Mitakihara Diary

[cteno4]

Nah,

 

Ive never heard of Leds causing particular issues with museum conservation and display, the biggest issue has been color of the leds so things look the same as they did under the old incandescent lighting that’s used. Tuning the warmth of a led can cause things to look different to the eye! 
 

good thing about leds is no real uv created which is the biggest fader. Visible and ir can slowly degrade things but that takes quite a long time and you are not lighting the trains that close and bright and only a few hours a day on average so the room can be as bright as you want and if you use dimmable leds you can have the advantage of turning it way up while working (makes a world of difference in a basement, believe me!) or if you want to have a bright sunny day or dim for an evening. If you enjoy lighting effects you cna alway turn down your general lighting and have a big photo flood in the corner to give you some shadow effect.

 

im in the process right now of ditching all the tube fluorescents in the basement for these led light strips.

 

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GPQFHH9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 

nice as a pretty good daylight (much better than the florescent daylight) and if I want it a little warmer I may mix in a few warm ones. They are super light, easy to install and about $5-7 per strip. You can gang 3 or 4 together to one plug with the butt or extension connectors they give you. I did a test the other week with half taped up leds and half florescent and wow a difference! No longer the dingy basement! I just have to get the time this week to move things around to install them all and tidy up the wires. About the same wattage use but wayyy more brighter! I’ll put some of these along the bottoms of shelves above the workbenches to give some extra there. These are not dimmable. You cna of course unplug a few to dim. There are nice 12v strips you can get that can easily dim but those get expensive and a hassle with wiring transformers.

 

i installed a ceiling onto the bottom of the rafters (screwed on masonite and battens so I can remove to get at pipes and electrical if needed for now) so the ceiling is a little low and these strips are very low profile. I looked at cans and led floods like I did in the kitchen but always hard to get the can pattern just right (I had to add one and really should add 2 more but loathe to crawl around again in the attic to put them in!) and it does tend to give hot and dim spots and also does not work as well in lower ceilings even though it pulls the light ip up into the rafters. I like the strips as if I don’t like the pattern or want more or less it’s a few hours with a screwdriver and drill to move them around to what works best! 

 

those little Battery powered leds are just a handful of 20ma leds so really don’t do much, mainly for a little closet or shelf to light once and a while, not to really illuminate much area or for any length of time.
 

let there be light!

 

cheers 

 

keff

[nah00]

Did my first 'real' Sankei building (I did a small shrine kit before but it was about 10 pieces):

 

Conveniently the base fits right in a Tomytec bus system intersection.

 

I can say that this probably isn't the best first Sankei kit to try. The angles can be hard to get right and the instructions leave a bit to be desired. A lot of my problems came from not paying attention enough and putting two wall 'sandwiches' together wrong. Also I underestimated how how fast glue will set up on these, you have to be pretty fast making sure everything lines up before gluing. I have a house to make as well, I'm going to the advised route and mark the parts with a pencil to get orientations right.

 

Rearranging the letters to say Honda went mostly well, the large letters across the top are slightly crooked up close but at a distance are ok, I wish I had noticed how off the 'D' was on the other sign though. You have to look at it up close to notice though.

[cteno4]

looks great nah! That was a complex one to dive into for your first big one. came out great.

 

you spelled the sign wrong though! cant you follow directions?!

 

jeff

[Kamome]

Yes Ohdan motorbikes will be very upset.

[cteno4]

Probably violates some licensing agreement and will get nah arrested.

 

jeff

[nah00]

Having owned a Honda (car, not bike) for most of my adult life I couldn't let this one slide. I just wish they made the vertical sign a little more friendly to rearrange. It does still say Ohdan on the really small red sign on the side, if anyone can notice that I'll be more than impressed.

 

I do wish I had sealed it with matte coat before putting the windows in, there still is some humidity fluctuation in my basement but not a terrible amount. I was also surprised at how sturdy the finished building feels, when I hear 'paper kit' I think of something that can be smashed by a wayward glance, this one is more solid than some Tomytec buildings. I really like the variety of these kits, they look unique and break up the Kato and Tomix monopoly. I wish this one came with some motorcycles for the showroom though.

[cteno4]

The good news is the sankei shave a lot of resin in them so I’m hoping in the long run they hold up to some humidity swings. Roofs are probably the most susceptible but easy to add a few strips of wood or styrene to reinforce them.

 

yes they could have added a bunch of bikes in the waste areas, but I guess the big cost on these is laser time and lots of motorcycles would add a chunk of time to the cutting.

could always have if a scooter dealership and a few of these

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10273534

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[nah00]

Did another Sankei kit, though this one was much easier:

The curved roof bit on the one is a bit of pain but these were pretty simple. Now the residents of Mitakihara can enjoy Coa-Cola and Poss coffee. I'm kind of reluctant to use anything but the tiniest drop of glue to keep these in place in case I want to move them but I also don't want to sneeze and send them flying. I may cut some thin pieces of styrene to glue to the bottoms to prevent damage to the paper in case I move them or put lights in them. Already colored the insides black.

[NateJ93]

Wow that's one amazing layout, excellent work.