Neon Noir Designs

[cteno4]

Wow Joe,mjust wow!

 

jeff

[Cat]

Ooh, super fire escapes!

[Kamome442]

Thanks @cteno4 & @Cat I am really happy with how the fire escapes look. I do have a couple of the sample sheets spare, message me if you wanted to have a play around with them. I will be drawing up the production version next.

 

I had a go at making the drivers side bus mirror today. It really should come with a health warning it so small!

 

[Kamome442]

New Stock

 

The following items are now available:

Scale Rulers: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1553032265

 

I have also finished Series 3 CP fences adding designs 16 to 18. I changed the planned release order to include a fish design.

Crossing Prevention Fence Series 3: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1490595242

 

Finally I also added series 4.

Crossing Prevention Fence Series 4: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1553021645

 

There are two versions of the fish design 23 and 24, because their little fishy faces have a half etch detail. Sadly it will mean that on one side they will be flat

Front:

 

Back:

 

At least by offering a versions facing left and right you can choose the version that's best for your needs.

Joe

 

 

[cteno4]

Damn Joe! Another set of great fences and the ruler looks like it came out amazingly well! Can’t wait to use it. Order is in.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Kamome442]

For the Fire Escape Testers

 

Firstly, thank you to my testers hopefully by now you have received the samples. To hopefully make construction a little easier here is a rough step by step guide.

 

Also for the test pieces I put two round 0.5mm holes on side of the landing that goes against the building. The idea was to attach pins into the wall that the landing could slide over, going forward I think it might be easier to just have built in tabs that stick out once the landing is folded.  I have attached a .pdf with the correct spacing for the pin holes. 

Fire Escape Sample.pdf

 

Making the landings

 

With the etch face down fold the outer flaps up 90°

 

Then fold the inner flaps up 90°

 

Adding the railings

 

These are pretty delicate, it quite easy to accidentally bend them. I found the best technique for removing the tabs was to line up the cut and apply just enough pressure to hold the part in the cutters. Then let go of the etch so it is just being held in the cutters before applying pressure and making the cut. This allows the part to flex without being twisted.

 

Bend the fence 90° at the at the join. Both fence segments are the same so check first which direction to bend the fence for each landing.

 

There are 3 small holes for the legs to fit into on the surface of the landing. Seen here top right and bottom left and right.

 

Carefully drop the middle legs in first then tease the outer legs into place. You can flex the fence to help get it lined up correctly.

 

Stairs

 

First fold down the sides 90°. If the stairs are twist slightly (seen below) gently hold the stairs at either end and twist in the opposite direction to fix.

 

Gently press on the back edge of each step with a flat tool to fold it down.

 

Finally glue the railings on either side. There two thin raised lines on the outer edge of the stairs side wall. The legs of the railings should just touch the bottom line. The top line has small gaps to help align the railings. Going forward I will add holes to sides of the stairs and bend point on the railings as this part is really fiddly.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Joe

[Cat]

Not arrived here yet, but this certainly looks to be helpful!

[Kamome442]

Hi @Cat I think I may have sent yours around 2 days later than the other orders as I needed to go to post office to get stamps. It should be with in the next day or so. If it doesn't arrive by mid week let me know.

[Kamome442]

I have the new portable barriers. I need to test the transfers for the Shinkansen designs. Once I'm happy with everything I will make them available. 

I will say they are very very small, it will be very fiddly cutting and applying the transfers 😬

[Kamome442]

Fire Escapes 2nd EP and Additional Steps

 

I have sometime this weekend to work on a couple of projects. I have finished making alterations to the fire escape designs to hopefully make little easier to construct. I have also altered the thickness of the legs on the handrails to 0.3mm to make them a little stronger. While looking around for reference material I stumbled upon a Youtube channel called nadawalk, it has a bunch of walk around videos exploring suburbs mostly in Tokyo. There are lots of 'lets walk' videos around however this channel caught my eye. They explore lots of backstreets well off the beaten path by many and there some lovely shabby looking alleys and narrow sheets with lots of character. I have been really enjoying working my way through the series, for anyone interested here is a link: https://www.youtube.com/@nadawalk3305/videos

 

I only mention this because in the first video I watched, exploring Jujo they pass a bunch of external stairs and spiral staircases. One style in particular caught my eye:

Source: Google Streetview

 

I am not sure why it stood out so much but to me it just felt very Japanese and I decided I really wanted to make it up as an etch. I wasn't able to find any dimensions for this design but I figured it wouldn't be too dissimilar to a fire escape. I went for a 46° angle on the stairs so slightly shallower than the 57° I'm using on the fire escapes and I came up with this:

 

I have no idea if there will be any interest in them but I will create a small range of steps with small landings to go alongside the fire escapes. The completed etch should look something like this:

At the top I have put a fence around two sides, so that the stairs run parallel to the building.  

 

I could always offer alternate landings to allow the stairs face out 90°. Other versions that I could consider in the future could include a turn at the base so that the steps face onto the street.

 

Do let me know if you know of there are any other styles of steps that you would like to see.

Joe

 

 

 

 

[cteno4]

Nice Joe! It does look very Japanese. 
 

id be in for a few. Straight probably fits more with tight building spacing than the landing one, but the landing one looks nice.

 

jeff

[Kamome442]

@cteno4 I totally agree the the straight step version makes the most sense. I can also change the design of the railings very easily without having to change any other parts. This will allow me to offer plenty of variety with basic design.

 

 

I am thinking that later on I can offer sets of stairs with different numbers of steps and sets of landings in various shapes and sizes with alternative attachment points for stairs to allow people to mix and match parts as needed.

 

 

[Kamome442]

I haven't had a huge amount of time to work on new products recently. The bus mirrors have been ordered, I had hoped they would turn up this week so that I could put them up for sale. Maybe next week. 

 

I have had a go at painting the latest set of barriers, below is my attempt at a Shisa guard.

 

I hope to test the the transfers for the Shinkansen barriers and see if I am happy with the results.

 

I have finally restarted working on a production version of the street signs. I have been trying to improve the quality of the print. one thing that I noticed was the outer boarder was printing off centre:

 

I have been playing around with ways to improve this. I found that increasing the diameter of the boarder by 0.15mm and adjusting the line thickness from 0.1px to 0.2px really helps with the overall look.

 

Now it just a matter of finalising the layout. Some of the progress so far:

[Kamome442]

The etches arrived yesterday! 

I just need to check each one to make sure there issues and then I will put them up for sale. 

I couldn't resist making up a couple of the stair designs last night. 

The etch:

 

Finished stairs:

 

Another version with different hand rails:

 

[cteno4]

Excellent Joe!

 

jeff

[Kamome442]

Thank you jeff,

 

I had some time to get the new items up for sale.

 

First up are the bus mirrors. Believe me when I say these are really not for the faint hearted! The parts are absolutely tiny and there is a lot of cutting bending and gluing needed.

There is enough to make up mirrors for 28 buses. I send them out with a set of instructions showing how to put them together.

 

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1607901525

 

I have also added 4 more scales of ruler. The new scales are: 1:87, 1:144, 1:160 and 1:220

 

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1553032265

 

Enjoy

[Kamome442]

I have been thinking about the future of Neon, most of my sales have been in the UK and US.

Once I have finished work on the stairs and fire escapes I am going to have a look at creating some proper packaging.  

I want to see if I can supply etches directly to shops, hopefully some in Japan, to help make people aware they exist.

I have been playing around with some designs, there is still some work to do but I thought I would share the progress so far.

 

I have opted for a cellophane wrapper with a hanger slot. This will allow people to see the etch before purchase:

 

The back will be stiff card to protect the etch while it is being handled:

 

I am still working on the layout and what information will need to be included on the card. If anyone has any advice/feedback I would love to hear your thoughts.

Joe

[disturbman]

9 minutes ago, Kamome442 said:

I want to see if I can supply etches directly to shops, hopefully some in Japan, to help make people aware they exist.

Send samples to Susukuma. @lighthouse had some of his catenary reviewed by him.

[cteno4]

Joe,

 

nice clean packaging with a minimum of material. Nice you can see the etches well. You have a very high quality product and you have gone for the niches not filled so hopefully there will be some good demand.

 

smaller shops tend to sell a bunch of small stuff like your etches from garage businesses in their physical shops. They rarely seem to go up onto the bigger shops’ web sites. 
 

I agree that Susukuma would be the primary place to start with, this stuff is what they are all about. I would hazard a guess they would appreciate your line as the closest was some of the kobaru line they purchased, but I think that is a strain to keep all that in production.

 

might also talk with Nariichi San at MTP and Masaharu San at Rokko to suss out the ability of shops to source directly from you overseas. Japanese wholesale system seems to have more layers than other places, but from what I saw in shops on my travels they seem to have some stuff from very small producers and I would not assume be big enough to get into the wholesale chain and I would guess be direct sales.

 

best of luck with this! I’ve really enjoyed your products!

 

jeff

[Kamome442]

Thanks @disturbman and @cteno4 I will certainly give Susukuma, MTP and Rokko a try.

 

To be honest I don't want to attract the attention of the bigger shops and web sites. This is still very much a micro business, orders of a dozen or so etches would be ideal. It is just me sorting this out in my spare time and kind of quantities larger shops would expect I don't think I could reliably supply. I don't really want to spend all my down time packaging up orders.

 

I quite like the idea of smaller shops selling the products relevant to their area, such as the apple fence being sold by a shop in Aomori.

 

This is still a long way off as I need find a printer that will be able to make the information cards. Once I have that sorted I will make up some little sample boxes that I can send out with contact information. I have no idea if anything will come from it but I thought it would be fun to try.

 

Joe

[disturbman]

Susukuma is a YouTuber. It's a good way to get attention if your product gets featured in one of his builds.

Don't if it would work with Etsy, but densha.me sells in Japanese and JPY even though they are based in China.

[Kamome442]

4 hours ago, disturbman said:

Don't if it would work with Etsy, but densha.me sells in Japanese and JPY even though they are based in China.

 

It is possible to sell to Japan through Etsy. I think I have sold around 8 etches there so far. It doesn't feel like Etsy is very well known to Japanese customers. 

[railsquid]

3 hours ago, Kamome442 said:

 

It is possible to sell to Japan through Etsy. I think I have sold around 8 etches there so far. It doesn't feel like Etsy is very well known to Japanese customers. 

 

It isn't. It doesn't seem to provide a Japanese interface, even when accessed from within Japan, which is what you'd need if going after that market.

 

FWIW the Japanese equivalent in that part of the online shopping ecosystem is https://minne.com/  (which I have ordered stuff from in the past).

 

[Kamome442]

Good to know @railsquid thank you. I may have a look at minne to see if it possible to sell through them from the UK. 

 

I have finished the design for the stairs. It has been tricky as all the parts take up a lot of space. In the end I stretched the dimensions of the standard etch sheet by 35mm to be able to get 4 sets of stairs. I will order these over the weekend. Hopefully I can use the same long sheet for the fire escapes.

[disturbman]

10 hours ago, railsquid said:

It doesn't seem to provide a Japanese interface, even when accessed from within Japan, which is what you'd need if going after that market.

I second that point. That's why I was mentioning densha.me