Neon Noir Designs

[Madsing]

I’d suggest checking booth.pm (https://booth.pm/en). It’s a Japanese company / site. International shipment is provided by Buyee. 
There are quite a number of sellers providing n-gauge products such as DCC decoders, books or 3D printed accessories. 
I have purchased a few things from them these last months.

 

Marc

 

[Kamome442]

Thank you for the information @disturbman I had checked that Etsy sold in Japan but had not realised it not have a proper interface.

My apologies to any members based in Japan.

 

Thanks @Madsing I have had a look at booth and it seems I am able to set up store from the UK. I will look in to setting up a shop there as some of the account management information is in English that will hopefully make handling the admin side of things a lot easier. 

[Kamome442]

Road Signs

 

The first set of road signs is now available to download on Etsy:

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1308164403

 

I will be activating the Booth account over the weekend once I have worked out some of the admin regarding tax payments etc.

 

The download contains around 700 signs over five pages, these are mostly restrictions and instructional signs. I will follow up with a set of warning and supplemental signs. I will be honest I had no idea how to price this one I decided to make it £1 per page as that seemed reasonable. Etsy also added £1 to the price for hosting the download giving a total price of £6. 

If this seems a little steep let me know, I adjust the price a little.

 

Page one of the .pdf is what I assume are the most common signs (stop, pedestrian crossing, speed limits, no U-turns):

 

Page two is devoted to height, width and weight limit signs:

 

Page three is another mix of signs that are less common (no entry signs for different categories of vehicle, no parking/stopping, roundabouts, taxis):

 

Page four is a bunch of non standard signs including a bunch of combined regulatory and supplemental signs:

 

Page five is dedicated to direction permitted signs (white arrow on blue background) there is no way to create all of these signs there are just too many. I have recreated 120 that I thought were either interesting or useful. I have created a mirrored copy for each sign:

 

There are two files available to download one for letter format and one for A4.

Also don't forget that is a free version of road signs on page 7, there are a fraction of the signs on this version but probably good for most peoples needs.

 

Finally I have been working on this in the evenings, I have checked for errors a few times but I am bound to have missed some. If you spot a spelling mistake or notice a colours are off on one of the signs please do let me know and I will go back and correct them.

 

Joe

[maihama eki]

I had to have this right away.

 

That's an amazing compendium of Japanese road signs. Given the work you had to put into this - the price is a bargain.

[cteno4]

Bummer already sold out! Just kidding, thanks for these Joe! Great resource and meticulous work.

 

kudos,

 

jeff

[Kamome442]

2 hours ago, maihama eki said:

I had to have this right away.

 

That's an amazing compendium of Japanese road signs. Given the work you had to put into this - the price is a bargain.

 

Thanks @maihama eki I am glad you like it. It's good to know I did not over price them.

 

1 hour ago, cteno4 said:

Bummer already sold out! Just kidding, thanks for these Joe! Great resource and meticulous work.

 

kudos,

 

jeff

 

 

Thank you jeff, hopefully this will be useful for anyone modelling a Japanese scene.

[brill27mcb]

This is incredible work! You need to find a way to get it publicized in Japan...

 

Rich K.

[Kamome442]

Thank you Rich, your kind words are much appreciated. I am hoping this will help to get a little publicity in Japan:

https://neonnoirdesigns.booth.pm

 

The Booth store is live! There are only the street signs available at the moment. I will spend the weekend splitting the stock of etches into two boxes and adjusting the number available on Etsy to make sure I do not accidentally sell the same etch twice!

[Kamome442]

Quick Update

 

I have received the stair etches, there are 4 versions of railing:

 

 

The railings are on the delicate side so I designed the etch with snap off points for each set of stairs. That way if you are only making up one set the others can stay supported on the frame.

 

 

There was space on the sheet I sent to get etched for 5 designs. I did consider making up an additional set of railings but decided instead to try something different. The last space is filled with a mixed set that contains one of each design.

 

 

Finally, I finished packaging them in their swanky new cellophane wrappers (oooh fancy 😙) and as soon as I have drawn up a set of instructions for constructing them I will add them to the shops.

 

 

I have ordered more scales of scale ruler, these should be here in early January. The new scales are: 1/18, 1/24, 1/32, 1/35, 1/43.5, 1/48, 1/50, 1/56, 1/72 and 1/100.

Next up will be finishing and ordering fire escapes, then I will get to work on a new manhole cover etch.

 

Joe

Edited December 26, 2023 by Kamome442

[Cat]

Ooh, looking good!

[Kamome442]

Is Bigger Better?

 

So when I started making parts to sell I set a standard size for etches. To do this I simply took the standard sheet size that PPD.ltd uses and split it into 15 segments (below left). When I made the stairs these dimensions were were too constrained and the most I could fit on was 2 with a lot of wasted space so I dropped the middle row and made the etch longer (below right). 

 

The price difference isn't that significant, cost of an etched sheet (usually around £20 + VAT and postage) divided by 10 instead of 15. It got me wondering if I should add a large sheet for some designs. I decided to play around with a few combinations and came up with this:

 

It would give me 8 etches costing somewhere between £2.50-£3 and the cost for me posting items is between £1.95 (UK) - £4.20 (global). I figured I could offer a large version for £8 (UK) or £10 (elsewhere). It wouldn't work for all designs but for something like the fences it would work out at much better value. Here is a fence on the current standard size (left) and how it would look on a large sheet (right):

 

I printed the larger design on a piece of card and placed in to one of sleeves to get a better idea of how they look:

 

 

How the current etch looks:

 

It would be interesting to know your thoughts, I could offer a large version alongside the current size for the most popular items. Alternatively I could transfer to larger size and make that new standard for items such as fences.

 

Joe

 

 

[Kamome442]

The Power of Procrastination 

 

I have been trying to avoid drawing up the final fire escape etch as I know it will be a nightmare organising all the parts. It turns out that can lead to a good deal of productivity 🤣

 

In the past two days I have finished up the design work on the next set of low level fences:

 

 

 

The next two sets of taller guard rail fences:

I will be ordering these at some point in the next few weeks so should have them ready for sale at some point in February. I may try them out in the larger format.

 

I am running low on stocks of Detail Pack 1 so I have decided that I am going to change this one to the larger format as I can get a lot more on a sheet. I finished the drawing work this morning and will be ordering the larger etch tomorrow.

 

 

I have also been drawing up set 2 of the printable road signs. These will be yellow warning signs.

If there is particular sign you would particularly like me to draw up for your layout please to let me know.

 

In a slight change to what I am used to doing I have also started work on American Road Signs.

It is in its early stages and probably wont be ready until the end of 2024 but I just thought I would share the progress so far:

 

I will be looking at other countries to model in the near future, please let me know I have any suggestions.

Well, back to work on the fire escapes I guess!

Joe

 

 

[Kamome442]

Larger Fence Etches, Some Fancy Instructions and a Freebie

 

I did some optimisation of how many parts I can fit on a larger etch and I have decided to make the larger sheet the standard for fences going forward. I sell the smaller etch for £7 and for an extra £3 I can fit almost double the amount on the larger sheet:

 

For the existing designs I will slowly transfer these over to larger etches. This will take a while for me to draw up replacement designs it would also cost a small fortune if I did it all in one go. 

 

For anyone who ordered the bus mirrors hopefully you also received a set of instructions. These were a little shabby looking but it was all I was able to get done in time. I have drawn up a slightly more professional looking set of instructions:

 

I will hopefully finish the instructions for the stairs this weekend. They will be in a similar style and this time I am trying to get them to fit on the card sleeve to reduce the amount of paper I am using.

 

Finally I just wanted to share a test file of the American Road Signs:

US Road Sign Test.pdf

 

If you are interested please do download the file and take a look. It is in letter format and has a mix of both N and HO. I want to be sure it all makes sense before I do too much.

Similar to the Japanese Road Signs there is a little banner above each group of signs:

 

The first part (R3630) relates to the etched signs that I will make to go with the printable sheets. The initial letter R tells you the shape of the sign (in this case Rectangle) the numbers that follow tell you the real world dimensions 36x30 the same as the JP signs. The only difference is that the US signs are measured in inches where as the Japanese signs are measurements in cm. Hopefully this won't make any difference as the signs aren't really interchangeable.

Then there will be a picture of the sign back to help identify it on etch ( I haven't drawn these up yet so it just a rectangle place holder). 

 

An example of one of the pictures from the Japanese signs:

 

This is followed by the scale dimensions (4mm x6mm)this to help if you are making your own backs for the signs.

Finally there will be one of the following words in a box: Single (for use on Single lane), Multi (multi-lane), Express (expressway), Free (freeway), Min (minimum) and Over (oversized) Some signs will be available in multiple sizes others in one or two sizes, thankfully this time around there is an official list of available sizes for each sign.

 

I hope that wasn't too much waffle and makes sense.

Joe

[Kamome442]

All Change (for Etsy)

 

Hello! Firstly my apologies for not being very active recently, there have been some events happening that took precedent over working on anything else. I am now slowly getting back to normal and picking up the various projects that have been sitting idol for the past couple of months. 

 

I will post some updates of upcoming projects and new items shortly. Before that I just wanted to run through a big change I have made to the listings on the Etsy site. I have been needing to increase the price of some listings for a while now but I wanted to do it in a way that still keep my etches good value.

 

Etsy's preferred method for listing is to include the postage in the price, so much so they will only promote listings that offer free postage. I have no problem with that however it always felt like it penalised anyone buying multiple items. I tried to counter this by selling items without any markup. It sort of works for a single sale I covered my costs for multiple sales I made some profit, but I was always a compromise.

 

With Booth, there is only one way (as far as I can tell) to set up listings and that is to have the postage added on to the order at checkout. It felt like a fairer way to do things and to try to keep things the same I have decided to remove free postage on Etsy. I have set the cost of postage at £1.95 for the UK and £4.20 for just about everywhere else. The price of each etch is based on their size as shown below:

 

 

I wanted to try and keep things as simple as possible with the pricing, for my own sanity. Using the small etch as an example: 

 

I hope this all makes sense and keeps the price down as much as possible. The only other etch size I used until recently was 95mm x 56mm the old price was £6 UK and £7 elsewhere. 

 

Joe

 

[Kamome442]

New Items, Updated Items and My First Sale

 

NEW fences (£7.50)

Now in stock, these are the larger 140mm x 70mm dimension sheets.

 

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1553021645

 

I had to do a little reorganising, originally I put 6 fences in each series. Now that I am using the larger sheets it works out better to have 8 fences in each series.

 

UPDATED Detail Pack 1 (£7.50)

 

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1290971215

 

Also on the larger 140mm x 70mm sheets. Here is breakdown of what is on the sheet:

 

 

NEW External Stairs (£4.00)

 

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1680681645

 

There are 4 stairs per etch. The normal price would be £6 however I noticed I made an error when drawing up the design.

 

 

There are little tabs at the bottom of each leg that need to be folded inward (red arrow). I forgot to mirror the design so on one side it needs to be folded in on the other side they need to folded out (blue arrow). I have checked it still works but in obviously not up to standard. I will be selling this batch off at the reduced price of £4. 

 

SALE Fences

In preparation for converting the earlier series of fences to the larger design I thought it was time to sell up the remaining stock of fences on smaller sheets.

The following series are now reduced to £3, these are the 95mm x 56mm sheets.

 

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1472140876

 

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1504780321

 

I will add links to Booth as soon as I have added the listings. I have split the stock for each site so do not worry about them selling out.

Joe

 

[Kamome442]

Just to let you all know, I have updated Booth with all the new listings and reduced the prices for the series 1 listings.

https://neonnoirdesigns.booth.pm

 

I forgot to mention this before, some of the etches now have finished packaging. It will take a long time to get packaging for all the products I make.

The etches with packaging are as follows:

 

Detail Pack 1

 

Animal Barriers

 

Tree Grates

 

Joe

[Kamome442]

I was waiting for someone to point out my mistake, everyone is too polite!

 

So yeah at some point I managed to mix up the Japanese for manhole cover and tree grate 🙄 Oopsy!

 

What the packing should look like is this:

 

I have ordered replacement packaging which should be here any day. Note to self: pay attention!

 

What would the packaging look like with manhole covers? 

something like this:

 

Edited February 24 by Kamome442

[Martijn Meerts]

Mistakes or not, those look mighty fancy 😄

 

[disturbman]

They look great. Too bad I know they are extremely small and in need of paint. Otherwise I would buy some just for the packaging.

[GeorgeHInch]

I just stumbled on this post and went ahead and put in an order! These seem like cool details to enhance a layout so I ordered a collection of different styles.

 

Out of curiosity @Kamome442, have you found an easy way to instal the manhole covers/tree grates into a substrate? I was thinking like some uniform round punch tool or something?

[Kamome442]

Thank you @Martijn Meerts and @disturbman I am glad you like them. 

 

Hi @GeorgeHInch, your order is on its way, I hope you have lots of fun playing around them.

I have a Silhouette cutter that I use to cut holes accurately. It is designed for card crafts but does apply cut 0.25mm (10 thou) styrene sheet. That is a really interesting idea to use a punching tool. I wonder if leather working tools come in lots of sizes. The diameter hole needed for each part is etched on the frame to get a good fit. 

[cteno4]

A Brad point bit might work well, especially on an installed street. The good Brad point bits have little cutting blades at the tip ends to cut the outer edge of the hole cleanly on entry (Think of two rotating knife tips cutting the outside edge of the hole). The  the hole cutting edges are flat to the stuface, not angled like most drill bit tips so it makes a flat bottomed hole. Finally the center has a sharp little brad point to start the hole on taftet and not wander like regular slanted tip twist drills.

 

drilling depth is an issue, but I expect just drill a little deep and fill hole with PVA glue and wipe off excess and then place the manhole flush.

 

its something I plan to experiment with soon as I have some mini onetrak scenes I want to start trying to put in Joe’s details a lot as I think the mini scenes will be the best to draw people in to look at these fine scale details!

 

jeff

 

ps my Oder just showed up yesterday, have to get to folding a fire escape!

[Kamome442]

Feel like your layout is missing something?

Maybe it needs more garlic..

 

 

 

I do like a quirky fence!

[maihama eki]

On 2/28/2024 at 5:07 PM, GeorgeHInch said:

Out of curiosity @Kamome442, have you found an easy way to instal the manhole covers/tree grates into a substrate? I was thinking like some uniform round punch tool or something?

I’ve collected a bunch of different tools for cutting small circles in thin materials, both for the purposes of making holes and for making circle shapes. I bought some of them for cutting circles in masking tape for making masks for spray painting. 

 

Punches: I have a number of different size paper punches both fractional inch and mm sizes. Office supply stores, scrapbook supply stores, and arts and crafts shops are good places to pick them up. I also bought one of these punch and die tools for some different small sizes: https://www.micromark.com/Micro-Punch-Set. It works pretty well, but it was pricey. 
 

Cutting Templates: I have this Hasegawa steel circle cutting template. https://www.plazajapan.com/4967834711075/ I use it with a sharp hobby knife to cut out circles. Hasegawa makes a number of these with different shapes. 

 

 

[Kamome442]

Very useful @maihama eki thank you for sharing.