Akita Mountain

[cteno4]

Beautiful! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a diorama with such spectacular night sky.

 

jeff

[Tom C]

I thought I'd show you behind the scenes of the twinkling sky.

I drilled lots of 0.5mm holes through the 6mm plywood cabinet. I snapped 12 drill bits !!


Next I glued fiber optic strands into them.


I used bits of tube to bend them over to stop them getting kinked.


And then brought them together to light hubs.


A good week of evenings saw all one hundred and six of them finished. The photos don't do them justice.

I can now sit back fireside and gaze into the glittering Jappanese night 

Now, on to the next part of this creation that will be something a little different for a change,!!

[Madsing]

That’s really interesting. Thanks for showing the details of the construction.

I love your photos, but I also agree that the real thing must look much more spectacular!

[cteno4]

Excellent use of fiber optic strands!

 

jeff

[Tom C]

I was busy making mini stone lanterns when I wondered how far I could go with N scale lighting ?


On assending to the Pagoda the couple use this opportunity to pay homage to a shrine in honor of Raiden the god of thunder.


A candle is offered


He is dangerous if unapeased.

Does my offered candle buy protection ?

Do gods function through excange ?

My fears are a slippery snake.

Snakes are hard to catch.

Can I catch my snake ?

I give my candle anyway.





The candle lights up but photos are very hard to take. I had to turn up the brightness of the candle just to get it to show !

 

 

It is a shaved down fiber optic strand built into her body and lit from under the baseboard. She had to be pulled apart and rebuilt four times before I succeded. I think I've taken lighting as far as I can with this. Back to some normal modeling now 

[cteno4]

Very nice as always Tom!

 

Maybe a flicker led will give the better effect on the candle. You can get little flickering led votive candles for a couple of euro and tear them up for the led and circuit and battery.

 

jeff

[Tom C]

I made another candle. It felt like the most appropriate thing to model in view of the tragedy being playd out in this current climate.

 

 

A couple gaze at the candle in thought of all those in less fortunate situations than themselves.

 

 

 

 

Go well, safe and stay sane you all 👍

 

 

[Tom C]

 

Easter, a time of death and resurrection for some. For a Banderloop, it's only about chocolate eggs, many many times over !!!

 

Katsumi is a Bandaloop doctor. She comes up here to feed the deer and perform strange dance steps atop the steep precipîce.



The monks are more than a little perturbed by her presence on the mountain, because the Banderloop are immortal. Katsumi threatens the very foundation of their belief of spiritual progression through the cycle of death and rebirth.

Strangley, it's the monks themselves who are unwittingly responsible for her remaining on the mountain, as she is attracted by their awkward discomfort brought by her proximity.



Is immortality an impossibility ? All that holds us back is belief. With belief comes disbelief, and disbelief is a shackle. If you can grasp that, then you can live forever. 👍

 

Edited April 12, 2022 by Tom C

[Tom C]

  

 

 

Mr Hiroshi is a most respectful and well mannered gentelman. Well hidden are the feelings he holds for Mrs. Chino. His undisclosed interest being the underlying reason he has offered to accompany her and her friend to Akita Mountain today.
Apon passing through the main gate, the old monk that bowed to him had said:

'In order to obtain someting, you must be prepared to let go of it. Because when you obtain it, its value becomes lost.'

These words trouble Mr. Hiroshi as he looks at the woman of his desires.

 

 

 

Edited April 20, 2022 by Tom C

[cteno4]

Excellent!

 

jeff

[gavino200]

1 hour ago, Tom C said:

 

 

 

 

 

Outstanding!! Did you take any "work in progress" pictures of the process?

[Madsing]

Incredible work! Am I dreaming or there is light coming from the lantern! Your story almost made me cry 😢 

Marc

[Tom C]

Natsuki monk deep in meditation. Turbulent past a distent memory. Peace and calm now the friends with whom he walks.
So deep his trance he goes unaware of the chattering troops presence around him.



Chillin' out, pickin' flees and shooting the breeze, those present in the troop are, L to R: Shoko, Tatsuo, Daisuke, Yumi, and Veronica !

    

Chance privy to their conversations is yours for the taking:

Yumi; You ever saw a UFO ?
Veronica; I seen one the other night !
Tatsuo; I was watching "All in the family".... Arche was all p****t off because Meathead didn't show up for dinner !
Daisuke; Sometimes UFO's buzz the pagoda.
Shoko; Didja ever notice how if you cover one eye everything flattens out ?
Yumi; That's cos the world's flat !
Shoko; Didn't uncle Tom fall off it once ?
Tatsuo; That's not the only thing he's fell off. He's a real Cadburys that one !

Edited May 11, 2022 by Tom C

[cteno4]

Tom you never told us you speak Macaque! Where is their hot spring?

 

excellent as usual, or usual for you that is…

 

jeff

[Tom C]

@cteno4

 

2 minutes ago, cteno4 said:

Tom you never told us you speak Macaque

Ha ha, I don't but I did in my distent travels pick me up one of these https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmpP73-SHPQ&t Damn useful if I say so myself.

 

8 minutes ago, cteno4 said:

Where is their hot spring

The famus munkey filled hot spring is not their natural environment so I gave it a miss 👍

[cteno4]

Who is to say they were not dunking in natural hot springs way before human butts were?!

 

jeff

[Tom C]

Wabi-sabi. An imperfect road to a perfect outcome ?

Is perfection what we conceive it to be ?

 

Wabi-sabi is a Japanese outlook on life that embraces that everything is inherently imperfect and fleeting, which is why it should be appreciated. Wabi-sabi finds beauty in irregularity and imperfection and appreciats the deeper values hidden beneath the surface.

Hmm, sounds like just the ticket for us railway modelers. So, I built a little tearoom with the values of Wabi-sabi in my mind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   
   I used colored card and mindfulness to create a place of rest for the enjoyment of tea.

What ? No silly story, no little people and no snow ?

Patients is a vertue, snow is in the air, and little people comming soon 

Thanks, Tom

[cteno4]

Tom,

 

excellent work as always! Nice to get a fix of your modeling and yoda skills, it’s been a while. Wonderful what you did in all cardstock.

 

jeff

 

 

[Tom C]

@cteno4 Jeff, I used scrap card from the Sankei pagoda that I built. The quility of their card is to die for. I wish I could buy it in A4 sheets as the size of the scraps I have is limiting what I can build. Still, happy to have them.

 

On a side note, what are these split brushes that you mention ? I'm always on the hunt for smaller brushes. The littlest I have are 000 from HobbySearch and I struggle to paint small things with them.

[cteno4]

42 minutes ago, Tom C said:

Jeff, I used scrap card from the Sankei pagoda that I built. The quility of their card is to die for. I wish I could buy it in A4 sheets as the size of the scraps I have is limiting what I can build. Still, happy to have them.

Tom, If only we could find it! It’s amazing stuff, tons of resin to make it very tough and warp resistant, doesn’t singe in their lasercutting, has he color all the way thru, and great surface texture. I keep my sankei scraps as well!

 

42 minutes ago, Tom C said:

On a side note, what are these split brushes that you mention

Sorry, 000 are the finest I’ve seen, but i have this vague memory of seeing 000000 somewhere. Split hair brushes are just my poor attempt at a joke splitting hairs over brushes and the size of the detail Joe is getting in his etches!

 

jeff

[Kamome442]

Beautiful work as always Tom.

For the brickwork I have been using 00000 brushes. I found them on cheap on eBay, they worked ok, even if I am not fully convinced they are much finer than the 000 I had been using previously.

[cteno4]

That’s kind of what I remember, anything I got over 000 really didn’t seem smaller than my 000. But then my amplifier goes to 11.

 

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

The smaller they get, the smaller the difference becomes really. Especially on those cheap brush sets with synthetic hairs, you'll not notice much of a difference, if any. But a good quality brush, like a Windsor & Newton Kolinsky, there's a noticeable difference. Of course, the Kolinsky doesn't actually go below 000.

 

It also seems the indications differ per brand, a Windsor & Newton 000 to me looks smaller than for example an AK Interactive 00000.

[Tom C]

Tea ceremony.



In haiku I best describe it;

Tea steams in a bowl,
Utensils placed in harmoney,
The master smiles.

Later outside, the elderly couple don't feel the cold. The calming ceremony liberated waisted energy that they now use to heat their bodies from within.

    

As the moon casts shadows the lantern is lit bringing a symbolic warmth to the still icy air.

 

 

[cteno4]

Beautiful Tom! But that lovely roof is now totally hidden in snow! You don’t cheat, do you?!

 

cheers

 

jeff