Plus has a personal shopper service. I have used it before with good results.

 

https://www.modeltrainplus.net/pages/personal-shopping-service

Edited April 26, 2019 by bill937ca

[Martijn Meerts]

4 hours ago, Gora said:

I wish I had checked into the forum earlier Martijn, I was in their Shibuya store just over a week ago!

 

Cheers, Andrew

 

Ah nice, I bet they have a lot of cool stuff there! I won't be buying a kit until I get holiday money and / or tax returns 🙂

 

 

4 hours ago, bill937ca said:

Model Trains Plus has a personal shopper service. I have used it before with good results.

 

https://www.modeltrainplus.net/pages/personal-shopping-service

 

That's something worth looking at. Not too happy about the 1000 yen + 30% of the price of the item basic fee though. That means an SL9600 IMON kit would get roughly 30000 yen added as basic fee, and then the shipping cost and everything, even though it's just as much effort to get an IMON kit as it is getting a 5000 yen loco. I'm well aware that they need to make money, and it's definitely a great service, and of course the more expensive items have a much higher risk factor. But it's probably too expensive. I'd end up paying around twice the price of the kit after shipping and import fees.

[Gora]

It’s a superb store Martijn, with rows of display cabinets and very neatly stocked shelves of kits and parts, could spend some time in there. Sadly there are very large “no photography” signs around the store, so I don’t have any pictures!

 

Cheers, A

[Martijn Meerts]

I've been to Tokyo twice, but didn't really visit any model train stores. Just shortly went into 1 small store that did have some pretty interesting stuff. I've mainly been doing N scale, but the forest and mining railways have long interested me as well. I bought a Kiso Forest Railway Baldwin kit in H0e quite some time ago and started building that. Then started looking at doing a small H0e layout, which quickly turned into an idea that required some branch line track. At that point I figured, why not H0j instead of regular H0, so that's how I ended up looking at IMON stuff. I did have some ideas for the project when I was in Japan, but wasn't actively working on it, so going to IMON didn't occur to me at all.

 

 

[Gora]

There was quite a bit of HOe there as built up kits (for display perhaps?) and presumably the kits also. Not sure my eyes could do the N chassis any more, my days of HOe behind me now! http://shelley-railway-gallery.blogspot.com/

[Martijn Meerts]

They sell completed models as well, not just kits. Of course, they build and paint the completed models themselves, so they're generally 3-4 times the price of a kit.

 

The link is your H0e layout? Looks really good. What I like about H0 (be it H0e, H0j, H0, or whatever other variant) is that it's just big enough to work with real wood for building structures, and have it not feel out of scale. It's possible in N-scale as well, but building a wooden house for example, all the timber will quickly look out of scale. 

 

My main layout will still be N-scale though, I just have too much stuff to all of a sudden completely switch. But the H0e/H0j project is a completely different theme, so it'll be great to work on whenever I need a break from the N-scale layout.

[Gora]

It was Martijn, my first layout, I have since given it away. Entirely agree on your HOe reasoning, thats one of the key reasons I built it. Can also fit far more in the space than full HO though against N thats not so obvious.

 

Good luck with it. A

[wazzd]

i visited the Akihabara store on my last visit a year ago, although I resisted buying any models it was a fabulous shop and I picked up an excellent book '"C62 Final" Next time I'll be ready!

 

[Martijn Meerts]

I can imagine if I visit the store, I'll have to cancel any other activity during the trip, and live off of rice balls for a while 😄

 

Shame it's so hard to get their models outside Japan really, but then again, it's not like brass H0j is common outside Japan (or even in Japan for that matter).