Weathering, Train Prepping and Customizing with miyakomokei You Tube Channel

[bill937ca]

We had a discussion recently about weathering a Hobby Center Kato Kotoden Takamatsu Electric Railway 30.  Tonight I came across a video dealing with this subject and installing the lights. It is from a You Tube Channel full of individual videos on various recent trains. locomotives and some freight cars. The videos are short, without narration and well photographed.

 

EDIT: It appears these are videos and blog entries by a small hobby shop and some of the items might not be readily available.  https://www.miyakomokei.com/

 

There is one caveat. I notice he uses Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color.  This is an enamel  based paint that Tamiya cautions on its use on plastic.

 

※Plastic parts may become brittle. Avoid using on movable parts and take care when applying to load-bearing areas.
※Apply over base coat of lacquer or acrylic paint. Accent Color paints may damage underlying base coat. Test before applying onto the model.
※Take care when applying on flat base coat colors as Accent Color paints may permeate more readily.

https://www.tamiya.com/english/products/87131_133panel_accent/index.htm

 

I looked at a similar product recently called Mr. Weathering  and it also is an enamel paint which would have similar risks.  Perhaps diluted black acrylic paint would be a safer route.

 

Given the number of trains in second hand shops in japan, I think we may well hold on to our trains much longer than many Japanese modelers who are limited in their storage and display space.

 

 

When weathering an Kato E5 he outlines the edges of doors and applies a bit of Panel Line Accent Color mainly to the skits which would attract track dirt. As passenger trains I assume the K5 and other Shinkansens would be washed frequently if not daily.

 

 

 

 

This is the full miyakomokei You Tube channel.   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPWCVnw9-ijS7aHH47YnMJQ/videos

 

There is also a blog that links to videos from this channel.   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPWCVnw9-ijS7aHH47YnMJQ/videos

Edited May 5, 2021 by bill937ca

[katoftw]

Their products and videos are great.

[gavino200]

What light board is that, that he's soldering in?

[Yavianice]

57 minutes ago, gavino200 said:

What light board is that, that he's soldering in?

If you are referring to the E5, it's the ordinary KATO lightboard? Nothing special about it?

 

Soldering the lights in does help with connectivity (as I wrote before somewhere else in this forum, most poor light connectivity is because the lights do not connect properly, either to the copper inserts, or the internal copper conductors) but it is not strictly speaking necessary, clever bending of the coppers and light pickups also works.

 

BTW Miyakomokei is quite responsive on Youtube, I asked him a question in english once and got a reply within hours. He does not ship abroad however, but most of the stuff he sells (custom lightboards) are orderable via Hobbysearch or RG-R.

Edited May 5, 2021 by Yavianice