Yamahama - A newbie constructs a somewhat ambitious n-scale layout

[cteno4]

even with a gridded scene having some off grid helps break it up and get away from the dreaded model train track oval. It gives a little contrast in the scene that can get dulled in a hard ass grid (even when yes prototpyically many station areas are very hard assed grids!) Our model scenes are so abstracted and compressed usually from the prototype that you end up having to play with the minds eye some and doing the odd little things like this that are not prototypical just do something to the minds eye to say this looks cooler and more 'real', even when it might be unprototypical. The smaller you go on layouts the more i think this comes up. Ive noticed the micro tray layouts ive like the most were the ones where they canted the loop like 5-10 degrees off from the tray. Again distracts the minds eye from the very small track loop dominating the scene and gets you more into looking at the small slice of a scene.

 

its also one of the issues i struggle with on ttrak as there all the scene is right next to a track and prototypically most everything would follow the track, but it ends up making a very linear scene that then again hilights the long track loop and distracts from the scenes. some of the best module scenes ive seen are ones with a scene running at an angle off perpendicular/parallel to the tracks. i was mocking up a multi module scene with some buildings on a dense city scene next to the track using a some prototype pictures as a guide and it just looked pretty blah, but im now looking at canting the road grid about 5 degrees off the track and i think it looks better. 

 

I wonder if its the fight between, yes our cities are very gridded and linear, but our usually perspective on it as a human going thru it doesnt see that grid that much, you only see it up high and from a distance. the griding is kind of a theoretical perspective not our immediate human visual walking down the stree perspective. in our human/minds eye/visual memory perspective we intellectually understand the grid but the things that we deal with are the things that we experience that stand out go against that grid, so doing it in a model having some things off grid just sort of trips those triggers in the minds eye/subconscious whereas the grid is a more objective/concious experience and a bit boring and theoretical and doesn't bring in the visual memory and minds eye to make it more exciting visually to our brain.

 

I always love thinking about these things when you do some small thing and the scene just goes wow! while at other times its all neat and perfect and it just goes kinda thud...

 

Visual perception is a very strange bestie.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[kami_illy]

4 hours ago, cteno4 said:

our cities are very gridded and linear, but our usually perspective on it as a human going thru it doesnt see that grid that much, you only see it up high and from a distance

 

Barcelona is a good and beautiful example for that. A mighty grid that is pretty unnoticeable once you are standing in it. Might even be just bc a couple of times the rigid grid is interrupted by an angled street cutting through. 

[cteno4]

Yeah it’s the thing of where we usually are doing our visual experience and on that is on a very short scale, but looking at a module or layout we are at a very pulled back perspective we rarely have in real life. We see it on a map but that’s objective conscious thought. Our visual memory is down on the street level with the usual chaos there on the small scale that’s much smaller that the grid scale. From a walking around town you don’t really notice how crazy Washington DC is laid out as our attention is on the within the block chaos at the very close in scale, but when you pull back and look at a map (or try to drive) it’s utter chaos and a very different experience. 
 

an corollary example is sidewalks. When we model them to look at them 3’ away and do them to scale (like 0.8mm) the sidewalks jsut don’t look right as at 3’ (450’ away scale) that size is down to maybe a little line. Our visual memory of sidewalks is almost all being within 25’ of them, not 450’.

 

all is to say I like to look for anything that can help bring in our mostly up close (Ie 1-50’) visual memory thru the mind’s eye more with any even non prototypical trick when we are usually looking at our model scenes from a few hundred feet back scale which we usually are not doing in real life.
 

jeff

[MeTheSwede]

The cities in reality rarely if ever gets close to resembling the abstract ideal of a city grid. Terrain and historical land use will always impose limits that makes every city, town, or part of a city, unique. I think in our minds the streets of our cities seem more well ordered than in reality due to the way our brain stores information. Atleast in my brain any street with gentle curves becomes straight and intersections tend to be stored as 90 degreed angled even when they're not.

 

I wish I could say I angled my station due to estethically skillfull planing, but I did not. 😄  It was actually mostly down to making the most of the available space. It makes more room for me the operator, at the same time as the main line becomes longer. Without it, the curve out of the station area onto the peninsula would be right next to the curve at the end of the peninsula with no room for a straigh in between. Also fitting the last pair of station platforms would be hard.

[MeTheSwede]

Yesterday I painted the foam to get rid of the blue. Next time I make a layout I think I'll do this before attaching the points to the foam by burying the cables. 😅

 

Today I've moved around some houses and modules with green areas to see what would work well and what does not. I made a quick mock up of an overpass which works pretty well. Behind the overpass the main line is planned to enter a tunnel.

 

 

 

The locations of the main streets will be decided by the overall shape of the layout and the tracks, but the details are still very much to be worked out.

 

The station platform roofs acts as a barrier that blocks much of the view of the main street that is to run parallel to the station. I might attempt to raise the entire city area behind the station, but then I need to find some foam of a suitable thickness.

 

[bill937ca]

Have you run any trains yet?

[MeTheSwede]

Yes! My 313 series found a paint spill on the tracks. 😄

[chickendrop]

On 3/27/2021 at 6:57 AM, MeTheSwede said:

 

This week two very crucial parts of any Japanese town came to Yamahama. The electrical grid and a FamilyMart.

After finishing the FamilyMart building I notice that I probably spent an unnecessary amount of time painting the unifom of the store clerk as he's apparently very good at not being seen. 😄

 

Awesome!!

[MeTheSwede]

Today I built the Greenmax 2600 residential buildings set C. The kit is 2055 yen on Amazon Japan and 2250 yen on Hobbysearch. Set A and set B are quite simular. There's also an unpainted version.

 

 

The kit comes with pieces for three houses, but is very flexible with many possible ways to assemble. There's a total of 6 roofs and as the lower right of the building instructions tell, it's possible to assemble into larger houses, or even to cut the two story wall pieces into single story pieces.

 

The building instruction wasn't really needed. You just assemble the pieces how you want them in a way they fit. I did however look at the pictures of finished houses on the product description on Amazon in order to find inspiration about where to attach the small extra bits and pieces that come with the set.

 

 

I don't know where the city planning board is going to place theese houses eventually, but they got placed behind Yamahama Minami Station for the time being.

 

In the photo is also my Metetsu 3100 series which got it's Arnold couplers changed to Tomix Close Couplers this week. The cutting into the bogies was nerve wracking  😱  but I think the result is really good.

 

A closer look at the houses:
 

 

The dark grey roofs looked a but plastic, so they got a quick paint job. A black wash and then some white dry brushing. Letter boxes, kitchen exhaust pipes and AC units exhausts got a bit of metall coloured paint before being glued in place.

 

 

I also assembled the Tomytec 122 Bus Stop C kit this week.

 

Looks like that elementary school kid might have some problems with stepping up into it though. 😅

 

[chickendrop]

33 minutes ago, MeTheSwede said:

Today I built the Greenmax 2600 residential buildings set C. The kit is 2055 yen on Amazon Japan and 2250 yen on Hobbysearch. Set A and set B are quite simular. There's also an unpainted version.

 

 

 

The kit comes with pieces for three houses, but is very flexible with many possible ways to assemble. There's a total of 6 roofs and as the lower right of the building instructions tell, it's possible to assemble into larger houses, or even to cut the two story wall pieces into single story pieces.

 

The building instruction wasn't really needed. You just assemble the pieces how you want them in a way they fit. I did however look at the pictures of finished houses on the product description on Amazon in order to find inspiration about where to attach the small extra bits and pieces that come with the set.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know where the city planning board is going to place theese houses eventually, but they got placed behind Yamahama Minami Station for the time being.

 

In the photo is also my Metetsu 3100 series which got it's Arnold couplers changed to Tomix Close Couplers this week. The cutting into the bogies was nerve wracking  😱  but I think the result is really good.

 

 

 

A closer look at the houses:
 

 

The dark grey roofs looked a but plastic, so they got a quick paint job. A black wash and then some white dry brushing. Letter boxes, kitchen exhaust pipes and AC units exhausts got a bit of metall coloured paint before being glued in place.

 

 

 

 

 

I also assembled the Tomytec 122 Bus Stop C kit this week.

 

Looks like that elementary school kid might have some problems with stepping up into it though. 😅

 

 

 

Those Greenmax buildings look amazing! I've wondered about their quality, but clearly they are really well made and detailed. I guess I know what I'm buying next!

[cteno4]

1 hour ago, MeTheSwede said:

Looks like that elementary school kid might have some problems with stepping up into it though.

you must be this tall to ride this bus!

 

jeff

[MeTheSwede]

Quote

you must be this tall to ride this bus!

 

Only physically fit adults allowed in this bus? That might explain why the bus looks a bit empty of passengers. 🤔

[cteno4]

Sorry I guess it’s an American aphorism. Many amusement park rides here have a sign saying “you must the this tall” with a height marker to ride this ride.

 

jeff

[MeTheSwede]

11 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Sorry I guess it’s an American aphorism. Many amusement park rides here have a sign saying “you must the this tall” with a height marker to ride this ride.

 

jeff

 

Naaah, I understood that part. I expect it to be the same in amusements parks all over the world.

[MeTheSwede]

On 5/23/2021 at 6:23 PM, chickendrop said:

Those Greenmax buildings look amazing! I've wondered about their quality, but clearly they are really well made and detailed. I guess I know what I'm buying next!

 

I'll likely pick up the other versions and I feel tempted to assemble in other configurations.

 

[cteno4]

Greenmax in general are quite good for kitbashing. Some of the early city building were done to have several combinations to make some odd shaped mid rises or additions to buildings and later they had a couple of modular high rise kits (didn’t seem to sell well though).

 

jeff

[RMB]

Where did you get your great cars and buses from? All I can find is identical saloon cars in any shade as long as its a derivative of grey.

[MeTheSwede]

20 hours ago, RMB said:

Where did you get your great cars and buses from? All I can find is identical saloon cars in any shade as long as its a derivative of grey.

 

I've bought the Tomytec and Kato car packs that are currently in stock. I think everything came from Amazon Japan or from Hobbysearch.

I also have cheap cars in places where they aren't seen much...

 

Today I recieved my first TGW cars by mail. I ordered their Toyota Vitz cars which look great.

 

Automobiles on Hobbysearch:

https://1999.co.jp/eng/list/250/6/1?sold=1&state=4

 

Buses:

https://1999.co.jp/eng/list/254/0/1?sold=1&state=4

Edited May 25, 2021 by MeTheSwede

[MeTheSwede]

What have been going on in Yamahama lately you might ask. Well, many of the inhabitants have been asking the same.

 

"Didn't the Family Mart use to be on the other side of the road?"

"I don't remember the tree being here yesterday."

"I must have had a drink too much after work, as I had trouble finding the location of my house".

 

Things seem to be in constant flux here in Yamahama as the god in the sky tries different tings. Something else that is new is the radical increase of heavy vehicles seen on the roads.

 

 

After having looked around for trucks and forklifts for quite some time I realised that this truck collection ( https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10696289 ) gives by far the most bang for the buck and decided to pick it up before it gets out of stock.

 

Besides of 6 trucks and 4 forklifts it includes a lot of cargo and a bunch of people. Now I've learned that everyone who works in Japanese logistics are all very tall men, unless they are forklift drivers because then they are very short.  😆

 

Also I didn't realise how much I'd like the truck terminal loading dock until after I had assembled it.

 

Yesterday I started assembling the Walthers "Medusa" cement company kit. I've had the kit basically since the start of this project, but lately I've been worrying that the size of it would block the view of other things too much in the location where I was planning to put it. I've considered maybe moving it to the harbour area instead. It was time to get atleast the main body of it together to get an idea of what it will look like on the layout.

 

 

There are lots of little pieces that are parts of the piping and other details that mainly goes on top of the roof, but they'll have to wait for some other day. The same goes for the four garage ports which I didn't want to attach yet in case I'd later would like to block the access to either of them with some building or somehting.

 

 

These pieces came together quite easily. The trickies part was four big visible joints on the tower, one of which

 you can see here. I guess plenty of paint will have to be applied to hide them.

 

 

I think the loading dock helps create a nice mix of old and new in the industrial area. The (unfinished) cement company building also blends in better than I had feared and will likely stay here in the location I had originally planed for it.

 

Basically nothing on this layout is anything near completion, but with photos from a low enough angle it's sometimes possible to hide that.

 

[MeTheSwede]

I only have an extremely small and insignificant update for you today.

 

I ordered an acrylic paint market pen set that arrived yesterday. I though I should try pens for those detailing paint jobs. I did a couple of quick experiments.

 

 

You'll find two bicycles in front of the Family Mart. The left one is an original Tomix (3583) bicycle (with the black parts hard to see against the background) whereas the right one is the same type after a 2 minute paint job with the pens.

 

I also did an exually quick work with one of those cheap cars that Amazon always thinks I should buy a hundred of. In the parking I've parked the one I put some paint on the front of next to an untreated one.

 

Now I want to buy more bicycles!

[cteno4]

Nice Swede! The lady seems to like the pink cherry blossom bike! I’ve often wondered if a few details on the chinese architectural cars would help improve them and never got around to trying! Nice job, does spiff them up from being so blah.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[Madsing]

Nice! Which set did you buy?

I bought a set of uni posca long ago and I use them a lot!

[roadstar_na6]

Besides Posca pens I can also highly recommend Molotow Markers 🙂

[MeTheSwede]

Thanks for your recomendations!

I didn't know what to get and decided to try a cheap option, an 18 pen set from Wotek.

[MeTheSwede]

 

I haven't been doing any work on the harbour area. However last week the restocked Tomitec fishing boats arrived with the post and after assembling I felt I had to arrange for a little photo op.

 

 

Doesn't look too bad I think. I might opt for a temporary look like this before I one day go into the more complex and time consuming business of doing things like lowering the sea level, creating higher quays and doing proper water modelling.