How did you improve your building kits?

[Cat]

Thanks, Lawrence. 

Rakuten search is being weird right now; the link you posted is not showing any items, and my searching within Rakuten is all coming up empty for YSK.  Using Google Image search, I can find and go to pages for particular items in the Sakutsu store, but from those pages, clicking the category entries within the store still come up empty.  Using Chrome and Safari have the same problems.

[cteno4]

Thanks Lawrence,

 

Interesting. Ysk doesn’t pop any searches here on rakuten as well with Sakatsu. Ysk alone doesn’t pop the usual ysk stuff either. Maybe it’s because of us destination?

 

ill try to dig up the distributor that contacted us. But they did not see to want to budge from a very high minimum order and EMS shipping. Their in stock Didn’t seem much better than hlj or HS usually had.

 

ysk prices are really not much of a value, more just some unique pieces and casting quality was decent but not superb. I got most of my ysk over the years at sales on hlj and HS and then it seemed like a decent value when on sale...

 

jeff

[Lawrence]

@cat if you go to the Rakuten Sakutsu store and type YSK into the search box will that work?

@cteno4 I found a UK based guy on ebay who does resin printed air con units @1:148 a pack of 3 for £2.30 with free UK shipping, so I ordered 8 packs. From the images they look good but I can report back once I get them. He doesn't do much N scale stuff but for anyone interested - https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/3D-Printing-Corner?_trksid=p2047675.l2563 

[Cat]

No it does not.  That and all searches for YSK within Rakuten from many different approaches are not showing any results here.  Jeff seems to be having the same issue.

If I find a specific item on Google Image, I can click and get to that item.  Repeat for other items.

At least when HLJ gets them back in, ordering through their private warehouse holding system is the best overall option for gathering many items for one later shipment.

[Lawrence]

That is strange @Cat I can go to the link I posted earlier and get all the YSK stuff come up, I'm not signed in or anything so I don't know why you are not getting anywhere.

[Cat]

I can't come up with a better guess than Jeff's: US locations may be blocked.

Whee,
Cat

[cteno4]

Yeah odd, but probably country specific.

 

those look nice Lawrence. There are some chaps on us ebay with similar offerings as well as a lot on shapeways. One of the forum members Toni has some nice exterior details that were not being done elsewhere like gas tanks (many home have these for cooking), trash cans, boxes of beer bottles!

 

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/kabutomodels?section=Landscape+details+(N-gauge)&s=0

 

cheers

 

jeff

 

 

[Cat]

Ooh, those propane tanks are perfect and we were on the hunt for some to fill out a small one person propane business.

I'll shoot Toni a note to see if they'll do cinder blocks too for detailing a small factory yard.

[Cat]

Successful experiment: I can get into the YSK stuff on Rakuten going through the Buyee Portal.  I haven't puzzled out yet if Buyee would charge their fee once per cartload purchase for a shop, or if they would prohibitively charge per item.

https://buyee.jp/rakuten/shopping/search/store/category/sakatsu/0?searchHis=1&query=ysk

[Lawrence]

At least you got there @Cat I'll bet the fees will sting a bit

 

@cteno4 thanks for the link to Toni's stuff Jeff, I like the shrine lights he does, just debating whether the core could be drilled and a small LED fitted in there.

 

Anyhoo, with the lockdown situation, I need to curb my hobby spending for a while 😯

[cteno4]

Lawrence,

 

I’ll try and dig mine out and see, but I expect a 1mm hole could go thur for some like 34 or 36g magnet wire for a 402. Only issue with the clear resin is that it will take a bit of paint to light seal the rest. But the lanterns should be turned down to a very dim glow so not as bad.

 

jeff

[Lawrence]

17 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Lawrence,

 

I’ll try and dig mine out and see, but I expect a 1mm hole could go thur for some like 34 or 36g magnet wire for a 402. Only issue with the clear resin is that it will take a bit of paint to light seal the rest. But the lanterns should be turned down to a very dim glow so not as bad.

 

jeff

I have some pre-wired 402s coming from AliExpress (sometime this year) so I'll be interested to read your results Jeff

[Lawrence]

A/C units arrived today, very happy with them, gave them a quick coat of Off White

 

Edited May 6, 2020 by Lawrence

[cteno4]

Nice!
 

I’ve wanted to try some papercraft ac units. I think I may have one somewhere. One of the z scale chaps on the forum did some very nice ones, just sanded paper thin and wrapped around a small block of styrene. Relief on detail like ip this is so tiny it has to be exaggerated or paint will fill it in.

 

jeff

[maihama eki]

On 5/5/2020 at 12:40 PM, Lawrence said:

At least you got there @Cat I'll bet the fees will sting a bit

 

@cteno4 thanks for the link to Toni's stuff Jeff, I like the shrine lights he does, just debating whether the core could be drilled and a small LED fitted in there.

 

Anyhoo, with the lockdown situation, I need to curb my hobby spending for a while 😯

 

The stem on the temple lights is ~ 0.8 mm after painting.  I don't think this could be drilled out with any commonly available drill.  The 3D printed plastic is quite brittle too.

 

My thought on lighting these was to paint everything solidly except the window panes in the lantern and a spot on the bottom of the base, and then shine an LED up the stem with the stem being like a light pipe.  The plastic is translucent.  I painted mine with this in mind, but I haven't tried this lighting idea yet.

 

 

Keep in mind that these are teeny tiny.

 

 

[Lawrence]

30 minutes ago, maihama eki said:

 

The stem on the temple lights is ~ 0.8 mm after painting.  I don't think this could be drilled out with any commonly available drill.  The 3D printed plastic is quite brittle too.

 

My thought on lighting these was to paint everything solidly except the window panes in the lantern and a spot on the bottom of the base, and then shine an LED up the stem with the stem being like a light pipe.  The plastic is translucent.  I painted mine with this in mind, but I haven't tried this lighting idea yet.

 

 

Keep in mind that these are teeny tiny.

 

 

Thank you @maihama eki I have high speed drills that go down to 0.1mm so possibly have one to fit this.

Due to the whole corona virus lock down thing, I'm not going to be spending any more money for a while but I will keep them in mind for the future

[gavino200]

3 hours ago, maihama eki said:

 

My thought on lighting these was to paint everything solidly except the window panes in the lantern and a spot on the bottom of the base, and then shine an LED up the stem with the stem being like a light pipe.  The plastic is translucent.  I painted mine with this in mind, but I haven't tried this lighting idea yet.

 

 

I bet that would work. I'd love to see it. Brilliant idea. 

[gavino200]

2 hours ago, Lawrence said:

Thank you @maihama eki I have high speed drills that go down to 0.1mm so possibly have one to fit this.

 

 

That's pretty amazing. What industry are you in where you'd use such a thing? What would a bit like that be made of? Sorry about all the questions. That blows my mind a bit.

 

What kind of wire would would you use. I don't think I've ever measure the super thin LED wire. Is it that thin? You'd need to pass two wires, but not only one would have to be insultated, right? Please spill the beans! 

[cteno4]

I’ll keep looking for mine, wasn't in the first box of details I looked in, but I know there are a couple more. But from looking at maihama’s picture if you want the led up on top in the lamp area the lamp area will need to be drilled out and then mount the led in there and then fill it with gallery glass. It’s a thick paint to make pho stained glass windows. You can get it at the craft shop in clear as well as colors. Basically like making the plastic bulb on standard leds over the diode inside it.

 

light pipe may work as well as the 3D print resin is pretty clear. 
 

cheers

 

jeff

[maihama eki]

I remembered the other idea I had for these lanterns.

 

Drill a shallow hole in the base and insert an optical fiber from a fiber optic light source.  This still goes along with the original idea of painting everything except the glass "panes" in the lantern and using the post as a light pipe of sorts.   You could light a bunch of them with one fiber optic source.

 

I haven't really played with fiber optic lighting, so I don't know how well this would work.

[cteno4]

Good thought! Actually may work well as these lanterns are just glows, not bright lights. If I get time here I’ll play, I have some plastic fiber optics. The resin may work good enough as a light pipe and fiber optics may be able to even light that. It’s easy to feed a bunch of fiber optics to a single led.

 

trying to carve out the lantern area and run a wire up and seal in the led will be really fiddly work!

 

jeff

[Lawrence]

8 hours ago, gavino200 said:

 

That's pretty amazing. What industry are you in where you'd use such a thing? What would a bit like that be made of? Sorry about all the questions. That blows my mind a bit.

 

What kind of wire would would you use. I don't think I've ever measure the super thin LED wire. Is it that thin? You'd need to pass two wires, but not only one would have to be insultated, right? Please spill the beans! 

Sets of micro drills are freely available @gavino200 just as an example a quick google found this https://www.eternaltools.com/carbide-micro-drills

[Cat]

I use super tiny ones like that in my pin vice.  Even with careful use, they do snap easily.

[gavino200]

1 minute ago, Cat said:

I use super tiny ones like that in my pin vice.  Even with careful use, they do snap easily.

 

So do I. I've even got a set of super fine dental files. I'll have to check but I don't think I have anything that goes to 0.1 mm. 

[MeTheSwede]

I assembled the Tomytec town hall today and it screamed "paint my brickwork" as it came out of the box. Some quick work with a brush with greyish-white wash did a lot to enhance it for little effort. I also did some minor weathering but it's harder to tell from the photos.

 

Since the banner hanging from the roof speaks of a singing contest for middle schoolers I had to add some schoolgirls in front of the building.

 

There's also a civil servant who looks like he's on his way out for out for lunch while taking an important phone call and probably being annoyed about the guy who invited noisy kids to the town hall. Luckily for him I only attached the banner and school girls with Blu Tack so he won't have to deal with them forever. Unfortunately he himself is also attached the same way, so he'd better not express to much annoyance with his higher up's decisions, or he might not remain.  😆