I'd like to make a parking lot got any tips?

[bc6]

Since I'm built several buildings I'd like to make an adjacent parking lot. Does anyone have any clever tips on how to make lines. I've been thinking about making a template of lines. I saw one person who cut out strps from a label in the appropriate size then attach them to the surface of the lot. I'd like to do an angle parking lot if possible just to be a little difficult lol. 

[cteno4]

Print the lot. Map out the parking lot in a vector program to lay out white lines needed for spaces (with a dark background to work on). Once done, lay in a suitable very light and small texture bitmapped background in the color of cement or asphalt desired (a number of good free texture sites out there) and place this under your white parking lot lines drawing and print on white paper (since you can’t print white easily you have to print on white paper). You can inkjet onto some more textured drawing papers if you want to get a tad of surface texturing (this will not work with laser printing as toner and fuser roll will flatten/fuse everything). Really don’t need much in the way of pattern texture or surface texture though as viewing from a foot away that’s 150’ away scale and you won’t even see much texture from a gravel road at that distance let alone asphalt or cement roads. You can also add details into your drawing like crack and weathering, oil stains, tire marks, etc. weathering and such can also be done once printed with usual powders.

 

other option is using pin/chart tape for your lines. This is used in drafting and you can get it down to like 1/64” wide (2.5” scale). Takes some getting use to putting it down but once you have practiced some it’s pretty easy to lay down and get straight. Easy to trim length once down with a sharp xacto. You can use a small chisel tip blade to chop vertically easily and not move the end. There is also nail tape for nail decoration. It’s about 0.8mm so more like 4.5”, but you can get in many colors on ebay cheap for roads or building details (silver is especially useful for metal window mullions on clear acetate).

 

I’d first take a quick wack at printing it to see what it looks like to you and to just plan what you want to do in the space. Good news is lots are usually very different looking materials than the surrounding streets, so ok if it looks different than your streets. I’m a big fan of printing streets.

 

sankei has a small prebuilt lot and a small 2 story lot if you want a kit.

 

jeff

[bc6]

Thanks Jeff this sounds like good stuff, Every Koban needs a parking lot.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

You could, of course, make your life difficult and mark the lines out manually using very fine plastic strip. Drove me on the verge of craziness doing it, but effect was worthwhile. The zebra crossing and other road markings came from a number of transfer sets (including Kato).

 

[bc6]

That looks good Claude thanks for sharing and I was interested in doing angle parking as well. 

[cteno4]

That’s what’s fun about printing out some test lots to play with angles, markings and line sizes to see what looks best. Sometimes things like line markings need a tad of exaggeration as we look at the layout usually from 250’ back and our visual memory for things like road lines is more up close, so on the layout the lines look too puny even if to scale. But once you have it all dialed in in a print out you can then go any direction to make the final lot, printing, laying strips, pin tape, decals, or painting. You can also use it to cut stencils.

forgot to mention  decals. There are several road lines and markings decal sets out there, most dry transfer, few decals. At times can be harder to source.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[bc6]

Ive been doing some mockup of my parking lot and think IM getting close to something that will work with my building arrangement. cteno4 thanks for the link to the dry transfers, I feel like buying almost everything there lol.

[cteno4]

The dry transfers work pretty well, best to seal them up with some dull coat. They are a bit of a challenge to get in tighter places. I used them for a few road markings, not lines.

 

jeff

[bc6]

Thanks for the tips.

[tossedman]

I second Jeff's idea of printing your parking lot. Easy to prototype and make changes before you come up with the final design. You could even use it to plan your dry transfers if you go that way.

 

Todd

[bc6]

I got lucky and found a parking lot template that was scaled almost perfectly with some American N scale cars that I have. 

Now the test is to see how the template will scale with Japanese cars and trucks that I waiting to arrive.

I think a set of transfers and some other items are on my short list from the shop that Jeff linked in his response. 

[kami_illy]

On 7/18/2023 at 8:39 PM, cteno4 said:

Print the lot.

 

printing roads / side walks worked pretty well for me so far... maybe if you are not sure you could glue it to a base board which you can easily remove and redo later. A parking is a nice structure to experiment with exchangeable surfaces. 

[cteno4]

Kami that is a very good idea and I wished I had done that on my old 25mm streetcar Ttrak modules. First round of roads were meant to be temporary. I glued the printouts down with spray mount to the photo board (thin very dense matte board used to mount photos on) that I used to run the pavement over to the rail edges just over the spikes (just right thickness to almost be flush with the railheads) on top 3/16” foamcore going up to the road bed edge (I cut that edge at a 45 so it nestled up next to the Unitrak roadbed edge). it up for Unitrak). I mounted printouts to the photo board with spray mount. I was not thinking when I glued the photo board to the foamcore and used spray mount (I think I was in a groove in a rush for a show) when I had intended to use rubber cement so I could easily separate the photo board from the foamcore. I ended up being lazy and not replacing the roads as it meant tearing up everything to redo them and we only used the 25mm streetcar at a few events.

 

jeff

[bc6]

Although I dont have the stripes yet here are a few variations of the parking lot that I have come up with. please critique. I like the first one better, Im thinking about enclosing the lot with some mesh fencing.. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 22, 2023 by bc6

[Beaver]

Where is the entrance to the parking? Most critical factor is whether its possible for a car to get between the entrance/exit and any empty parking space without touching the cars in the other parking spaces.

 

I also wonder about the size of the parking relative to the building. Depends on where the building is. Big expanses of level parking covering more ground than the building do exist in Japan, see for example this building in Sohara, Inabe City, Mie:

 

 

But Sohara is a small country town and Inabe is a city in the administrative sense only. In big urban centres like Greater Tokyo there might be just two or three spaces opening straight onto the street.

 

PS: I don't recall herringbone parking (second of your pictures) being very popular in Japan..........

 

Edited July 22, 2023 by Beaver

[bc6]

My urban planning skills are about plentiful as my parking lot planning skills even though i referenced hundreds of pictures I still got it wrong. Based on your critique of not having an entrance or exit I redesigned the arrangement of the lot and put designated entry and exit makings with arrows (remind me to buy dry transfers of those items) Although cramped there is enough room to maneuver in and out of the lot for even an unskilled driver. Ive been thinking of reducing the amount of space in the lot from 8 to 4 since it is limited, I think this version is better than the first pic that I posted. 

 

 

 

[bill937ca]

Your parking lot needs a vending machine. This is Akihabara. You are the guy with the Yamanote train, right?

https://times-info.net/P13-tokyo/C101/park-detail-BUK0042285/

 

Much parking in Tokyo is in small, odd places. Note vending machines!!!

https://times-info.net/P13-tokyo/C101/park-detail-BUK0033911/

 

Maybe only one space. But vending machines!!!

https://times-info.net/P13-tokyo/C101/park-detail-BUK0047615/

 

Four spaces here. You can model this when you run out of vending machines!!!

https://times-info.net/P13-tokyo/C101/park-detail-BUK0052357/

 

Another one--two cars. 

https://times-info.net/P13-tokyo/C101/park-detail-BUK0043621/

 

More:

https://times-info.net/P13-tokyo/C101/park-detail-BUK0021600/

https://times-info.net/P13-tokyo/C101/park-detail-BUK0031464/

https://times-info.net/P13-tokyo/C101/park-detail-BUK0059747/

https://times-info.net/P13-tokyo/C101/park-detail-BUK0054441/

https://times-info.net/P13-tokyo/C101/park-detail-BUK0034994/

https://times-info.net/P13-tokyo/C101/park-detail-BUK0046238/

https://times-info.net/P13-tokyo/C101/park-detail-BUK0054238/

https://times-info.net/P13-tokyo/C101/park-detail-BUK0041339/

https://times-info.net/P13-tokyo/C106/park-detail-BUK0033328/

https://times-info.net/P13-tokyo/C101/park-detail-BUK0027250/

 

Big Boy! Eleven cars. Wow!!

https://times-info.net/P13-tokyo/C101/park-detail-BUK0031183/

 

No English anywhere too.

 

 

[bill937ca]

Don't forget there is bicycle parking too.

 

http://www.akiba-plus.com/?p=5647

[bc6]

Got it I need vending machines and bicycles.

[MeTheSwede]

I've been using 1mm wide white masking tape for my lines. I'm a bit lazy and that seemed simplest and most flexible.

 

The measuring takes time though.

[bc6]

That sounds good thanks for the measurements of the tape.

[cteno4]

1mm is roughly 6” at N scale so handy for quick measuring in your head. Most road lines are 3-6” wide. So 0.5-1mm is good, but like i mentioned earlier sometimes they just don’t quite look right when you view them from a couple of feet or more in place as our visual memory of road lines is much more up close and personal than normal scale viewing distances. So you can decide to be prototypical and exact or fudge to make it look right to your eye. All in how you like to model.

 

jeff

[bc6]

Hey Jeff I just got some decals that are stripes and according to the description they are 1.6mm and dont look too bad with a N scale car placed between the lines. Although Ive worked with decals this seems a bit daunting because of the close proximity of the lines to each other. But a magnifier and a sharp #11 blade should take care of that hopefully. I think I may have to add some fudge to this one lol. 

 

 

Edited July 27, 2023 by bc6

[cteno4]

Cool, 1.6mm is about 9.5” wide. As I mentioned not prototypical but from 2’+ this may look right to the eye even if wider than prototypical! 
 

try getting a semi opaque cutting mat on top of a led light box (these are damn cheap now! Back lighting the decals makes it easier to square the ruler to cut them apart.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Richof]

I have used dry transfers for lines here.  Worked well for me.  The lot itself is sheet cork that I painted. That gives the texture I was looking for.

Edited November 22, 2023 by Richof