Outland Buildings

[cteno4]

interesting paper. With so many led boards these days makes sense there is now a diffuser paper. In the past I have played with drafting paper and vellums with decent luck, better translucency than regular papers and an even white glow.
 

Love to hear what you find/found! A long time back I did some research and fiddles and was not finding much that would lend itself easily. Most flat backlighting systems were either pretty fixed sized or other issues (my ears pick up the high frequency hum from electroluminescent circuits and annoys the crap out of me). They also were usually too bright for modeling purposes and hard to turn down easily. Scene lighting like this is really sensitive to get just the right effect at scale and requires turning most things wayyy down and fine tuning as you add more. Little light diffuser boxes worked but you then have to engineer them into your building which usually is a no go.
 

Full sign lighting is the holy grail for a good Japanese sign scene! Keep us posted, it’s been on my (rather long unfortunately) interest/to play with list!

 

jeff

[James-SNMB]

Will do. I'll take some time to go through the notes I've made and eventually start a new thread for brainstorming/sharing. It's holding up a lot of my building projects since I want to have a lighted city with signage.

 

I don't mind building with integrating a light box in mind, but I have to play/research to see what works and what doesn't.

 

The electroluminescent sheets seemed like a potential magic bullet, but I also read about the buzzing you experienced, and that is definitely a drawback. You can get mini 2.4" LCD screens for raspberry Pi units, and that would be very cool, but still quite huge for n scale and something I would have to build the building around, so very limited applications.

[Tony Galiani]

Jeff - earlier in this thread you suggesting using translate to navigate that web site with the paper models.  Normally, I use cut and paste to get the kanji into Google Translate to get an idea of what is says.  Is there another method implied by your comment?  If there is an easier way to translate some of these web sites I would really like to learn it.

Cheers,

Tony Galiani

[roadstar_na6]

@Tony Galiani if you‘re using Chrome you can click a button on the right end of the URL bar that allows you to translate whole websites. I bet for other browsers there are plugins to be downloaded 🙂

[Martijn Meerts]

22 hours ago, cteno4 said:

The best way is to do the sankei layering of them and also cut out windows. Most of those layout photos do this.

 

actually doesn’t take a lot of light sealing other than joints if you just turn the leds way down and use a few of them instead of one mini sun! But backing with palite or such is good in any case as these start to get big and that’s when papercraft buildings can start to warp. Could also make a styrene or chipboard core work floors and a central elevator column that you can run wiring up in and easily remove for styling.
 

even w.o layering they have enough going on you don’t knots e the flatness at a few feet! Definitely the trick if you are on a budget.

 

jeff

 

I think you can definitely make them better with some Sankei layering techniques.. I don't think my photo printer handles paper thick enough to use as is, so I'd definitely need some sort of backing. They do have some really interesting buildings though, I really like that train maintenance building for example. Also seems they have a lot more things available if you get it pre-printed, makes you wonder if they would ship outside Japan...

[James-SNMB]

One other European company I've found is Stadt im Modell. The only real modern international style building I've seen from them so far is the Hotel High Rise. It's big, 550mm tall. Also a bit too stark looking for me though.

 

Still, they might release other buildings in the future so I'll be keeping an eye on them. Their other European style offerings look really nice, especially the Hamburg-Dammtor Station (which may have previously been sold by Trix?).

[cteno4]

On 9/10/2020 at 4:45 PM, Tony Galiani said:

earlier in this thread you suggesting using translate to navigate that web site with the paper models.

 

Tony,

 

I usually use chrome on the Mac or iPad for my translating like roadster mentioned. Usually just autodetects it, but at time need to force it with the menu option to kick it in the head. if they are using css text for their nav buttons then it translates those as well which helps in navigating the site, but if they use graphic buttons you don’t get the nav translated.
 

For instructions I use google translate app and just snap picts and translate bits.

 

jeff

[cteno4]

30 minutes ago, James-SNMB said:

One other European company I've found is Stadt im Modell. The only real modern international style building I've seen from them so far is the Hotel High Rise. It's big, 550mm tall. Also a bit too stark looking for me though.

wow one of the few big buildings in production! Atlas and few others are long oop. I don’t think cmr are doing their plaster older stone faced high rises. Mainly left with these custom ones or combining Tomix, Tomytec or Kato buildings to make them higher which works pretty well up to a point.

 

jeff

[cteno4]

On 9/10/2020 at 5:33 PM, Martijn Meerts said:

Also seems they have a lot more things available if you get it pre-printed, makes you wonder if they would ship outside Japan...

I think you can get most all as downloads.

 

does your printer have a paper bypass you can pop down in the back? That’s how I print on my big inkjet (11x17), it has a fold down tray in the back that feeds straight thru with only a small bend so you cna print on pretty heavy cardstock and don’t need to bend the paper 180 degrees From the bottom paper tray.

 

jeff

[cteno4]

On 9/10/2020 at 4:29 PM, James-SNMB said:

Will do. I'll take some time to go through the notes I've made and eventually start a new thread for brainstorming/sharing. It's holding up a lot of my building projects since I want to have a lighted city with signage.

 

I don't mind building with integrating a light box in mind, but I have to play/research to see what works and what doesn't.

 

The electroluminescent sheets seemed like a potential magic bullet, but I also read about the buzzing you experienced, and that is definitely a drawback. You can get mini 2.4" LCD screens for raspberry Pi units, and that would be very cool, but still quite huge for n scale and something I would have to build the building around, so very limited applications.

thanks James, start a new topic on the backlighting I don’t think we have had a dedicated one on that just chatter here and there like this.

 

yeah a long time ago I thought he electroluminescent would be the trick, but the buzz of the transformer on a friends layout use to annoy the hell out of me. But I could hear the fly transformer on tube TV sets at the other end of the house. I bought a bunch of those battery powered party light ropes on close out uber cheap on. Ebay a few years back as a whim to see what they would do and even those whine some. I got rid of most of them at a good friends annual dance birthday party for folks to play with and it drove me out of the room when the music was off! I need to see id there is a better solid state solution that might work better as it really is the best solution space wise and probably brightness.

 

There are the little 2.3” mp4 players on ebay for about $6 that work well. The screen is 4-5mm thick and you can pull it off the back of the pc board and just have the ribbon cable between the screen and board to cut a slot in the building side and slide ribbon cable thru. Downside is you need to press a couple of buttons on power up to start it going. Also a pain getting the files converted to the freeware mpeg codec they use in the player, very non standard and many of the video compression software packages have it. Rasberry pi or arduino are a lot of programming and such but could be done for auto play at power up easily. 
 

tradeoffs!

 

jeff

[James-SNMB]

Oh my god, thank you for reminding me that I have an iPod Video with a bad headphone jack that I haven't touched in five years! That'll be pretty perfect, but I'll either have to conceal the base or detach the screen similar as you have described.

 

I'll compile my Google searches and start a thread in the next couple of weeks.

[cteno4]

Yep folks have used old cell phones and handheld game machines that can do video. Many moons ago I used a little personal video recorder to do a crude video screen on a Tomix building. Unfortunately the screen was glued to the back of the main board so it could not be removed to put on the outside of the building

 

http://japanrailmodelers.org/photos/_city/pages/page_22.html

 

just looked and the cheap $5 car mp4 players are gone now. The cool thing is they had a small remote you could use to start the video playing when starting up. Bummer they were around last fall. Technology flys by!

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1GB-1-5-LCD-FM-Transmitter-Car-MP3-MP4-Player-Green/401927491634?hash=item5d94bed032:g:UVYAAOSwFwNdqpOD
 

these can work but they require a few button pushes to get them going

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/MP4-3th-Generation-Music-Media-Player-1-8-LCD-Screen-Portable-Mini-FM-Radio/254692636460?hash=item3b4cdd372c:g:XXcAAOSwzxVfPKki

[Martijn Meerts]

13 hours ago, cteno4 said:

I think you can get most all as downloads.

 

does your printer have a paper bypass you can pop down in the back? That’s how I print on my big inkjet (11x17), it has a fold down tray in the back that feeds straight thru with only a small bend so you cna print on pretty heavy cardstock and don’t need to bend the paper 180 degrees From the bottom paper tray.

 

jeff

 

Not sure, my photo printer is probably around 18 years old by now, and hasn't printed anything in at least 7 years. The good thing is, the nozzles are part of the ink cartridges, so new cartridges should be enough to get it to print again. You'd thing it'd have a paper feed that doesn't deform the paper, some of the high quality photo paper is pretty thick as well.

 

[James-SNMB]

Well I just received my outland ebay order, including the round top skyscraper, in a record 10 day turnaround. I think they have a "distributor" that's more local given that teh envelope came from inside Canada, so that's probably the explanation.

 

But it came with a little leaflet, and it looks like they have their own website and are selling direct too, which I didn't know about: https://outlandmodels.com/

 

Free shipping on your first order (with promo code), and 20% of any order over $50 USD. Normal shipping cost is $6 USD on any order. Base prices without shipping appear lower than ebay (probably since they save ebay fees), so depending on what you're planning to get it can work out cheaper to order direct.

 

It also mentions a "second wave" of laser cut kits due out mid September, so stay tuned. I'll wait a week or two and probably place an order. I've got a kitbashing idea or two to execute, but we'll see what the new offerings bring.

[cteno4]

Yeah they’ve had the site for a while now, started out with mainly wargaming and military stuff and been adding buildings. We have an Outland thread as well.

 

some ebay businesses are using fulfillment centers In other countries for faster delivery and probably cheaper shipping, although with the current in country rates in many countries that’s not really great compared to the good rates they get from chinapost and others that get them all the way there. Also been some new transshipping services to the us here where it goes to a facility in the us in bulk and each package is sent on in country from there. You can peel back shipping stickers to see this. These have been fast here at 1-2 weeks and usually something of a little more value than the 99 cent items but some of those now come that way.

 

will be interesting to see what they do lasercut! Tricky and messy to lasercut plastics but now we could get nice square corners! No more filing them out while watching tv. But a number of the picts of the new lasercut are CNC router cut (round window corners), maybe not just taking new pictures. But several do have nice thin and square corner mullions! Lasercutting will allow for thinner mullions, railing etc than cnc, that will be nice as these details can be a tad clunky at times on the old CNC cut ones. Don’t know if they can do the engraving with the laser like they did with the CNC though. Maybe they have the hybrid machines that have a laser on a CNC router. Looks like their business is taking off and becoming more organized.

 

jeff

[cteno4]

So the big building came, but just wrapped in bubble wrap and in a plastic bag! Pretty well messed up on the first two floor. Just got crippled...

 

ive messaged them thru aliexpress, they were prompt with messages of purchase and request for speedy payment, but been two days on the crumple and no reply. I’ll give them another day or two to respond and if no response I’ll start a full dispute, thought I would give them a chance with a message first. 
 

otherwise it’s a nicely done model! Repair is rebuilding first two floors totally as repair of them would end up needing painting and thus paint the whole building maybe, I’ll look at closer later bit bummed by this right now.
 

so may not be a great idea to get buildings this size from China. My other smaller ones all can wrapped in those inflate packs with the long tunes that get really rigid and it kept everything from being crushed even if not in a box.

 

jeff

[James-SNMB]

Aw nuts. That is a real bummer to have that happen. Looks really cool otherwise though, and hopefully you can work it out. 

[cteno4]

Yeah, it was a risk. The other three came thru fine from the other company, but much better packed and like one third the size. This one is also large and pretty flimsy with no internal bracing at all, so it can cave in very easily and the distortion along the bottom just mangled those parts the most. Upper floors and roof came thru fine as more solid. No word from them for 3 days on messaging so I started a dispute.

 

i usually have very good luck with stuff like this, but once in a great while there is a problem. But I’m well self insured on shipping stuff as I’ve used Sal so much instead of express and saved a ton over the decades so I can just write this off against that if need be and add one to the experience column of checking how they pack and ship something like this before buying!

 

jeff

[cteno4]

So still trying to get the buyer to respond thur the dispute process. Aliexpress said keep it and get $20 refund or send it back for full refund, but no details on return Shipping handling. I offered keep it and $85 refund as I could see eventually rebuilding it but that’s a bit of work or return for full refund if they provide a shipping label and pickup. I got an email tonight that aliexpress was just forcing the $20 refund option Even though I had rejected it and seller has not responded to my counter offers. Don’t know if this is automated time thing or for real.

 

aliexpress is really not a good business to deal with on anything of value like this as there is like zero ways to get in touch with aliexpress, zero customer support other than this screwie dispute process that really is very unclear. Learned one here it ain’t amazon or ebay!

 

if it doesn’t get resolved soon I’ll go to the credit card and start a dispute, having no way to get any clarification or questions answered by aliexpress is really annoying. I’m always willing to work with customer support to sort things out, but here it’s they don’t want to answer any questions at all. From now on I’ll just do <$5 things so if any issues no big loss.

 

i also had an aliexpress order for like $12 not show up earlier this year. But the dispute window is based on the estimated delivery time and if it does not get to you by the estimated date you have to request an extension to their guarantee/dispute system Right away or they totally close it out to you and no way to get a refund on a missing shipment. Again it’s not a super transparent system.

 

in addition all your communication with the seller and aliexpress hace to be done on their website messaging and dispute system and with the dispute system you only get a couple of automated emails from aliexpress in that cannot be replied to. So you have to keep checking back each day to see if any updates with seller or dispute process. Sucks.

 

at least I made a pile on alibaba so I guess I just figured out how they make great profits... maybe time to divest.

 

live and learn.

 

jeff

[bc6]

I was wondering through eBay and came across a seller who sells n scale buildings. They didnt look half bad so I ordered one for the heck of it priced at $16.50 USD not bad I thought below is a pic of it as I haven't gotten it yet but for that price I couldn't pass it by.  What do you guys think about it, I think I'm going to use it as a passenger station/corporate office. Once I assemble it I will update this post. 

 

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/eYkAAOSwRE5jCYfD/s-l1600.jpg

 

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/JTYAAOSwaDlgAlKU/s-l1600.jpg

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/124530140205

[bill937ca]

Outland Models?

 

https://outlandmodels.com/en-ca/collections/model-railway-n-scale-1-160-1-150/products/modern-commercial-building-whtie-n-scale

Edited April 6, 2023 by bill937ca

[cteno4]

Yep it’s an outland. Lots of variety in them. Many are nice. Some of the larger ones are a tad below scale.

 

jeff

 

 

[bc6]

Wow this is interesting, Has anyone assembled any of these buildings?

[cteno4]

You can see a number of ones in the post linked above that jr500 made for his last layout. I’ve popped several together, very easy and fast to do. They are CNC cut with small pins cut on the edges that pop into holes. Good pressure fit as square pins into round holes that give a bit of a snug fit. One issue is that because the are CNC cut (probably with a very tiny diameter bit) you end up with a like 1mm radius curve on window corners. You can easily square the corners with an xacto knife or a small fine square. They only usually have one interior floor midway in the building for structural support. So if you want interior details and/or individual floor lighting you need to make your own floors. The painted ones just need a bit of edge touch up in places or on the pin ends.

paul also used a number of them on his layout as well

 

https://jnsforum.com/community/topic/8613-going-japanese/page/26/

 

search the forum and you will find some other examples folks have done.

 

jeff

[bc6]

Heres a link to a video of someone using Outland buildings.