Akita Mountain

[cteno4]

Really nice tom. I grew up on ships and boats and good boat designers used this to help make very small cabin spaces not feel so tiny and walls, bulkheads and ceilings disappear more. As boats get smaller everything starts to turn into curves and if you go with it we’ll you can make spaces feel bigger and less confined with the infinite corner curves. I’ve seen designers try to fight the curves in boat interiors and turn it into a normal rectilinear room with moldings, details, flat surfaces, etc and it just makes you feel like you can’t move visually! You make me realize why hanging out in small boat cabins how I could easily stare off into nothing! Always thought it was being back in the nice rocking environment of my childhood.

 

jeff

 

ps totally love your old barn house and the circle balcony. I’ve always wanted to build a house with a lot of interior balconies, I love them I think from old libraries with then circling the room with a second level of wall bookshelves. Circle is a whole new take on that! Kudos dude!

[gavino200]

I totally didn't get the infinity curve until I googled the phrase to see some examples. I was seeing your illustration as a solid shape, instead of an empty space. It looked like a misshapen key form a keyboard.

 

The infinity curve concept works really well for the layout. I hope I can use that idea myself somewhere, someday.

 

Your ceiling circle is fantastic. I love the wooden stairway to the third, hidden level.

Edited October 8, 2021 by gavino200

[Tom C]

9 hours ago, gavino200 said:

Your ceiling circle is fantastic. I love the wooden stairway to the third, hidden level.

Thank you thank you. The therd hidden level is my train room/daughters bedroom when she comes to stay. It's hung by metal rods from the beams above !! My house is quirkier than my layout and I could fill more than a build thread with its fun details. But, this is a train forum so back to my layout build. 

 

I have just ordered some midnight blue spray paint for the sky and am busy honing my painting skills (or lack of) while I await its arrivel. My paintings are getting worse insted of better. I think I'm trying too hard and need to loosen up. Alcohol needed ?? 🤪

Edited October 9, 2021 by Tom C

[Tom C]

An icy breeze blows of the mountains causing me to turn up my collar and take a draw from my flask of saké.



Turning my back on the high pagoda I make my way gingerly down the steep path.



I stop to take in the magnitude of my surroundings.



Nearing the temple gate and out of the chilling breeze, I sit myself on a rock to await the rising of the moon.



I am not to be disapointed. Soon the stars will come out to play.



Well, you'll have to wait a while for me to rig up the stars but rest assured, they are in the planning. In the meantime here's a view from afar.

 

[Kamome442]

You just know it will be a good day when there is an update on Akita Mountain! Inspiring work as always. 

[cteno4]

That thunk you heard was my jaw hitting the floor! Kudos Tom!

 

jeff

[gavino200]

Wow! Incredibly beautiful.

 

Is that a glass front? I hope it's air-sealed so this work of art doesn't get ruined with dust.

Edited January 4, 2022 by gavino200

[Madsing]

Wow, Tom, that’s really impressive. I love the atmosphere and the peacefulness (is that a word?) of these photos!

How did you make the moon? Light reflection on the front glass?

[serotta1972]

Wow, is that like Level 1000 modeling.  What a beautiful scene and been so awesome seeing the little scenes come together.  Thank you Tom for sharing the process and now seeing the almost finished product.  

[Cat]

Sweet beans!

[disturbman]

3 hours ago, Cat said:

Sweet beans!

It’s called “anko”.

[Bubule]

Great scene and very nice atmosphere ! 🤩

[Cat]

8 hours ago, disturbman said:

It’s called “anko”.

Hmm.  "Sweet bean paste!" loses a bit in the translation.

[disturbman]

Sweet anko!

[Tom C]

Wow, thank you all for your kind comments.

 

18 hours ago, gavino200 said:

Is that a glass front? I hope it's air-sealed so this work of art doesn't get ruined with dust.

No glass front. The cabinet doors stay shut most of the time waiting for some one to open them and descover the little world inside.

 

17 hours ago, Madsing said:

How did you make the moon? Light reflection on the front glass?

I could hardly make a model set in Japan without modeling the moon. The moon holds a very special place in Japanese culture, to the point that there are moon viewing parties where people gather to see the full moon rise. This gives my layout a reason to remain populated when I dim the lights.

I made a round hole in the back of the cabinet and cut a piece of perspex to fit flush in it. It is painted over on the layout side and a 24 led disk mounted behind.
 

 

 

 

It is the blue sky paint that gives off the color around it;

 

 

When I turn up the brightness I get a cold winter sun just making its self seen through the mist;

 

 

It's easy to model a moon, but to model a mood was quite another matter, and necessitated me to dig deep. I scrubed out five paintings and made over twenty scetches before I felt happy, I basically needed to teach myself how to paint. That's why this update was long in the coming.

 

15 hours ago, serotta1972 said:

now seeing the almost finished product.  

It's a long long way off being finished. There are almost all the buildings to finish and light, lots more snow needs adding and lots and lots and lots of people to make (and write all the little stories to go with them), about one hundred million lanterns to make and light. And, last but not least, the suspention bridge to build. This alone will take a month or so. In all about another year.

 

Thank you all again for your support. It helps me to stay focused and come up with new ideas to keep you all happy 🤗

 Attached Thumbnails

Edited January 4, 2022 by Tom C

[Martijn Meerts]

2 minutes ago, Tom C said:

I basically needed to teach myself how to paint.

 

Just watch some Bob Ross 🙂

 

It's all looking good though. Snow scenes often feel like they were built without snow in mind, and then someone just dropped in a bunch of white powder. This however really looks like it's been outside for several weeks during sub zero temperatures. Very nice atmosphere!

 

[cteno4]

to quote Bob: Happy little snow covered trees!

 

Maybe tom is keeping this in his freezer and just misting it with water in the cold to make his own little snow storms.

 

jeff

[serotta1972]

Well, I'm glad to hear that it's far from finish so we can continue to enjoy witnessing this process. 

[Tom C]

I came across this clip on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKp9CjFrcz4 and loved it so much that I wanted to share it. I figured I would post it here as even though it's filmed at lower altitude than Akita Mountain, it captures the feel rather nicely. Snowy mountains snow covered trees trains. 

I was happy to see that over all, I've been getting the grays and blues right but I need more snow on my trees.

 

 

[Bubule]

Great video Tom.

 

[JR East]

Really a great video and I love the wide view Hida

 

 

[Tony Galiani]

That's Kuga's Travel:  Kuga's Travel - YouTube

 

He has quite a few train ride videos and has a very nice style - no distracting music or talk - just bits of info here and there in his videos.  I follow him and Solo Travel Japan for travel ideas.  (Though Solo Travel Japan tends to do a lot of ferry rides with plenty of food though in the same low key style.)

 

Ciao,

Tony Galiani

[Tom C]

Like a cloud of fireflies hanging in infinite nothingness, thay glitter in a realm beyond our existence.







There are over 400 million stars in our galaxy. There are over 2 trillion galaxies in our universe.

It's worth letting that sink in.

 

 

[Kamome442]

Utterly Stunning Work Tom!

 

[Madsing]

Wow, so nice!